Wisconsin Magazine of History
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(ISSN 0043-6534) WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY Ui "i**.SSSci'- THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN GEORCTE L. VOGT, Director Officers GERALD D. VISTE, President MARK L. GAJEWSKI, 'Treasurer PATRICIA A. BOGE, First Vice-President GEORGE L. VOGT, Secretary MARY A. SATHER, Second Vice-President THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN is both a state agency and a private membership organization. Founded in 1846—two years before statehood—and chartered in 1853, it is the oldest American historical society to receive continuous public fund ing. By statute, it is charged with collecting, advancing, and disseminating knowledge of Wisconsin and of the trans-Allegheny West. The Society serves as the archive of the State of Wisconsin; it collects all manner of books, periodicals, maps, manuscripts, relics, news papers, and aural and graphic materials as they relate to North America; it maintains a museum, library, and research facility in Madison as well as a statewide system of his toric sites, school services, area research centers, and affiliated local societies; it admin isters a broad program of historic preservation; and publishes a wide variety of historical materials, both scholarly and popular. MEMBERSHIP in the Society is open to the public. Individual memberstnp (one person) is $30. Senior Citizen /nrfzwrfwaZ membership is $25. Family membership is $35. Senior Citi zen Family membership is $30. Supporting m.emhsr%\\\Y> is $100. Sustaining membership is $250. A Patron contributes $500 or more. Lz/e membership (one person) is $1,000. MEMBERSHIP in the Friends of the SHSW is open to the public, /rarfmrfwa/membership (one person) is $20. Family membership is $30. THE SOCIETY is governed by a Board of Curators which includes twenty-four elected members, the Governor or designee, three appointees of the Governor, a legislator from the majority and minority from each house, and ex officio, the President of the University of Wisconsin System, the President of the Friends of the State Historical Society, the President of the Wisconsin History Foundation, Inc., and the President of the Adminis trative Committee of the Wisconsin Council for Local History. A complete listing of the Curators appears inside the back cover. The Society is headquartered at 816 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706-1482, at the juncture of Langdon and Park streets on the University of Wisconsin campus. The State Historical Museum is located at 30 North Carroll Street. A partial listing of phone numbers (Area Code 608) follows: General Administration 264-6400 Library circulation desk 264-65.S4 Affiliated local societies 264-6583 Library reference services 264-65.S5 Archives reading room 264-6460 Maps 264-6458 Contribution of manuscript materials 264-6478 Membership 264-6587 Development 264-6,580 Microforms reading room 264-65,S6 Editorial offices 264-6461 Museum tours 264-6557 Fax 264-6404 Newspaper reference 264-65,Sl Film collections 264-6470 Picture collections 264-6470 Genealogical reference inquiries 264-65,35 Public information office 264-6586 Historic preservation 264-6500 School services 264-6579 Historic sites 264-6586 General web address www.shsw.wisc.edu Hours of operation 264-6588 ON THE COVER: Tools of the trade, c. 1917. When the first issue o/<A« Wisconsin Magazine of History rolled off the presses eighty-three years ago, journal publishing took place in a world of Underwood typewriters, ink pens, and carbon copies. On the eve of a major design of the magazine, the cover of this summer issue invites readers to share in some of the Society's editing and publication history. Photograph by Andy Kraushaar. Volume 83, Number 4 / Summer, 2000 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY Published quarterly by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, The Burning Bush Movement: 816 State Street, Madi.son, A Wisconsin Utopian Religious Community 227 Wisconsin 5,3706-1482. Distribuled lo members as part of William Kostlevy their dues. Individual member ship, ,$30; senior citizen individual, $25; family, $35; Women at Ceresco 258 senior citizen family, $30; John Savagian supporting, $100; sustaining, $250; patron, $500 or more; life (one person), $1,000. Single Book Reviews 281 numbers from Volume 57 forward are $5 plus postage. Microfilmed Book Review Index 289 copies available through University Microfilms, 300 North From the Archives 290 Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106. Communications should Letters from Our Readers 293 be addressed to the editor The Society does not assume responsi Contributors 294 bility for statements made by contributors. Periodicals postage paid at Madison, Wisconsin. Editor Postmaster: Send address changes PAUL H. HASS to Wisconsin Magazine of History, Madison, Wisconsin 53706-1482. Copyright © 2000 by the State Associate Editors Historical Society of Wisconsin. MARGARET T. DWYER JOHN O. HOLZHUETER The Wisconsin Magazine of History is indexed annually by the editors; cumulative indexes are assembled Book Review Editor decennially. In additic^n, articles JAMES W. FELDMAN are abstracted and indexed in America: History and Life, Historical Abstracts, Index to Literature on the Illustration Researcher American Indian, and the Combined ANTHONY HARKINS Retrospective Index to Journals in History, I838-I974. Photographs idendfied with WHi negative numbers are from the Historical Society's collections. V«l4- Chicago, April 37, 1905 } w. a. 5a>PAjiD TBE PLAIN or DUKA A. O. 1«01. "How iSjtix re*dy^i»t »t what time ye hear the aound of the comet, flute, harp, esokbnt, paaltery, and dnlcimer, and aU ktoda o* •Wiek, y« lall dowrr and JPjrahtp tbe iniaffC which I haTe made; weli: but it ye worship not. ye ahall be caat the same hoar into the mldat •tabwsliif fiery furnace; and who ia that God that altalJ deliver yon out of my haoda?" Oaolel 3:15. In 1905, the Metropolitan Church Association's (MCA) publication, the Burning Bush, shared the membership's view of compulsory vaccination as a form of idolizing medicine with its cartoon images of a golden calf. The MCA, a Utopian community, was located for many years in Waukesha. Photograph courtesy of the author 226 The Burning Bush Movement: A Wisconsin Utopian ReUgious Community By William Kostlevy N the spring of 1906, the Fountain Spring ceived considerable scholarly attention. IHouse, the largest and most famous of Others, including the Metropolitan Church Waukesha's many resorts,' was purchased Association, remain virtually unknown. The by the Metropolitan Church Association MCA, however, may be more important (MCA), a Utopian religious community than its better known contemporaries be from Chicago. Over the next forty years, the cause of the important role it played in the MCA, popularly known as the Burning Holiness and Pentecostal movements that Bush Movement after its periodical, the today have more than 400 million adher Burning Bush, attracted thousands of cu ents worldwide.- riosity seekers to its annual camp meetings The Burning Bush Movement was one oi to witness such unusual worship practices as the most radical expressions of the holiness jumping, shouting, and running. In addi impulse in American Christianity—an im tion, the MCA marred the tranquility of the pulse that refers to the promotion of per peaceful resort community through a series sonal holiness among Christians. The of confrontations with police who sought to movement drew its primary inspiration curtail the group's street preaching. from teachings of the founder of Method At first glance, the Burning Bush Move ism, John Wesley (1703-1791). In North ment might appear to be merely a quixotic America, the Perfectionist emphasis of cult of little social significance. Indeed, it Methodism (the belief that all Christians was but one of dozens of evangelical coiri- can become perfect) was augmented by munal societies that flourished around the similar currents that emerged in the wake country from the early 1880's into the of the antebellum preaching and work of 1920's. Several of these communities—like two men in particular: Presbyterian and Shiloh in Maine, associated with Frank Congregational evangelist Charles G. Sandford (1862-1948) and the Zion, Illi nois, community associated with John ^ For a general introduction to late-nineteenth- Alexander Dowie (1847-1907)—have re- century Utopian communities, see Robert S. Fogarty, All Things New: American Communes and Utopian Move ments, 1860-1914 (Chicago, 1990), and Donald E. ' Waukesha was ohexi called "the Saratoga of the Pitzer, America's Communal Utopias ((jhapel Hill, West" becau,se it was to Chicago what the famous re 1997). Throughout, I have capitalized "Floliness" sort at Saratoga Springs in upstate New York was to va when it refers to the Holiness Movement, and have cationers from New Y(5rk Citv. not capitalized it when it refers to holiness generally. C:<)pyi-ighl O 2000 bv the Sla Historical Society ot Wisconsin 227 All rights of reproflurlioii in iiv lorm rcstrivect WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HI.STORY SUMMER, 2000 Finney (1792-187.5) and the nation's pre Christ organized the National Camp Meet mier post-Civil War independent evangelist, ing Association for the Promotion of Holi Dwight Lyman Moody (1837-1899). The ness (NHA), now the Christian Holiness fundamental teaching of both Methodist Partnership. In addition, non-Methodist and non-Methodist holiness advocates was evangelical perfectionists organized a scries that all Christians needed two decisive reli of "higher life" conferences that have pro gious experiences. The first was the