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Robert and Delores Spitzer of Burlington have been longtime supporters ofthe Wisconsin Historical Society. But to make sure that their appreciation will have a lasting impact, they have included the Society in their will. "History is a powerful force, for today and tomorrow," Robert penned in a note to the Society and the Wisconsin Historical Foundation. Thanks to the generosity ofthe Spitzers, powerful stories of history will be written far into the future.

4

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Editor in Chief, Wisconsin Historical Society Press A 1,500-mile dash through the Algerian desert; the "hard-luck Kate Thompson Gazenovia and Southern Railroad"; Daniel Bastian Nelson's Editor Sara E. Phillips amateur photographs from the Eau Claire area; the ambitious Image Researcher and sometimes overreaching drive of one of my predecessors. John H. Nondorf Clifford Lord; and the "unlikely story of a Tibetan refugee Research and Editorial Assistants family and the Midwestern woman they adopted." Rachel Cordasco, Sebastian Van Bastelaer, Kelli Wozniakowski, Elizabeth Wyckoff, and John Zimm These stories, uncommonly diverse and wide-ranging, are Design bound by their inclusion in this magazine. They also share the Nancy Rinehart, Christine Knorr, University Marketing ability to surprise and entertain. Most of the stories originate THE WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY (ISSN 0043-6534), in our vast collections—four million photographs, altogether 36 published quarterly, is a benefit of membership in the miles of unpublished archival and published library materials Wisconsin Historical Society. from which to draw humor, perseverance, imagination, pathos, Full membership levels start at $55 for individuals and $65 for futile quests, protests and successes... the full range of human institutions. To join or for more information, visit our website at wisconsinhistory.org/membership or contact the Membership Office endeavor, universally available. at 888-748-7479 or e-mail [email protected]. It is not obvious, but the people most intimately aware of The Wisconsin Magazine of History has been published quarterly these stories are those who have been or are now closest to the since 1917 by the Wisconsin Historical Society. Copyright© 2018 by the State Historical Society ofWisconsin. Society, employees charged over the span of eight score years and twelve to gather evidence ofthe past for the benefit of our ISSN 0043-6534 (print) ISSN 1943-7366 (online) future. Biographies, the agedjesuitRelations ofthe seventeenth

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For permission to reuse photographs from the Wisconsin Magazine Our publications, exhibitions, and programs are the of History identified with WHi or WHS contact: Visual Materials evidence of a dedicated staff: librarians and archivists, cura­ Archivist, 816 State Street, Madison, Wl, 53706 or [email protected]. tors of objects and exhibit designers, managers and accountants, clerks and cataloguers, educators and researchers, those who Wisconsin Magazine of History welcomes the submission of articles and image essays. Contributor guidelines can be found on the make contacts in the field and pass on tips to others, those who Wisconsin Historical Societywebsiteatwww.wisconsinhistory.org/ endear themselves to people who share their stories with us. wmh/contribute.asp. The Wisconsin Historical Society does not assume responsibility for statements made by contributors. History is a growth business in good times and bad, and it is Contact Us: our privilege, our mission, to collect, preserve, and share stories Editorial: 608-264-6549 that make Wisconsin, Wisconsin. [email protected] Membership/Change of Address: 888-748-7479 Ellsworth Brown [email protected] Recently retired Ruth and Hartley Barker Director Reference Desk/Archives: 608-264-6460 [email protected] Wisconsin Historical Society Mail: 816 State Street, Madison, Wl 53706 Periodicals postage paid at Madison, Wl 53706-1417. Back issues, if available, are $8.95 plus postage from the Wisconsin Historical Museum store. Call toll-free: 888-999-1669. Microfilmed copies are available through UMI Periodicals in Microfilm, part of National Archive Publishing, 300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106, www.napubco.com.

On the front coven Amateur photographer Daniel Bastian Nelson meticulously posed this hand-holding couple in the framework of a railroad bridge in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

DANIEL BASTIAN NELSON COLLECTION, 1898-1919, UNIVERSITY HISTORICAL COLLECTION 356, MCINTYRE LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-EAU CLAIRE, EAU CLAIRE, Wl

VOLUME 101, NUMBER 2 / SPRING 2018 1 In This Issue

1 Letter from the Editor

4 Puckety Chute The Hard-Luck Story of the Cazenovia and Southern Railroad by Peter Shrake

12 A Dash through the Sahara Alonzo Pond's First Algerian Expedition byjudith Siers-Poisson

28 The Amateur's Eye Daniel Bastian Nelson in Eau Claire by Greg Kocken Wisconsin Magazine of History Spring 2018

36 The Inimitable Clifford Lord by Helmut M. Knies

50 BOOK EXCERPT How to Make a Life A Tibetan Refugee Family and the Midwestern Woman they Adopted

by Madeline Uraneck

54 Letters

56 Curio

• ' 0 .'* / PUCKETY CHUTE The Hard-LiAck Story of

arly in the twentieth century, community leaders world. Travelers embarked on day trips to larger cities. Farmers in the small towns along the border between Sauk more effectively brought their produce and livestock to market. and Richland Counties banded together to build By road, a traveler had to cover 125 miles to get from Ironton to E the county seat of Baraboo, but a rail line shortened the journey a railroad that would connect them with the outside to only twenty-three miles. world. Little did they know that it would be plagued by In the early 1870s, the Chicago and Northwestern (C&NW] bankruptcies, accidents, and natural disasters. Despite Railroad built a line through Sauk County. Crossing the near-constant challenges over its thirty-two-year exis­ Wisconsin River at Merrimac, the line cut through the northern tence, the hard-luck railroad—known at different times townships of the county, passing through Baraboo, Rock as the Lone Rock and La Valle, the Cazenovia and Springs, North Freedom, Reedsburg, and La Valle. Each town Sauk City, and finally the Cazenovia and Southern blessed with a depot thrived. Baraboo in particular flourished, becoming a division headquarters for the railroad, complete Railroad—became the pride of the region, celebrated with engine repair shops as well as one ofthe largest C&NW for its endurance and survival. depots in the state. The railroad enabled other developments Railroads were essential to life in the early twentieth for the city as well, including a large woolen mill and the ever­ century. Local businesses could bring in goods from the outside growing winter quarters of the mighty Ringling Bros. Circus.

4 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISFORY the Cazenovia and Southern Railroad BY PETER SHRAKE

The villages along the border between Rchland and Sauk A coach car sits idle at the Cazenovia Depot, ca. 1929. The depot Counties had been talking about building a railroad since the was the terminus for a six-mile rail line that provided freight and early 1880s. Several efforts were made to convince one ofthe two passenger service to the communities of Cazenovia and Ironton. nearby established lines—the C&NW and the Minneapolis and St. Paul, which ran through Spring Green—to run a short branch a school with about one hundred students, and a grist mill. line through the region. When both efforts failed, talk shifted to The mill also generated electricity, giving Cazenovia bragging building an independent line. Leaders from Lone Rock and Plain rights about its electric lights.2 Yet it was still a distinctly rural contemplated a route extending south from La Valle. Business community. One newspaper reporter described the area as "a and community leaders at Cazenovia considered a similar line rich valley dotted with fine farms, creameries, cheese factories, between La Valle and their village. Apparently, both groups were small villages, woods and meadows and with here and there unaware ofthe existence ofthe other.1 signs of iron," also noting that "a lack of transportation has Cazenovia was a booming community of about four retarded the growth and development of this region."3 hundred residents, and a railroad could only take it to new levels. The reference to iron harkened back to the early days of The village had two general stores, a hardware store, a furniture the region. Four miles north of Cazenovia lay Ironton which, store, a drug store, a shoe store, its own bank, a creamery, a post as its name implies, was founded as a mining and smelting office, saloons, two hotels, two churches, several secret societies. community. But by the turn ofthe century, the roller mills had

SPRING 2018 5 fallen silent. The combination of low prices for iron coupled with the rise in cost of timber and coal used in the mining and smelting process put the mines and foundry out of business. Transporting the ore in large quantities was also a difficult task. By 1900, Ironton was struggling to keep pace with Cazenovia, though it still could boast a pharmacy and a masonic lodge. Unpaved roads connected the villages. Goods were taken to market on wagons or, in the case of livestock, by hoof. Travelers could either walk or ride horses across the countryside. Few had auto­ mobiles. A stagecoach ran between Cazenovia and La Valle, where the C&NW Railroad had a station and stockyards; once at La Valle you could take the train to Reedsburg, Baraboo, or anywhere else you A view of Cazenovia, ca. 1913. The railroad yards of the Cazenovia and Sauk City wanted to go. Railroad are on the far end of town, just left of center. In 1903, Francis "Frank" Byrne of Ironton and Edward Quinn of Cazenovia decided that a SHAKES 325.00 EACH. railroad could be built only if all interested parties INCORPORATED UNDEK THE LAWS OF THE STATE OE WISCONSIN. pooled their resources as a private enterprise. The Number „ Shares two men called a mass meeting of people from both the Cazenovia/Ironton and Lone Rock/Plain groups. The meeting was a success: plans were CAPITXUJ STOCK «150,000.00. made and funds pledged for a new line to run the This certifies that is the owner of length of western Sauk County. By 1905, the group shares of the Capital Stock of LONE ROCK-LA VALLE RAILROAD COMPANY, fully paid and non-assessable, transferable only on the books coalesced into the Lone Rock and La Valle Railroad of the corporation in person or by attorney on surrender of this certificate. Company. The route, when surveyed, was to run IN WITNESS WHEREOF the duly authorized officers of this corporation have hereunto subscribed their names and caused the corporate Seal to be hereto affixed forty miles. Local municipalities promised financial this dav of £. D. 190.. P//^-^*^'C support, but only $ 15,000 in stock—a tenth of what SECRETARY. PRESIDENT. SHARKS S25.00 EACH. was offered—sold.4 Building the railroad proved even more diffi­ A stock certificate of the defunct Lone Rock and La Valle Railroad Company cult than raising the money. Builders opted for the path of least resistance by choosing to lay the track on flat and West, to Portland, Oregon, to San Francisco, to New York, and even terrain along the Little Baraboo River, rather than battle to Reedsburg and that is joy enough."7 Cazenovia celebrated the bluffs and rolling hills between Cazenovia and La Valle. the accomplishment in grand style. October 26 marked the Building bridges proved to be most challenging. Crews waited beginning of two days of festivities that included barbecues, until the winter of 1906 to start building, when the water was chariot and auto races, and performances by no less than five frozen and most stable. Then, in the winter of 1907, workers brass bands. The train made a special trip every hour between went on strike for higher wages. The contractor, short on money, Cazenovia and La Valle, a distance of seven miles. That must had cut their wages by fifty cents, to $2.00 per day5 have been a slow ride, however, because a reporter for the The problem with the contractor was but one of many Reedsburg Times noted, "When there is need of speed Engine financial challenges the owners faced, and later that year the No. 1, under the skillful guidance of Engineer D. Hartsook and company was placed into receivership. The unfinished railroad Fireman Hawkins [,] makes the trip from Cazenovia to La Valle was sold off for a paltry $1,100. By July 1908, businessmen from ... in thirty minutes."8 Cazenovia formed a new company and renamed the project The celebrations marked the completion of what was the Cazenovia and Sauk City Railroad. Another appeal was intended to be the first section of the line. The enthusiastic made to the local taxpayers to put up a $5,000 bond to finish entrepreneurs planned to extend the railroad through Lime construction.6 Ridge, Hillpoint, Loganville, and Plain, with the end terminal The Cazenovia and Sauk City Railroad was completed at Sauk City. The outlook was bright; how could the little on the last day of September, 1910. As one excited reporter villages of western Sauk County fail to prosper with this new exclaimed: "One can now travel by rail from Cazenovia to Key service? The Reedsburg Times exclaimed, "The new railroad

6 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISFORY The first engine bought by the Cazenovia and Sauk City Railroad, ca. 1910. The picture was taken outside Ironton by Francis "Frank" Byrne, one ofthe original founders ofthe railroad. will tap a country rich in agricultural resources, CAZENOVIA SOUTHERN R. R. CO. CAZENOVIA R. GO. which will undoubtedly [develop] rapidly when placed within easy reach ofthe markets. Lands CAZENOVIA, Wis. GOOD FOR FROM CAZ will increase in value and timber tracts will IRONTON, Wis. be opened up. It is believed that interest will Good only ONE DAY from date of sale. be revived in the old mines at Cazenovia and G. R. HALEY, Form L. kuehler. Ironton, and a general tone of improvement will Form L. 1 General Manager Ianager. 9 be given to the country" Full- and half-price tickets for a train ride from Cazenovia to Ironton Another writer was impressed by the outpouring of local support the railroad generated: "There is almost painfully."11 The poor condition ofthe rails would one thing about the railroad that speaks volumes. It is the intense continue to plague operations. In February 1911, one year after loyalty ofthe employees and ofthe public to the management. the line was completed, the railroad suffered its first wreck when If the road ever fails it will not be the fault of either of these two one ofthe cars jumped the track. Fortunately, the damage was factors, but it won't fail. It is there to stay and do business."10 slight. No injuries were reported, and service resumed within These were heady days for the railroad, but the loyalty that three hours.12 characterized its beginnings would be tested all too soon. Despite these problems, the Cazenovia and Sauk City Rail­ Though the track was laid and the engine and rolling stock road became a modest success. As photographs and surviving in place, the railroad was not yet complete. At the time ofthe shipping records testify, the railroad drew a diverse business. celebrations in October, the infrastructure of the line had yet Reefer cars shipped butter, eggs, and other dairy products. to be built. Stockyards were in place at Cazenovia, but the Other cars were filled with gasoline, coal, lumber, and hard­ depot remained unfinished. At Ironton, passengers waited for ware. Livestock was among the most common cargo, as the local the train in an open field. And at La Valle, though the C&NW newspapers reported that ofthe 773 cars of freight shipped by had a depot and railyards, no formal business relationship had the railroad in 1916, 193 carried livestock.13 been established between the C&NW and Lone Rock and La The rolling stock ofthe little line varied from time to time Valle allowing for the use of those facilities. but generally consisted of a few flat cars and box cars, as well Problems with the track emerged almost immediately. as one coach car. Quite often the line borrowed rolling stock Delays in construction had led to a deterioration ofthe bedding from the adjoining C&NW Railroad. The old secondhand and ties. The roadbed was bumpy and uneven, leading one engine made a peculiar sound as it plodded across the Wisconsin passenger to remark that "the train makes its way slowly and countryside. The sluggish pace and the wheezing sound ofthe

SPRING 2018 7 Equipped with a flat bed and pulling a trailer, the little car could carry passengers and small amounts of freight, offering the railroad a degree of flexibility. If there was not enough busi­ ness to warrant firing up the main engine, the speeder could be put on the rails. If someone needed to go to Ironton or La Valle outside ofthe normal schedule, the speeder could take them.1' In 1924, when the engine and two bridges were condemned and declared unfit for service, the lightweight speeder functioned as the primary rolling stock for the line, maintaining daily service and ensuring the mail contract could be fulfilled.18 Unfortunately, even the speeder could not keep the rail­ road from going bankrupt for the third time. The township of Westford was approached in hopes of rebonding, but the rural community could not bring itself to bail out the line. In 1922, The speeder at Ironton. More than anything else, this whimsical little the railroad was put up for sale for $ 10,000. The road bed was machine enabled the railroad to stay in business. deteriorating; apparently it was so bad that one paper reported the train could only operate in dry weather.19 The rolling stock worn-out steam pistons soon evolved into a nickname, "The by this time had been reduced to one engine, one box car, a Puckety Chute." Regardless of its speed, the railroad enjoyed coach car, and the speeder. enough patronage that by 1917 the original engine had to be The sale attracted the attention of a charismatic Civil War sold for scrap. veteran from Hillsboro, William H. Cash. Small railroads were Even though it appeared business was going well, it was, a specialty for Cash, and he passionately believed in them. He in fact, just enough for the railroad to hold on. Problems with was once quoted saying: "You have to get railroads to commu­ derailments and accidents led to a round of litigation that may nities if they are to thrive.... If they happen to be off the main have been the reason for another declaration of bankruptcy line the only way is to build out to them. That is the way we have in 1913.14 At times it seemed even Mother Nature conspired developed western Wisconsin."20 True to his word, he had built against the railroad. In May 1918, a tornado ripped through or worked on at least three rail lines. In recent years, however, western and southern Sauk County, wreaking havoc on anyone the eighty-year-old Cash had been ousted as head ofthe Hills­ living between Spring Green and Merrimac. The high winds boro and Northeastern Railroad. Undeterred, when he learned generated by the storm hit Ironton hard, ripping several box ofthe sale ofthe Cazenovia Line, he packed an old satchel with cars from their wheels and blowing them from the tracks. A $10,000 cash and headed to Cazenovia. As the story goes, he year later, fire broke out in the engine shed at Cazenovia, walked into the main office, approached what must have been resulting in significant damage to both the building and the an astonished clerk, and said: "I've got the price ofthe railroad engine itself15 on my grip and am willing to give bond to maintain service for Throughout its history, the railroad struggled to continue the good of this community. If you fellows are ready, I'll move service, and company managers used any means they could in and you move out."21 to keep the line running. Time and again the managers Cash was proud of his newly bought railroad, commenting approached town leaders in Cazenovia and Ironton to ask for to one reporter, "It may not be as long as some lines, but it is an infusion of public cash, usually in the form of a bond debt. just as wide."22 Cash installed his son as general manager and Railroad managers also secured a contract with the US Postal at once began repairing the line. Before long, the little railroad, Service to deliver the mail to Cazenovia and Ironton, guaran­ rechristened the Cazenovia and Southern Railroad, was again teeing a small but steady income. Sometimes the owners took in business, and the old tycoon had grand plans to extend its pragmatic steps to preserve the all-important mail contract. tracks to Rchland Center. But the energetic "Billy" Cash was In 1917, the railroad outfitted a Model T Ford and trailer with not around long enough to fulfill his ambitious dreams. He died flanged wheels, enabling it to run on the rails as well as the road. within two years of taking control, and a year later his son, who The little speeder got the attention of a reporter for the Richland had assumed ownership, was incapacitated by pneumonia. Democrat, who observed in 1921, "When they return with the The year 1924 proved rough for the Cazenovia and mail, they have an adjustable frog [switch] with which they run Southern. In July, as the engine was switching at the Cazenovia the 'go-devil' off the track and then away it goes up the street to Depot, it collided with a car crossing the track. The locomotive the post office with as little trouble and with the same speed as struck the back end of a Chevrolet, ripping off the car's wheels. though the wheels were rubber tired. Those Cazenovians are The car was filled with members ofthe Clary family and friends sure some originators."16 on their way to a funeral. Two young girls were thrown from the

8 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISFORY A view of Ironton as the train approached the depot. The depot is the small building at center, and the building at far left is the Ironton Creamery. car, and Mr. Clary was pelted with eggs the family was taking loads of gravel had gone up the line and spread the into town, but no one was seriously hurt.23 rails too much; so, next day as the engine came along Whether due to the owner's illness or simply poor manage­ the rails were too wide for the engine and down ment, the railroad languished under the younger Cash. The lack she went. This was not the first time such a thing of maintenance caught the eye of federal railroad inspectors, who happened. But other times when the engineer real­ ordered improvements be made. The warnings went unheeded, ized that a car or two had jumped the track he would and in October 1924, the Puckety Chute was seized by the Inter­ speed up a little and the faulty one would jump back state Commerce Commission, the federal agency responsible on track. In this case it was the engine itself that did for regulating railroads at the time. The C&NW was ordered to the jumping so there was nothing to do but walk remove all its rolling stock from Cazenovia and Southern rails. back to town and organize a lifting crew.2' The closure happened so fast that a partially filled coal car was abandoned on the track with its cargo still unloaded.24 This must have been a relatively common problem, as the Cazenovia felt the pinch ofthe closure. At least one article reporter added, not with a little sarcasm: "Either these rails should noted that "things have slowed up" at the village because ofthe be fixed permanently or the engineer should be furnished with a difficulty in getting cattle and other freight out. Once again, the pair of roller skates so he need not walk back to town so often."28 businessmen of Cazenovia banded together to rescue the line. The rails could barely stand up to routine use, let alone the Within four months ofthe federal seizure, a new stock company rigors of Mother Nature, and 1935 would prove the beginning was formed and plans were in the works to restore operations.25 ofthe end for the Puckety Chute. The summer of 1935 was Business eventually resumed, and the railroad continued particularly hot and dry. "The days and nights were very much its service to the rural communities of western Sauk County alike, brassy, hot, and dusty with the thermometer registering in into the early 1930s. Records are scarce for this time period. the 90s, and sometimes over 100 [degrees], most ofthe days. We Sometime after 1925, the old Model T speeder was replaced by had no rain for days at this time," recalled Laura Sonnenberg, a Ford truck. One might imagine that the new speeder was a a young woman who was living in Podunk, a small commu­ constant sight up and down the rails, carrying sacks of mail and nity located between La Valle and Wonewoc.29 But things felt perhaps a passenger or two or a few boxes of freight. The main different the night of August 7: engine, again deemed fit for service, was still employed from time to time, though it was prone to mechanical failure. Fire The animals were restless before we got them in struck the railroad again in 1928, when the coach car burned the barn that evening. We thought it was the hot beyond repair and a new car had to be procured.26 The roadbed weather and the flies. The sky was a funny copper was in a constant state of disrepair, as the Cazenovia paper color and it looked like a storm could be coming, reported in 1935: as we could see lightning all around us, but it was a long way off. It came up fast, and by 11:00 p.m., Our little flyer may not be as long as the North­ it was raining buckets. We couldn't sleep as the western but it is just wide and in some spots a little thunder was deafening. By 2:00 a.m., the storm let wider. The reason, a day or two before several car up a little and we finally went to sleep.30

SPRING 2018 9 In August 1935, flooding destroyed all of railroad's bridges crossing the Little Baraboo River, including this one near Ironton. The damage eventually forced the Cazenovia and Southern Railroad out of business.

The bursting ofthe Cazenovia dam released such a force that the waters of the Baraboo Rver actually flowed backwards for a brief time and pushed water back over the dam at La Valle a half mile upriver.33 The damage to communities around the region was extensive. Though few people seemed to have been injured, countless farms lost vast amounts of livestock and equipment. The storm washed away whole fields with their entire crops, and telephone lines, roads, and other parts ofthe communi­ ty's infrastructure were severely damaged, if not completely destroyed. The C&NW Railroad lost bridges and track between Reedsburg and Elroy34 For the Cazenovia and Southern, with its track built on Engine No. 2 pulls the coach car across Highway 58 south of Ironton, the tracks not visible from the angle of the shot. The construction of lowlands along the Little Baraboo, the flood was devastating. At the highway was one ofthe main reasons the railroad was not rebuilt least one bridge was destroyed, and large sections of track were 35 after the flood of 1935. washed away Though the rolling stock survived, there was no way to run the train. For years the little railroad had eked out But then, as Sonnenberg remembered, "All hell broke a precarious existence, but the floods proved too much. The loose!" The rains caused catastrophic flooding throughout company simply could not afford to repair the line on its own. La Crosse, Vernon, Juneau, Monroe, Jackson, Rchland, and Officers of the company put on the best face possible. Sauk Counties. The damage was so extensive that Governor For two years they worked to find some means to restore the Philip La Follette appointed a special committee to survey the roadbed and relay the rails. It was an uphill battle. The village damage and appeal for federal disaster assistance.31 was focused on restoring businesses, farms, and, most impor­ Western Sauk County was hit hard. The Baraboo Republic tantly, the washed-out dam. The Works Progress Administration reported, "Roads [are] damaged throughout the area ofthe assisted with the reconstruction ofthe Lee Lake dam and there Little Baraboo River and Kickapoo River, but most of them are was some hope the federal program would also help rebuild the open to precarious travel."32 Telephone lines between Cazenovia track, but it was not to be.36 and Ironton were down for days. The Little Baraboo River With no way to bring freight or mail from La Valle to swelled to such an extent that the Lee Lake dam at Cazenovia Cazenovia, trucks took up the work, traveling the newly built went out, with waters recorded at 59 inches above the dam. Highway 58, which ran along the same route as the railroad.

10 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISFORY The officers of the company, led by President John Walsh and 1. 1906; "The New Railroad," Reedsburg Times, September 28, 1910; "Incorporate Rail­ road," Richland Center Republican Observer, January 21, 1904; and "Cars Ordered for Secretary R. F Drea, proposed the Village of Cazenovia issue Road," Richland Center Republican Observer, September 15, 1910. Stock certificates for $4,000 in bonds which, when sold, would raise enough capital to the Lone Rock and La Valle Railroad Co. are on file in the Railroad Collection, Box 2, Folder 2 at the Sauk County Historical Society, Baraboo, Wisconsin. restore the track to La Valle. On February 3, 1937, the citizens 2. "Cazenovia Railroad," undated news clipping, Delbert Winn Papers, 1859—1987, Box 1. of Cazenovia voted, and voted no.3' Folder 4,Wisconsin Historical Society Archives, Madison, Wisconsin. 3. Ibid. It is not clear why the proposition failed. The flood hurt 4. Undated petition by Lone Rock and La Valle Railroad Company, Delbert Winn Papers, Box 1, Folder 4. everybody, and the economic woes of the Great Depression 5. Delbert L. Winn, Hstory of Ironton (Ironton, Wl: D. L. Winn, 1989), 214. weighed heavily on the minds ofthe residents. Perhaps the village 6. Ibid., "To the Taxpayers ofthe Town of Ironton," undated handbill, Railroad Collection. Box 2, Folder 5; "Railroad Sold," Baraboo News, February 12, 1908. that had time and again bailed out the railroad just could not do it 7. "Cazenovia Railroad." again. The completion of Highway 58 and the rising competition 8. Ibid. 9. "The New Railroad," Reedsburg Times, September 30, 1910. ofthe trucking industry likely also had an impact on the vote. 10. "Cazenovia Railroad." Trucks had been bringing freight into Cazenovia as early as 1924, 11. Ibid. 38 12. "Cazenovia," Richland Center Republican Observer, February 23, 1911. when the engine and bridges were temporarily condemned. 13. "About Folks You Know," Cazenovia Reporter, January 4, 1917. A number of freight One month after the vote, the company asked permission waybills can be found on file at the Lake States Railroad Historical Association in Baraboo: the Sauk County Historical Society, Railroad Collection, Box 2, Folder 4; and in the from the Wisconsin Public Service Commission to abandon Delbert Winn Papers, Box 1, Folder 1/4. the line. It was granted. The Federal Interstate Commerce 14. "The Other Man's Story," Cazenovia Reporter, July 25, 1913; "Railroad in Trouble," Republican Observer, July 10, 1913; "Railroad Sold at Courthouse," December 25, 1913, 39 Commission followed suit shortly after. In early June, a public news clipping, Railroad Collection, Box 2, "Compilation of Research Materials on the Cazenovia and Southern R.R." binder; "Cazenovia Road Was Shut Off," Baraboo News, auction was held to sell off the remaining equipment. Rails, February 25, 1911. rolling stock, and other items were bought up, largely by buyers 15. "Tornado Strikes Ironton," Cazenovia Reporter, May 16, 1918. See also Winn, History 40 of Ironton, 228-229. from larger cities throughout the Midwest. All the railcars still 16. "Stories and Facts about the County," Richland Democrat, August 10, 1921. stranded at Cazenovia had to be shipped out by truck. The 17. "About Folks You Know," Cazenovia Reporter, April 27, 1916. 18. "Local News," Sheboygan Press Telegram, December 5, 1924. engine, old and worn down, was cut apart and hauled away as 19. "The Cazenovia Railroad," Richland Center Republican Observer, November 23, scrap.41 The right-of-way was either sold to nearby farmers or 1922. 20. "La Valle Line Just as Wide as Any of Them," undated news clipping, Railroad Collec­ simply taken over as they expanded their fields. tion, Box 2, "Compilation" binder. Today there is very little to suggest the Cazenovia and 21. "The Cazenovia Railroad," Richland Center Republican Observer, November 23, 1922. Southern Railroad once existed. The depots at Cazenovia and 22. Ibid.; "La Valle Line Just as Wide as Any of Them." 23. Winn, History of Ironton, 217. Ironton are long gone, but if you know where to look you can 24. "Railroad at Cazenovia Is Closed," news clipping, October 30, 1924, Railroad Collec­ still see remnants ofthe roadbed. The stretch of Highway 58 tion, Box 2, "Compilation" binder. 25. "The Cazenovia Reporter States," undated news clipping, Mss 422, Richland County between La Valle and Cazenovia closely follows the rail line's History Room, Brewer Public Library, Richland Center, Wisconsin. historic route. If you drive slowly, you might even capture the 26. "News Notes," Cazenovia Reporter, May 31, 1928. 27. Winn, History of Ironton, 220. feeling of what it was like to ride the Puckety Chute—though 28. Ibid. you might antagonize anyone else on the road. Perhaps the most 29. Laura Sonnenberg, The Flood of 1936: PodunkArea, La Valle Township, Sauk County Wl (self-published, 2001), on file at the Sauk County Historical Society. Sonnenberg inac­ tangible relic rests in North Freedom at the Mid-Continent curately placed the flood in 1936, when in fact it occurred in 1935. Railway Museum, where the coach car, covered by a tarp to 30. Ibid. 31. Flood Waters Steadily Rising at Reedsburg," Baraboo News Republic, August 7, 1935: protect it from the weather, waits in anonymity for the day the "Flood Crest to Reach Baraboo Late Tonight," Baraboo News Republic, August 8, 1935. museum can restore it to its former glory. 32. "Flood Crest to Reach Baraboo Late Tonight." 33. Ibid. Despite its hard luck history—from worker strikes and finan­ 34. "Flood Waters Steadily Rising at Reedsburg"; "High Water Hits Baraboo During Night," Baraboo News Republic, August 7, 1935. cial failures to fires, tornadoes, and floods—the Cazenovia and "Flood Waters Steadily Rising at Reedsburg," Baraboo News Republic, August 7, 1935. Southern endured. That it endured is a testament to the natural "Seek to Rebuild Cazenovia Railroad," Richland Democrat, January 29, 1937. Ibid., "Cazenovia Railroad Headed for Oblivion?" Richland Democrat, April 9, 1937. perseverance ofthe people of western Sauk and eastern Richland "Local News," Sheboygan Press Telegram, December 5, 1924. Counties. It was their railroad. They built it. They maintained "Permission Given to Quit Railroad," Richland Democrat, May 21, 1937. "Cazenovia Railroad Equipment Sold," Richland Democrat, June 4, 1937. it. They saved it from destruction time and time again. Given 41. Winn, Hstory of Ironton, 220. the harsh realities of recovering from a devastating flood during the Great Depression, it would have been surprising if they had ABOUT THE AUTHOR voted in 1937 to keep it running. For more than thirty years, the communities of Cazenovia and Ironton did all they could to Peter Shrake is a lifelong resident ofWisconsin. He earned his master's degree in history from sustain this expensive and complicated venture. Through it all the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and a they were proud of their railroad—and rightfully so. IXfl master's degree in library and information stud­ Notes ies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Since 2011, he has been the archivist at Circus 1. Commentary on the early efforts to build a railroad can found in "A Meeting ofthe Stock­ holders ofthe Lone Rock—La Valle Railroad Co.," Baraboo Republic, June 14, 1905; "New World. He lives in Baraboo, Wisconsin, with his Railroad," Baraboo Republic, October 4, 1905; "Contractors," Baraboo Republic, August wife, Kim, and his sons, Ethan and Ben.

SPRING 2018 11

U >

'*//< BY JUDITH SIERS-POISSON

In this 1925 photo,Tuareg chiefs and members of the Beloit expe­ dition to theTamanrasset area of Algeria pay homage at the gravesite of Pere Charles de Foucauld, a French Catholic missionary who lived with the Tuareg for ten years before he was martyred in 1916. Among the Westerners are Count Byron Khun de Prorok, right, Bradley Tyrrell, center with blonde I hair, and next to him with a red tie, their driver. Martini. n October 12, 1925, an unlikely group of BELOITSAYANTTOSEEK men set out on a "1,500-mile dash through the Sahara" in search of knowledge, artifacts, EVIDENCE ON ORIGIN O 1 and adventure. The expedition, fueled by fierce compe­ tition and a quest for buried treasure, provided a new OF MAN IN ALGERIA understanding ofthe Tuareg, a large, nomadic Berber On a search for evidence of the ori­ ethnic group, and brought acclaim to Wisconsin's Beloit gin of man, the Beloit college expedi­ College. For the contemporary reader, however, it tion, headed by brings up serious ethical concerns—and lessons—about Alonzo Pond, fa­ mous research archaeological and anthropological practice during the worker, will leave twilight years ofthe colonial era. New York Aug. 12 for Algeria, North In the early part of the twentieth century, Westerners Africa, it was attributed levels of sophistication to cultures and civilizations learned yester­ day. With Prof. based on their political systems. According to scholar Margarita Pond are Count Diaz-Andreu, Westerners considered complex state societies Byron de Prorok, in Asia and North Africa to be more advanced than "those noted French ar­ perceived as formed by savages and primitives, with the simplest chaeologist and 2 explorer; Bradley types of political organization." The Tuareg, with a nomadic Tyrell, manufac­ lifestyle that did not include property rights and whose women turer of Delavan, ALONZO POND. held powerful positions, were viewed as a lesser civilization. In Wis., and trustee [Loreaon studio.] addition, by the end ofthe nineteenth century, the Enlighten­ of the college, and M. Regasse, for­ mer French colonial governor. ment view of indigenous people as "noble savages" had shifted. Emphasis is laid on the fact that So-called "primitive" societies were described by Westerners this expedition is not connected even as "ignorant, backward and uncivilized," and the fields of in a remote way with the evolution archaeology and anthropology were enlisted to support these uproar in Tennessee. The party will beliefs.3 To differing degrees, the members ofthe expedition to be given the protection of French colonial troops on its way into the the Sahara were informed by these attitudes, which are evident interior from Algeria. in both their actions and in first-person accounts written after their return. The mission in the Sahara, which included two representa­ The Beloit expedition, led by Alonzo Pond, gained tives from the college, Alonzo Pond and Bradley Tyrrell, laid the national media attention.The planning stages coincided with the Scopes trial, the "evolution uproar in Tennessee" foundation for future archaeological digs sponsored by Beloit mentioned at the end of this July 1925 column. College, as well as the development of an impressive collection of artifacts and the establishment of a training program for its for his later work in the Sahara—driving an ambulance in less- students. While Tyrrell footed his own bill, Pond, as head of than-ideal conditions, survival skills, and speaking French. the expedition, was sponsored by George Collie, then head of Pond returned to Beloit College in the fall of 1919 and the college's Logan Museum of Anthropology, and the venture managed to complete his bachelor's degree the following was financially supported by trustee and donor Frank Logan, semester. He and a friend then tried their luck running a small for whom the museum is named. restaurant in Florida, but Pond was drawn back to academics Born in 1894 into a Janesville, Wisconsin, family that when Collie recommended him for a scholarship at the Amer­ owned a dry goods business, Alonzo W. Pond was much more ican School in Europe for Prehistoric Study in Paris. He spent interested in the natural world than the mercantile. The town's two years studying and conducting research before returning to noted naturalist, Halvor Skavlem, encouraged his interests and the United States to begin a graduate program at the Univer­ introduced him to archaeology, a field he embraced when he sity of Chicago, switching his field of study from archaeology entered Beloit College in 1914, despite a lackluster academic to anthropology. performance in high school. Working at the Logan Museum, In 1924, Collie sent Pond back to Europe to purchase where he first met Collie, cemented his desire to pursue the prehistoric artifacts for the Logan Museum. At the Interna­ field, though he departed in 1917 to serve in the American Field tional Congress of Anthropologists, held in Toulouse, France, Service in France after landing on academic probation. In the in 1924, Pond met the man who would make the Franco- service, Pond gained important skills that would prove crucial American expedition to the Sahara possible and, by extension,

14 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISFORY Left: Two Tuareg men. Westerners referred to them as the "Blue Men"because ofthe deep indigo of their clothing, which also tinted their skin. Right: A Tuareg woman. Unlike the men, women were not veiled. bolster future work by Beloit College anthropologists in North Africa. Maurice Reygasse was a valuable partner since, as the A FORTUITOUS DISCOVERY French-appointed administrator of Algeria's Tebessa province, he had the bureaucratic connections in France and Algeria, then The Pond Autochromes a French-controlled territory, needed to acquire the necessary In conducting image research for this article, our image work permits. Reygasse, soon to become founder of the Bardo editor discovered that several dozen images in the Society's Museum in Algiers, was keen to collect as much as possible to Alonzo Pond collection, previously thought to be hand-col­ enrich that institution's holdings. Reygasse needed Pond, too: ored glass plates, were in fact autochromes (see examples for years he had failed to secure funding to pursue digs and above). This process, developed in the early twentieth excavations in Algeria, and Frank Fogan's support was key to century, is considered the first commercially viable color this undertaking.4 process for photography. The discovery of these rare images The issue of funding complicated their partnership from enhances the Society's collections considerably, both in the beginning. Initially, Pond hoped simply to accompany terms ofthe potential scholarly value as well as the number Reygasse on his next expedition. Excited by the prospect of a of images now available to researchers. An autochrome consists of a glass plate coated on joint collecting trip with an established scholar of North Afri­ one side with a random mosaic of microscopic grains ca's prehistoric era, Pond shared the idea with Collie, who in of potato starch dyed red-orange, green, and blue- turn brought the idea to Fogan, who was enthusiastic about violet, which act as color filters. The spaces between grains the opportunity. Pond and Reygasse made plans for a joint are filled with carbon black, and a black-and-white silver expedition to take place during the fall and winter of 1925- halide emulsion coats the filter layer. Unlike normal glass 1926. But in a letter dated January 13, 1925, Collie wrote to plates, the autochrome enters the camera with the uncoated Fogan saying Reygasse had increased the price of the journey glass side facing the lens, so that the light passes through 5 to 50,000 francs, which Collie felt was too high. The sum was the mosaic filter before reaching the emulsion. Autochrome the equivalent of approximately $10,000 in 1925, with a value plates were primarily used for projection, but they fell out of 6 today of just shy of $140,000. The letter, however, makes clear use after 1935 when Kodak introduced its far superior color how important the project was to Collie and to the museum, reversal process, Kodachrome.The Pond autochromes and despite the cost. He wrote, "The possibilities of this expedition other images from the Alonzo W. Pond Collection can be are so great that I am very anxious to see it go through and viewed online at wihist.org/AlonzoPond.

SPRING 2018 15 that being the case, I think we had better give up any ofthe proposed excavations in France and turn all the funds of the Museum into this African trip."7 Fogan agreed, and plans for the trip—and increased funding—went forward. The Pond-Reygasse expedition would focus on the Taman- rasset region in southeastern Algeria, in the Hoggar, or Ahaggar, mountains, and then shift to the district of Aoulef in western Algeria. The pair was focused on collecting artifacts for their institutions, though Pond, as an anthropologist, was equally interested in learning about the nomadic tribe that popu­ lated the area. The Tuareg had long been a source of fascina­ tion—and sometimes fear—for outsiders, likely due to a lack of understanding about their Muslim religion, customs, and Driver and mechanic matrilineal culture. They were known as fierce warriors and Martini with a monkey. excellent horsemen. The rich indigo dye used to color their As Pond wrote,"Lucky clothing tended to tint their skin, leading some to call them the Strike was the most "Blue Men" of the Sahara.8 Men wore veils, women did not, efficient ofthe three and though the men served as chiefs, women held much ofthe cars, but Brad and power in the community. I were certain that The Pond-Reygasse expedition temporarily stymied the Martini was so much better [a] driver than ambitions of another adventurer with very different motivations the factory-trained for exploring Tuareg territory. An American born in Mexico men that he got the and bearing a noble title through less than traditional means. maximum mileage Count Byron Khun de Prorok was a flamboyant showman full under all conditions." of enthusiasm for discovery and adventure, though lacking

It took several members ofthe expedition to push Hot Dog, one of three Renault vehicles outfitted for the journey, out ofthe mire.

16 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISFORY A map of northern Africa, ca. 1925. The red lines indicate international boundaries, with Tunisia sand­ wiched between Libya and Algeria. the diligence or ethics of a trained scientist or academic.9 He cracy, the area was thought to be the location of the tomb of was already well known for excavating ancient Carthage, Tin Hinan, whom Gsell, according to Prorok, described as the just outside of modern-day Tunis, Tunisia, in the early 1920s "grandmother of all the Tuaregs, their legendary queen; buried, and, like other adventurers of his time, searching for the lost perhaps, somewhere in the Hoggar."14 Here Prorok's telling continent of Atlantis. His expeditions were often coupled with becomes sensational. The Tuareg, he writes, were a "warlike speaking tours that were brought to life with magic lantern tribe who ... submitted to the French, and then only when they slides, films, and animated lectures—performances that funded were mown like ripe wheat by machine-guns which they had further archaeological activities.10 He catalogued his adventures never seen or heard before.... They had a heritage of banditry in several books, most notably In Quest of Lost Worlds, which pillage, and murder. Ostensibly they were now subject to France covered five archaeological expeditions spanning 1925 to 1934." . . . and the country was in full revolt, needing a steady and While fascinating and absorbing, these accounts are more for cumulative campaign to subjugate them again."15 For Prorok, show than scholarship, given to hyperbole and sensation and the possibility of adventure coupled with archaeological finds reinforcing stereotypes ofthe cultures he encountered as well as was too good to turn down. He wanted to keep his quest for showing a keen lack of awareness of Prorok's privilege. "Africa Tin Hinan quiet, so his team publicly defined their objective is a land of politeness and officialdom," he writes at one point as searching the Hoggar for prehistoric sites and learning the in his account of the Sahara trip. "A uniform with plenty of history ofthe Tuareg.16 gold-leaf goes far."12 The count's request to explore the Sahara was denied. Prorok was greatly influenced by French archaeologist As Pond recalled in his book published after the expedition, and prehistorian Stephane Gsell ofthe Institut de France, who Veiled Men, Red Tents, and Black Mountains, French author­ suggested Prorok consider exploring parts of North Africa not ities would grant only one permit per year, and permission governed by the Service des Antiquites. Gsell proposed trav­ had already been given to Reygasse and Pond.17 Undeterred, eling to Antinea in the far south of Algeria, Tuareg territory the count, at Gsell's urging, approached Reygasse to see if he that was not heavily supervised by French colonial authorities could join the Beloit College party.18 Prorok sweetened the outside of a few military outposts. Although laws protecting deal by offering to provide three specially built vehicles made antiquities were passed in 1920 and 1925, they were not strictly by the Renault car company in France, which would signifi­ enforced.13 Besides being a good place to get away from bureau­ cantly shorten the planned six-month trek by camel through

SPRING 2018 17 the Sahara to a few weeks. These desert buggies were some of Fogan Museum some wonderful specimens."20 As an aficio­ the first pneumatic tire vehicles to attempt an extended trip into nado of still photography and the new technology of motion the Sahara.19 While they were an advancement in the field of pictures, Tyrrell provided a valuable service to the Sahara auto engineering, the six-axled, twelve-tired cars were not well adventure: his films, available for viewing at the Wisconsin suited for the arduous crossing. Neither were two of the three Historical Society, provide an intimate and immediate view drivers hired for the trip at the insistence ofthe car company. ofthe expedition.21 It was only the third, whom the group called by his last name. Support staff, including an interpreter, a cook, a guide, Martini, who could function as a mechanic in addition to being and drivers, rounded out the expedition crew. While various a driver, and he was kept busy throughout the trip trying to keep members of the group spoke French and Arabic, it was the the vehicles—dubbed Fucky Strike, Hot Dog, and Sandy—in group's official interpreter, a man named Caid Belaid, who also running condition. spoke the Tuareg dialect ofthe area, having previously been A fellow Beloit College alumnus, Bradley Tyrrell, joined married to a Tuareg woman.22 Retired French army sergeant Pond after expressing his interest in archaeology to George Fouis Chapuis served as guide, highly qualified for the role after Collie. He was already a successful businessman; his family having spent his military service building many ofthe roads they founded Bradley Knitting Company in Delavan, Wisconsin, were to travel. Along with Tyrrell, two others documented the in 1904, and two decades later it was one ofthe town's largest expedition: Swiss cameraman Henri Barth, whose recordings employers. In a letter to Frank Fogan dated August 11, 1925, were destined for the count's next speaking tour, and Harold Tyrrell wrote that he would be interested in going on one ofthe Denny, an Iowa native and New York Times correspondent college's collecting trips at his own expense and "more in the who sent dispatches throughout the expedition, often published spirit of fun than anything else." A true Beloit loyalist, Tyrrell under Prorok's name. added, "I am in hopes that under the capable leadership of Even before the expedition began, tensions among the Pond we will be able to plant the flag of Beloit in spots that men began to simmer. Pond had grown tired of Reygasse after will yield great things scientifically and to bring back for the spending two months at the Frenchman's home preparing for

Lucky Strike being loaded atConstantinejust before the start of the journey, with guide Louis Chapuis in the center.

18 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISFORY From left to right, Maurice Reygasse, Prorok,Tyrrell, and, at right with his face visible, Alonzo Pond, lunching near the El Kantara bridge in Constantine, Algeria, before the journey begins.

SPRING 2018 19 Pond and Prorok, at center and right, meeting the Tuareg, possibly at In Salah the expedition. Pond described the French-Algerian archaeol­ an oasis town 300 miles south of Constantine at the northern ogist to Tyrrell as "a terrible companion for any long and close edge ofthe Sahara, whose expanse accounts for 80 percent of confinement."23 And though Tyrrell's first impression ofthe Algeria's territory. This was the farthest point to which their count was favorable—"A more delightful, courteous, sincere supplies could be shipped, so it was a natural official start to gentleman one could not wish to meet"—it quickly soured.24 the main leg of the adventure, which would take them even In his book Mysterious Sahara, Prorok goes on at length about farther south to Tamanrasset and into the heart of Tuareg the many preparations necessary for an expedition of this size country. and scope.25 Yet it soon became clear to Pond and Tyrrell that The group set off on the road to Ouargla, the French mili­ Prorok's preparations were seriously lacking, and they frantically tary headquarters for the southern Sahara. It was an inviting added the provisions and equipment meant to get them through oasis city that would give the adventurers one last taste of luxury several weeks in the Sahara.26 While the fault lay squarely with and comfort before entering the desert. There, personalities Prorok, the two were also angry with Reygasse, whom they clashed and rivalries grew. Pond relates that at times, Belaid and held responsible for not checking the count's list. Instead, the Chapuis jousted for who had a more thorough understanding of Frenchman had augmented it with fine china, linens, and his the area and its people. Meanwhile, Prorok seemed amused by medals and dress uniforms, which did not improve their opinion the competitive relationship that was developing between Pond of his priorities.2' and Reygasse, later writing in In Quest of Lost Worlds, "Let no The group had a festive send-off lunch in Constantine, one believe that scientific expeditions, with mixed personnel, in northern Algeria near the coast of the Mediterranean, on can be carried through from beginning to end without trouble. October 12. Despite Prorok's assurances that the three vehicles Science may be an international affair. There may be a free­ were well-fueled and ready to go, two ran out of gas before masonry as regards published results; but there is considerable reaching their destination on the first night. The itinerary was jealousy as to the possession ofthe objects found."28 Indeed, to follow the railroad lines south to the terminus at Touggourt, competition and jealousy would plague the group throughout

20 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISFORY , i 1 *V'i'. *

At In Salah, Pond demonstrates proper camel riding tech­ nique described by Tyrrell in his expedi­ tion diary:"One must go barefooted and pinch the neck of the beast between the large toe & others on right foot, crossing left leg over neck." the expedition—but the greatest rivalry was between Pond and ogist's eye for detail and the exoticism common to Westerners Prorok. at the time: Given their different backgrounds, motivations, and personalities, it's no surprise that the main participants did not Their white turbans were neatly wound around their share the same goals. Prorok was focused on tales he could heads. A blue-black veil covered each man's ears tell on the lecture circuit back in America—he already had a and hung down over his forehead to the bridge of his tour planned for the winter—and he intended to include the nose, the lower folds hid his neck, his mouth and the discovery of the Tuareg queen's tomb. Pond, an academic at tip of his nose. Only a slit between upper and lower heart and the only member trained in anthropology, took his folds of the veil allowed a view of the direct, piercing mission very seriously. His aim was to amass an extensive collec­ black eyes. Their white cotton tunic and pantaloons, tion of artifacts for the Logan Museum, including one of every were covered by the blue-black robes. Flat, leather single item the Tuareg used in everyday life, and to document sandals completed the costume.31 their customs and traditions. He later wrote proudly that he had succeeded, except for the sewing needles used by the Tuareg Pond was quick to draw comparisons to himself, adding women, imported from France and England and therefore "no that these Tuareg were not as tall as some others that they different than those used at home."29 encountered later, but that even these, at about five feet ten The group continued south towards the town of In Salah, inches, were still impressive to someone of his own height (of in the center ofthe country, where the Americans in the group five feet two "and a half').32 came face to face with the Tuareg for the first time. A group The group's arrival at the French military base Fort Laper- of men had come to sell sheep and goats at the market there rine in Tamanrasset, the capital of the Hoggar region, marked and they made, according to Pond, "a distinct impression" the end of a long journey and the start of research and excava­ on the Americans.30 Pond describes them with an anthropol­ tion in earnest. The Westerners had a formal introduction to

SPRING 2018 21 Decorative artifacts brought back to the Logan Museum by Pond included a fan, a wooden flute, shoes, and bracelets.

Akamouk, the local Tuareg king, and his retinue on November 2, tribe. When he told Belaid, their translator, that he wanted 1925, when the nomads arrived at the base to meet them. While to buy one, the response was a pause, followed by a cautious waiting for their supplies to catch up with them at Tamanrasset, reply. "You are asking to buy something that is most precious the explorers had the chance to visit a Tuareg encampment a few to a Touareg woman. It is the one, the only thing among all miles northwest ofthe fort, where they were served a traditional their possessions no one has offered you for sale despite the feast that included a whole roast sheep cooked in sand and ashes, generosity you have shown. That little piece of ivory, smooth, which the explorers seasoned with salt from their own stash.33 undecorated, is a symbol, a cherished heirloom."38 Pond was Pond, however, was less than impressed with the first course of undeterred, but, as Belaid predicted, his persistence was not bread soaked in water and honey, commenting, "If one was very well received. Pond presented a woman named Chelifa with hungry it would probably be delicious. I wasn't hungry and I do French perfume, a lapful ofjewelr y made with semi-precious not like mushy bread."34 Prorok was more sensational, writing of gems, and a roll of French francs in exchange for the heir­ the sheep prepared for the group with his usual flair: "The sheikh, loom. But when Belaid attempted to remove the choker from kindly and in courtesy, hooked out one eye with his thumb as a her neck, Pond reported, "A hush fell on the gay gathering! special delicacy for me."35 Chelifa's slender hand closed over the necklace at her throat. During their stay in the Tuareg camp, all of the group Every girl in the group covered her ivory plaque with her members bought souvenirs, but none with the voracity of Pond. fingers. Belaid was pushed away."39 The Tuareg women would In Veiled Men, Red Tents, and Black Mountains, he describes not submit to gifts or goading and made clear that these neck­ intricate negotiations that included buyer and seller squatting laces, handed down from mother to daughter for generations, on the sand, each poking holes in the ground between them to were not available at any price. The disappointed Pond did indicate the asking price, offer, counter-offer, and final price.36 not seem fazed by his display of cultural insensitivity, but Pond's acquisitions ranged from one ofthe large Tuareg red allowed that "it was good for me to realize that among the tents, "complete with poles and goat hair ropes," to woven rugs, nobles ofthe Hoggar some sentimental values were still held handmade jewelry, and a blue takammist robe.37 He kept a priceless."40 mental inventory of what he'd seen the local people use during In the end, Pond did manage to complete his collection. their sojourn at the camp and became fixated on buying a small Later in the trip, Belaid located a couple willing to part with ivory plaque on a choker-style necklace, a piece of jewelry worn an heirloom necklace for the money it would bring, and the by the young women. collectors carefully noted the family history that went with it. However well-intentioned, Pond's lack of understanding Despite Pond's preoccupation with acquiring the piece, he did about the significance of the necklaces angered many in the seem to have a pang of regret, saying, "Perhaps the family will

22 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISFORY Tyrrell proudly displayed his Beloit pennant at the front of his tent, which was supplied by the Tuareg during their sojourn as guests of the tribe. prosper in the changing economy and a new heirloom will be saying simply that they were going to "visit other Tuareg settle­ purchased. I hope so, for the loss of sentimental values lowers ments in the mountains."44 the quality of life."41 So begins an unfortunate chapter of the adventure that For Prorok, the sojourn in the camp brought him the infor­ would have far-reaching consequences. According to Prorok, mation he was hoping to find. One morning, the Tuareg chief's upon their arrival in the area ofthe tomb, Chapuis bribed storyteller shared the legend of his people's ancestral queen, a the local Tuareg chief to give them use of laborers for the story Harold Denny included in one of his dispatches for the excavation. But for those laborers, whom tradition said were New York Times. descendants of Tin Hinan's servant, Takamat, who was also buried there, opening the tomb was a desecration. According to "I and all other Tuaregs of noble blood," said Prorok, the expedition members tried to convince the workers Akhamouk [sic], "are descended from a woman that the structure had no importance, "that the tomb had actu­ with powers greater than people have now. She was ally nothing to do with their history, legends, or faith; but was Tin-Hinan and she led her people down across the just a pile of stones in the way"45 Sahara from the North a very long time ago—no one Pond and Reygasse had not yet rejoined the group, and knows how long. Here she established a kingdom, those at the tomb site were anxious about using up their supplies, and her children were the founders of my tribe, the but they were afraid to send back word to Tamanrasset because Kel Rela. . . . Tin-Hinan is buried in a big heap of they didn't want the king to learn what they were doing. By the stones on a hill in Abalessa."42 fourth day, the laborers had disappeared, overcome by fear as the excavation progressed farther into the grave site. On the This tale gave Prorok renewed hope of finding Tin Hinan's fifth day, the dig had progressed far enough to yield objects, and burial place and her treasure—which would, in turn, sell more Prorok recounts that at that point, the Tuareg appeared seem­ tickets on his next speaking tour and expand his reputation ingly out of nowhere. "There they were, gigantic, their spears as an adventurer and explorer. When he and Chapuis heard in their hands, guns across their shoulders: silent, watchful," he the story, Chapuis recognized the description of the area from wrote, emphasizing the warlike mystique they held for Western his previous work. "There is a big mound lying off the trail," readers.46 Prorok recalled Chapuis saying to him.43 The next day, Pond Despite the site being known by the Tuareg as the tomb and Reygasse headed off on their own to collect more arti­ of Tin Hinan, the Westerners tried to convince the men that it facts, and when they did not quickly return, Prorok, along with could not belong to their culture because ofthe materials from Chapuis, Belaid, and Tyrrell, decided to search for the tomb. which the items found inside were made and the way that the

SPRING 2018 23 The tomb of Tin Hinan seen from a distance

Prorok outside the tomb, sifting for artifacts

24 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISFORY structure itself was built. According to Prorok, Chapuis told in 1925 laws were put in place that prohibited the removal of the Tuareg that "you build your houses of thatch and bamboo, artifacts from France or its territories, yet as Prorok was well while this is built of stone, and, as you know, all the houses ofthe aware, there was little official oversight in the remote region of white man are built of stone."47 Eventually, Chapuis convinced the Hoggar. While the explorers did not seem to have personal them that nothing of value had been found at the site, though concern about their actions—indeed, both Prorok's account the Tuareg warned the Westerners that "if we touched the body and the journals of Tyrrell and Pond are matter-of-fact about there would be trouble."48 the incident—they were well aware that the Tuareg would not With full knowledge that their actions were viewed as look favorably on their actions, as shown by how they rushed hostile, the excavators continued, and at a rapid pace: "Our out of the region. salvation now lay in speed. Chapuis insisted that we take our Prorok described his removal of the skeleton with no guns to the mound, and that we relieve each other as senti­ embarrassment in an account that reads, to twenty-first century nels."49 Prorok reports how they discovered an ornately deco­ ears, as unapologetically glib: "Ultimately, the Queen went with rated skeleton in the main burial chamber: me to Paris, and I drove around the city with her in a very modern taxicab, seeking the responsible authorities to whom The shrouds went up in dust; but not before we had I should make my report. But a ministry had fallen, and the distinguished a sort of veil over the head. There was a new government knew not Tin Hinan. So for a time, the queen- tiara, or diadem, whose cord had gone, and the pieces ancestress of all the Tuaregs reposed quietly in a cool cellar were among the ribs ofthe dead Queen. What looked in the heart of Paris."53 Ultimately, Tin Hinan's remains were like a head-dress of three feathers turned to dust as the placed in the Bardo Museum in Algeria, headed by Reygasse, air struck it. Slowly, bit by bit, with Tyrrell holding a where they remain today. petrol tin outside, to catch and reflect the rays ofthe Once they had returned to In Salah, the expedition sun into the chamber, we uncovered the arms with members prepared to take leave of each other. Since Reygasse their massive bracelets: eight of silver on the left and and Pond were heading west to continue collecting, the guide, nine of heavy gold on the right. In the dust around interpreter, and support staff would no longer be needed. Prorok the back were cornelian, garnet, amazonite, turquoise, and the other Westerners headed north and then to Europe. glass and plaster beads, with some of chalcedony and In addition to staging a successful speaking tour, Prorok others of gold and silver, distinctly similar to beads I went on to write several books that detailed his exploits, but had found at Carthage.50 he was also dogged by complaints about his removal of the skeleton.54 Additionally, Renault sued him for failure to pay Later that day, Pond and Barth arrived with supplies. for spare parts for the desert vehicles. Though his work today According to Prorok, "Pond, quick to his job, promptly got out is widely regarded as sensationalist and his methods seen as his calipers and measured the Queen's skull, and pronounced dubious at best, the books still find an audience.55 He also his verdict. Tin Hinan was really a woman."51 Reygasse did not continued his speaking tours. A promotional brochure from come until the day after, having stayed behind in Tamanrasset 1930 listed Prorok's offerings as including presentations, "each to say goodbye to friends. When he did reach the site, the group filled with new material and splendidly illustrated with still gave him quite a welcome, and he was overcome with emotion. and motion pictures, some of the former in color on the topics "'We have made history, you and I, de Prorok!' he cried. 'We of'Excavations of Ancient Carthage,' 'Dead Cities of Africa,' have made history! We have changed all the conceptions ofthe 'Exploring the Sahara Desert,' and 'Mysteries ofthe Fibyan Hoggar!'"52 The motion picture cameras had not been present Desert.'"56He also recruited students from Harvard for an expe­ for the actual entry into the tomb, but for the benefit ofthe dition to Libya in 1933, as reported by the Harvard Crimson.57 cameras and for Reygasse, they recreated the dramatic events. In 1935, however, he was expelled from the Royal Geograph­ Pond, meanwhile, began cataloging the artifacts in his travel ical Society of London. His reputation as a grave robber and journal. profiteer, rather than archaeologist, has cemented his legacy. At this point, the group did what would be unthinkable Pond continued his work as an anthropologist and archae­ today. Aware that the Tuareg would likely return to the tomb, ologist at Beloit College's Logan Museum. He maintained an they packed the skeleton in empty five-gallon gasoline cans and abiding sense of wonder and curiosity about his journey into the prepared to leave with it and the rest of their finds. This was Sahara. When in Tamanrasset a fellow explorer heading north a transgression on multiple levels: they failed to catalog the offered to take letters back for the group to mail, he quickly artifacts' precise location in the site and relationship to other penned a note to his future wife, Dorothy: objects; they opened a grave site without permission and with disregard for keeping the structure intact; and perhaps most Too much is happening too fast for my diary. There disturbingly, they disinterred human remains. As noted earlier. hasn't been time to tell about the gorgeous coloring

SPRING 2018 25 ofthe rocks at sunset. I haven't told how the moon comes up from behind great blue-black mountains, nor a hundred other little details that make every minute of this desert journey interesting. Monotony there is in plenty, but, as Brad says, just when we are about fed up on the scenery something happens to stir us out of all that is ordinary and brings us a memory that we will treasure all our lives.58

Pond went on several more excavations in North Africa on behalf of the Logan Museum through 1930, accompanied %fab%~~ 59 A- by Dorothy. In 1928, he also accompanied fellow Beloit alum ^ Roy Chapman Andrews on an expedition to the Gobi Desert. ^u His efforts helped establish Logan's strong North African a- collection. In 1931, Pond lost his job due to fallout from the stock market crash, and the excavations halted. But he took the opportunity to complete his master's degree at the University of Chicago, and then went on to work for the National Park Service, the Civilian Conservation Corps, and the Cave of the Mounds at Blue Mounds, Wisconsin, finally retiring in Minocqua, Wisconsin, where he and Dorothy ran a nature preserve and tourist attraction called Wisconsin Gardens. He died in 1986. As a local resident who knew him remarked, "Interesting that for a man who knew and could have chosen for his retirement home, any ofthe wonders of wonders ofthe world, and then some, Alonzo picked the pristine island city Minocqua, Wisconsin, a small gem surrounded by woods and waters, to spend his twilight years."60 IMI

Notes Captions: Martini and monkey: Alonzo Pond: Veiled Men, Red Tents, and Black Moun­ tains: The Lost Tomb of Queen Tin Hnan (Santa Barbara, CA: Narrative Press, 2003), 111-112. Pond on camel: W. Bradley Tyrrell, 1925 African Expedition Diary, 122, Box 7, Folder 5, North African Collection, Logan Museum of Anthropology Archives, Beloit. Wisconsin 1. "Expedition Ready to Explore Sahara," New York Times, October 13, 1925. 2. Margarita Dfaz-Andreu, A World Hstory of Nineteenth-Century Archaeology: Nation­ alism, Colonialism, and the Past (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), 278. 3. Dfaz-Andreu, A World Hstory of Nineteenth-Century Archaeology, 311. 4. "Sails for Auto Trip across the Sahara," New York Times, September 19, 1925. 5. Letter from Collie to Logan, January 13, 1925, Box 6, Folder 9, Frank G. Logan Papers, Beloit College Archives, Beloit, Wisconsin. 6. For information on the franc-dollar exchange rate in the 1920s, see Bertrand Blancheton and Samuel Maveyraud, "French Exchange Rate Management in the 1920s," Financial Review History 16.2 (2009): 183—201; the author's estimate for the cost in US dollars today comes from http://www.usinflationcalculator.com. 7. Letter from Collie to Logan, January 13, 1925. Beloit College had several expeditions planned, but none involved Pond until the Sahara trip came up and funds for those trips were reallocated. 8. "Tuareg," dictionary entry, Encyclopedia of Africa, Vol. 2, ed. Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Kwame Anthony Appiah (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 499. 9. Prorok's title was willed to him by his maternal uncle, Count Theophile Konerski de Prorok. "Count Prorok Admits He Is an American," New York Times, December 28, 1925. He changed the spelling from Kuhn to F^hun sometime after he became a count. 10. "Lectures on Carthage: Head of French Expedition Shows Motion Pictures of Excava­ tions," New York Times, December 24, 1922. 11. Byron Kiiun de Prorok, In Quest of Lost Worlds: Five Archeological Expeditions 1925— 1934 (Santa Barbara: Narrative Press, 2000). The original edition was published in 1935 by E. P. Dutton & Company, Inc., of New York. 12. Prorok, In Quest of Lost Worlds, 10. 13. In both 1920 and 1925, legislation was passed in Algeria that protected antiquities, but it was not strictly governed. See Dfaz-Andreu, A World Hstory of Nineteenth-Century Archae­ Pond's expedition diary, January 4,1926. He and Reygasse continued ology, 269. to collect artifacts throughout the region after Prorok's hasty retreat. 14. Prorok, In Quest of Lost Worlds, 6.

26 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISFORY ALGERIAN GOVERNOR 15. Ibid., 6-7. 16. Ibid., 8. 17. Pond, Veiled Men, 18. 18. Prorok, In Quest of Lost Worlds, 7 SEEKING DE PROROK 19. Pond was under the impression that this was the first Saharan trip to use pneumatic tire vehicles, and says so in his introduction to Veiled Men, 16. But in Mysterious Sahara. Prorok refers to a "Citroen expedition two years previous" to the one undertaken with CopTTltM. 1K3. by Tb» Htm Tort Tin** C^aovrj. Pond (94). Special Cab!* to TUB NBW YOIK Tim*. 20. Letter from Tyrrell to Logan, August 11, 1925, Frank G. Logan Papers, Box 10, Folder 37. 21. Saharan Trails, film ofthe 1925 Logan Sahara Expedition, by Bradley Tyrrell, in the PARIS. Dec 28.—Tha French Admit* Alonzo Pond Papers, VBB 226-227, Wisconsin Historical Society Archives, Madison, istration of Algeria, acconling to The Wisconsin. A soundtrack was added by Alonzo and Dorothy Pond in 1984. 22. Andre-Paul Hesse and Jean-Paul Paris, "Des Americains au Hoggar en 1925: Un journal Matin, has aent the following letter to de route inedit voit le jourP'Le Saharien 196 (March 2011): 4. the Prefecture of PoUce of Parla: 23. Ibid., 78. "The Governor General of Algeria la 24. Tyrrell, 1925 African Expedition Diary, 37. 25. Byron Khun de Prorok, Mysterious Sahara: The Land of Gold, of Sand, and of Ruin seeking' to confer with an American London: John Murray, 1930), 70-71. citizen, Charles Byran Cune*. called the 26. Tyrrell, 1925 African Expedition Diary, 85-86. Count de Prorok. born in 18£XJ»" 27. Pond, Veiled Men, 8. 28. Prorok, In Quest of Lost Worlds, 23. The Algerian Government is extremely 29. Pond, Veiled Men, 128. angry with the Count da Prorok for 30. Ibid., 76. having whipped four cases out of Algeria, 31. Ibid. containing treasures, in violation of a 32. Ibid., 77. 33. Ibid. regulation requiring that everything of 34. Ibid., 124. thia character be given to the Governor 35. Prorok, In Quest of Lost Worlds, 15. General of Algeria. • The Matin assumes 36. Pond, Veiled Men, 128. 37. Ibid., 129. that it is part of the Counfa recent dis­ 38. The English spelling is "Tuareg," but Pond uses the French "Touareg." Pond, Veiled coveries in Hoggar. Men, 133-134. 39. Ibid., 136. •The difficulty of locating the Count 40. Ibid., 137. da Prorok to explained by the fact that 41. Ibid., 138. he sailed for America on Dec 13," con­ 42. Harold Denny, "King of Hoggar Holds a Sahara Salon," New York Times, January 17, tinues The Matin, "but M. de Prorok 1926. 43. Prorok, In Quest of Lost Worlds, 52. comes too often to France not to return, 44. Ibid. and be will be again on -our soil next 45. Ibid., 52-53. February. 46. Ibid., 56. 47. Prorok, Mysterious Sahara, 166. "But what do these mysterious cases 48. Prorok, In Quest of Lost Worlds, 56. contain? The Governor General says 49. Ibid., 57. four mummies. Are they the sisters of 50. Ibid. 51. Ibid., 60. Princess Tin Ilanan. better conserved 52. Ibid. than the Queen? Of this we know 53. Ibid., 61. nothing, but the - v..-.nt* smile when one 54. "Algerian Government Seeking de Prorok," New York Times, December 27, 1925; "Count Admits He Is an American," New York Times, December 28, 1925; "End Misunderstanding speaks of a Berber sarcophagus. Vet on Prorok Treasures," New York Times, December 30, 1925. there are ."-erious official.", who, without 55. Several of Prorok's books were reprinted by Narrative Press in the early 2000s, including Digging for Lost African Gods (first published in 1926), Mysterious Sahara: The Land of Irony, plan to deroratc the Count de Gold, of Sand and of Ruin (1929), Dead Men Do Tell Tales (1933), and In Quest of Lost Prorok as an Officer of the Academy Worlds (1935). for finding the mummies." 56. "Count Byron Khun de Prorok," promotional brochure, Redpath Chautauqua Collec­ Forty-six catwa 1n which the Count tion, University of Iowa Archives, http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/cdm/ref/collection/tc/id/46161. packed his discoveries have arrived at 57. "African Exploration: Count de Prorok Wants Students for Lybian \sic] Expedition," the hrndmiartor* of the Algerian Gov­ Harvard Crimson, November 23, 1933, http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1933/ll/23/afri- ernment. The Matin adds, and will be can-exploration-pcount-byron-khun-de/. opened upon the return of M. Re^nsse. 58. Pond, Veiled Men, 114. Administrator, of the Commune Tehessa. 59. Dorothy Pond, If Women Have Courage: Among Shepherds, Sheiks, and Scientists in who accompanied the Count's mission as Algeria (Frankfurt am Main, Germany: Africa Magna Verlag, 2014). official representative of the Algerian 60. Mary Good, "Reflections on Pond," August 17, 2016, unpublished material shared with i Government. the author. Prorok's departure from Paris on December 15 was followed by scandal when the French and Algerian ABOUT THE AUTHOR governments took issue with his handling ofthe Judith Siers-Poisson holds bachelor's and contents of theTin Hinan tomb.Though some articles master's degrees in history from the University claimed he had taken "four mummies" to America, Prorok of Wisconsin-Madison and is a dual French and defended himself by asserting he was only taking items American citizen. She is an executive producer for his speaking tour, and would return them when he forThe Ideas Network ofWisconsin Public Radio. arrived back in France that February. Many of theTin This is her first article for the Wisconsin Maga­ Hinan items, including the queen's skeleton, were placed zine of History. at the Bardo Museum in Algiers, headed by Reygasse.

SPRING 2018 27 ( The Amateur's Eye Daniel Bastian Nelson in Eau Claire

MSE NOTED, ALL IMAGES IN THIS ARTICLE BELONG TO THE DANIEL BASTIAN NELSON COLLECTION, 1898-1919, UNIVERSITY HISTORICAL COLLECTION 356, MCINTYRE LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-EAU CLAIRE, EAU CLAIRE,WISCONSIN, AND ARE USED WITH PERMISSION. BYGREGKOCKEN

The photograph as a source of historical evidence is a persistent topic of debate. Is a studio portrait an authentic reflection of the individual, or does it tell us more about the photographer or even the era in which it was taken? Studio photographers of the late nine­ teenth and early twentieth centuries tended to reflect Victorian-era values by creating images of proper subjects, who often appear formal, even lifeless, at times, posed against a stock background. This was, in part, a direct result of the technological limitations of early photog­ raphy, which required subjects to remain motionless for the length of exposure, up to several minutes at a time. The resulting cabinet cards and cartes de visite, which abound in archival repositories across the United States, display individuals within a carefully curated scene, building up to a community of individuals rather than depicting the individual within his or her community.

Rarely do the collections of studio photographers provide us with a glimpse into the everyday lives of their subjects or into the towns and cities where they lived. This is the realm of amateur photography, which rose in popularity in the late nineteenth century as new photographic technologies emerged. Freed from the strictures of the studio, the photo enthusiast could pursue casual shots in more public settings and even photograph nature with relative ease. Several hundred images from Daniel Bastian Nelson, an amateur photographer in the Eau Claire area whose collection is preserved by Mclntyre Library at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, provide us with a view of the commu­ nity and the people who were part of it.l Nelson's images, often unique and occasionally absurd, show us a side of life rarely captured in a Wisconsin city in the early twentieth century.

| Magazine Cyclone Cameras Are Supreme. #^ WHY r They make twelve pictures in ^F twelve seconds. They are simple of construction. They have superior lenses. They have automatic shutters always set. They require no extras. One turn of the button changes the plates. They make perfect pictures. They are the BEST for any money, MADE IN THREE SIZES. No. I, For Pictures V/* x 2% Inches, $3.50. No. 2, For Pictures 354 x 4'A Inches, $6.00. Amateur photographer Daniel Bastian Nelson No. 3, For Pictures 4x5 Inches, $10.00. 2J Handsome Catalogue containing valuable information for amateurs sent free on request. captures the perfect blend of liesure and decorum | WESTERN CAMERA MFG. CO., 133 Wabash Avenue, Chicago, HI. % EASTERN OFFICE: IS Ka***u Stmt, New York City. in this group shot, possibly on the Chippewa River or Dells Pond in Eau Claire, ca. 1905. Advertisement for Cyclone Cameras, ca. 1898

SPRING 2018 29 Amateur photog­ The daily lives of raphy became popular friends and family were in the United States after often the subject of Nelson's the introduction of mass- photographs. Occasionally produced dry plate nega­ he captured an off-beat tives. Unlike the wet glass moment, an instance of plate process common in fun not often reflected in the 1870s, which required the works of studio photog­ the plate to be immersed raphers. While Nelson in a chemical solution had an unusually keen before being inserted into eye for the casual side of the camera, many cameras life, it was his ability to manufactured in the 1880s place his subjects within a used dry plates that were larger context that greatly coated with a gelatin emul­ increases the value of his sion and could be stored images. Nelson would often until exposed. Dry plates Nelson appears in the far right in this intimate image. The two young frame his subjects within men, not identified, may be his brothers. allowed photographers to the Eau Claire community abandon the tripod and capturing a scene that gives create images using portable, handheld cameras. They also equal weight to the landscape and the subject. This allows us to shortened exposure time, making more casual shots possible.2 understand Eau Claire during this period in greater depth. Amateur photographers became chroniclers of everyday life, from Eau Claire at the turn of the twentieth century was a their own intimate circles of friends and family to individuals in community in great transition. The lumber industry, the the wider community, with the studio backdrop replaced by the single most dominant industry in northwestern Wisconsin environs of home, the public sphere, and the natural world. throughout the late nineteenth century, peaked in 1892 Nelson came to the United States from Norway in 1881 at with the production of 4 billion board feet of cut timber. the age of seven. His parents, Bastian and Giertrud, adopted Throughout the 1890s, Wisconsin was the nation's leading the Americanized name of Nelson from Bastian's family name, lumber state.6 Even as Wisconsin celebrated this achievement, Nilsson.3 The Eau Claire they observed in 1881 was a multi­ the industry's end was near. The Eau Claire Weekly Telegram ethnic city, with Yankees, Germans, Irish, French Canadians, of May 28, 1897, reported, "Fifteen years will not elapse until and other Norwegians like the Nelsons. Daniel, along with his the pine forests are entirely exhausted; many of the largest five siblings, quickly embraced his new community and nation. concerns engaged in the lumbering and logging business will Nelson would spend the remainder of his life in Eau Claire, find themselves unable to secure a supply of pine logs after eventually becoming a carpenter and spending most of his the expiration of five years."' career with the Hoeppner-Bartlett Construction Company4 The lumber industry's decline in the early 1900s was rapid. It is unknown how or why Nelson developed his passion This was the period when Daniel Bastian Nelson began pointing for photography, or when he was first introduced to it. With a his camera at his friends and family. Perhaps owing to his profes­ population of over 18,000 residents at the turn ofthe century sion as a carpenter, Nelson frequently photographed the build­ Eau Claire was home to several studio photographers.5 Local ings and other structures that defined downtown Eau Claire, newspapers often carried advertisements for cameras that especially those in his neighborhood of Shawtown, located near emphasized the ease with which amateurs could become the Daniel Shaw Lumber Company mill. The remnants ofthe photographers. Nelson purchased his Cyclone model no. 3 dying lumber industry, the impact of floods, and the homes of camera in 1898 for the sum often dollars from the Western friends and neighbors are all present in the collection. Camera Manufacturing Company of Chicago. It required The Daniel Bastian Nelson Collection contains more glass plate negatives, which he could purchase at stores in the than four hundred glass plate negatives. While much remains Eau Claire area. Eight to twelve plates could be loaded into unknown about Nelson and though many individuals in the the camera at one time. After exposure, the used plate would photographs remain unidentified, the unique images in this fall inside the camera for storage, allowing a new plate to be collection provide us with a fascinating look at the history of exposed. Present among Nelson's surviving negatives are several Eau Claire in a bygone era. The collection helps us to rein­ sets of images. These sets, often featuring a similar scene or terpret our past through Nelson's intimate look at family life subject, correspond to the number of plates Nelson might have and relationships, instantly relatable to the twenty-first century loaded into his camera for a single session. viewer. IMI

30 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY *-€1

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Nelson often captured the casual side of everyday life, as in this uniquely posed group photograph.

Notes 1. Daniel Bastian Nelson Collection, 1898-1919, Mclntyre Library, University ofWisconsin- Eau Claire, Eau Claire, Wl. 2. Mary Lynn Ritzenthaler and Diane Vogt-O'Connor, Photographs: Archival Care and Management (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2006), 14. 3. Information on the Nelson family comes from Ron Nelson, Daniel Bastian Nelson: Photog­ rapher (Atlanta: by the author, 2011), n.p; and the 1920 US Federal Census for Eau Claire County, Wisconsin, population schedule, www.ancestrylibrary.com. 4. Payroll, Volumes 21—41, Hoeppner-Bartlett Construction Company Records, 1897—1981, Mclntyre Library, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Eau Claire, Wl. 5. William Froehlich, ed., Blue Book ofthe State ofWisconsin (Madison: Secretary of State, 1899), 485. 6. John D. Buenker, The Progressive Era, 1893—1914, The History of Wisconsin, Vol. 4, ed. William Fletcher Thompson, (Madison: State Historical Society ofWisconsin, 1998), 82-85. 7. "Some Still Left," Eau Claire Weekly Telegram, May 28, 1897.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Greg Kocken is head ofthe Special Collections and Archives Department at Mclntyre Library, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. His depart­ ment preserves and provides access to a trea­ sure trove of historic records that document the lives and activities of Chippewa Valley busi­ nesses, residents, and organizations. He holds a master's degree in library and information This beautiful portrait of mother and child is at once posed studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is the 2017 and informal as Nelson used natural light from a nearby recipient of the Governor's Archives Award for Archival Advocacy. window to partially illuminate the subjects'faces. The light Kocken enjoys learning about and sharing Chippewa Valley history. plays upon their clothing before dissipating, leaving a He resides in Eau Claire with his wife and daughterand is proud to call portion ofthe frame in the shadows. the Chippewa Valley home.

SPRING 2018 31 Top left: In the twentieth century, improved flood-control measures on the Chippewa River reduced the risk of devastating floods. The power of the Chippewa River prior to these flood control measures is on ful display in many of Nelson's images. Top right: Several saloons were present in the Shawtown neighborhood near Nelson's home, many catering to thirsty lumber mill workers from the Daniel Shaw Lumber Company mill. If you look carefully, you will find Nelson and his camera reflected in the mirror behind the bar. Bottom: While a 1905 flood brought devastation to many Eau Claire-area businesses, it also created an opportunity for fun for some local children.

32 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY Top left: Although the lumber industry was in decline by the early twentieth century, this image of men posed atop a log jam ca. 1905 captures the sheer magnitude of the operations still active. Only ten years after this photograph was captured, the lumber industry would be supplanted by a strong manufacturing sector in Eau Claire. Top right: After a fire destroyed Felix Derouin's grocery store in 1900, the business moved to a new location. In 1905, the new building, seen here, was moved two blocks to the location ofthe store that burned. Bottom: While dry plates made photography more accessible to amateurs, the process still required considerable skill. This group portrait was exposed twice, revealing a negative with two distinct images.

SPRING 2018 33 Top: Nelson captures the lighter side of life in this group shot of young men on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, likely taken during a 1907 visit. Bottom: Early photographic processes often required subjects to remain still for a short period of time. While new emulsions would allow faster shutter speeds later in the twentieth century, it remains difficult- then as now—to keep children still even for the shortest of durations.

34 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY Top: Nelson's brothers. Jack and Nels, attended school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. This dorm room scene was likely captured during a 1907 visit to Madison. Bottom left: Though the sharpness ofthe canoe contrasts with the blurriness ofthe girl, the composition of this photograph speaks to Nelson's eye in framing his subjects. Bottom right: Nelson used two vehicles to frame this group of family and friends enjoying an outing.

SPRING 2018 35

The Inimitable Clifford Lord

BY HELMUT M. KNIES

In June 1946, thirty-four-year-old Clifford Lee Lord entered the State Historical Society ofWisconsin headquarters building to become the century-old institution's sixth director.1 He was a scholar, author, editor, and administrator, and, for the next twelve momentous years, he would be the head ofthe Society. As William B. Hesseltine remembered in a tribute written after Lord's departure, he was a "genial zealot, bringing with him an enthusiastic welcome for new ideas and a drive for putting them into operation."2 This article focuses on those years during which he enacted a series of reforms that dramatically changed the Society and created a structure that, in many ways, still defines it today. It is not too much of an exaggeration to state that Lord's dynamic leadership gave birth to the modern incarnation of the Wisconsin Historical Society

hen he arrived, the Society had reached the pinnacle a younger individual with a solid background in history who of a certain type of development, which had begun would be able to reach out to new audiences. After a prolonged Win the nineteenth century with Lyman Draper and search, the position was offered to Edward P. Alexander, Reuben Gold Thwaites and continued in the twentieth century the director of the New York State Historical Association in under Milo M. Quaife and Joseph Schafer. It was a schol­ Gooperstown. As it happened, Alexander's entire tenure was arly institution, almost antiquarian, with a narrowly focused framed by World War II. The attack on Pearl Harbor occurred membership that was increasingly out of touch with the inter­ three months after his arrival, and that meant that most of his ests ofthe people ofWisconsin. Its primary connection was plans needed to be put on hold for the duration. Nevertheless, with the University ofWisconsin, as both institutions' libraries he succeeded in laying the groundwork for many improve­ shared overcrowded space at the Society's headquarters at 816 ments including new museum exhibits, an updated Wisconsin State Street in Madison. It had barely withstood the damaging Magazine of History, increased local contacts, and planning effects ofthe Great Depression and had had a long string of for historic sites. Shortly after the war ended, he left Wisconsin stagnant budgets. for a position at Colonial Williamsburg. After Schafer's death in 1941, the Board of Curators, the Needing to hire a second director in five years, the Board governing body ofthe Society, decided to hire a director who of Curators again sought a younger candidate who combined would develop new policies and programs. The Board wanted scholarship with good management. The hiring committee

SPRING 2018 37 sity's graduate history department, where he earned a PhD in American history in 1942, focusing his thesis on the decisions ofthe Continental Congresses. He also started working for THE WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON the Works Progress Administration in its historical records survey. Over a five-year period from 1937 to 1942, he devel­ oped several major documentary research and publication May 13, 1943 projects, at one point directing the work of over two hundred researchers and writers. Mr. Clifford L. Lord, Director, N.Y.State Historical Association, As the foreign threats to America increased in the 1930s, Cooperstown, N.Y, Lord moderated his pacifist views, and after the attack on Dear Mr. Lord: Pearl Harbor he joined the navy. One of his last actions before

I am returning herewith entering the service was to send a $25 campaign donation to the check which you enclosed in your the White House encouraging the president to run for a fourth letter of May 10th because it is quite impossible for me to accept a check for term. He received a personal reply, along with the returned any such purpose as you indicate. check, from presidential adviser Harry Hopkins saying that Very sincerely yours, they could not possibly accept the money since Roosevelt had not yet decided whether to run again.6

encl. check for $25.00 Laying the Groundwork for Growth In a quotation often attributed to Napoleon, the French leader is supposed to have said that he would rather have a general who was lucky than one who was good. In significant ways, Clifford Lord was very lucky. He took control ofthe Society at a historic point in time, in the aftermath of World War II, when it was poised for major changes. The critical question was how the Society's leadership might focus those changes. By hiring Lord, Letter from Harry Hopkins, senior adviser to President Franklin the Society committed itself to expanding in many directions, all D. Roosevelt, returning Lord's political contribution encouraging at once, with speed and vigor. As Hesseltine recalled, Lord was Roosevelt to run again in 1944 dubbed "Fireball" by one ofthe Board members, and the name was apt: he "always lived up to the nickname by... continually quickly narrowed the pool to five finalists, including Clifford igniting others—staff, curators, legislators, or donors—with some Lord, who was just completing his US Navy service. In a letter of his own burning enthusiasms." ' of recommendation to UW professor Merle Curti, the hiring Lord quickly tackled a series of longstanding problems. committee chair, Columbia University history professor Allan These included solving the space crisis at 816 State Street, revi­ Nevins described Lord as "brilliant," but cautioned that he talizing the connection with the university and with state govern­ would likely not stay in Wisconsin for a lifetime career.3 Lord ment, and finding new ways to make the Society relevant to the had impressed the committee with his energy and confidence, people ofWisconsin. Early in his tenure he laid out a series of and it was clear that he wanted a position that would put him visionary goals: to improve the library's acquisitions, research, in the front ranks, nationally, of historical agency work.4 When and outreach; to develop a more active museum in Madison their first choice dropped out, the committee offered the posi­ and acquire historic sites throughout the state; to create a public tion to Lord, who quickly accepted. Although honored by the records program for state and local government; to initiate an prospect of leading the Society, he was also thinking about outreach effort aimed at school-age children; and finally, to his own future when he wrote his parents in New York that "I develop innovative programming using radio, film, and televi­ might be back east in five years."5 As it happened, five years sion.8 The first few years of his administration produced successes became twelve. in all these areas. Additionally, he expanded the Society's publi­ Born in 1912 in Mount Vernon, New York, Lord grew up cations output and worked to increase the membership state­ in a middle-class household. After graduating from Cornell wide. He also instituted a field services program, which played University, he considered entering an Episcopal seminary. Like an essential role in adding new research collections. Lord's belief many other young people ofthe post-World War I era, he was in the importance of aggressive collecting was grounded in his very active on issues of peace and disarmament, adopting a understanding that the interpretation of records and artifacts was position of pacifism and objection to American involvement in key to scholarship and also critical in helping people understand foreign wars. He eventually chose to enter Columbia Univer­ their own past.

38 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY Don McNeil with the Society's first staff car in 1955. McNeil was the best example of Lord's belief in hiring and then promoting talented young staff. He started as a field man in 1951, rising to assistant director and then serving as acting director after Lord's departure in 1958.

"•• JUNIOR MEMBER rfllle

tscmtsm Sch l " °° year 194+? _ 194f* £*A*

Governor Vernon Thomson, flanked by Lord and Thurman Fox, the Society's chief of School Services, at the Wisconsin State Capitol for a Junior Historians event in 1957. The governor is shown with the recipients ofthe Rennebohm Award for individual junior histo­ rian achievement: from left to right, Linda Lund, Ray Thompson, Kay Hillery, Ann Reinek, Sally Sauer, and NancyWertsch.

SPRING 2018 39 Society staff members Keith Hinsman and John Jacques, and local television person­ ality Tyke Haake, along with moderator Bo Brown, made up the panel for the Society's pioneering 1954 television quiz program, TV Museum, broadcast by WHA.

The Historymobile was a forty-three-foot trailer built by the Rollohome Company in Marshfield, Wisconsin, fitted out and donated to the Society in 1954. A central example of'taking history to the people," the Historymobile traveled throughout the state each year with a changing set of exhibits until the 1970s.

40 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY Lord initiated new outreach efforts to local historical soci­ ymobile, a forty-three-foot-long mobile home outfitted with eties through the introduction of regional conventions and rotating exhibits. During its first year of operation in 1954, it local history institutes, an annual Founder's Day, and awards travelled 7,256 miles around the state and was viewed by over programs. To better facilitate these, he started annual caravans 122,000 people.10 whereby staff would complete weeks-long tours ofthe state, All of these projects required increased funding. Almost meeting Society members and giving presentations. Lastly, immediately, Lord sent Governor Walter Goodland a request he developed regional local government records depositories asking for a 100 percent increase in the Society's operating throughout the state, which continue to the present day as the budget. Given the years of stalled economic growth, this was Area Research Center Network. a remarkable request. Even more remarkably, the approved Outreach also included new efforts at promotion and allocation in 1947 provided for a 60 percent increase. By 1949, publicity. Lord's belief in taking history to the people, which the Society's state appropriations had grown 250 percent over echoed the pioneering efforts by Draper and Thwaites, began 1945, and the income from private funds had grown by an equal with radio programming and then expanded to film and percentage.11 Realizing the need to more effectively supplement television.9 The Presence of Our Past, a color film about the state appropriations with private funds, Lord also encouraged Society, was completed in 1952. Staff routinely took it along on the Board of Curators to form a separate Wisconsin Historical outreach trips and played it for any audience willing to watch. Foundation in 1954 to solicit and manage financial donations. The Society teamed up with television station WHA in 1954 Success came through Lord's own intense efforts, since to create a 30-part, half-hour quiz show called TV Museum he often worked seven days a week, and with the support of featuring staff members answering questions about historical a young, energetic staff. As he told University of Wisconsin objects and events. A related program focused on younger audi­ dean George Sellery, "I am personally a strong believer in a ences. The most distinctive effort at outreach was the Histor­ staff of young, aggressive, able people, who may not be leaders

This 1945 photograph accurately depicts the Society's space crisis. The remodeling ofthe Society headquarters from 1954 to 1955 involved At the time, half of the building's stack space was still used by the physical changes to almost every square foot of the building. Here University ofWisconsin library. masons brick up one side of the main doors facing Library Mall, which was done for security purposes to limit the number of access points.

SPRING 2018 41 in their fields as yet but who are amenable to suggestion and the Society building. There were many discussions during rapid development."12 Knowing the value of mentoring long those years about how the separation of collecting, cataloging, before it became a buzzword, he was intensely loyal to his staff and research would occur when the university's collections and worked diligently to help them advance their careers. His moved to their new home in Memorial Library, projected to arrival coincided not only with the end of wartime constraints be completed in 1953. Lord promoted his own agenda focused but also the almost simultaneous retirement or death of many on maximizing the Society's collections, and the UW librarians ofthe older staff members who had held the Society together did the same for theirs. This produced some convoluted sugges­ in the decades since Thwaites. This meant that Lord's ability tions on how to split the libraries. In the end, the Society trans­ to reshape the staff in the image he wanted was considerably ferred to the university more than 100,000 titles in non-US easier than it might have been before the war. history, literature, and rare books.14

Tackling the Space Crisis New Directions in Historical Research Building additions designed to relieve the overcrowding within The Society's other major connection with the University the headquarters had been discussed by the Board for years. ofWisconsin was with the history department. Always well Within months of arriving, Lord proposed a completely new represented on the Board of Curators, in 1950 the department museum and library to be located just south ofthe headquar­ recommended the creation within the Society of a separate ters, on the present site ofthe Mosse Humanities Building. research center focused on American history. The mission The new structure would be built in stages, with the initial ofthe American History Research Center (AHRC) was to construction estimated at $3.5 million.13 In a report to the solicit research collections, fund symposia, conduct scholarly Board of Curators, Lord highlighted the need to move the publishing, and provide grant opportunities. Lord champi­ museum galleries from their cramped fourth-floor perch to oned the idea as an opportunity to move the Society's profile a more prominent, accessible location. He also emphasized much higher and make it a nationally prominent resource for that a building was needed to house all the new collections he American history research. The AHRC received legislative intended to bring to Madison. authorization and was dedicated in 1951. Lord's dedicatory Although the proposal garnered popular support, it did comments reflected what many Americans believed during not have the backing of the governor or legislature. Never­ the Korean War, as the country faced the threat of an atomic theless, Lord succeeded in getting the legislature to create a war and perceived Communism as an existential threat. He Special Joint Committee to examine the Society's space needs. stressed that critical historical research produced by the AHRC The committee identified several solutions and chose the least would provide people "with the increased appreciation ofthe expensive one, which was to build an addition to the headquar­ significance ofthe American experiment."15 Governor Walter ters in the courtyard facing Park Street. However, this plan ran Kohler Jr.'s remarks put the matter more bluntly: "Our job is into opposition from the university, whose concern was that the not only ... to contain the overt threat of Communist aggres­ legislature would never allocate enough funds to build both a sion, but to sell democracy—political, social, and economic—as new library for the university, which was already being planned, a way of life."16 That salesmanship job, teaching Americans and a new addition for the Society. The Board decided to defer about their past in order to make them better citizens in the until the university library was funded and then make another present, became a core principle for the Wisconsin Historical attempt to gain approval for an addition. The later effort only Society in the 1950s. succeeded in netting the Society an appropriation of $450,000, Using tools such as the AHRC, Lord championed what which was just sufficient to complete a remodeling ofthe build­ he termed "localized history." He did not mean any sort of ing's interior in 1955. The headquarter's space crisis would not provincialism or purely local-interest history.17 He meant be solved until the Park Street addition was constructed in the new research on American history topics, with a state and mid-1960s, and a separate museum would not be completed local focus, achieved through a nonideological perspective. until 1985 when the remodeled Wisconsin History Museum In an Autumn 1952 column in the Wisconsin Magazine of on the Capitol Square was opened. History, he "heartily subscribe [ed]" to this statement by histo­ The Board's deferral was made with full awareness ofthe rian Samuel Bemis: "Local history is Everyman's history. By Society's deep connections to the university. After all, almost competent studies of little American communities. .. scholars half of the headquarters building at 816 State was allocated to are replowing the base and marking out the contours of our the university for library stacks and classrooms. Although the Republic. The general historian ofthe future must stand on this original agreement between the university and the Society in revived base and follow these smaller contours if he is to feel 1900 had defined the connection between the two libraries, and portray the real American heritage."18 Lord intended this the intervening decades made it clear that the library needs to counter what he viewed as the errors generated by historians of the university could no longer be accommodated within with materialist perspectives, who fall into the "easy habit of

42 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY . . . sweeping generalizations and all-inclusive terms like agri­ Despite Lord's best efforts, the AHRC struggled from its cultural revolutions, industrial revolutions, or new plateaus of inception, never receiving the funding necessary to fulfill its prosperity." In contrast. potential. As the decade progressed, it narrowed the range of its operations, and it later became a separate nonprofit corpo­ The study of history at the local level—the study ration in 1956. Separating the AHRC from the Society so that of people—reveals how things really happen . . . it could raise its own funds also served to provide distance from the wheels and gears of history mesh and cog with the Society in cases of controversy. This occurred in 1957 with one another. It shows men living together, working the publication of Let There Be Light, a history of rural electri­ together, getting along together at work, at play fication in Wisconsin. The book was intended as an exemplar in politics, business, government, and social and of Lord's ideas about new research on histories of American cultural pursuits. ... It gets history back to the ingenuity. This it was, but it also insinuated that the efforts of people. It is this local, thispeo/)7es' history that the New Deal's Rural Electrification Agency hindered, rather refutes the dominance of economic motivation than aided, efforts to connect rural Wisconsin farmsteads. Not at the exclusion of all other factors; that clearly surprisingly, the state's many electric co-ops exploded in anger demonstrates the power of the individual to make and attacked the Society as biased. Since the book had been his contribution, to shape or help shape the course partially subsidized by the utility industry, the charge was hard froof events; to make history where most history is to refute.20 Because of this controversy and insurmountable made—at the local level.19 budgetary problems, the AHRC was dissolved in 1961.

Society staff members (from front left) John Jacques, Keith Hinsman, William Schereck, Edwin Tomlinson, John Colson, Lord, and Don McNeil on the Memorial Union Terrace. Lord often used the Memorial Union for lunch and informal meetings with staff.

SPRING 2018 43 A horse-drawn plowing demonstration at the State Farm and Craft Museum in Cassville, now known as Stonefield, a state historic site that opened to the public in 1954.

An early aerial view ofthe grounds ofthe Circus World Museum in Baraboo. Planning for the site began in 1951, and it opened to the public in 1959.

44 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY Historic Sites and Museums to the public in 1952. Lord's comments about Villa Louis reflected his thinking about the overall purpose of historic sites: The effort to improve museum and historic sites in Madison and elsewhere was framed by several goals, including the desire to increase the Society's visibility and to appeal to new audi­ But certainly we must not limit ourselves to the ences as part of Lord's commitment to make history more perpetuation of the memory of the life of the well- accessible to the people ofWisconsin. In Madison, the program to-do, as we will do to a large degree at the Villa to revitalize the museum was severely curtailed by the lack of Louis. ... To recall the life ofthe common man is space. A thorough solution would need to wait until a head­ more significant to the interpretation of American quarters addition, or ideally, a new museum, was built. history, for the change in his standard of living is perhaps the single greatest contribution to the Amer­ Around the state, it had always been a question of reacting ican experiment and the greatest single testimonial to to offers of historic buildings. The Board had long grappled its validity. . . . If our mission is to disseminate knowl­ with how, or whether, to accept and preserve historic prop­ edge ofthe American heritage, we can do no better in erties. Similarly, the Board had begun to address the ques­ our museum program than to portray the changes in tion of developing living history sites that were new creations. the life ofthe average man.25 In the late 1930s, Governor Philip La Follette encouraged then-director Joseph Schafer to seriously consider developing These examples from the Society's first two historic sites an outdoor living history museum ofthe kind he had seen in highlight the unresolved tensions that impacted the whole process Europe.21 Most directly, there were discussions with the UW during the Lord era. In principle, he wanted sites that supported College of Agriculture about developing a joint agricultural his belief in the centrality of educating Wisconsinites about the history museum. These were renewed in 1942 when the college American heritage, meaning the history of political liberty and made an offer to provide a museum site on the far west end of economic ingenuity26 In practice, his desire for expansion meant campus. Edward Alexander enthusiastically reported about a meeting with a college dean who had taken him "up on top of the hill overlooking Lake Mendota and had suggested a farm museum on that particular spot. Dr. Alexander feels that this is the greatest thing that the Society could do in Wisconsin."22 Nothing could be accomplished on this project until after the end ofthe war, when Clifford Lord took up the idea, describing it as a "permanent year-round teaching museum ofWisconsin rural life."23 However, by then the College of Agriculture's priorities had changed and discussions about moving forward went by fits and starts. Not dismayed, Lord began developing an alternative option in cooperation with the Wisconsin Conserva­ tion Department, which had expressed a desire to work with the Society to help identify and manage historic sites in park lands. The Board was cautious, noting with foresight that "we should not accept the custody of these places unless they were endowed, since, in times of financial stringency, the main function ofthe Society would be pinched before the subsidiary places were allowed to suffer."24 In 1948, the Conservation Department asked the Society to manage property near Cassville that held the historic home of Governor Nelson Dewey. With the failure of a potential agricultural history museum as a backdrop, the Board voted in 1951 to proceed with the Farm and Craft Museum at Nelson Dewey State Park (now Stonefield, one of the Society's twelve historic sites). At the same time, the Society was also engaged in negotia­ tions for the acquisition of the Villa Louis in Prairie du Chien, which had been offered in the early 1940s by the Dousman family and whose transfer was later contested by that city's government. Humor in the field: Lord taking a break during a road trip to a regional It became the Society's first historic site in 1950 and was opened meeting in 1953

SPRING 2018 45 that he would pursue almost any potential site with good historic planned sites was a medical museum in Prairie du Chien, a interest. In addition to the two described, the list ofthe Society's lumbering museum in Solon Springs, a mining museum near historic places, both realized and never acquired, is impressive. Mineral Point, and an industrial history museum in Milwaukee, In 1950, the Wade House in Greenbush was accepted as a gift as well as the preservation of the First Capitol in Belmont, the ofthe Kohler family via Board member Ruth DeYoung Kohler. archaeological site at Aztalan, and several other sites of interest. The following year, Baraboo attorney John Kelley, the former Of these, only the First Capitol is connected to the Wisconsin lawyer for the Rngling Brothers, approached Lord with an idea Historical Society today, after being transferred to the Society for the preservation of circus-related buildings and artifacts. by the National Park Service in 1994. Lord embraced the concept, promoted it vigorously, and laid the groundwork for the establishment of Circus World in 1959. An Emphasis on Collecting Lord's interest in preserving transportation history led to Lord believed that building great research collections was a prolonged but ultimately failed effort to develop a railroad essential, in order that great scholarship would follow. This was museum in Green Bay. Planning for its acquisition was far a path pioneered by Draper and Thwaites, with some modern advanced when Lord left the Society—as he wrote in 1956, it adaptations. While he continued to emphasize the history of was "now seemingly assured for Wisconsin."27 Without Lord's Wisconsin, Lord also understood that documenting the Amer­ enthusiastic backing, however, the Society's interest flagged, ican experience meant collecting broadly in national areas and and in 1962 it terminated its connection with what is now acquiring non-textual items. As an example, he launched the the National Railroad Museum. Further down Lord's list of effort to collect and organize photographic collections as docu-

Humor at the office: from left to right, John Jacques, Lord, Harry Hunter, and Don McNeil. The Wisconsin map is supported by"Lyman,"the Fauerbach Brewery gnome who was present at staff meetings. Whenever someone said no at a meeting, they were required to deposit a dime in a tip jar at the gnome's feet.

46 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY mentation at a time when few institutions thought of visual images as more than mere illustrations. Lord initiated discussions with the McCormick Historical Association in Chicago about the donation of the enormous collection of papers and artifacts documenting the history f ofthe family and the McCormick/International Harvester ^vv^e fcLyfwvt^ Company. After several years of steady lobbying, the collec­ tion was donated in 1951. Similarly, Lord made new efforts in collecting the records of organized labor. He aggressively The Sad Fate of the Doughnut sought out major additions, including the records ofthe Amer­ ican Federation of Labor. In several trips to AFL headquarters Lord used his regular column in the Wisconsin in Washington, Lord met with and courted officials from file Magazine of History, "Smoke Rings," to commu­ clerks all the way up to union president George Meany in nicate news of Society programs and initiatives to order to secure the donation of their pre-CIO merger records. members. Occasionally he used the space to wax This donation led to a plan, never realized, for a Society-based political on the state budget or on subjects near American Labor History Center. to his heart, as when, in the Spring 1951 issue, he The largest ofthe new collecting areas came into being urged readers not to omit the third verse when after the 1955 donation ofthe papers of Wisconsin-born, singing "America."28 Nowhere in the annals ofthe nationally syndicated radio commentator Hans V. Kaltenborn. WMH have the praises ofthe doughnut been sung This acquisition, along with the related interest in public rela­ with such vigor as this column in Autumn 1953: tions history, prompted Lord to quickly develop plans and allo­ cate resources for the formation of a collecting effort focused The sad fate of the doughnut is enough to on print journalism, radio and television, public relations, and bring tears to the eyes of every true lover advertising. The Mass Communications History Center was ofthe American heritage. What evil days soon created, and it survives to the present day. Given the locus have fallen to that aromatic delight of the epicure which grandma once fished sizzling from the cauldron of deep fat. . . . Some of them, incredible as it may seem, have recently appeared under a bilious green or pink coating. Many are redun­ dantly dipped in sugar; some surprisingly in cinnamon. Some of them, horrible to contemplate, actually support jelly where only a hole should be. Every attempt has been made to disguise a native deli­ cacy with amazingly unhappy results. Nutmeg, essential ingredient ofthe true doughnut, has almost vanished from the scene except in a few bakeries which feature old-fashioned goodies. No wonder that the popularity of the doughnut has declined to the point where some lunch counters no longer carry them. Its recent fate at the hands of confectioners is worse than death, even for a doughnut. . . . This column proposes a return to the true, indigenous doughnut, that delight to the palate that would give a Duncan Hines rating to any lunch counter offering it to a frustrated public.29 Clifford Lee Lord (1912-1980) in a classic pose at work in the director's office.

SPRING 2018 47 of many of these records on the East Coast, Lord undertook regular collecting trips to New York from 1956 through 1958. These were no junkets, since a Clifford Lord field trip involved a grueling schedule of calls, meetings, and presentations all geared to sealing the deal with donors. When asked about the ultimate goal of his collecting efforts, he often replied with a comment similar to what he wrote in a June 1954 memo: "We see this as the big chance to do the big job, and actually contribute to the thinking of a generation."30 THE Friction and Setbacks STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY Lord's reputation among the Board of Curators as a "fireball" OF WISCONSIN went both ways. With the addition of new programs, sites, and 1846—1954 initiatives to Lord's vision for the Society, his enthusiasm— and the rapid rate of change—produced an increasing set of tensions. As the first swell of budgetary growth ended and the number of new programs proliferated, Board members began to voice concern. Robert Murphy warned "that it would be well to appraise our program in the light of what we were doing CLIFFORD L. LORD and what we wanted to do, as legislators will ask us 'Where are and you people going? Doesn't your grazing land have any fences?'" CARL UBBELOHDE He felt that the director would not be able to keep up the pace indefinitely. George Banta expressed his concern over "the Society spreading itself too thin," contending that "the director had more good ideas than the Society could keep up with."31 Although Lord worked hard to maintain good rela­ In 1967, Clifford Lord and Carl Ubbelohde published tions with the governor and legislature, friction increased a history of the Wisconsin Historical Society that was surrounding the growth of Society operations. Every biennial produced by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press. budget season became a risky arena, promising success but also threatening cutbacks. The 1951-1953 budget had continued store active, as opposed to archival, state records. Although the Society's growth, but the following biennial allocation was there was logic to this since it unified the records policy under flat, and the run-up to the 1955-1957 budget proved conten­ one agency, the governor's office objected because it was devel­ tious. The Society was seeking several significant increases, and oping a separate plan to create a records management program. Lord was often to be seen at the Capitol lobbying legislators. Kohler vetoed the Society's proposal, but two years later, under The dangers of such a personality-driven approach were clear. Governor Vernon Thomson, Lord again attempted similar In memos preserved in the Society's archives, he left frank legislation in the face of even stronger opposition. Thomson descriptions of the comments he received from some legisla­ reacted by yanking away the Society's archivists to the Bureau tors such as "the usual joshing about how I ought to get licked of Purchases, which was a predecessor of the Department of once in a while, good for me, keeps perspective... . Historical Administration, while still leaving the Society the responsi­ society never satisfied, always out for more and more, always bility for the State Archives without the staff. Unfortunately dreaming up new ways of getting money"32 Lord vented his displeasure about this by publishing a critical The two biggest legislative prizes in that session were an summary ofthe affair in the Wisconsin Magazine olHistory.,34 ethnic heritage bill and new authority over state records manage­ The archival positions were eventually returned to the Society ment. The first would have given the Society the mandate to but only after Lord's departure. research and promote the ethnic diversity ofthe state. Although passed by both houses, it was vetoed by Governor Kohler for Moving On reasons of economy33 The records management issue, though With growing concern, the Board created a planning committee rather arcane, had become quite controversial. The 1947 public in 1957 to devise a strategic guide for the Society's operations. records law had been one of Lord's great successes, and the President Robert Murphy stated the case that "it was obvious Society built a State Archives with a broad-ranging archival that we have not enough money and have spent that which we program. In 1954, he proposed to also make the State Archives have."35 Although the committee's final report broadly reaf­ the state's records management authority in order to better firmed the director's work ofthe previous decade without any

48 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY formal rebuke of his leadership, it also recommended "further 4. Clifford Lord letter to Walter Littel, March 21, 1946, Box 5, Clifford Lee Lord Papers, 1895—1980, Wisconsin Historical Society Archives (hereafter Lord Papers). development in an orderly and measured way," this being an 5. Lord letter to parents, Clifford C. and Bertha Lord, March 19, 1946, Box 5, Lord Papers. implicit criticism of Lord's free-wheeling style.36 Additionally 6. Harry Hopkins letter to Lord, May 13, 1943, Box 5, Lord Papers. 7. Hesseltine, "Clifford L. Lord: An Appreciation," 91. he was exhausted by the continuous daily struggles of the job. 8. Clifford L. Lord and Carl Ubbelohde, Clio's Servant (Madison: State Historical Society Having profoundly changed the Society, he now faced the ofWisconsin, 1967), 401-402. 9. For more on the pioneering efforts ofthe Society as conceived by Draper and Thwaites, prospect of more years of managing ongoing work with only see Lord and Ubbelohde, Clio's Servant, 186-190. 10. Ibid., 463. incremental changes and increasing resistance. In ajuly 1958 11. Proceedings ofthe State Hstorical Society of Wisconsin, 1952—1953. (Madison: State memo, he wrote: "Not sure I can face twenty more years of Historical Society ofWisconsin, 1953), 7. 3 12. Lord letter to George Sellery, May 18, 1946, Box 5, Lord Papers. the same." ' 13. Board of Curators Minutes, January 11, 1947, SHSW Minutes of Proceedings, Vol. 5, Getting a good job offer, Lord left Madison in September Wisconsin Historical Society Archives, Madison, Wisconsin. 14. The Division of Fields document that was subsequently negotiated with the University 1958 to serve as a dean at Columbia University for the next five ofWisconsin served as the template to define the future collecting areas ofthe two libraries, years. This was followed by nine years as president of Hofstra and it is still the guiding document for the Society's role as the university's North American history library. Board of Curators Minutes, May 20, 1954, SHSW Minutes of Proceedings, University where, in Wisconsin-like fashion, he dramatically Vol. 5. enlarged the institution. In 1977, he became the director of 15. Director's Report, January 27, 1951, SHSW Minutes of Proceedings, Vol. 6. 16. "American History Research Center: Founders' Day Dedication, January 27, 1951: the New Jersey Historical Society. This was an institution Address by Governor Walter Kohler, Jr.," Wisconsin Magazine of History 34.3 (Spring 1951): with a long history and severe budgetary problems. Privately 141. 17. Clifford Lord, "The Significance of State and Local History," Missouri Historical Review Lord described it as being an "elitist, Eastern, conservative, 44.2 January 1950): 130-141. 38 18. Samuel Bemis quoted in Clifford Lord, "Smoke Rings," Wisconsin Magazine of History government-by-crony type society." Brought in as a reformer, 36.1 (Autumn 1952): 10. he felt that he could bring real change and also revisit some 19. Lord, "The Significance of State and Local History," 135—136. 20. American History Research Center Administrative File, Memorandum of Understanding ofthe success he had as a young man. He tried to implement between the State Historical Society ofWisconsin and Wisconsin Utilities Association,June many ofthe same solutions that worked in Wisconsin. Despite 11, 1953; "Utility Firms Paid Historical Society $ 16,500 for Book," Capital Times (Madison), May 15, 1958. some initial successes, he found that it was not possible to 21. Lord and Ubbelohde, Clio's Servant, 340. repeat the Madison years in 1970s Newark. In 1979, he was 22. Board of Curators Minutes, Executive Committee, October 29, 1942, SHSW Minutes of Proceedings, Vol. 5. forced out by the New Jersey Board of Directors due to policy 23. Museum ofWisconsin Rural Life, December 15, 1948, Box 1, Folder 9, State Histor­ disagreements. ical Society ofWisconsin: University ofWisconsin Correspondence, 1900-1966, Wisconsin Historical Society Archives. In a 1978 letter to a friend, Lord ruminated about the 24. Board of Curators Minutes, January 28, 1950, SHSW Minutes of Proceedings, Vol. 5. 25. Ibid. likelihood of problems stemming from a potential staff hire. 26. Clifford Lord speech to Nebraska State Historical Society, "Clio's Cadres," Nebraska He wrote, "But how fast can I go? The temptation is strong Hstory 36.4 (December 1955): 247-254. 27. Clifford Lord, "Smoke Rings," Wisconsin Magazine of History 39.4 (Summer 1956): 235. to hire . . . and damn the torpedoes. If I swim fast enough, 28. Clifford Lord, "Smoke Rings," Wisconsin Magazine of History 34.2 (Spring 1951): 138. the torpedoes won't catch up to me until I am almost beyond 29. Clifford Lord, "Smoke Rings," Wisconsin Magazine of History 37.1 (Autumn 1953): 10. 39 30. Lord memo of conversation with Don McNeil, June 18, 1954, Box 4, State Histor­ range." There is no more fitting epitaph to the life and career ical Society ofWisconsin: Administrator's Logs, 1946—1961, Wisconsin Historical Society of Clifford Lord than these, his own words, to "damn the torpe­ Archives. 31. Board of Curators Minutes, November 11, 1950, SHSW Minutes of Proceedings, Vol. 5. does and swim as fast as you can." Just eighteen months later, 32. Lord memo of conversations with legislators, June 6, 10, 1955, Administrator's Logs, his life would come to an early end, at age sixty-eight, due to Box 4. 33. Clifford Lord, "Smoke Rings," Wisconsin Magazine of'Hstory 41.1 (Autumn 1957): 9-11. a cancerous tumor. 34. Clifford Lord, "Smoke Rings," Wisconsin Magazine of Hstory 39.4 (Spring 1956): Despite the passage of almost sixty years since his depar­ 156-157. 35. Board of Curators Minutes, Annual Treasurer's Report, June 20, 1957, SHSW Minutes ture from Madison, the imprint of Lord's tenure still runs of Proceedings, Vol. 5. 36. Board of Curators Planning Committee, 1958 Report (State Historical Society of deep. The selection of historic sites, the scale of collecting and Wisconsin, 1958), n.p. outreach efforts, the active archival program, and even the 37. Lord memo of conversation with Grayson Kirk, July 23, 1958, Administrator's Logs, Box 4. physical appearance ofthe building are all due to his work. 38. Lord letter to Gerald George, May 25, 1978, Box 38, Lord Papers. Although the Society would still have changed in the postwar 39. Lord letter to "Tom," January 6, 1978, Box 39, Lord Papers. era, it was his vision and restless energy that brought those many potentialities into reality at 816 State Street. Without ABOUT THE AUTHOR Clifford Lord, the Wisconsin Historical Society would have Helmut M. Knies retired from the Wiscon­ certainly become a far lesser institution. LVJ sin Historical Society in 2016 after working for twenty-one years as an archivist and acquisi­ Notes tions supervisor in the Library-Archives Divi­ 1. The State Historical Society ofWisconsin was renamed the Wisconsin Historical Society sion. Early in his career at the Society, Knies in 2001, though it retains the original name for legal purposes. became aware of the significance of Clifford 2. William B. Hesseltine, "Clifford L. Lord: An Appreciation," Wisconsin Magazine of History 42.2 (Winter 1958-1959): 91. Lord's tenure as director, and he has always 3. Allan Nevins letter to Merle Gurti, March 6, 1946, Box 14, Folder 16, State Historical wanted to write his story. He lives in Madison. Society ofWisconsin: Board of Curators Committee Records, 1940—2010, Wisconsin Histor­ ical Society Archives, Madison, Wisconsin.

SPRING 2018 49 HcVitcr tf q iv^

BY MADELINE URANECK

An evocative blend of immersion journalism and memoir, How One morning in February, Migmar stopped by with his to Make a Life shares the story of a Tibetan family who left bicycle. He had gotten permission from Tenzin's parents to take their refugee camp in Bylakuppe, India, to make a new life in her to the Butter Lamp Festival, called Ghonga Ghoepa, on the Wisconsin, written by the Midwestern woman they befriended. fifteenth and final day ofthe Tibetan New Year celebration. "Mother never let me go out alone, or even with the other girls," ust in back of Tenzin's family's home stood an iden­ Tenzin told me. "She knew that if I got pregnant, no one would tical white cement house. Three older men lived there, marry me. But she trusted Migmar." J all brothers. The youngest brother, Migmar Dorjee, Tenzin sat sideways on the back of Migmar's bike and off was already in his thirties. He was a handsome soldier in the they went, joined by five or six other couples. The men were Indo-Tibetan forces and came home on leave now and then. pedaling and the women were dressed in their finest chupa Years later in Wisconsin, in Tenzin's intermediate English and ^traditional dresses) and striped pangden, or aprons, laughing Migmar's Tibetan, they would tell me the story of their court­ and shouting to one another. ship, interrupted by their grown children's gleeful translations. They rode to the monasteries that by then bordered the Tenzin and Migmar would grin and blush, as if the events had settlement and leaned their bikes against the surrounding transpired only yesterday. walls. One after another, they visited the temples within the Pema Ghoedon spoke with the brothers every day, since monastery grounds: Sakya Gompa, Namdroling, and Sera, their cow sheds were just on the other side ofthe bamboo fence each representing different Buddhist lineages. Buddhists from that divided them, and she came to know Migmar's family well. all over the world were sending generous donations, and resi­ When Tenzin was sixteen, Pema Ghoedon told her daughter, dents ofthe nearby Tibetan settlements had contributed addi­ "You should be married." tional funds and labor to build these structures, at first modest "So the next time Migmar came home," Tenzin told me, but becoming more opulent with each passing year. Tenzin, "I took a close look. I told my mom, 'No, he's too old.' But she Migmar, and their friends bought candles of remembrance told me I had no choice." and prayed and ate momo—meat-stuffed dumplings—from "If you marry a man your same age," Pema Ghoedon told the food carts. The crowd swelled to thousands of people, Tenzin, "then he can't do a goodjob of taking care ofthe family. Tibetan and Indian alike. You need someone who can take care of you. Migmar's age By early evening, they walked their bicycles through the doesn't matter." surge of taxis, cars, and mopeds that had arrived at Tashi At first, Tenzin ignored her mother's advice. "But Migmar Lhunpo Monastery in time to watch the sunset in the monas­ started coming over to visit when he was home on leave," Tenzin tery's courtyard. The courtyard must have been a stunning said. "He liked my mother's chang [rice wine], and he loved my sight. It was filled with ornately carved, hand-painted yak butter mother. My dad agreed with me—Migmar was too old—but sculptures of all heights, each denoting ancient Buddhist images, my mom was the power in that house." and thousands of flickering candles. Children sat on their

50 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY Tenzin Kalsang in Old Camp 1, Bylakuppe, India, with children Namgyal.Tamdin, andThardoe

SPRING 2018 51 fathers' shoulders, and onlookers scrambled to find good places was old enough, they would need a bridegroom who was willing from which to watch the music ensembles and evening's dance to move into their home, care for them when they became old, competition in the ethereal combination of waning sunlight, and become head of their household. rising moonlight, and candlelight. Migmar, a youngest son, had that freedom, since his oldest "Want to dance?" Migmar asked Tenzin, beckoning her brother had long been household head in that family. Still to join him. enlisted, Migmar returned to his military post in central India, Tenzin laughed. "Oh, no," she said. "I can't dance." biding his time. After all, he had the best ally a man could hope Migmar grinned but went off to join the dozens of dancers. for—his sweetheart's mother. From sunset until almost 2 a.m., he danced with other young Three years went by. Migmar returned home each New men and women from neighboring camps. Two large groups Year. And Pema Ghoedon kept up the pressure. "He comes vied with one another, each one ready with a new dance the from an honorable family in Tibet," she told her daughter. "He minute the other group had finished. won't be a wife beater or a drunkard. Other men, who knows?" Judges awarded prizes to the group that had outstomped, Tenzin turned nineteen and finally agreed to marry out-twirled, and outlasted the other, and the crowds finally Migmar. "I'm old enough now, I thought, and I was tired of thinned. "Our camp won every year," Migmar told me proudly. her nagging." Far after midnight, Tenzin and Migmar returned to Old That New Year holiday, when Migmar was again home Gamp 1 with their friends. I pictured them cycling home on leave, Tenzin's mother walked through their backyards to through gray shadows and the silver light of the moon. Migmar's home. Several days later, Migmar asked Tenzin, "Do you like me?" "My daughter wants to marry your brother," Pema Tenzin looked down at her feet, shyly laughing and blushing. Ghoedon announced to Migmar's oldest brother. Her husband This was enough for Migmar. He cut through the back­ had become increasingly ill, so she insisted, in accordance with yards and strode into her house to talk with her parents. Doors customs of Tibetan Buddhism, that there be no wedding or throughout the settlement were unlocked, and friends and festivities. Thus came about the simplest of unions: the next neighbors stopped in with little to-do. day Migmar walked out his back door, past the sheds, through "He wanted to marry me," Tenzin said, "but my father told the gate, and into the open door of Tenzin's parents' home to him I was too young." Her parents explained to him when she become Tenzin's husband. Tenzin and her aging mother had hoped the marriage would signal a greater change in their lives. But Migmar was still a soldier and had to travel back and forth between the small house in Old Camp 1 in Bylakuppe and his military assignments in central India and on the Pakistani border. The two women struggled with the farm, worked at the cooperative, and cared for Tenzin's ailing father. Soon they had additional work. Tenzin was pregnant. "I had baby sickness and threw up all the time. Migmar knew nothing about it." On February 28, 1982, Tenzin gave birth to their first child, a son they named Namgyal Tsedup. When the baby was two or three months old, Tenzin traveled with him to the military base to introduce Migmar to his son. Soon she found herself pregnant again. Their daughter, Nawang Lhadon, was born in 1983 in a family unit on the military base, and their second son, Tenzin Tamdin, was born in 1984, after Tenzin had returned to Old Gamp 1 in Bylak­ uppe. With three young children, two aging parents, and a husband away in the military, Tenzin was overwhelmed. She asked a settlement friend who worked in the governor's office to write a letter to the Indian army, pleading for the release of her husband. The letter worked. In 1985, Migmar walked out ofthe army Tenzin Kalsang and Migmar Dorjee with their four children, and headed to Bylakuppe. Tenzin was overjoyed. One year later, Namgyal, Lhadon.Tamdin, andThardoe, at a market in Bylakuppe, in the humid monsoon season of 1986, the couple celebrated India, in 1992 the arrival of their youngest son, Tenzin Thardoe.

52 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY our years passed. In 1989, Tenzin mous Region (TAR) were regarded as and Migmar began hearing rumors ordinary Chinese citizens. But legisla­ Fthat a thousand Tibetan refugees tors balked at calling them "refugees" from settlements in Nepal and India HcVtttr because that term in US bureaucratic would be able to enter their names in a language entitled individuals to federal special US immigration lottery. assistance, however modest and brief. Tenzin, the young woman born and Nor could they be called normal raised in the dusty, if successful, settle­ "immigrants," because China, India, ment, looked at her four small children A Tibetan Refugee Family and the and Nepal were all oversubscribed for and said to her husband, "Let's try." Midwestern Woman They Adopted US immigration visas. So, in Section By that time, more than one hundred 123 ofthe 1990 Immigration Act, they and ten thousand refugees lived in forty- became "qualified, displaced Tibetans." seven settlements sprawling across India "Qualified" meant they were eligible and Nepal. One to two thousand more for permanent residency in the United fled across China's borders each year, States and entitled to apply for Amer­ although the Indian government no ican citizenship after five years. They longer made land allotments for these were immediately eligible for a green newcomers. Each Tibetan refugee card, the much sought-after permis­ family was allowed to submit only one sion to legally apply for and hold jobs. name to the resettlement lottery. Families debated who could Unlike other refugees to the United States, however, the act be spared and who had the best chance of being selected. From stipulated they were entitled to no welfare assistance for three among fifteen thousand people who finally applied, the Central years and that the Tibetan United States Resettlement Project, Tibetan Administration in Dharamsala carefully tried to choose however overdue, compassionate, and well intentioned, would a balance between new, often landless refugees who had come receive no federal funds. most recently from Tibet and those who had been in India and Tenzin didn't care what the legislation called her. Likewise, Nepal the longest; between people largely illiterate and those she had little awareness of the joy and relief felt by scores of with education and special skills; between family heads and people who had long lobbied for US involvement in the Tibetan single persons. They looked for strong men and women, ages cause. Still in India, Tenzin wrestled with her choice, to go or to eighteen to forty-five. stay. She looked to Migmar, who said calmly but firmly, "Let's Miraculously to Tenzin, her name was drawn. stay. We have enough of everything here. We don't have much "I was shocked. I was scared. At first I didn't want to go." money, but we have enough food." Her parents and older sisters, Neighbors crowded around the couple, urging them to concerned she would be leaving not only them but also four accept, trying to explain the application process and the caveats. young children, agreed with Migmar. How could they manage In the United States, drafts of federal legislation to offer aid without her? Yet other friends and neighbors envied her chance to the Tibetan cause had failed for years. But the 1990 Immi­ to be one ofthe "lucky one thousand." gration Act, introduced by US Representative Barney Frank of Tenzin was bewildered by the urgency and enormity of Massachusetts, succeeded. The Central Tibetan Administration the decision before her. As she delayed, the first groups began first identified six, then sixteen, then twenty-two US "cluster departing Bylakuppe, America-bound—batch one, batch two. communities," coast to coast from Vermont to California and It was time to make a choice. kM border to border from Minnesota to New Mexico, as well as Tibetan American or Tibet-knowledgeable leaders in each ABOUT THE AUTHOR city. Many were university communities, some with already- established Tibetan Buddhist temples or cultural centers. The Madeline Uraneck is an educator and writer resettlement program was visionary, and small groups of Amer­ who has visited sixty-four countries through her icans, willing to help with initial housing, job contacts, and role as International Education Consultant for the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, fundraising, stepped forward to welcome the arriving flights. several Peace Corps assignments, and her pas­ Through my brief association with the Tibetan Resettlement sion for world travel. Her writing has appeared Project in Madison, I was almost, but not quite, one of them. in K-12 curriculum materials, educational hand­ In the United States, the question of what to call the newly books on culture and policy, and publications arriving Tibetans had caused problems in the drafting ofthe including WortdView Magazine, Hotline, Global legislation. They were not "asylum seekers" because that term Education, WorldWise Schools, and The Isthmus, would offend China, where Tibetans in the Tibet Autono- for which she received a Wisconsin Newspaper Association award.

SPRING 2018 53 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL S O C i E T Y Letters

Wisconsin Historical Society Samuel J. Scinta, Onalaska Dear Editors, Board of Curators Thomas L. Shriner Jr., Milwaukee I recently read your Autumn 2017 issue ofthe Wisconsin Maga­ Robert Smith, Milwaukee Officers John W.Thompson, Madison zine of History. I wanted to let you know of an error in the book President: Brian D. Rude, Chia Youyee Vang, Glendale excerpt, "The Wisconsin Capitol: Stories of a Monument and Coon Valley Aharon Zorea, Richland Center President-Elect: Gregory B. Huber, Its People" by Michael Edmonds. The picture ofthe plat on Wausau Governor's Appointees page 25 is incorrectly labeled as James Doty's plat of Madison. Treasurer: Walter S. Rugland, David G. Anderson, Wausau The plat was, in fact, created by John V. Suydam. Mr. Suydam Appleton George Jacobs, Madison Secretary:Christian Overland, Keene Winters, Wausau is my three times great grandfather and I'd like to see him get The Ruth and Hartley Barker his due on this. He was commissioned by James Doty to draft Legislative Appointees Director Rep. Frederick P. Kessler, Milwaukee the plat. Thank you. Past President: Conrad G. Goodkind, Rep. Cody Horlacher, Mukwonago Milwaukee Laurie Deakins Sen. Van Wanggaard, Racine Portage Term Members Sen. Fred A. Risser, Madison Angela B. Bartell, Middleton Curators Ex-Officio Ramona Gonzalez, La Crosse Catherine Orton, Chair, Wisconsin Norbert S. Hill Jr., Oneida Historical Foundation Joanne B. Huelsman, Waukesha Phillip Schauer, President, FRIENDS Carol J. McChesney Johnson, ofthe Society Black Earth John Decker, President, Wisconsin James Klauser, Pewaukee Council for Local History Thomas Maxwell, Marinette Susan McLeod, Eau Claire Honorary Curators Lowell F. Peterson, Appleton Thomas H. Barland, Eau Claire Jerald J. Phillips, Bayfield Michael P. Schmudlach, Brooklyn Donald Schott, Madison

Wisconsin Historical FOUNDATION

Wisconsin Historical Foundation Richard A. Reinhart, Minocqua ).h,.„,t. Officers Jack L. Rhodes, Waupaca Chair: Catherine C. Orton, Mauston David S. Ryder, Mequon Vice Chair:Theresa H. Richards, William S. Schoyer, Elm Grove Marshfield Derek L.Tyus, Milwaukee Treasurer: Patrick P. Fee, Wauwatosa Jane Villa, Madison Secretary: Susan Crane, Burlington Rhona E. Vogel, Brookfield Cathi Wiebrecht-Searer, Madison Board of Directors Michael L.Youngman,/V,/7i/rau/cee Loren J. Anderson, Elkhorn Christopher S. Berry, Middleton Directors Ex-Officio Stephen F. Brenton, Verona Brian D. Rude, Coon Valley, Diane Dei Rossi, Rhinelander President, Wisconsin Historical Robert C. Dohmen, Mequon Society Board of Curators : Jessica Garcia, Shorewood Gregory B. Huber, Wausau, Chris Her-Xiong, Milwaukee President-Elect, Wisconsin Joshua Jeffers, Milwaukee Historical Society Board of ,4, Peter A. Ostlind, Madison Curators Linda E. Prehn, Wausau '/.' Wisconsin Historical Real Estate Foundation Board of Directors Gary J. Gorman, Fitchburg President: Bruce T. Block, Milwaukee Joshua Jeffers, Milwaukee Vice President: John Beck Madison Joseph D. Shumow, Madison Treasurer & Secretary: David T. David G. Stoeffel, Whitefish Bay Wilder, Madison

54 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY THANK YOU!

It is with deepest thanks that the Wisconsin Historical Society recognizes From the Editor: individuals and organizations who contributed $5,000 or more between Indeed, the caption did not give a full account. We took a close January 1,2017, and December 31,2017.

look at the writing on the bottom right of the plat, and found $25,000+ John W.Thompson and Jane Bartell these words, written in fading script by John V. Suydam. Our Anonymous (2) Jane and David Villa transcription matched the wording given in the proceedings of Rima and Michael Apple William J. Wartmann Ruth and Hartley Barker Advised Fund We Energies Foundation Wisconsin Territory's second legislative assembly, published by through Incourage Community Wisconsin Humanities Council Foundation Charles G. Sholes in 1839: Estate of Robert Yoakum The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation JoAnn and MichaelYoungman The Brico Fund Bob and Susan Crane I certify that I have carefully meandered and measured the $5,000-$9,999 Craig and Leola Culver Foundation exterior lines ofthe above plat map ofthe town of Madison American Girl Robert Dohmen Anonymous (3) excepting the outlet; and that the above is true according to Ray and Kay Eckstein CharitableTrust Nancy Marshall Bauer Rachel Egelseer the field notes on record in this office. . . . Christopher and Mary Pat Berry The Evjue Foundation, Inc., the chari­ John V Suyden, Dist. Surveyor, Brown Co., W. T Briggs & Stratton Corporation table arm of The Capital Times Foundation, Inc. Green Bay, Oct. 27, 1836 Pleasant and Jerry Frautschi Frank G. and Frieda K. Brotz Family Marianna Fuchs Foundation, Inc. Greater Milwaukee Foundation We will make the change in future printings of the book, and Thomas E. Caestecker Greater Milwaukee Foundation's Black Kathy and Jim Cargill we are also updating information about the image in our print Point Historic Preserve Operation and Maintenance Fund The Coburn Company, Inc. and online archives. Thanks for bringing our attention to this! Estate of Lorenz Heim Crossmon Consulting, LLC Herzfeld Foundation Pat and Anne Fee Claire and Marjorie Johnson John J. Frautschi Family Foundation Correction Robert and Patricia* Kern Walter A. and Dorothy Jones Frautschi An article by Erica Janik, "Free Love in Victorian Wisconsin: KohlerTrustfor Preservation Charitable Unitrust The Radical Life of Juliet Severence," published in our Autumn Dale Leibowitz and Ron Suliteanu FRIENDS ofthe Wisconsin Historical Mr. Stuart D. Levitan, Jr. Society 2014 issue, did not acknowledge an important source. Andrew Katharine Lyall Fund for Lake Michigan Lang's article, "Rule without Force, Love without Law: Indi­ Navistar Greater Milwaukee Foundation A. vidual Sovereignty, Social Freedom, and Free Love in the Work Old World Wisconsin Foundation William and Joanne B. Huelsman Fund The O'Neill Foundation Conrad and Sandra Goodkind of Dr. Juliet Severance," published in the University of Wiscon­ Jane Bradley Pettit Foundation Robert and Elke Hagge sin's Archive: AJournal of Undergraduate History in 2011, was State ofWisconsin Tom and Char Hand similar in its treatment of "sex radicals" in early Wisconsin, and St. Croix Falls Historical Society Sally Mead Hands Foundation Dawn and David* Stucki Hayssen Family Foundation, Inc. S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc. both articles used many ofthe same sources. Natalie Tinkham Lake Geneva Garden Club Foundation, Wisconsin Preservation Fund Inc $10,000-$24,999 Donald Lamb Hank Lufler and Mike Gerdes Anonymous Barry and Eileen Mandel Tom and Renee Boldt Harold and Christine Mayer John and Barbara Bowlin Audrey and Rowland McClellan Mr. James P. Danky and Ms. Christine I. NickMeriggioli Schelshorn WE WANT TO HEAR WHAT OUR READERS THINK! John K. and Janice W. Notz John and Sandra Decker Virginia A. Palmer Email us at: [email protected] The Robert Eckert Family Fund Phillip and Kathleen Pellegrino Rockne and JoAnne Flowers Wl Comment on our facebook page: Mary and Lowell Peterson Gorman & Company, Inc. David W.Phillips www.facebook.com/whspress Kohler Foundation, Inc. Richard and Toni Reinhart * Follow us on Twitter: @WI_Mag_History Ruth DeYoung Kohler Patty Schmitt Memorial Pendarvis Endowment Trust Don and Cindy Schott Write to us at: Daniel and Jeannine Meyer Revocable Miriam Simmons Trust Wisconsin Magazine of History James S. Slattery Tom* and Nancy Mohs United Way of Greater Milwaukee's Alexis 816 State Street Pace Woods Foundation deTocqueville Society Madison, Wisconsin 53706 Prairie du Chien Area Chamber of WaterStone Bank Commerce Wisconsin Council for Local History Richard Searer and Cathi E.Wiebrecht- Wisconsin Redevelopment, LLC Searer Wisconsin Society of Mayflower The George and Jane Shinners Descendants Charitable Fund Society of Architectural Historians * In mem or tarn Sunset Investors

SPRING 2018 55 ~1 **" Curio "*•

id you know that Barbara Millicent Roberts, better known as Barbie, is from Willows, Wisconsin? While there is a Willow Township in Rich­ Dland County, Barbie's town is fictional, as is Willows High School, her alma mater. Barbie is meant to represent a Midwestern girl gone glamorous, one who has followed her career dreams as doctor, astronaut, or army officer while still maintaining her small-town values. Barbie debuted in 1959, and by 1961, when Orville and Frances Fox of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, bought this doll and its accompanying case for their granddaughter Beth in Madison, Barbie's looks had not changed much. Ruth Handler, cofounder of Mattel, Inc., based the original doll and its curvaceous body on one she had seen in Switzerland, not realizing the Swiss version, with its long legs, small waist, come-hither glance, and prominent bosom, sold primarily to men. Mattel executives and mothers cringed at the doll's concept, but girls loved playing with Barbie and her popu­ larity soared. Over the decades, Barbie's face and hair changed several times, but her body's proportions remained the same. After decades of feedback about this unrealistic shape, Mattel introduced a line of Barbies in 2014 that more accurately portrayed real-life teenage girls. t J JOIN OUR READERS CIRCLE! Your generous support helps publish looks that connect readers of all ages Taking to our Wisconsin heritage. COMING THIS Learn more at FligW iist.org/readerscircl

A History of Birds and People

in the Heart of America * >~ « v V from WISCONSIN HISTORICAL the MICHAEL EDM SOCIETY PRESS

SONOS ONCE A LATINAS PROFESSOR A Memoir of Teaching TAKING FLIGHT i^" t in Turbulent Times

A History of Birds and People C" j JERRY APPS in the Heart of America by Michael Edmonds ISBN: 978-0-87020-836-2 w«:J? r .1i S0M0S LATINAS ONCE A PROFESSOR Voices of Wisconsin Latina Activists A Memoir of Teaching in Turbulent Times by Andrea-Teresa Arenas & Eloisa Gomez by Jerry Apps ISBN: 978-0-87020-859-1 ISBN: 978-0-87020-857-7

American I]idian-language and culture education board, develop a curriculum for WISCONNSI N | grades 4 lu 12 un the Chippewa Indians' treaty-based, off-reservation rights to bunt, fish and gather. Riffs THE STORY OF ACT 31

HOW NATIVE HISTORY CAME TO WISCONSIN CLASSROOMS

instruction in the study ol minority group relations, including instruction in the history, culture and I II.IJ siiveieigiiiX oi tbe led era Ik recognized American Indian tribes and bands located in this state. JP LEARY 121.02 (1) (L) 4. Beginning September 1, 1991, as part of tbe social stucies curriculum, include instruction in the history, culture and tribal .u'.cicigiily o: the federally ieCDgiir/.ed American Indian tribes and bands located in this state at least twice in the elementary grades a .id at least WISCONSIN STATE PARKS Extraordinary Stories of WISCONSIN RIFFS THE STORY OF ACT 31 Jazz Profiles from How Native History Came to Geology and Natural History the Heartland Wisconsin Classrooms by Scott Spoolman by Kurt Dietrich by J P Leary ISBN: 978-0-87020-849-2 ISBN: 978-0-87020-853-9 ISBN: 978-0-87020-832-4

The Wisconsin Historical Museum Shop To order: Please call 888.999.1669 or 608.264.6565 (in Madison) Wisconsin Historical Society is located on the Capitol Square at or shop online at shop.wisconsinhistory.org i PRESS 30 N. Carroll St., Madison, Wl 53703 Members of the Wisconsin Historical Society receive a 10% discount! Horses and riders travel across the Saharan landscape in this lantern slide taken by members of an expedition in autumn 1925 to collect artifacts for Beloit College's Logan Museum of Anthropology. Author Judith Siers-Poisson details the story of Alonzo Pond, the Wisconsin anthropologist at the head ofthe expedition—and his rivalry with archaeologist and showman Count Byron Khun de Prorok, who joined them—in "A Dash through the Sahara: Alonzo Pond's First Algerian Expedition."