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WISCONSIN MAGAZINE 0/HISTORY

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Published Quarterly by the STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN December 1949 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE of HISTORY CLIFFORD L. LORD, Editor LILLIAN KRUEGER, Managing Editor

CONTENTS

Chats with the Editor Clifford L. Lord 129 Appleton William F. Raney 135 Chautauqua and, the Midwest Harrison John Thornton 152 A Madison Man at Nome Carl L. Lokke 164 William George Bruce Edward A. Fitzpatrick 184 When the Railroads Came to Kenosha Carrie Cropley 188 Letters of ]ames Stark Georgia Dow Townsend 197 Wisconsin in 1847: Notes of John Q. Roods Earl S. Pomeroy 216 BOOK NOTES 221 WISCONSIANA—HERE AND THERE 248 ACCESSIONS 253 OF WIDER INTEREST 255

The WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY is published by the STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN, 816 State Street, Madison 6, Wisconsin. Distributed to members as part of their dues (Annual membership, S3.50; Contributing, $10; Business and Professional, $25; Life, $100; Sustain- ing, $100 or more annually). Yearly subscription, $3.50; single numbers, 90 cents. Communications should be addressed to the editor. The Society does not assume responsibility for statements made by contributors. Entered as second-class matter at the post office at Madison, Wisconsin, under act of August 24, 1912. Copyright 1949 by the STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN. Paid for in part by the Maria L. and Simeon Mills Editorial Fund and by the George B. Burrows Fund. DISCOUNTS are allowed from Society book list prices to the following membership classifications: Contributing, 15 percent; Business and Professional, 25 percent; Institutional, 25 percent; and Life, 25 percent. This discount is allowed on the member's personal copy only. Sustaining members receive all publications free.

THE COVER Madison's MONONA LAKE ASSEMBLY grounds, still recalled by some as a tented religious and intellectual Chautauqua center, has become a pleasant rendezvous for community picnickers. Instead of distinguished educators, clergymen, and statesmen delivering soul-stirring lectures to Chautauqua audiences, this spacious and beautiful area, on the outskirts of Madison, serves as a place of recreation. Without a doubt " Chautauqua and the Midwest"— in this issue—will bring about the reliving of Monona Lake Assembly days to more than a few. WISCONSIN MAGAZINE of HISTORY 3^* Volume 33 December, 1949 Number 2

Chats with the Editor

ITHIN the past month, the Society's endowment has been increased by nearly $24,000 by the Maud L. Hurson Wbequest. This gift will be used, in accordance with the donor's wishes, for the general purposes of the Society. This is the largest single bequest received by the Society since the Maria L. and Simeon Mills Editorial Fund established in 1922. It is an important milestone on the road ^ which we hope will ultimately decrease both our dependence and our demands on the State treasury and yet expand our research and publication program. The files for 1926 contain an interesting letter from a then member of our Board about this bequest. It reads in part: I was recently called upon by an unmarried woman and, since I have not told you her name, I may tell you truthfully that she is just past her sixtieth birthday. She has no near relatives and most of her property has been or will be in annuities, so that she will probably be in moderately comfortable circumstances for the rest of her life. Her remaining property she proposes to dispose of by will, first by making a few minor bequests and secondly by providing a small income to her old housekeeper should the housekeeper survive her She has always been mildly interested in historic work and, as I was urged to make suggestions, I felt no hesitancy in telling her of the work of the State Historical Society. She thinks now that she would like to leave her residuary estate to the Society It is this suggestion which has now borne fruit. The Society at the time of the donor's death in 1933 was by her will given first choice of the furnishings of her house and received a valuable collection of china, glass, jewelry, and furniture. Now it receives the residue of the estate. Miss Hurson's "mild interest in historic work" has thus assured the perpetual brightness of her name, and it surely must now give peace and pleasure to her soul to know that her sav-

129 130 CHATS WITH THE EDITOR [December ings are about to be put to use in the very special task to which we are dedicated. In acknowledging this double generosity, what it symbolizes as to faith in the importance of preserving and analyzing the record of our people, what it promises for the future of our program, the Society also gives a grateful bow to the thoughtful member of the Board who insists on anonymity but who thus set so helpful a precedent for his colleagues and successors.

As THIS ISSUE goes to press, the Society is launching an ambitious project. The almost total lack of scholarly publications in the economic history of this State since the Civil War is one of the _ . major gaps in our understanding of how we have come Business , , , . wr. T , , to be what we are here in Wisconsin. In the past three years the Society has started four projects to help remedy this situation. The first, undertaken with the cordial cooperation of the State Federation of Labor, was to gather the manuscript records of organized labor and individual labor leaders to supplement the rich John R. Commons Collection of labor publications. The second was Mr. Heinemann's series of negotiations, still in progress, to organize the resources for a history of the paper industry in Wisconsin. The third was Mr. Everest's offer of an annual prize of $1,000 for each of ten years for the best book-length work in Wis- consin economic history. The fourth is now under way. It takes the form of a questionnaire—one page long—which will be sent to one Wisconsin industry after another. The questions in eSect ask each company what types of records it still has in its possession and up to what dates and under what conditions they would be made available for historical research by competent scholars. It is our belief that the central list of extant business records which this should produce will, just by its availability, encourage a number of graduate scholars each year to explore some phase or phases of the business and industrial history of Wisconsin. We hope that business will cooperate in the project and that the resulting catalog will prove to be a research tool which will meet our fondest hopes for its use. If the plan works, it can be extended to those sectors of organized labor which have not transferred their non-current 1949] CHATS WITH THE EDITOR 131 records to us and perhaps to retailing establishments, resorts, and professional associations.

FOR MANY YEARS one of the chief duties of our Society specified by law throughout our first century was " to procure from the early pioneers narratives of their exploits, perils and adventures." This

Tr . , admonition was heeded in several ways, chiefly by Voice of , • r i-u J- • i J r _. gathering tor our library diaries, letters, and manu- a the Ptoneer . \ r i . , i script memoirs, a number of which were subse- quently published from time to time in the Collections or the Magazine. Now modern technology has been enlisted in our attempts to preserve this type of historical data. We have purchased a tape recorder. It is a portable, high fidelity machine with which we can record either dictated autobiographies and reminiscences or interviews with pioneers and leaders in all types of endeavor. The tapes can be edited to eliminate rough passages and false starts and the net embossed on vinylite disks for inexpensive yet permanent preservation in our library. Used for several years for the gathering of folk music, folklore, and the recording of speeches, State occasions and conferences, the tape recorder is now to be put to use in Wisconsin to solve in small part the perennial problem of the wealth of historical fact never committed to writing that dies with every leader of politics, labor, business, education, or other major calling and with every local historian. An example of the utility of this type of quite literally "recorded" history is our first project: the reminiscences of Professor William H. Lighty, first director of correspondence courses at the University. Closely integrated with the growth of the "Wisconsin Idea" during the administration of President Van Hise, this pioneering effort was important not only in our State but as a model for others elsewhere. Yet the records of the Extension Division of the University are reported to have been destroyed up to 1925. There remained only a set of catalogs and the private files and memories of a few of the staff occupied with early correspondence courses. The necessity of Professor Lighty's conserving his limited 132 CHATS WITH THE EDITOR [December eyesight precluded the possibility of a written manuscript. Into such a situation steps the tape recorder. The pioneers are inter- viewed, their voices recorded, and the " narratives of their exploits, perils, and adventures" are preserved at least in this form for posterity. It is to be granted that these disks will have certain limitations. They will not be as polished and complete as the carefully worked out autobiography would be. They will not be as convenient to use as a book, though they can, if necessary, be transcribed into a typewritten or printed manuscript. On the other hand, many people will submit to an interview who could never be prevailed on to write a book on what they know, either for lack of time, a sense of false modesty, or a feeling of frustration when confronted with pen, ink and a blank ream of paper. Our disks will record stories and facets of history which otherwise would perish and they will preserve not only the words but the voice of the speaker—and voices can help, at least superficially, historical understanding of certain phenomenon as those who remember the mellow accents of Franklin D. Roosevelt can testify. We therefore regard our new "gadget" as a valuable and useful supplement to our equipment for the gathering and preserving of the history of our State and our people.

IN A RECENT mail Curator Dana sent us a letter from Lyman Copeland Draper to her grandfather, the Honorable George Grim- mer. The letter, dated September 15, 1881, reads in part: In Jan. 1866, our Society entered its present apart- A Note from ments with 21,000 vols. & pamphlets. Now it has the Fast 94,000 We have utilized every nook & corner for shelving. We have out-grown our quarters, with no chance for enlargement. We must either beg means for a suitable building, or ask the State to provide for its own institution. The latter seems the most feasible and practical. We are seeking to ascertain the sentiment of the prominent men of the State as to the advisability of appealing to the Legislature to make the needful provision for us. Ex-Gov. Lewis, Senator Strong, Gen. Van Steenwyck, Gen. Kellogg & many others, favor such application—& doubtless still others will write in this expression. We beg your views in this matter. We are gathering data of the size, cost and capacity of the principal Library buildings of the country. While some have cost as much as 1949] CHATS WITH THE EDITOR 133

$400,000, yet I judge that $80,000 would provide our Society a good fire-proof building, without ornamentation and sufficient for its wants for 25 to 50 years. If 3 years in erection, the appropriation per year, as Mr. Mitchell expresses it, would not be felt.... The Library, you know, is a great aid to the University & its students— to the Legislature & its committees—to the State departments—& its newspaper files with their legal notices to the Supreme Court Now in my 67th year, I am anxious to see the Society in safe & commodious quarters before I go hence. Pray, continue to sympathise with us, & give us your words of encouragement. Nota Bene: The following year the Legislature appropriated money to build two transverse wings on the old Capitol: one for the State Supreme Court, the other specifically for the STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

SPEAKING OF MODERN technology and of Dr. Draper, we wonder what his shade thought of the doings of October 16. The man who traveled so extensively on foot and horseback in search of manu- . scripts for the famous collection which he built . .. up and ultimately left to the Society might to the Airways t1 . , .. „ . , , . well have been mildly surprised to see thirty- three airplanes with some seventy pilots and passengers fly into Nicolet Airport, Green Bay, for church services, lunch, and an automobile tour of the historic sites of Green Bay and De Pere. The Society and the State Aeronautics Commission, with the cordial aid of the Brown County Historical Society, the Brown County chapter of the Wisconsin Civil Air Corps, and the Green Bay Chamber of Commerce, has once more pioneered in adapting modern machinery to old techniques. The pilgrimage to historical sites is a relatively old and honored institution, having come into its own with the automobile age. But so far as we know, this is the first time that a state historical society has used aviation as a means of gathering the devotees of Clio for such a pilgrimage. The success of the initial venture—which had a preliminary tryout with the Madison Cessna Caravan in a flight to Prairie du Chien, June 26,

I949—has encouraged the Society and the Aeronautics Commis- sion to plan four such events next summer. When we, of all people, take to the air, we feel sure the public can rest assured that the air age is here to stay. 134 CHATS WITH THE EDITOR

THE MADISON NEWSPAPERS recently recorded the death of Perry Vaughn. Few perhaps will recognize the name, but behind it lay a very human story. Born into slavery on an Arkansas plantation in „ _ , 1845, he had fought in the Union armies for The Death of , r , , ., . , . . i 1 i four years for the liberation of his people, had ry aig n ^^ through the turmoils of Reconstruction at Fayetteville, Arkansas, and did not leave his native South for Madison until 1921. Together with the contemporary newspaper accounts of the last encampment of the Grand Army of the Re- public, shrunken from an initial 490,000 to a mere 14, Mr. Vaughn's death brought to mind once more how far we have come in these United States in the short span of his lifetime and those of the centenarians of the G.A.R. Born before the Mexican War, before the discovery of gold in California, before the statehood of Wisconsin, born into the slavery which today is almost incon- ceivable, born when the Great Plains were in full control of hostile Indians, born before the first railroad had spanned Wisconsin let alone the continent, what a transformation had he witnessed. In things material, in the expansions of the horizons of knowledge, in the spread of democracy and equality of opportunity, in a loss of a sense of a moral law, and improvements in the techniques of mass extermination, the changes have been almost beyond belief. That such changes can be spanned by a single lifetime emphasizes once again how rapidly history is made in the modern era, how much has been accomplished and how much lost in what is after all a very short space of time. It leads us back to the words of John Erskine: "Anything these days which helps us understand ourselves is indeed precious beyond price."

FOUNDERS' DAY—JANUARY 28 Our annual family get-together on Founders9 Day will be held as usual this year on the last Saturday of January—January 28— at Madison. Be sure to check this date on your calendar. There will be Committee and Board meetings most of the day, followed, by dinner and open house. Members and friends are cordially invited. Details will appear in the January issue of "What's Go- ing On." Appleton By WILLIAM F. RANEY

A PPLETON, WISCONSIN, is a pleasantly situated community /A with an area of 6.76 square miles and an estimated popula- -*- -** tion of 31,50c).1 It has enterprising inhabitants; it has churches, schools, and a famous college. It is surrounded by fertile lands tilled by industrious farmers who spend their money in this, their county seat. It has factories of which the most important product at present is paper. Now a little more than 100 years old, its living generation no longer remembers the beginnings. Apple- ton needs, therefore, the services of the historian to tell how it began and to mention a few elements in its later growth. When the federal government, in the 1820's, assigned definite areas to each Indian tribe, the site of Appleton lay within the lands of the Menominee.2 Soon, however, the government, in a series of treaties, bought all the lands of this tribe. The third of Appleton that lies south of the Fox River was included in the first treaty, made at Washington, D.C., in 1831. Appleton north of the river was part of what became federal property by the Treaty of the Cedars, signed September 3, 1836, at Cedar Point, about four miles northeast of Appleton.3

DR. RANEY, Appleton, read this paper at the opening session of the Society's three-day Annual Meeting held at Lawrence College, Septem- ber 9—11. Professor of European history and chairman of the department at the college, he is widely known as the author of an excellent history of the State, Wisconsin, a Story of Progress. Out of his knowledge of Appleton, he has contributed an entertaining sketch of one of the State's charming smaller cities. 1 Estimate by Edward E. Sager, city clerk and comptroller, 1949. U.S. Census, Sixteenth, 1940, gave the population as 28,436. 2 Lands were assigned to the Menominee by the Treaty of Prairie du Chien, Aug. 19, 1825, especially Article 8, and the Treaty of Butte des Morts, Aug. 11, 1827. See Treaties between the United States of America and the Several Indian Tribes from 1778 to 1837, compiled by Commissioner of Indian Affairs (Washington, 1837), 374, 412-15. 3 Treaty of Washington, Feb. 8, 1831, ibid., 466-72; Treaty of Cedar Point, Sept. 3, 1836, ibid., 669-73. There is a convenient summary of these treaties in Charles C. Royce, " Indian Land Cessions in the United States," Bureau of American Ethnology, Eighteenth Annual Report, 1896-97, Part 2 (56 Cong., 1 sess., House Doc. No. 736, serial 4015), 1:728-30, 760; map no. 64, Wisconsin. 135 136 WILLIAM F. RANEY [December

For most regions in the Middle West the growth of present civilization began with the arrival of land-hungry farmers from the East. The farmers were sometimes preceded, but not much preceded, by speculators who intended to acquire and then sell the sites for mills and towns that were certain to develop. The Fox River falls about forty feet within the present limits of Appleton. A waterfall now hidden behind the westernmost dam gave the whole region a name coming down from the French period, that of Grand Chute. It could not fail to became the site of an important city. Surveyors did their work soon after the treaties with the Menominee, and close on their heels came the farmers and speculators eager to buy land. Appleton south of the river was surveyed in 1834, and most of it—all of it that adjoined the river—passed into private hands in 1835. The greater part, amounting to more than a thousand acres and including two miles of shoreline and Grand Chute Island, went to Walter L. Newberry, a famous real estate operator in Chicago. The other purchaser of the south bank was Joshua Hath- away, Jr. of Milwaukee. John P. Arndt of Green Bay apparently acted as agent for Hathaway in buying one lot. The federal survey north of the river was made in 1843 and 1844.4 The land on the north bank to the depth of about half a mile became private property in 1845 and 1846.5 What was bought in these two years amounted to just under 900 acres. One very small element in the population of northeastern Wis- consin is descended from French Canadians who worked in the fur trade as long as it continued, that is, until about 1845. A certain Pierre Grignon married a daughter of Charles de Langlade in 1776. One of the seven sons of this famous couple was Hippolyte Grig- non (1790-1860). His first name was shortened to Pollite and then to Paul.6 He and his numerous family lived on the riverbank

4 The original field notes of the survey of Outagamie County are ia the office of the Commissioners of the Public Lands in the Capitol, Madison; copy with county surveyor, Outagamie County. Appleton lies in sees. 23, 25-27, 34-36, T. 2IN. R. 17E. 5 The data about sales of government land to the first private owners are most conveniently found in Abstract of Original Entries, vol. 1, office of register of deeds, Outagamie County. This volume serves as an index to the volumes of deeds where the patents are recorded. 6 Wisconsin Historical Society, Collections, 19:375 (1910). See many references in the index volume of the series under " Grignon, Paul I." 1949} APPLETON 137 in the southwestern part of Appleton from 1835 onward.7 In 1845 he bought from the government 107.66 acres of land, including the site of his home. His grandson, Ephraim Grignon, still owns a part of this land, and Ephraim's grandson is the fifth generation in this, Appleton's oldest family. Another French Canadian, Jean Baptiste Benoit, was in 1843 living in a little clearing near what was later the north end of Memorial Bridge. He, too, in 1845 bought the government lot that included his home, but soon sold it and disappeared.8 More will be said about his land later. Apart from these two French Canadians, all those who bought land along the riverbank were speculators and not men who at any time lived in Appleton. John F. Meade of Green Bay bought almost a quarter section, which became the downtown area; Oneida, our busiest north and south street, marks the middle of Meade's land. His brother-in-law, George W. Lawe of Kaukauna bought the land extending east- ward from Meade's to the Fox River. Each had more than a quarter of a mile of river frontage at the southern edge of his holding. The two men together had a strip measuring more than a mile east and west and about half a mile north and south. After the purchases of 1846 (not all of them catalogued here) no other land left federal ownership until 1849. It may be of interest to note that if the area of the river9 is subtracted, Appleton in 1949 covers almost exactly 4,000 acres. For this the price without exception was $1.25 an acre, or $5,000 for the whole. A century ago, when opportunities for investment were not so frequent nor so varied as they are today, much money was invested in Western lands. Amos Lawrence, a retired merchant of Boston, lent money to Eleazer Williams, an Oneida Indian living in Wis- consin. Later, in 1844, Lawrence bought from him some 4,800 acres of land located on the west side of the Fox River about seventeen miles northeast of Appleton. Amos Lawrence had the 7 This date, 1835, is fixed so definitely only by family tradition. It is probably correct. 8 The field notes of surveyors, 1843, sketch Benoit's clearing, estimated at about three and one-half acres. His wife was Josette Benoit. Register of deeds, Outagamie County, 1 Deeds, 162-63. The original patent, 250 Deeds, 489, has two spellings, '* Benway alias Benoit"; the first shows the regular French-Canadian way of pronouncing the name. °The area of the Fox River within Appleton is 335.3 acres. This figure was reached by subtracting the fractional lots from the full sections of 640 acres each. 138 WILLIAM F. RANEY [December land deeded to his son, Amos Adams Lawrence,10 whom we shall hereafter call Mr. Lawrence. Before the end of 1845, he had decided that a college on his land was desirable for moral and educational reasons and also because it would enhance land values. He sought the help of the leaders of the Methodist Episcopal Church; and they decided, after much study, that the present site of the college was a better location than the Williams land. Mr. Lawrence, though disappointed, continued to cooperate in founding the college and to make further investments in Wisconsin real estate.11 During the latter part of 1845 and the early months of 1846 Mr. Lawrence bought several parcels of land at various points along the Fox River, between the present Appleton and De Pere. Some- time in 1845 or early in 1846 the Rev. Reeder Smith called on Mr. Lawrence soliciting help for the Methodist college at Albion, Michigan. Though he gave nothing to Albion, he sent Reeder Smith to Wisconsin in August, 1846, to inspect the stewardship of a previous agent and to forward the project of an " institution of learning." For a time Reeder Smith was the outstanding leader in the young Methodist Episcopal Church in Wisconsin in all that related to the founding of the college. In January, 1847, a charter was secured for the " Lawrence Institute of Wisconsin."12 By Au- gust, 1847, Mr. Lawrence seems to have recognized that the location of the college was practically determined. On August 9 he wrote to Reeder Smith: In order to secure a good place for the settlement which may hereafter be made in the neighborhood of " Grand Chute " and also a good neighborhood for the institution if it should be there located, I wish you to proceed at once to the spot and secure by purchase as much land in that vicinity as shall appear to be necessary for this purpose as there may be an advance in the value of the land. In order that you may have a direct interest in managing it with prudence and efficiency, I will give you a joint and equal interest with myself in the investment on condition that you give me

10There are articles about Amos Lawrence (1786-1852), Amos Adams Lawrence (1814- 86), and Eleazar Williams (ca. 1789-1858) in the Dictionary of American Biography. Williams' signature appears as " Eleazer." 11 After the death of Amos A. Lawrence in 1886, the papers connected with his Wisconsin investments and the founding of Lawrence College were given to the college. All letters to which reference is made in these footnotes are in this collection. See also records in the office of the register of deeds, Brown County. 12 Wisconsin Territorial Laws, 1847, chap. 1, signed Jan. 15, 1847. -

AMOS A. LAWRENCE SAMUEL APPLETON

1949] APPLETON 139 your services if required in looking after this and my other lands on that river in such a manner as shall be satisfactory. You may draw on me at sight for any sum not exceeding two thousand dollars. Of course then you will have the land conveyed directly to me. I wish to be advised frequently of your progress. Herewith I hand you fifty dollars defraying your expenses.13 This letter is important for two reasons. It shows how Amos A. Lawrence came to play a part in the founding of Appleton; and, later on, when Lawrence and Reeder Smith had a lawsuit about financial matters, this was the document on which Reeder Smith chiefly based his case. One thing that helped the Methodist leaders to agree upon the location of the college was the offer of 31 acres by Lawe and the same amount by Meade. Lawe's gift was a strip, in terms of a modern map, from Drew to Union Street and from the river to just beyond North Street. This, in the course of time, he deeded to Lawrence Institute.14 Main Hall and other college buildings stand on it today. Meade's gift might have been a parallel strip west of Lawe's running up from the river approximately between the present Drew and Morrison streets. But when Reeder Smith, authorized by the letter just quoted, bought from Meade, one deed covered all that Meade owned; that is, he seemed to buy it all. There were 149.18 acres: the consideration was $472.71.15 Let us now return to Jean Baptiste Benoit who had bought his lot from the government in October, 1845. A month later he sold it to Augustin Grignon and Daniel Whitney, a well-known busi- nessman of Green Bay. On September 8, 1847, Reeder Smith, acting for Mr. Lawrence, bought from Whitney the eastern point of the Benoit land, containing 9 acres; the price was $100.16 This purchase gave to Lawrence and Smith the river frontage south of the western half of the Meade land. What had been bought in 1845 and 1846 for $197.73 cost Lawrence $572.71 in 1847. 13 This letter is not in the main body of Lawrence letters but in a special collection relating to the college copied into a bound blank book at Mr. Lawrence's orders in 1853, pp. 48-49, Lawrence College. "Aug. 7, 1848, 1 Deeds, 252. 15 Sept. 7, 1847, ibid., 217. Dividing, we find the price was $3.16 an acre. But if we assume that the price of 31 acres was zero and the price of the remainder (118.18 acres) was $4.00 an acre, we come within one cent of the recorded price. Compare Reeder Smith to Amos A. Lawrence, April 16, 1850. 16 Sept. 8, 1847, ibid., 215. 140 WILLIAM F. RANEY [December

One stage in starting a Middle Western community is reached when a land owner, usually with the help of a surveyor, lays out streets and divides blocks into lots for sale to incoming settlers. Within a short time not one, but three, such enterprises developed side by side along the north bank of the Fox River at the site of Appleton. And of the three the first to reach the stage of market- ing lots—the purpose of the land purchases just chronicled—was that of Amos A. Lawrence and his agent, Reeder Smith. As part of the procedure to get the college under way, Mr. Lawrence had placed $10,000 in the hands of trustees to be held until the Methodists had raised an equal sum.17 The work of starting the town was held back for about a year until the money was raised. Meanwhile farmers were appearing. One settled just west of the present city, late in 1846.18 Another built a cabin in the spring of 1848 on land north of Grignon, and in 1849 bought the land.19 The Wisconsin Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in July, 1848, named a devoted clergyman, the Rev. Wil- liam H. Sampson, as " principal and assistant agent" of their educational enterprise. On August 4 and 5 four men, Sampson, Reeder Smith, a surveyor, and a Methodist layman " surveyed and laid out the Appleton plot." 20 From one point of view this was preparation for building a college; from another, it was a further step in developing the investment of Amos A. Lawrence in land. One square was given to the Institute,21 and in September or October the work of clearing the ground for the first college building began. A contract was made for lumber to be sawed at Oneida, nearly twenty miles northeast, and a road had to be cut by which to

17 The Methodists of Wisconsin, then in the Rock River Conference, accepted Mr. Law- rence's offer in December, 1846. On May 14, 1847, Mr. Lawrence placed $10,000 in the hands of trustees so that it would be available in case of his death. Blank book (cf. Foot- note 13 above), 83- The Wisconsin Conference was separately organized in August, 1847, and took over the college enterprise at that time. The raising of $10,000 was completed in July, 1848. Reeder Smith and William H. Sampson to Amos A. Lawrence, July 19, 1848. 18 This was Bela Murch who bought his land June 29 and moved onto it in November. Elihu Spencer, Pioneers of Outagamie County (Appleton, 1895), 255—57. Mrs. Murch well describes building a shanty. 19 Ezra L. Thurber, who " built a shanty across the ravine west of what is now Pierce's park." Ibid,, 66-67, 77. MIbid., 61. 21 Block No. 3, bounded by College Avenue and Lawrence, Durkee, and Morrison streets. Lawrence College Conservatory has been located in this block since 1909. 1949] APPLETON 141 haul it to Appleton. Before the end of 1848 there were five " shanties " as the nucleus of a future city.22 Many events mark 1849 as most truly the year of beginning. William H. Sampson brought his family to Appleton on Janu- ary 6, and on January 29 Reeder Smith did likewise.23 By August there were thirty families in residence.24 A plat of Appleton, presumably based on the work of the preceding August, was recorded in January.25 This was later described as "wholly irregular and informal,"26 and was superseded by an official plat on May 5.27 The first town meeting of the Town of Grand Chute was held on April 3, 1849; and this was the only local' government for the next four years. Outagamie County was set off from Brown in 1851, with Appleton as the county seat.28 Reeder Smith chose the name of Appleton in the first place because it was the maiden name of Mrs. Lawrence. She was Sarah Elizabeth Appleton, daughter of William Appleton, a successful merchant and importer of Boston. The new name began to dis- place Grand Chute in the fall of 1848. In 1849 Reeder Smith was cultivating another wealthy Bostonian, Samuel Appleton (1766- 1853), and it was agreed by Lawrence and Reeder Smith to tell this Mr. Appleton that the new town was named after him. Amos A. Lawrence wrote on October 1, 1849, "Mr. Smith has had a number of interviews with old Mr. Sam Appleton for whom the town was named. He is a very liberal and a very rich man and eighty-five years old. He is interested in the town and I hope may do something for the Institute/'29 He did eventually give $10,000 as an endowment for the college library.

22 Spencer, Pioneers, 67, 77. 2Zlbid., 78; Reeder Smith to Amos A. Lawrence, Feb. 9, 1849. 24 M. C. Darling to Amos A. Lawrence, Aug. 15, 1849. 25 Office of register of deeds, 1 Plats, 2. 26 These words appear in all abstracts of title for land in the Appleton plat. The author is unknown. 27 1 Plats, 19. The corner south of High Street, now known as the east end of Eighth Street, was later replatted. See John Stevens' map of 1872. 28 Land of the Fox, published by the Outagamie County State Centennial Committee, Gordon A. Bubolz, managing editor (Appleton, 1949), 72, summarizes and quotes from the record of the first town meeting; for the county, ibid., 116. 29 Amos A. Lawrence to Mason C. Darling, Oct. 1, 1849. Reader Smith to Samuel Law- rence, Nov. 12, 1854. On Samuel Appleton, see Dictionary of American Biography. The erroneous statement has often appeared in local histories and newspapers that Samuel Apple- ton, who had no children, was the father-in-law of Amos A. Lawrence. 142 WILLIAM F. RANEY (December

In the same year, 1849, George W. Lawe platted a village east of the land he had given to the university. His surveyor finished his work in August and the plat of Lawesburgh was recorded in September.30 In writing to Mr. Lawrence during 1849 Reeder Smith mentioned more than once the "rival" village of Martin which was being developed across the ravine southwest of the Appleton plat. The owners were Morgan L. Martin of Green Bay, a man very prominent in the early history of Wisconsin, Theodore Conkey, a surveyor for the federal government who lived long in Appleton, and Abram B. Bowen.31 They bought the larger western part of the Benoit tract and other acres west and north of it, and they sold some lots in 1849. Their official plat was not recorded until November 8, 1850, when the name used was not Martin but Grand Chute.32 Also in 1849 all the rest of modern Appleton except forty acres passed by purchase into private hands.33 At least seven of the eleven purchasers of this year really lived in Appleton, most of them for many years.34 And on November 12, 1849, instruction began in Lawrence University. This institution undoubtedly attracted many early settlers to the locality. In 1853 the three little communities were organized as a village, and in 1857 the village became a city.35 Having now reached the point where three competing village plats have been made and recorded, we must disregard chronology for a moment to explain a celebrated lawsuit which is briefly referred to in the abstract of title of all property in the original Ap- pleton plat. The deed given by Meade (September 7, 1847) had 80 1 Plats, 17. The principal boundaries were, on the west, Union Street; north, Franklin Street; east, Catherine Street and Alton Court; and on the south, where the line was irregular, partly John and partly Alton streets (modern names). Lawesburgh was soon increased by additions. 1 Plats, 25-26, Sept. 15, 1851. 31 " Narrative of Morgan L. Martin," Wise. Hist. Soc, Colls., 13:385-415; on Conkey, Commemorative Biographical Record of the Vox River Valley (J. H. Beers and Co., Chicago, 1895), 536-41. This Bowen is not known to have been a resident of Appleton. 32 1 Plats, 13. Bounded by the Fox River or a line near it, Locust and Seventh streets. The name Martin was in use as late as March, 1850. Letter of W. Warner and others to Amos A. Lawrence, March 22, 1850. The name Grand Chute was used in a mortgage written in June. 1 Mortgages, 326. 33 Some of what was purchased in 1849 was land that had been transferred by the federal government to the State of Wisconsin to pay for canalizing the Fox River. The patents to this land came from the State of Wisconsin. The price remained $1.25 an acre. 34 There were seven of these purchasers whose names appeared both in the census of 1850 and in that of 1860: Julius S. Buck, Seth W. Fitch, George W. Gregg or Greig, Josephus B. Holmes, Asa B. Randall, William H. Sampson, and Charles Wolcott. ™Land of the Fox, 94 (for 1853), 97 (for 1857). £ P AJ ore Alt DATCS SHOW Y£AJZ Of PUQCHA/C 6Y PZ'VATC OWN£ZJ WOLCOTT r i NC-H 1849 1849

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MUCCJ-I 144 WILLIAM F. RANEY [December a provision that the Lawrence Institute should be " permanently located upon said lands " within a year. The Whitney deed of the following day required the location of the Institute "upon or within one mile of said tract," also within one year; and it also required that $5,000 "be expended within five years from date" on improvements. Otherwise, in both cases, the land should re- vert to the grantors. The first college building was erected on the Meade land and was the heart of the college until Main Hall was ready for occupancy in 1854. In January, 1857, this first building burned and the trustees, instead of rebuilding, divided the square into lots36 and sold them. The heir of John F. Meade, resting his case on the words "permanently located," brought suit to re- cover the whole of the original Meade lands, which included the principal business section of Appleton. The case was decided by the United States Supreme Court in 1869 against the Meade claims.37 The federal census of the "Town of Grand Chute" was taken September 2 to 10, 1850. The settlers lived mostly on the plats of Appleton and Lawesburgh, with a small number in Martin or Grand Chute. A few families on near-by farms were also included. The inhabitants numbered 619. There were 113 houses and about 120 family groups, including some lodging houses and small hotels. It was a young population; old people had been left behind in the East.38 Whence came these 619 people who were founding a community where none had been before? Some 89 were born in Wisconsin itself. The Grignon family, the only one all of whose members were born in Wisconsin, was French-speaking and quite certainly had little influence among the newly arrived Americans. Most of the others born in Wisconsin, too, had little part in shaping the community, for of the 89 born in Wisconsin, 51 were less than three years old. Those born outside Wisconsin fall into three groups: (1) born in the United States, 392; (2) born in British 36 1 Plats, 6, March 3, 1857, recorded April 4. 37 Edward L. Meade against Anson Ballard et al, 1869, 77 U.S. 290, 7 Wall. 290, 19 L. Ed. 190. 38 The median age was 21. A fourth of the population consisted of children under 9. Only 20 persons were over 50; 55 were over 40 while ten times that number were under 40. 1949] APPLETON 145

North America, 49; and (3) born in the British Isles and the continent of Europe, 89. Among those born in the Eastern states, 247 came from New York and 95 from New England. These two areas contributed 87 percent of the Americans born outside Wis- consin.39 This predominance of New York and New England was not peculiar to Appleton. It characterized most of eastern and southern Wisconsin before 1850; it largely determined the state's system of government and left its mark on the young state in many other ways, even to some extent on the forms taken by its economic life. Those born in British North America were nearly all English- speaking Canadians from Ontario and mingled readily with others in the Middle West. Those from the British Isles, too, easily became American. The population, if not as varied in its training as that of today, possessed many of the skills and specialties needed for community life. There were 4 clergymen, all of the Methodist Episcopal Church. There were 3 physicians and 5 lawyers. Fifty told the census taker they were farmers. Twenty-five were carpenters while 7 others preferred the label, "carpenter and joiner." Doubtless many of these men had helped erect the houses already completed in Appleton and vicinity. To transform trees into lumber, there were 3 whose occupation was lumbering and 4 who were sawyers. The community had 6 who made boots and shoes and 4 tailors. There were 10 merchants, including 1 who ran simply a clothing store.40 This list of occupations gives some idea of how economic life was taking shape. The construction of the canal and its four locks must have been a considerable injection of economic strength. In the years 1850 to 1852 about $32,500 were spent on this enterprise within the present Appleton. Including the similar work at Cedar Rapids and Little Chute, all within four miles of Appleton,

39 Additional statistics about origins are as follows. There were 38 from the Old North- west outside Wisconsin. Pennsylvania furnished 17, New Jersey 3, Maryland 2, and Ken- tucky 1. England had sent 35, Ireland 20, and Scotland 9. Of those from the continent of Europe, 12 were born in Germany, 12 in Holland, and 1 in Norway. 40 Original census sheets. Town of Grand Chute in Brown County, State Historical Society, Madison; photostatic copies, Appleton City Library. The names were arranged alphabetically and printed in Land of the Fox, 59-63. 146 WILLIAM F. RANEY [December the total expended was $95,000.41 A good part of this was paid by contractors to workingmen, and quite a bit of it must ultimately have reached the tills of the Appleton merchants. The oldest assessment roll that has survived for the Appleton area is the one for 1854. This shows that, as was to be expected, the water power already played an important part in the local economy. On the water front were 4 sawmills and an establishment calling itself a "Sawmill, Sash Factory and Turning Mill." Two gristmills, one assessed at $2,000 and the other at $2,500, added together, were worth more than the 5 sawmills. Their existence and operation reflected the fact that wheat was the chief product of the farms near Appleton. For many decades one of the greatest factors in economic life here and throughout the Middle West was the rise in land values. Land on the north edge of the present Appleton, about two miles from the river, was bought from the government in 1849 at $1.25 an acre. In 1854 this land was valued at from $3.00 to $4.00 an acre. In I860 the same land, still unplatted and without improvements, was assessed in one piece after another at $10 an acre. In 1854 a building lot in any of the blocks east of the college library was valued at from $30 to $50. Over in Grand Chute, just south of the county courthouse, lots were a little cheaper, running from $8.00 to $20. In the heart of the business district, on the north side of College Avenue between Oneida and Morrison streets, a vacant space 30 feet wide was assessed at $100; the whole block, including the buildings, at $4,605.42 It seemed quite the practice of the day for men with capital, or with access to capital by borrowing, to buy early and live on the rise in value. Those who came late thus supported many who preceded them. There were many matters connected with the growth of Apple- ton that appear in the history of all communities in the Middle West. Here they need only be referred to their proper place in time. Before the railroads were built, water transport had con- 41 Gouverneur K. Warren, Report on the Transportation Route along the Wisconsin and Fox Rivers in the State of Wisconsin (44 Cong., 1 sess., Senate Doc. No. 28, serial 1664), 28-38, especially pp. 35-36. 42 Assessment Roll, 1854, and Assessment Roll, 1860, for Town of Grand Chute and for Appleton, office of the county treasurer, Outagamie County. FIRST ELECTRIC STREET RAILWAY, APPLETON (Photo, 1886)

1949] APPLETON 147 siderable importance. Many early settlers did part of their journey to Appleton on the steamers which plied Lake Winnebago.43 After the canal and its locks were finished, there was regular steamboat service connecting Green Bay, Appleton, Menasha, Oshkosh, Fond du Lac, and points on the Wolf River and the Upper Fox.44 In 1856 there was what we would call a great civic celebration to welcome the steamer "Aquila" which had traveled from Pitts- burg, Pennsylvania, by way of the Ohio, the Mississippi, the Wis- consin, and the Fox rivers. "The Menasha brass band and the Appleton Saxe Horn band, heading a large delegation from Ap- pleton, Neenah and Menasha went on board the Aquila and passed down the Fox River to Green Bay "45 Appleton was connected with the outside world by telegraph in November, 1850.46 The first railroad was the North Western, which was extended from Neenah-Menasha in March, 1861. It went on to give connection with Green Bay in the following year.47 The first newspaper, the Appleton Crescent, began publication on Febru- ary 1, 1853. Community activities such as local government, school districts, and churches, developed to meet the needs of the growing community, at first largely on the model of New York State and New England. There can be no question here of a history of Lawrence College, though it is hard to imagine the city without its twin institution. About the time of the first World War the number of students greatly increased, exceeding 800 in 1920-21, and included a larger contingent from Appleton itself than had attended twenty years earlier at the turn of the century. The result is that now those who were college students in the twenties are rather numerous in the city and these form a bond between the two communities—if the college and the city are, indeed, two communities. No attempt can be made, either, to sketch the history of the manufacturing which makes Appleton so busy and so prosperous. 43 One example, Spencer, Pioneers, 88. ^Thomas H. Ryan, editor-in-chief, History of Outagamie County, Wisconsin (Chicago, n.d. [1912]), 411-25. *lbid., 418. 46 Frederick Packard to Amos A. Lawrence, Nov. 2, 1850. 4T Robert J. Casey and W. A. S. Douglas, Pioneer Railroad: The Story of the Chicago and North Western System (New York, 1948), 308. 148 WILLIAM F. RANEY [December

One aspect of Appleton's past is to consider it as a melting-pot, as a place where, in this instance, Germans and Yankees at first lived side by side in their different ways and then effected a fusion, partial and gradual at first, which is now almost complete. We need consider only the Germans. The census of 1910 showed that about one-third of the people, either of Appleton or of Outagamie County, were German-speaking. They completely dwarfed any other immigrant group. The next most numerous, those born in Holland and their children, composed one-seventh of the county population, and were still fewer in the city of Appleton.48 In 1850 only 12 persons born in Germany were living here— a negligible number so far as shaping the community is concerned. Ten years later, when the population of the city was 2,345, there were 188 in Appleton, born in German-speaking Europe. About two-thirds of them were from Prussia. The number, 188, includes also persons from Hungary with German names; and likewise, some from France, presumed to be Alsatians. Adding the children in families where both parents were European-born and Ger- man speaking, we have altogether 260.49 This is only about 11 percent of the population. In spite of the presence of some Irish and English and a good many born in Holland, Appleton was a pre- dominately Yankee community until after the Civil War. The Germans came in greater numbers in the 1860's and soon created their own cultural organizations. The first Roman Cath- olic Church in Appleton, St. Mary's, which erected a building in 1859, was largely for the Irish. The second, for the Germans, was organized in 1868. The earliest Lutheran church began in 1867. The Appleton Volksfreund, a German-language newspaper, began in 1870 and was destined to last for more than half a century. A Tumverein was also organized, and a German branch of the Odd Fellows, known as the Rhine Lodge. A private school, conducted in the German language, was instituted in 1869.50 And

48 Those born in Germany or Austria, plus native-born with both parents born in Germany or Austria, Appleton, 38.2 percent; Outagamie County, 32.2 percent; similarly from Hol- land for the county, 4.3 percent. U.S. Census, Thirteenth, 1910, 3:1090, 1098. 49 Original census sheets, Appleton, State Historical Society, Madison; photostatic copies, Appleton City Library, hand count. 60 Appleton [first] City Directory, compiled by J. Alfred Dull (Appleton, 1874), 19, 28, 41, 44. 1949] APPLETON 149

there was a Liederkranz, or singing society, which sometimes organized dancing parties.51 In any list of persons that gives a cross section of the community—for example, the roster of a class graduating from the Appleton Senior High School—more than a third, and often nearly half, of the names are German. People of German ancestry seem to monopolize certain occupations, very notably, the building trades. Most of our city officials, perhaps three-fourths of the councilmen and of the supervisors the city sends to the county board have German names.52 And yet these same people have failed to keep alive a German-language newspaper. The Turnverein, the German lodge, the separate German school—all those German institutions that began so bravely three-quarters of a century ago—have faded out. German is not a living language with the younger members of what was once a thriving German community, eager to perpetu- ate its Deutschtum. The longest-lived institutions in Appleton which have sprung from German roots seem to me to be certain churches. In the latter half of the nineteenth century about 40 percent of the people of Germany were Roman Catholic. Many of Appleton's families of German ancestry are in the Roman Catholic parishes because Catholicism is a part of their heritage. To be sure, Irish and Belgians and some Dutch and other groups have helped to constitute the Roman Catholic element in Appleton; but the descendants of Germans outnumber, one suspects, all the others combined. An even larger number of the migrants from Germany were Lutherans; Appleton has ten Lutheran churches today. In some of them there are still services in German, but eventually all those who wish to worship in German will be gone, a vanished generation like the Grand Army of the Republic. It is the younger Lutherans, those using the English language, who will carry on a church quite unknown to the New Yorkers and New Englanders who founded Appleton.

51 Ryan, Outagamie County, 200, 212. 52 Directory: City Officials, 1949-50: Appleton, Wisconsin, pamphlet of 36 pages, contains the names. 150 WILLIAM F. RANEY [December

One cannot be in Appleton long without noticing a building on the north side of College Avenue topped by a sign which reads, "Aid Association for Lutherans." This building is the home office and national headquarters of a fraternal society which provides life insurance and other financial services for Lutherans of the Synodical Conference: that is, of the Missouri Synod, the Wisconsin Synod, and some smaller groups. It is an excellent example of a transformation from something German into something American. When it began, in 1902, most of the members were German- speaking workingmen; many of them were born in Germany. The title of the society was German at first, (f Unterstutzungs-Gesell- schaft fur Lutheraner in Wisconsin und anderen Staaten." The association had a German version of its constitution and by-laws; it had printed instructions for its solicitors and advertising matter in German; official minutes were kept in German script until 1918. And yet the society was also partly American from the beginning. It definitely imitated American fraternal societies. Many ideas for improvement came from the insurance departments of the various states. However German the early members of this society may have been, individually and as a group they were be- coming more American with every passing year. The use of the German language gradually disappeared. Though practically all of the officers and employees have German names and belong to churches of the Synodical Conference, they are now simply Ameri- cans. Few among them, and almost none under thirty years of age, can use the German language. In its business methods the association is indistinguishable from other American organizations of similar scope and purpose.53 The Aid Association was chosen as a large and very clear example of the fusion of German and American. And what is true of this society is true also of other enterprises in Appleton which were founded and carried on through their early years by Germans. One last theme may be added that perhaps comes appropriately from a teacher of European history. Appleton should be thought 53 The Association's periodical, Der Correspondent, after 1918 The Correspondent; conversations with founders and officers. 1949} APPLETON 151 of with reference to larger frameworks of time and space than any that have thus far appeared in this short summary. Compared with all recorded history, Appleton's story is very short. And similarly, in comparison with the geographical extent of our civilization, Appleton's few square miles are very small indeed. Appleton en- joys much, exemplifies much, is the result of much, which she cannot possibly have originated. There is, for instance, the present amicable division of the population into Roman Catholic and Protestant; and there are further cleavages among the Protestants. Adequately to explain the differences of today would require a study of Western Europe during many centuries and of the migra- tions from it. Again, Appleton has power machinery not invented here. Also, she was greatly affected by two World Wars which she had no part in causing. It would be easy to multiply examples. Appleton, like other American communities, is the heir of many generations; and she constantly keeps in step with a great world of which she is but a tiny part. Appleton does not and cannot live unto herself alone: she partakes somewhat of all ages and all climes. We of this community must, therefore, count ourselves the citizens of no mean city. Chautauqua and the Midwest

By HARRISON JOHN THORNTON

HE WORD " Chautauqua " is applied to the extreme southwest county in the State of New York, to a pleasant lake within Tthat county, and to the social institution that took its rise during the decade following the Civil War. The latter, the Chautauqua movement, had three well-defined phases. The first was an outdoor religious and educational association that held its initial meeting by the lake in the New York woodland in August, 1874. When its success became apparent, many imitators appropriating the name already in use by the pioneer establishment appeared in similar beauty spots in all sections of the nation. From their success in turn stemmed the third aspect: the mobile units that with huge tents and paraphernalia moved through chains of towns and villages commonly referred to as circuits. Though the parent Chautauqua has always been at pains to dis- sociate itself from the circuit organizations, it was a source of inspiration for all of its fixed-location imitators. Through them, as well as through its own widely diffused clientele, it made a direct impact upon thought and feeling far beyond its own neighborhood. Its stimulating relation to the social and intellectual life of the Midwest is not difficult to observe. The immediate impulse behind the parent Chautauqua was religious. A Methodist clergyman and a layman* decided independently and at about the same time that something should be done to improve the quality of Sunday school teaching. The outcome of their deliberations was the establishment of a teachers' institute which

PROFESSOR THORNTON has for many years been a member of the history department of the State University of Iowa, Iowa City. Chautauqua, one of his special fields of research and writing, will bring pleasant recollections of huge tabernacles and crowds and oratory, since Wisconsin,-too, has an excellent record as a participant in this movement.

1 John H. Vincent and Lewis Miller. 152 CHAUTAUQUA AND THE MIDWEST 153

undertook to apply normal school pedagogical methods to Sabbath school instruction. The devotional spirit never departed from Chautauqua, but very soon after its beginnings the program of the summertime Assembly was broadened to embrace aspects of both popular education and academic study.2 The first found expression in a public forum held in what is known locally as the Amphitheater. To its platform through the years came a succession of clergymen, travelers, politicians, statesmen, scientists, artists, and scholars whose offerings were informative, inspirational, and provocative by turn. The Chautauquans were not using their sylvan dell as a retreat from the sharp tensions of the late nineteenth century. On the contrary, they were easily persuaded by their leaders to devote idyllic summer days to agitated thought and discussion of contemporary problems. Increasingly through the seventies, eighties, and nineties, Chautauqua speakers considered controversial public issues with the open encouragement of the managers.3 Both sides on controversial subjects judged suffi- ciently important and timely could gain a hearing. Indeed, the proponents of each were sought out and urged to argue their briefs. The people of Chautauqua were citizens with opinions and convictions of their own and were not always pleased by what was presented. Yet they commonly assumed the character of a jury and listened with open minds. And what they heard of social criticism and disputation on the margin of their lovely lake they carried back to be reported, pondered, and debated in the winter reading circles that were springing up in very large numbers in every state of the Union. It should be understood that the directors of the unique Assembly in the New York woods had no thought of permitting their platform to be made a vehicle solely or chiefly of social protest. Devotional discourse has been liberally presented by ministers of national repu- tation from the beginning until now. Lectures on history, economics, the humanities, and science have always been provided in profusion.

2 John H. Vincent, The Chautauqua Movement (Boston, 1886). This is Vincent's own narrative of the establishment and early development of the original Chautauqua. 3 Lewis Miller declared that Chautauquans should face squarely such questions as temperance, Sabbath observance, problems of property, labor, trade, money, and the rights of women. See the Chautauquan Daily, Aug. 2, 1920. 154 HARRISON JOHN THORNTON [December

During the early years, politics was regarded nervously and, on the whole, excluded from the formal gatherings, but in the later decades a swelling number of politicians, statesmen, political scientists, analysts, and commentators has freely discussed domestic and foreign politics in the interests of public enlightenment. Sharp issues have sometimes been joined in debate. Rival party candidates have presented their programs. Between Grant and Franklin Roosevelt, no less than seven Presidents of the United States have spoken from Chautauqua's platform.4 Another aspect of the New York institution's general educational operations that reached more deeply into the cultural life of the Midwest was the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle. This was a system of individual reading started in 1878 by John H. Vincent, one of the founders of Chautauqua.5 His appeal was chiefly to persons who had been denied the privilege of advanced education. Those who joined were pledged to four years of prescribed work, the reward for which was a certificate which might be received either through the mail, or with ceremony at the lakeside Assembly. There was no pretense that this reading was meant to be a substitute for college attendance. Vincent's hope, however, was that it would develop what he called " the college outlook."6 Though expected to read alone in their homes, members of this organization soon combined themselves into local groups, or circles as they came to be called. These became immensely popular, and could reasonably claim to constitute the first national book club in America. In addition to accomplishing the required reading of some half do2en volumes a year, the members of these associations wrote and read papers, conducted debates, held discussions and demonstrations, and sometimes listened to lectures. The weekly programs were reminiscent of the first phase of the Lyceum movement in which the great emphasis was on personal and group study. These circles were very active in the river valleys of the hinter- land. It was reported during the eighties that reading units were so

4 These were Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt (present five times), William Howard Taft, and Franklin D. Roosevelt (present four times). 5 Chautauqua Assembly Herald, Aug. 10, 12, 1878. 6 Ibid., Aug. 12, 1878; Vincent. Cbautauqua Movement, 75-76. 1949] CHAUTAUQUA AND THE MIDWEST 155 numerous in Indiana and Michigan "that there is scarcely a town or village in which there is not a local circle, or at least a few individual members."7 In Wisconsin, units were formed at Appleton, Darlington, Dartford (now Green Lake), Elkhorn, Milwaukee, Waupun, Eau Claire, Sparta, Sheboygan, and Whitewater.8 During the nineties, the reading clubs multiplied spectacularly throughout the Midwest, and the movement rolled on through the Dakotas to Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Oregon, and Washington.9 Before the ebb tide set in, more than 11,000 organized reading units were sponsored by the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle in the nation at large, and at least three quarters of a million persons inscribed their names upon its rolls.10 The Chautauqua movement in all its phases was an affair of small centers, though reading groups were found in large cities including New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Cincinnati, Chicago, St. Louis, and Kansas City. For the most part, however, the circles flourished in the diminutive communities. At the century's end, 25 percent were in villages of less than 500 population, and 50 percent in towns of 500 to 3,500 persons.11 The clientele of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle was composed of persons from all walks and sections of life. Inspection of the membership lists reveals the enrollment of a servant girl, a night watchman, a Mississippi River boat captain, a store clerk, and an army officer's wife. The servant girl, reported one who followed the fortunes of this particular company, joined a circle, read faithfully, went to the State Normal School, and eventually 7 Chautauquan, 4:31 (October, 1883). This periodical was the monthly journal of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle. 8 A random sampling of the records for the middle eighties, show such associations were also to be found in Chicago, Alton, Evanston, Moline, Kankakee, Quincy, Janesville, Preston, Carbondale, Galesburg, Tuscola, Rushville, MacLeansboro, Yorkville, and Jacksonville, Illi- nois; Grinnell, Ackley, Davenport, Muscatine, Burlington, Marshalltown, Council Bluffs, Strawberry Point, Grundy Center, Cedar Rapids, and Iowa City, Iowa; Minneapolis, Albert Lea, Blue Earth, Crookston, Duluth, Faribault, Hastings, Spring Valley, Waseca, Worth- ington, Zumbrota, Minnesota; Emporia, Eureka, Hiawatha, Osawatomie, Ottawa, Elk Falls, Andover, Wyandotte, Leavenworth, Maple Hill, Wichita, Kansas; Carthage, Desoto, Inde- pendence, Springfield, New Market, Clarksville, St. Louis, Missouri; Blair, Columbus, Falls City, Holdrege, Nebraska City, Seward, Lincoln, Omaha, Nebraska. Ibid., vols. 4 and 5, passim. 9 Ibid., vols. 10-30, passim. 10Ibid., 37:386 (July, 1903). Report to the New York Commissioner of Education, December, 1940. 11 Chautauquan, 37:386 (July, 1903). 156 HARRISON JOHN THORNTON [December became a teacher. The watchman read his books as he came to the lights on his solitary rounds. The river captain rehearsed his lessons as he stood upon the bridge of his ship. The clerk did the reading with his wife between five and seven in the morning. The army officer's lady wept with joy when the books arrived to break the monotony of her life on the western plains.12 A small percentage of circles organized on an occupational basis as, for example, factory working girls in Philadelphia, and Daven- port, Iowa, housewives in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, railroad workers, and army and naval personnel at remote military posts and on ships at sea. In the great majority of instances, however, readers were drawn into the associations without regard to their vocational character. A company in Columbus, Nebraska, was composed of farmers, teachers, clerks, and housekeepers. Another at Grundy Center, Iowa, contained "three ministers, Methodist, Baptist, and Presbyterian, and their wives, one doctor, four lawyers, an editor, two school teachers, a banker's wife, two merchants' wives, a county officer, and two farmers." In the membership of the group at Syracuse, New York, were teachers, lawyers, druggists, bookkeepers, students, a newspaper reporter, a chemist, a potter, and an artist. In religion, it was reported, " we represent Methodists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Episcopalians, Roman Catholics, and un- believers."13 If the C.L.S.C. attracted chiefly middle class elements (though it was not without its appeal to laboring groups), it came also to the attention of society's unfortunates in the prisons and peniten- tiaries of the land. Active circles were organized inside many penal institutions. The " Look Forward " Circle in Nebraska's State Penitentiary enjoyed the active cooperation of the associates in Lin- coln. In 1892 it had a membership of sixty-six. The "Pierian Circle " in the Minnesota State Prison at Stillwater took its motto from a line in Pope's Essay on Criticism'. "Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring." The meetings were held every Sunday in the prison chapel. A membership limit of thirty-six was established;

12 Jesse L. Hurlbut, The Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, Chautauqua Hand Books, no. 2, 1881, pp. 22-24; New York Tribune Monthly, September, 1890, p. 26. 13 Chautauquan, 4:481 (May, 1884), 5:480 (May, 1885), 9:169 (December, 1888), 12:120 (October, 1890). 1949] CHAUTAUQUA AND THE MIDWEST 157 and there was a list of aspirants eagerly awaiting vacancies. " The aim of this circle/' it was declared in the by-laws, " is to improve the moral and intellectual faculties of those who experience a desire to improve their minds by elevating and instructive literature, and by systematically pursuing the course of readings arranged by the C.L.S.C. each year; to encourage individual discussion of the various subjects under consideration, and thereby to attain that knowledge which is essential to all who aspire to an honorable position in the world, and which is, in itself, a rich guarantee of future good citizenship." Papers written by the members sometimes were published.14 The nature of the reading done is, of course, a fundamental factor in a consideration of the cultural importance of the CL.S.C The first book adopted, in 1878, was a worthy one: John Richard Green's Short History of the English People. There was astonish- ment in the office of Harper and Brothers when a telegraphed order for fifty copies came from an unknown place in the woods of western New York, and entire bewilderment when additional calls arrived for fifty and hundred lots. Other volumes in that same year's assignment were, J. P. Mahaffy's Old Greek Life, Stopford Brooke's English Literature, Henry White Warren's Recreations in Astronomy, John F. Hurst's Outline of Bible History, Bradford K. Peirce's The Word of God Opened, J. Dorman Steele's Fourteen Weeks in Human Physiology, and Augusta Larned's Old Tales Re- told from Grecian Mythology. In addition to these, the first four of a lengthy series of pocket-size texts were made available; these dealt with astronomy, history, and Greek and English literature. History, literature, science, political economy, sociology, and theology were the subjects emphasized as the scope of the reading association broadened. One of the required books during the year 1889-90 was Richard T. Ely's An Introduction to Political Economy. Among his other works adopted were Outlines of Economics, The Strength and Weakness of Socialism, and Studies in the Evolution of Indus- trial Society. James Bryce's Social Institutions of the United States was one of the selections for 1891-92, it being a reprint of portions ^Ibid., 13:793 (September, 1891), 32:310 (December, 1900), 57:158 (December, 1909). See also By-Laws of the Pierian Circle. 158 HARRISON JOHN THORNTON [December

of the American Commonwealth. The practice developed of group- ing the readings into a quadrennium designated as the Classical, European, English, and American years.15 By 1880, the C.L.S.C. had at its service a monthly periodical known as The Chautauquan, described as "A Magazine for Self- Education." Its pages were devoted to general and special articles of historical and contemporary nature. A substantial portion of the contents was required reading for the enrolled membership, and a large amount of space was devoted to news of the circles reported by local correspondents, and to communications of class presidents and secretaries. The level of The Chautauquan's academic quality is indicated by the fact that among its historian contributors were Edward A. Freeman, Herbert B. Adams, Albert Bushnell Hart, Ida M. Tarbell, Theodore Roosevelt, and Woodrow Wilson. Like the annual book selections, The Chautauquan circulated widely in the Midwest, and bound sets are to be found in many public libraries. It should be pointed out that an effort was made to hold readers in formal association beyond completion of the quadrennium. Many continued with their original groups, and in some instances " graduate " circles were formed. Special readings were assembled for their benefit, and the members could work for seals of attestation to be attached annually to their certificates. Among "graduate" courses were readings in history, literature, Biblical literature, geography, travel, psychology, philology, art, temperance, and missions. It has to be granted that the amount of reading required did not remain as extensive as during the early years of the movement. The number of books was periodically reduced, and at the present time stands at three or four a year. The Chautauquan ceased publication in 1914. Nor has exacting proof been demanded that the studies were well mastered. Plans for searching examinations were early abandoned in favor of completed memoranda designed to elicit intelligent responses to the material covered. As of today, signed affirmations that the work has been faithfully performed are judged acceptable.

15 Arthur E. Bestor, Jr., Chautauqua Publications, An Historical and Bibliographical Guide (New York, 1934); Chautauquan, 1:120 (December, 1880); Vincent, Chautauqua Move- ment, 111-12,206. 1949] CHAUTAUQUA AND THE MIDWEST 159

The great expansive period of the C.L.S.C. was the seventies, eighties, and nineties. Decline set in during the early years of the twentieth century and, notwithstanding the suggestion and application of relief devices, the conclusion could not be avoided that the movement had passed its zenith. Chief among the causes of its recession was the rise of competitive reading associations. As early as 1901, the president of Chautauqua Institution was describing to his trustees the operations of a Book Lovers' Library in Philadelphia with branches in 400 towns and villages. The reading, it was noted, was neither systematic nor specifically guided, and the members had a wide selection from which to choose. In later years rising competition was also acknowledged from the library committee of the General Federation of Woman's Clubs, the Religious Book Club, the Book-of-the-Month Club, the Literary Guild, the reading clubs promoted by several publishing interests, and, of course, the steady expansion of the free public libraries. In his report of 1928, President Bestor was acknowledging that " the C.L.S.C. is meeting with very strenuous competition." 16 It was not to be expected that the association could overcome the forces of national economic depression during the thirties, or the increasing power and appeal of motion pictures, radio broadcasting, newspapers, magazines, and other agencies and devices for communicating ideas and absorbing leisure. Chautauqua's developing academic program led to the establishment of a summer school, probably the first in the country to achieve continuity. Hebrew and Greek were being formally studied in the seventies, and before the close of the decade, a school of languages had been organized which offered, in addition, Latin, French, and German. With the opening of the eighties, it could be claimed that the foundations of a collegiate department had been laid. In 1883 a charter to establish a university was granted by the New York State Legislature, but although some degrees were con- ferred, the venture was over-ambitious, and ended with the sur- render of the charter in 1892.17 To the annual sessions of the 18 Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Board of Trustees, January, 1901, p. 7; President's Annual Report to the Board of Trustees, 1928, p. 8. "Vincent, Chautauqua Movement, 68-71, Chautauqua Year-Book for 1895 (New York, 1895), 8-10. 160 HARRISON JOHN THORNTON [December summer school came a stream of students from most of the states. New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio provided the largest percentage, but Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, and the Dakotas sent their delegations. By the turn of the century there were more than 2,500 registrations in Chautauqua's summer school. In 1923, an agreement was reached whereby credits could be transferred to New York University and there applied toward an academic degree. This plan is still in operation.18 Particularly conspicuous was the number of scholars from the Midwest who journeyed to Chautauqua to teach in the summer period and lecture from the Assembly platform. Notable among them was William Rainey Harper, whose relation to the lakeside institution was sustained and intimate. From the faculty of the Chicago Baptist Union Theological Seminary Harper first went to Chautauqua in 1883 as instructor in Hebrew. He also gave daily Bible readings and expositions. The New York Tribune once said of him that though not a clergyman, he knew the Bible so well that " if the Old Testament were lost, he could probably reconstruct most of its books from memory."19 In 1887, the young scholar from the Midwest was made principal of the Chautauqua College of Liberal Arts, and in a little while it was realized that his academic brilliance was balanced by an extraordinary competence for administration. So evident was this fact that in 1892 he was called to be the first president of the University of Chicago. From this event, a strong connection developed between the lakeside institutions in New York and Illinois. The influence of Chautauqua was seen in the policies which Harper carried from one to the other. Among these were the adoption of a summer quarter and extension and correspondence study. Though he had made some experiments with the two latter devices before going to Chautauqua, it was there that he became convinced of their enduring worth. For several years after his presidential appointment, Harper spent each weekend of the Assembly season

18 John H. Vincent, Survey of Seasons, 1874-1907 (New York, 1908), 15; President's Annual Report to the Board of Trustees, 1923, p. 6; New York University Catalogue, 1923-1924, p. 409. 10 New York Tribune Monthly, September, 1890, p. 9. 1949} CHAUTAUQUA AND THE MIDWEST 161 at Chautauqua, and retained the principalship of its educational system until 1895. From the Chicago faculty went a steady pro- cession of teachers. With the earliest were S. H. Clark, Hermann E. Von Hoist, Shailer Mathews, C. F. Castle, E. H. Lewis, J. F. Miller, and Ira M. Price. From Chicago, too, went George E. Vincent and Arthur E. Bestor, both of them to become presidents of Chautauqua Institution. Engaged in the cultural exchange either in the classroom or Amphitheater were professors and instructors from other Midwest colleges and universities. Included in the institutions so represented were Michigan, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Northwestern, Purdue, and Hamline universities. In addition to the influences and reports carried by these teachers from Chautauqua to their neighborhoods, the New York institution sent its extension lecturers, or their manuscripts, or the means of correspondence study, into Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, North and South Dakota, Colorado, Montana, and Idaho. Among those at- tending a university extension conference at Chautauqua in 1892 was Professor J. C. Freeman who reported on results accomplished by his own institution. The University of Wisconsin, he said, was then offering ten extension courses for enrollment in which ninety- seven requests had been received.20 Two men who contributed richly to Chautauqua, and conspicu- ously carried its cultural ideology into the Midwest were George Edgar Vincent and Richard T. Ely. The first, son of one of the founders of Chautauqua, absorbed the spirit of this institution from childhood to maturity. He accompanied Harper to Chicago where he became instructor, professor, and dean. From 1911-17 he was president of the University of Minnesota. As already noted, he served Chautauqua as its president, and following his Minnesota period was advanced to the presidency of the Rockefeller Founda- tion. Ely, from his classroom at the Johns Hopkins University, first went to Chautauqua during the 1880's, and for many years continued a relation with the Institution which he greatly valued. Of course, he carried his own genius there, but he also brought back much treasure to share with his adopted Midwest whither he went 20 Ibid., September, 1892, pp. 23-25; Chautauqua Assembly Herald, July 23, 1892. 162 HARRISON JOHN THORNTON [December in 1892 to teach at the University of Wisconsin. Several of his books, as previously observed, were included in the reading lists adopted by the C.L.S.C. The imitative institutions that reflected the spirit and extended the influence of the original and still-continuing Chautauqua in New York can be but briefly mentioned. That the parent unit recognized this development was many times acknowledged. " We Chautauquans are apt to consider ourselves the only Assembly," the editor of the Chautauqua Assembly Herald wrote in 1886, but that was a mistake, he acknowledged. "We are the original, and the model upon which all others are formed. We send out the ideas which govern... [them]; our plans are theirs; our lecturers largely fill their platforms many of them are coming to proportions almost as great as our own." 21 However, the relation was spiritual and never administrative or financial. Each of the imitators was an independent venture, sustained by local officials and patrons. These fixed Chautauqua assemblies, often housed in durable structures, could be found in woodland clearings, by attractive lake shorelines, on mountain slopes, and in sequestered valleys from Ohio to the Dakotas and from Wisconsin to Florida and Texas. Their programs of lectures, round table discussions, religious exercises, and entertainment features were distributed through sessions of from two to ten weeks' duration. Some of them adopted the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle projects, or served as hosts to regional circle members who could not afford to travel to New York. Some- times, even, a replica of Chautauqua's Golden Gate was set up through which " graduates " of the reading course passed to receive the certificates which had been forwarded for the purpose. For the same reasons that brought about the decline of the reading circles, the vigor that sustained the independents, as also the circuits that followed them, was all but spent by the opening of the dismal thirties. A few survivors could still be found, but they were shorn of their former assurance, and served simply as shadows of the vanished hundreds that at the apex of achievement were spread across the nation from coast to coast.

21 Ibid., Aug. 5, 1886. 1949] CHAUTAUQUA AND THE MIDWEST 163

The cultural consequences of a half century of Chautauqua activity are difficult if not indeed impossible to measure with pre- cision, yet the attempt should certainly be made. All too commonly the disposition of critics and commentators has been to regard the movement with amused tolerance or dismiss it with satire and ridicule. Such an attitude is as regrettable as it is superficial, and the social historian should undertake to correct it, or, at least, subject the whole phenomenon to a more searching study and appraisal than it has yet received. Chautauqua is to be taken seriously. An institution that in its several phases led hundreds of thousands of every-day Americans to commit themselves to a course of guided reading of from one to four and even more years; that annually attracted a million persons to the fixed Assemblies to hear lectures and good music, and make their first acquaintance with tasteful theatrical performance; and that enticed a larger host to the swiftly moving tents for substantially the same purposes, is not properly to be described as a circus or culturally classed with the carnival. If logic does not suggest a more exalted judgment than conventionally has been presented, the assertions of the participants themselves should require it. The testimony is abundant that the multitudes of ardent folk swarming to the summer gatherings found not only diversion and entertainment, but also food for mind and spirit, and inspiration for richer, happier living. Moreover, the influence of Chau- tauqua though diminished is enduring. Here in this central valley a remnant of readers is yet at work with the C.L.S.C.; some continue to make the annual pilgrimage to the New York lakeside; and innumerable hearts would still be warmed and affectionate memories stirred by the mere mention of Chautauqua's enchanting name. A Madison Man at Nome

By CARL L. LOKKE

A HALF-CENTURY AGO the rich placer gold discoveries near IX Nome, Alaska (following those in the Klondike) brought JL JL this slumbering region sharply to the attention of private individual and public official alike. Thousands of people flocked to the new gold fields. Soon bitter disputes arose over the ownership of the valuable claims on Anvil Creek and other streams. Late comers attempted to wrest these properties from the Scandi- navian original locators on the grounds that the original locators were aliens. Improper and excessive staking also was charged. But Nome had no court before which the rival claimants could be heard. In order to provide the necessary judicial machinery the Congress, after a protracted debate on the question of alien ownership, passed a civil code bill (June 6, 1900) providing for the appointment of three United States district court judges, that is one for each of the divisions into which the region was divided. The second division embraced Seward Peninsula, where Nome is situated, and some contiguous territory. Although the code prescribed St. Michael as the judge's residence, the pressure of business in Nome resulted in his staying there most of the time. Arthur H. Noyes, formerly of Baraboo, Wisconsin, and then a practicing attorney in Minneapolis, was appointed judge at Nome. George V. Borchsenius of Madison, Wisconsin, became his clerk. They and other officials reached the mining camp in July, 1900; but their coming brought no peace. Noyes promptly placed several Anvil Creek claims in the hands of a receiver, Alexander McKenzie

CARL L. LOKKE of the Foreign Affairs Section, National Archives, Wash- ington, D.C., writes of the vindication of George V. Borchsenius, an Alaskan court official a half century ago. The maneuvering between corrupt court officials and persecuted mine owners and the role played by Borchsenius resulted in the writing of Rex Beach's The Spoilers, so colorful was the whole affair. You'll want to read the story centering on the placer gold discoveries in the Nome locale. 164 A MADISON MAN AT NOME 165 of North Dakota, who had gone to Alaska with him. McKenzie took possession of and began to work the mines. The outraged owners, denied relief by the judge, appealed to the United States circuit court of appeals in San Francisco. The circuit court directed the judge and the receiver to return the property to the owners. When they refused, the circuit court had the receiver arrested and brought to San Francisco for trial. McKenzie was found guilty of contempt of court and given a prison sentence, but was soon pardoned by President McKinley. Several months later the same court tried Noyes for contempt of court; it found him guilty also and imposed a fine upon him. President Theodore Roosevelt then removed Noyes and appointed another judge in Nome. The details of these events were paraded at great length before the public by the newspapers. America had a cause celebre, its at- mosphere reminding one somewhat of France after the condem- nation of Dreyfus. Nor did interest in the Nome court scandal vanish with the removal of Noyes. Sensing the dramatic possi- bilities of the story, Rex Beach, a former prospector in the Nome country, wrote a novel about it called The Spoilers. Within a decade a motion picture with the same title was adapted from this popular book. Beach also published a series of articles on the subject.1 Still later Judge Morrow, a member of the circuit court that condemned McKenzie and Noyes, reviewed the episode in an address at the University of California.2 Finally Judge Wickersham, who held court in Nome following the departure of Noyes in the summer of 1901, devoted three chapters of his Old Yukon to a pungent discussion of the McKenzie-Noyes conspiracy and its after- math.3 All of these accounts are sympathetic toward the Scandi- navian original locators of the Anvil Creek claims and hostile toward the court. They state outright or convey the impression that every one of the court officials was corrupt. If we permit the mellow light of history to play upon the scene, we discover that the lines were not clearly drawn between a group 1 Rex E. Beach, " The Looting of Alaska: The True Story of a Robbery by Law," Apple- ton's Booklovers Magazine, vol. 7 (Jan.-May, 1906), seriatim. 2William W. Morrow, "'The Spoilers,'" California Law Review, 4:89-113 (Jan., 1916). 3James Wickersham, Old Yukon: Tales, Trails, Trials (Washington, 1938), 337-63. 166 CARL L. LOKKE [December of thoroughly corrupt court officials on the one hand and a group of innocent persecuted mine owners on the other. Borchsenius, the clerk, opposed Noyes's practices from the beginning. He had been appointed at the instance of the powerful Senator Spooner of Wis- consin, who among many others supported Noyes for the judgeship. The two appointments seemed like a good arrangement. Apart from their common Wisconsin background, both men were graduates of the University of Wisconsin Law School. But Borchsenius, a man of Scandinavian descent, was early discovered to be un- sympathetic with the attempt to despoil the mine owners. Noyes removed him in July, 1901. This act led indirectly to the judge's own ruin, for Borchsenius reported to Spooner the treatment he had received. The senator supported the clerk's successful campaign to get reinstatement and vindication. Senator Knute Nelson of Minnesota seems to have done the same. The role of Borchsenius in the Nome affair is here told, we believe, for the first time.4

SECURING THE APPOINTMENT AS CLERK

Borchsenius appears to have become interested in going north about the time the debate on the civil government bill for Alaska began. The interest stemmed in part from personal connections. He was acquainted with Dr. A. N. Kittilsen of Stoughton, Wiscon- sin, who, as the first recorder of the Cape Nome mining district, had recorded the Anvil Creek claims in the fall of 1898. Then, in February or March, 1900, Borchsenius received a visit in Madison from Jafet Lindeberg, a co-owner of the rich discovery claim on Anvil.5 This visit may have inspired the young bookkeeper in the Wisconsin state treasurer's office to try his own luck in Alaska,

4 This article is based primarily on records of the Department of Justice in the National Archives, the John C. Spooner Papers in the Library of Congress, and the printed testimony at the trial of Judge Noyes in San Francisco (Judge Morrow presented a copy of this printed testimony, 14 volumes, to the Library of Congress in 1915), and newspaper files. For an interesting recent survey of the early years in Nome, see Leland H. Carlson, " Swedish Pioneers and the Discovery of Gold in Alaska," American Swedish Historical Foundation, Yearbook 1948, p. 63-81. George Borchsenius is identified in footnotes by last name only; his father is identified as H. Borchsenius. 5 United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth District, San Francisco, California, Transcript of proceedings and testimony tin the matter of Arthur H. Noyes, et al.J (San Francisco [1901]), 12:2899-2901. Hereinafter cited as Circuit Court, Transcript. 1949] A MADISON MAN AT NOME 167 provided he could obtain an official appointment to take him there. It was enough to set anyone's mind buzzing to meet the Norwegian immigrant who in a few months had changed his lot from poor reindeer herder to millionaire mine owner. In the civil government bill Borchsenius saw his chance. He determined to apply for the clerkship of the proposed district court at Nome. In mid-April a friend of his, a former congressman, wrote to the President recommending the appointment.6 The appointment at that time was expected to be presidential. Two weeks later Borchsenius wrote to Senator Spooner to enlist his support. Unfortunately this letter of May 1 is missing from the files, but we know its general contents from the senator's friendly reply promising to do what he could to obtain the position desired by his constituent.7 The judge would appoint the clerk of his court, he explained. There matters rested until the day before the Alaska bill passed. Feeling no doubt that it was time to remind the senator of the Nome clerkship, Hans Borchsenius, father of George and a lawyer in Madison, wrote to Spooner.8 George, he declared, was " confident your influence will secure him the position." As for himself he expressed his belief that his son would do honor to the senator's recommendation. Spooner probably needed no reminder. The judges of the three district courts were appointed the same day the Alaska bill was passed, but everything had been agreed upon some days before. Senator Davis of Minnesota talked with Noyes in regard to appointing Borchsenius his clerk.9 Noyes seems to have demurred, not because he had anything against the Wisconsin man but because he would have preferred someone of his own choosing. He agreed, however, to make the appointment in accordance with the understanding with the Wisconsin senators. Noyes met and talked with Borchsenius who appeared in Wash- ington about the time the Alaska bill passed. The interview was

6 Nils P. Haugen to President McKinley, April 13, 1900. General Records of the De- partment of Justice, Appointment Files: Applications and Recommendations, Alaska, 1897-1901, No. 10005, in National Archives. 7 Spooner to Borchsenius, May 4, 1900. Letterbook No. 57, p. 33. Spooner Papers, Library of Congress. 8 June 5, 1900, Spooner Papers. 9 Circuit Court, Transcript, 9:2237. 168 CARL L. LOKKE [December friendly enough.10 Borchsenius used his graduation from law- school as an argument in favor of his appointment. As neither he nor the judge had familiarity with admiralty law, Noyes requested him to post himself upon that branch of the law as much as possible before they left for Alaska. Curiously enough, however, Noyes did not definitely commit himself in Washington on the appointment. He went to Baraboo to spend a few days, and there he was visited by Borchsenius.11 Finally, on June 16, in reply to a telegram from Spooner, he wrote the senator that he had informed Borchsenius that he should be his clerk.12 On June 19, the day he himself took the oath of office as judge, he appointed Borchsenius clerk.13 But if Noyes in making this appointment fulfilled his part of the senatorial understanding, he did not intend to be discommoded by it. He purposed indeed to get the work of the clerk's office done by a deputy clerk of his own choosing. He asked Borchsenius in Washington whether he had anyone in mind for deputy clerk.14 This question took the Madison man by surprise. Upon his replying in the negative, Noyes said that he had in view a Minneapolis man who was experienced, competent, and reliable. As Borchsenius had not yet been appointed himself, he was naturally inclined to be agreeable. He accordingly consented to appoint the Minneapolis man, Charles E. Dickey, on the judge's recommendation. The appointment was duly made in Seattle, June 30, 1900.15 Borchsenius testified later that "Judge Noyes dictated the appointment of Mr. Dickey, and also the appointment of Mr. Reed [Dickey's successor]."16

ARRIVAL IN NOME The first boats had already left for Nome, and Judge Noyes and his staff took steps to get started north as quickly as possible. There was some delay in Seattle before passage could be secured. The 10Ibid., 3:652-53; 12:2870. ^Ibid., 9:2237. 12 Spooner Papers. 13 Justice Dept. Records, Appt. Files, No. 10000. 14 Circuit Court, Transcript, 12:2867. 15 Justice Dept. Records, Appt. Files, No. 10005. "Circuit Court, Transcript, 12:2867. 1949] A MADISON MAN AT NOME 169 party finally sailed on the "Senator" which made the voyage safely and dropped anchor in the Nome roadstead on Thursday, July 19, 1900. Relations between clerk and judge became strained before they left Seattle. As it happened, Noyes and Dickey, accompanied by their wives, arrived in the port town before Borchsenius and his family.17 The judge authorized Dickey to buy books and other supplies for the clerk's office in Nome. He may have done this in order to make certain of being ready should they obtain an early passage. Or he may have determined at the outset to use Borch- senius' services as little as possible. In any case the clerk learned on arrival that he had nothing to do except to appoint Dickey deputy clerk. Several months later, in a long letter to Senator Spooner, he wrote: "I was not considered [in the purchase of the supplies in Seattle] and had no voice in anything, the Judge avoided me at every turn, and for some reason, not at that time apparent, would give me no satisfaction regarding what boat the party intended to embark upon. Through extraordinary efforts I learned that the party was booked to sail on the S.S. "Senator" on July 8th, and finally crowded myself and family into the party and sailed on that date."18 On the boat Borchsenius received no better treatment. And the women in the party evidently slighted his wife. As the surf was high when the ship arrived, only men passengers appear to have landed that day. Mrs. Noyes and Mrs. Dickey (and possibly Mrs. Borchsenius) remained aboard two more days, as did the judge. When the two ladies from Minneapolis landed on Saturday, the twenty-first, McKenzie had a carriage waiting for them. In describing her experiences in a letter to her brother, Mrs. Dickey stated: " Mrs. Noyes and I were the only ones that rode in a carriage [from the beach] to the [Golden Gate] Hotel."19 If they invited Mrs. Borchsenius to join them, there is no indication of it in this letter; the clerk's wife is not mentioned at all. Mrs. Dickey's mind dwelt on the sights and the sight she and her companion

17 The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, June 29, 1900, reported that the whole party arrived on June 28, but Borchsenius gave June 29 as the date of his arrival (letter to Spooner, Oct. 16, 1900). 18 Borchsenius to Spooner, Oct. 16, 1900, Spooner Papers. "Letter of July 21, 1900. Minneapolis Tribune, Aug. 16, 1900. 170 CARL L. LOKKE [December

were making. She would not have been seen in that carriage in Minneapolis, she explained, as it was only an " express wagon." In Nome, however, everyone said, "My, look at the style they are putting on." The onlookers could hardly have failed to contrast this spectacle with that of the clerk's wife going on foot from the beach to the same hotel. If Borchsenius had any hopes that the judge would treat him any differently in Nome, he was soon disillusioned. Noyes delegated Dickey " to take all matters in hand " and freeze the clerk out as systematically as possible.20 This program, however, proved in- effective. Borchsenius did not permit himself to be frozen out, but rather performed the duties of the clerk's office as best he could. His position was perhaps strengthened late in August when Judge Noyes summarily dismissed Dickey for insubordination.21 The deputy clerk had not proved to be such a valuable man after all, commented Borchsenius. In his October letter to Spooner the clerk remarked that he and his family were " very comfortably situated in a home of some pre- tentions, for this country " He did not identify the house further. Unless they moved in October, this home was the residence of Dr. Kittilsen. According to the expense vouchers of the second division, the Borchsenius family had stayed at the Golden Gate Hotel for the first few weeks and then, on August 17, taken "living rooms" in the house of the first recorder of the Nome district.22 This selection of living quarters threw into sharp relief the cleavage between Noyes and Borchsenius. While the judge favored McKenzie and other men who were attempting to despoil the owners of the Anvil Creek claims, the clerk was drawing closer to those owners.

THE FIRST QUARTERLY REPORT

At the same time that Borchsenius was writing his private letter of October 16, 1900, to Senator Spooner, he was busy preparing 20 Borchsenius to Spooner, Oct. 16, 1900, Spooner Papers. 21 Noyes's order of Aug. 30, 1900, revoking the appointment of Dickey gives no reason for the action. Justice Dept. Records, Appt. Files, No. 10005. 22 Senate Documents, 56 Congress, 2 session (1900-1901, serial number 4042), Accounts of the Second Judicial Division- of Alaska, 132—33. The court officials were allowed living expenses when in Nome because St. Michael had been designated by the civil code as the place of residence of the court. In 1902 Nome became and has remained the official residence. 1949] A MADISON MAN AT NOME 171 his report for the quarter ending September 30. Three days later he finished and sent this report to the Attorney General.23 In view of the dissatisfaction expressed by the clerk in his private letter and the arrest of McKenzie that occurred at this time, it is natural to wonder whether he would betray any of his feelings in his official report. It is not necessary, indeed, to read beyond the first paragraph of this document to find such things. After explaining to the Attorney General how his crowded quarters prevented him from employing the force necessary to do the work of the office, he continued: " More than that, I was compelled to entrust the purchase of supplies at Seattle to a deputy on account of the rush orders of the judge to get to Nome." 24 This statement was made, of course, to protect himself against criticism on the part of the Department of Justice for not making a more detailed report concerning the work. He hoped the department would overlook the omissions in the report, " but at the same time point out to me, for my future guidance, such mistakes as I have made." By the end of another quarter, he stated, they hoped to have received records and blanks and be located in " commodious quarters " in the new Nome courthouse. But Borchsenius did stand firmly on the financial part of his report. It was, he declared, a correct and accurate statement of " all the moneys " received and disbursed by him. He had receipts from persons to whom money had been paid, and in no instance had he disbursed money without orders from the judge. He also took occasion to express his disapproval of certain disbursements, just as he had to Spooner. He wrote: "I have objected to the payment of some accounts, but being overruled by the court the only course I could pursue was to pay what the court ordered paid." When the clerk wrote and sent this quarterly report, he could have had no idea that it would be seen by anyone other than officials of the Department of Justice and the Department of the Treasury. The course of events, however, brought the report before the public. On February 11, 1901, the circuit court of appeals in San Francisco

23" Quarterly Report of Clerk of U.S. Court, Nome, Alaska, October 19, 1900," Ac- counts of the Second Judicial Division of Alaska, 181-236. ™lbid., 181. 172 CARL L. LOKKE [December found McKenzie guilty of contempt of court and sentenced him to imprisonment. Three days later the Senate passed a resolution calling upon the Attorney General to submit copies of the accounts presented to the Department of Justice by officials of the second division of Alaska.25 The report of Borchsenius was submitted with other papers, and all the papers were ordered printed (Febru- ary 26).26 Thus everyone, including Judge Noyes, could read what the clerk had written concerning his superior in Nome.27

LARS GUNDERSON, U. S. COMMISSIONER

Lars Gunderson, who was recently appointed [by Judge Noyes] U. S. Commissioner and recorder for Kusatriem district, will leave for his station, this (Saturday) morning. He will be located at a point seven miles above Garfield creek, on the Kusatriem river, where there are a number of Eskimo igloos. The new town will be called Spooner in honor of Senator John C. Spooner of Wisconsin. The above item appeared in the weekly Nome News of Janu- ary 12, 1901, under the caption, "The Town of Spooner."28 Else- where in the same issue appeared an account of a recent banquet in honor of Gunderson. George V. Borchsenius addressed the party, and another speaker expressed the hope that the new town of Spooner would " become as famous as the distinguished U. S. Senator for whom it has been named." In the appointment of this commissioner and the selection of a name for his headquarters in the heart of Seward Peninsula, it is not difficult to see the hand of Borchsenius. The clerk naturally would favor others like himself of Scandinavian stock, and he would like to honor the senator to whom he owed his own appointment. But how did he, out of favor with the judge, persuade Noyes to appoint a Scandinavian commissioner? The judge had been willing to strip the Scandinavian mine owners near Nome of their property.

& Ibid., 1. 20 For full citation see note 22, above. 27 Noyes probably did not see the printed report until after the opening of navigation in June. 28 Clipping in writer's possession. Both my uncle, Mr. Lars M. Gunderson, and my step- father, Dr. K. L. Gravem, have kindly made various family items available; and the latter has also let me read his lively manuscript, "Reminiscences of an Alaskan Pioneer," which treats his arrival in Nome in 1900. 1949} A MADISON MAN AT NOME 173

The explanation appears to be that after the arrest and removal of McKenzie in October, Noyes temporarily had a change of heart. If he could not beat the Scandinavians, he would join them. About midwinter he even participated with Borchsenius and Lindeberg in a common mining venture. This is known from testimony given by Judge Noyes when he was under trial in San Francisco for contempt of court. According to this testimony the three men grubstaked several prospectors and sent them out.29 Lindeberg contributed the judge's share as well as his own, and in November, 1901, Noyes said he still owed Lindeberg for the loan. As return on this investment each of the three grubstakers was to get one-fourth of the proceeds, leaving one-fourth to the prospectors, in addition to their supplies. Noyes did not state the amount he owed Lindeberg or the location of the claims staked by the prospectors whom they grubstaked. It is probable that the prospectors were sent to the new Kusa- triem district.30 Three days after his appointment as commissioner, Gunderson gave Lindeberg a note for $500.31 The fact that Linde- berg not only paid the judge's third of the mining venture but loaned the new commissioner a sizeable sum of money, suggests a connection between the two transactions. Possibly Lindeberg paid the judge's share on condition that Noyes name Gunderson commissioner. Yet there is no proof. At all events the participation in the mining venture and the appointment of Gunderson cost Noyes nothing. If the prospecting expedition turned out well, he stood a chance of making some money. By appointing Gunderson he con- ciliated Borchsenius and other men of Scandinavian stock. Rex Beach quoted McKenzie as saying, " Give me a barnyard of Swedes and I'll drive them like sheep."32 The attitude of Noyes

29 Circuit Court, Transcript, 10:250 2-2 503. 30 This district, carved from the neighboring Kougarok district and later returned to it, became a mecca for prospectors at this time owing to a rich strike made on Garfield in August, 1900. 31 Note of Jan. 5, 1901, canceled, in writer's possession. 32Appleton's Booklovers Magazine, 7:294 (March, 1906). It was common practice among prospectors of old American stock to lump the several groups of Scandinavians and call them Swedes. Those who struck it rich were known as " lucky Swedes," even though they might be Danes or Norwegians. 174 CARL L. LOKKE [December toward Scandinavians on the other hand was, if not friendly, at least not openly contemptuous.33 Consequently, it was not utterly out of character for him to appoint a Scandinavian to office. He may have been pleased to appoint Gunderson who like himself came from Minneapolis.34

DISMISSAL

Yet the appointment of Gunderson and the participation in a joint mining enterprise did not ease for long the tension between Borchsenius and Noyes. At about the same time the clerk testified in San Francisco, the judge directed him to draw a grand jury.35 He accordingly prepared a panel of 300 jurors. Noyes had 16 to 23 names selected from the panel and asked the clerk to approve them for the grand jury, explaining in a very friendly manner that it was the practice in the states to select a grand jury rather than draw jurors by lot. Borchsenius insisted, however, that this was not proper and regularly drew jurors by lot. The judge evidently did not try again to persuade the clerk to follow his selection system. He declared later that he and Borchsenius had been on " fairly" friendly terms during this period.36 The unusually long winter finally came to an end. In the middle of June, Noyes set out for St. Michael to hold court. As luck would have it, his ship got caught in an ice floe and drifted helplessly more than two weeks before it could accomplish the short voyage. The judge did not get back to Nome until after the Fourth of July.37 As if this experience were not enough to rasp his temper, he then, it appears, received a copy of certain charges filed against him in the Department of Justice and learned that he had been cited to appear before the circuit court of appeals in San Francisco for contempt.38 The thin band of friendly relations connecting him with

33 In a letter to Senator Hansbrough, Oct. 15, 1900, copy, the judge declared that C. D. Lane ("a loud mo[u]thed, profane, blatant man of little ability") was the man who stirred up the " trouble " against him; he did not mention Lindeberg or other Scandinavians. Justice Dept. Records, Appt. Files, No. 10000. 34 Gunderson later had nothing worse to say of Judge Noyes than that his appointments "as a rule were Bad." Letter to family, Nov. 12, 1901 (in writer's possession). 35 Circuit Court, Transcript, 3:65 9-60. 38 Ibid., 10:2511. 37 Nome News, July 6, 1901. 38 Borchsenius to Spooner, July 11, 1901, Spooner Papers; Noyes to Attorney General, July 17, 1901, Justice Dept. Records, Appt. Files, No. 10000. See also, ibid., an un- 1949] A MADISON MAN AT NOME 175 his clerk snapped. On July 11 Borchsenius received from the judge the following communication: " Deeming it necessary to make a change in the office of Clerk, and wishing to make such a change while a Representative of the Department of Justice is here, your resignation as Clerk of said Court will be thankfully received, to take effect Saturday, July 13th, 1901." Borchsenius replied the following day in these terms: "Having performed the duties of my office honestly, courteously, and con- scientiously, and having conformed to the orders of the Court in all matters, I consider it would be a reflection upon me to resign, and, therefore, decline to comply with your request." At the same time he sent copies of both communications to Senator Spooner in a long letter in which he discussed afresh his difficulties with Judge Noyes.39 He said he looked for an order of removal "at any moment." He did receive a letter of removal on Saturday morning, July 13, and the same day Noyes appointed Harry G. Steel, a " sourdough " newspaperman, clerk of the court.40 Borchsenius' letter to Spooner is dated July 11. The writer held it at least one day in order to enclose a copy of his reply to Noyes. Curiously enough, he did not hold it still another day with a view to enclosing also a copy of the judge's communication of dismissal. A search in the files has failed to disclose that he later sent such a copy to the senator.41 The letter of July 11, however, could have left no doubt in Spooner's mind that his protege was out. The dismissal, Borchsenius insisted, had no justification. Noyes from the beginning had regarded him as " a thorn in his side," a man who would not become "a party to his schemes." The judge had no cause to complain of his clerk's conduct. " I can assure you, Senator," wrote Borchsenius, "that I have done everything that I could signed, undated typescript of 114 double-spaced pages, entitled "In the Matter of Charges against Hon. Arthur H. Noyes, United States District Judge for the District of Alaska." 39 Borchsenius to Spooner, July 11, 1901, Spooner Papers. 40 The Nome News, July 13, 1901, p. 4, reported the appointment of Steel, while stating incorrectly that Borchsenius had resigned. Shortly thereafter Albert Fink, an attorney of Lindeberg's Pioneer Mining Company, secured possession of the Noyes-Borchsenius correspondence, carried it " outside," and turned it over to the Seattle Daily Times. That paper printed the three letters in extenso and quoted Fink as saying that the clerk had been removed because he twice refused to help Noyes " pack " the grand jury to be drawn for the July term of court. Seattle Daily Times, July 25, 1901. Borchsenius did not mention anything about jury packing in his letter of July 11 to Spooner. 41 He gave an account of the dismissal in San Francisco. Circuit Court, Transcript, 12:2868-2869. 176 CARL L. LOKKE [December

honorably do to gain the good will of Judge Noyes, and have been careful not to criticise him in any way/' Since the opening of navigation the judge had asked him several times why Spooner had " opposed him." The clerk had a reply ready: " I simply told him I knew nothing whatever about it." Borchsenius evidently felt that Noyes would be removed promptly, for at the close of his letter he stated: " Upon the arrival of a new Judge, I would like to be vindicated by reinstatement, and for your kind assistance, would owe you a deep and lasting debt of gratitude as I already do."

CAMPAIGN FOR REINSTATEMENT Much water was destined to flow under the bridge before Judge Noyes was removed. Under date of July 22, 1901, the Attorney General requested him to report to him in Washington " as soon as possible" after the current term of court.42 Accordingly, on August 12, Noyes sailed from Nome for Seattle. Before sailing he gave to the News a statement that the paper described as the " first public explanation of his course during a most trying period."43 In this statement the judge denied that he had disobeyed the orders of the circuit court; he also denied the charge of collusion with McKenzie. As for the removal of Borchsenius he had been advised, he declared, that the clerk was " unfriendly " to the court and had written letters to certain officials in the states calculated to arouse prejudice against him. He would have dismissed him sooner had it not been for the difficulty of finding a " satisfactory successor." He stated " most positively and emphatically " that he had never asked the clerk to do a " dishonorable or improper act." The new clerk, he added, had been in Nome the preceding year and would in his opinion give satisfaction to all " instead of being a friend of a few who were openly or covertly opposed to the court."44 The Noyes statement immediately drew fire in Nome. The day following its appearance in the News a group of lawyers drafted

42 Justice Dept. Records, Letters sent to judges and courts, 22:98 (July 5-Oct. 16, 1901). 43 Nome News, Aug. 14, 1901; same statement in Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Aug. 23, 1901. 44 Harry G. Steel was possibly related to Will A. Steel, owner and publisher of the Nome News. Major J. F. A. Strong, a severe critic of Judge Noyes, left the editorship of the News to assume the editorship of the Nugget shortly before Harry G. Steel was appointed clerk of the court. 1949] A MADISON MAN AT NOME 177 and signed a petition to President McKinley requesting the removal of the judge.45 Dated Nome, Alaska, August 15, 1901, the petition bears fifty-four signatures, including that of Key Pittman, later United States senator from Nevada. In printing the text and the names of the petitioners in the Nugget next day, Major Strong took care also to print the names of fourteen other lawyers who had declined to sign.46 It was a time that called for the counting of noses, so bitter was the feeling. The petition describes Noyes as " vacillating and dilatory, weak and partial, negligent, careless and absolutely incompetent." It calls for the " interposition of a fearless, competent and honest judge... to prevent further riot and blood- shed, to relieve the congested calendar, to preserve law and order, and to protect life, liberty and property." This petition reached Seattle soon after Noyes did. With full appreciation of the drama involved, the Times in printing the text of the document commented: " The Bar of Nome have asked for the removal of Judge Noyes. A petition to President McKinley was forwarded by the Senator arriving today, and it will probably be a race between Judge Noyes and the petition to see which gets the ear of the President first."47 The President may have seen neither Judge Noyes nor the petition. On September 6, in Buffalo, he fell before an assassin's bullet and died a few days later. This tragic event doubtless had an effect on the Nome affair. As McKinley had pardoned McKenzie in the spring, Noyes perhaps hoped to persuade him to take up the cudgels in his behalf. The assassination closed this recourse. Before Presi- dent Roosevelt could have had time to familiarize himself with the Nome situation, the trial of Noyes and several associates had begun

45 Justice Dept. Records, Appt. Files, No. 10000. 46Nome Nugget, Aug. 16, 1901. In a previous issue of the paper (Aug. 9) Strong printed Sam C. Dunham's " A Topkok Tale," which reflects the resentment felt by the prospectors toward lawyers. The last two stanzas read: For fear that I may make you tired, I'll say no more just now, But shall at no distant day, if time and space allow, Hang on The Nuggets tan-yard fence the thick and mangy hides of lawyers who get double fees by holding up both sides. Now, I advise you men who mush—you men who dig for gold: When you have found and staked a claim you feel inclined to hold, Don't mush to town and tell your friends, nor let the lawyers know, but camp there with your loaded guns and give yourselves a show. 47 Seattle Daily Times, Aug. 28, 1901. 178 A MADISON MAN AT NOME [December at San Francisco. Various persons testified at the trial, including Borchsenius. Noyes stuck to his guns or to what the Seattle Times had called his "mighty good story."48 The court did not believe him. On January 6, 1902, the three judges handed down their opinion. Noyes was found guilty of contempt of court but, owing to his judicial position, was fined $1,000 rather than subjected to imprisonment. The President removed him several weeks later.49 The interest of Borchsenius in all these proceedings can well be imagined. Unfortunately his views during this period cannot be documented, apart from his testimony before the San Francisco court. He appears not to have written to Spooner again until Janu- ary, 1902. We do not know whether the senator replied to his letter of July 13, 1901—Spooner's Letterbook is missing.50 The former clerk may have hoped at first to be reinstated by Judge Wickersham, who was sent to Nome to hold court during the absence of Noyes. But once he was subpoenaed to appear before the San Francisco court in October, he knew it would not be possible to return to Nome before the close of navigation. The next best thing was to attempt to return the following spring when navigation reopened. After testifying at the trial, Borchsenius went home to Madison to await developments. He seems to have made at least one trip to Washington before the end of the year to bring his cause to the attention of influential persons. He and Senator Spooner called upon Attorney General Knox.51 Once the unfavorable verdict to Noyes was announced by the San Francisco court, Borchsenius instituted an active campaign to regain his position. Under date of January 11, 1902, he wrote to Senator Spooner.52 Judge Noyes having been found guilty the former clerk thought a new judge might be appointed immediately. Senators Quarles, Nelson, and Clapp, he said, were ready to support him for the clerkship. Quarles had suggested to him in Washington that he (Quarles) and Spooner wait upon the President and take up

**Ibid., Aug. 24, 1901. At the same time this paper declared that if Noyes was able to make the circuit court believe his story, " then there are about 10,000 of the biggest liars between San Francisco and Cape Nome who have lived in modern times." 49 Roosevelt to Noyes, Feb. 24, 1902, copy. Justice Dept. Records, Appt. Files, No. 10000. B0 Letterbook No. 67, copies of out-letters, June 26-Oct. 8, 1901, Spooner Papers. 51 See Borchsenius to Spooner, Mar. 31, 1902, Spooner Papers. 52 Ibid. 1949] CARL L. LOKKE 179

the matter with him. He closed his letter as follows: "I am exceedingly anxious to return to Nome in the capacity of Clerk and will appreciate your support, at this time, more than ever." The senator in the midst of pressing duties continued to be favorable to this constituent. On January 31, 1902, his letterbooks reveal that he sent out forty-five letters over his signature.53 One of these was addressed to " Friend Borchsenius."54 With respect to the Nome clerkship Spooner stated that nothing could be done until the new judge was appointed, and he would take that subject up with the President "within a day or two." We cannot document what the Wisconsin senator said at the White House. Nor can we document his conversations with other senators who were keenly interested in the Nome appointments. Certain it is that the matter was not easy to handle, as Spooner indicated on February 3.55 That very morning, however, an incident occurred that expedited the removal of Noyes. The Washington Post ran a front-page article entitled "Kept on Payrolls," calling attention to the fact that Judge Noyes and the other court officials who had been found guilty the month before were still drawing their salaries. There were immediate repercussions in Congress. Senators Hansbrough and McCumber warmly defended Noyes and scored the circuit court of appeals on the floor of the Senate; Sena- tors Spooner and Nelson were silent.56 Judge Noyes was finally removed on February 24, but the selection of his successor was not agreed upon for three more months. On May 21, 1902, the Presi- dent nominated Alfred S. Moore, of Beaver, Pennsylvania, as judge of the United States district court at Nome; the Senate confirmed the nomination on May 27.57 During these months the anxious Borchsenius did not permit Spooner to forget him. He wrote the senator twice.58 A friend

53Letterbook No. 70, p. 462-500; No. 71, p. 1-6, Spooner Papers. 54 Ibid., No. 70, p. 498, Spooner Papers. 55 Spooner to Sam T. Swanson, Feb. 3, 1902. Ibid., No. 71, p. 124, Spooner Papers. 56 Congressional Record, 57 Cong., 1 sess., vol. 35, part 2 (Feb. 4, 1902), 1290; ibid. (Feb. 5), 1323. For reports and editorial comments on the debate see Washington Post, Feb. 4, 5, 6, 1902; Madison (Wis.) Democrat, Feb. 6, 1902; Chicago Daily Tribune, Feb. 5, 6, 1902. ""Register of Nominations Made by the President, Mar. 4, 1901," p. 12, White House Office Records, National Archives. 58 Jan. 31 (letter missing) and Mar. 31, 1902, Spooner Papers. 180 CARL L. LOKKE [December wrote once in his behalf, as did his father.59 The elder Borchsenius asked Spooner to "kindly remember George/' The senator did little more than acknowledge these communications.60

REAPPOINTMENT AND VINDICATION Things came to a head with the announcement of Moore's nomination. Not hearing anything from Spooner even after the confirmation, Borchsenius resorted to a new method to get action. He sent the senator a night telegram at his home address in Washing- ton, 1525 18th Street. Dated May 29, 1902, it reads: " Do you think there is any show for me? Please answer/'61 This brought results. On June 3 the senator wired back: " Am doing best I can. Looks favorable/'62 As this point events took somewhat the same course that they had in 1900. Borchsenius went to Washington to talk with Spooner and with the patron of the new judge, Senator Quay. He then visited Judge Moore in Beaver, Pennsylvania. Upon his return to Madison he recounted the interview in a long letter to Spooner.63 The visit, he indicated, was well made. Moore had intended to keep Clerk Steel in office, not knowing that Steel had been appointed by Noyes. Contrary to what Senator Quay thought, Moore had no one else in mind for the place. This gave Borchsenius his opportunity, and he seems to have made the most of it. Steel had not been so highly recommended to Moore as Borchsenius, yet the judge had gotten the impression that the appointment of the latter would cause a "factional fight." Borchsenius corrected this impression so effectively that the objections against his appointment faded away before those against the retention of Steel. The judge finally promised to appoint him clerk on one condition—that Quay had no objection. Borchsenius then asked Spooner to speak to the Pennsylvania senator. Moore was going to leave Beaver within a week, he continued, and desired to wire Borchsenius before then.

59 Sam T. Swanson, Jan. 23 (letter missing); H. Borchsenius, Apr. 2, Spooner Papers. 60 H. Borchsenius, Letterbook No. 71, p. 124, 165; No. 73, p. 489, Reed, Spooner's secretary, to Borchsenius, Apr. 30; No. 74, p. 37, Spooner Papers. 61 Spooner Papers. 62 Letterbook No. 74, p. 396, Spooner Papers. 63 Borchsenius to Spooner, June 12, 1902, Spooner Papers. 1949] A MADISON MAN AT NOME 181

As if to spur Spooner's efforts with Quay, the Madison man en- closed an undated clipping of a recent English editorial in Skandi- naven on " The Nome Judiciary." This editorial came out strongly for Borchsenius. It pictured him under the Noyes regime standing " firm as a rock in the midst of the roaring sea of corruption, plots and temptations." But for his good conduct it would have been well nigh impossible later to set things to rights. The reward of his faithfulness was summary dismissal. He was clearly entitled to the "vindication" of a reappointment. The government moreover ought to have the services of "the one man who did not prove recreant to his trust during the howling carnival of fraud and dis- honesty at Nome." The editorial looked to Senators Nelson and Spooner to secure the reappointment of Borchsenius. It is not known whether Spooner made use of this clipping. He did have a " long talk " with Quay who agreed not to oppose the Borchsenius appointment.64 Quay, it seems, sent word to Moore. On June 15 the judge wired Borchsenius in Madison that he would appoint him, and the next day the latter wrote Spooner the good news.65 Borchsenius heartily expressed his own thanks and that of his parents as well. He said he felt " honored and vindicated by this recognition." He would sail with Judge Moore from Seattle on July I.66 As for the judge, he, too, appears to have been satis- fied with his decision to appoint Borchsenius. " My action was in- duced by the belief," he wrote to the Attorney General, "that I should have an experienced man as Clerk when I first go to Nome. The appointment was made after I had an opportunity to see Mr. Borchsenius and talk with him at some length."67 In Seattle the judge and his clerk embarked on the steamer " John S. Kimball" and landed at Nome on July 13, 1902.68 Their arrival

64 Spooner to Borchsenius, June 23, 1902. Letterbook No. 75, p. 299, Spooner Papers. 65 Borchsenius to Spooner, June 16, 1902, Spooner Papers. 66 The Madison (Wis.) Democrat, June 24, 1902, reported that Borchsenius left for Nome the day before and added: " Mr. Borchsenius has acquired considerable mining property in Alaska and has just completed the organization of a company to operate it." 67 Moore to Knox, June 19, 1902. Justice Dept. Records, Appt. Files, No. 10005. 68 There was at first an understandable lack of enthusiasm in the Puget Sound country over the sending of Moore to replace Wickersham, a Tacoma man, in the second division of Alaska. In a leading editorial the Tacoma Daily Ledger, June 25, 1902, stated in part: " There could be no better recommendation for Judge Wickersham than the record he has made at Nome and the regret that is expressed that he should be sent back to Eagle City rather than retained where so much good has been accomplished by his rulings and his firmness 182 CARL L. LOKKE [December was warmly hailed by the Nome Nugget. On Monday afternoon, the fourteenth, it reported, Judge Wickersham formally introduced his successor to the attorneys at the courthouse, while both magis- trates sat side by side on the bench.69 The following day Borch- senius was placed in possession of the clerk's office after the summary removal of Harry G. Steel. The paper applauded this event. The reappointment of Borchsenius, it declared, was a "complete vindication of himself as he was removed without cause by Judge Noyes to make a place for the late incumbent." It hoped that at last an "era of peace " had dawned for the second division of Alaska. Borchsenius soon reported to Spooner that the Nome bar appeared to have formed a good opinion of Judge Moore; moreover the judge treated his clerk with complete confidence, kindness, and consideration.70 The situation, indeed, differed markedly from that prevailing in 1900. But was the vindication of Borchsenius good for the second division of Alaska? It evidently was. For one thing it had the effect of discouraging attempts to seize on one pretext or another the mining property of original locators. And it promoted stability in Seward Peninsula which had not yet reached its peak as a gold- producing region. The Wisconsin man worked hard to introduce and maintain order in the affairs of the district court.71 Two years after his return to Nome (he remained in Nome from 1902 to 1905), an examiner of the Department of Justice described his activities as follows: The clerk has general supervision of everything, gives it his personal attention, attends to the financial part of the work, looks after the com- in dealing with the leave-over rogues who had trained with McKenzie and Noyes." Several days later in reporting the arrival of Judge Moore in Seattle, this paper (June 29, 1902) reported rumors that his appointment had been dictated by McKenzie, and Moore's laughing denial of the truth of the rumors. The Seattle Daily Times (July 3, 1902) had the following comment to make: " Aside from the strong assurance made to the Times by the judge [Moore] himself that he is not under any outside influence, especially of the Quay or McKenzie type, there is the strongest confirmation in the selection of former Clerk Borch- senius. First, since he was one of Noyes's victims, having been removed by him because he could not be used as a tool, and, next, since Mr. Borchsenius owes his reappointment to Senator Spooner of Wisconsin, with Senator Nelson of Minnesota cooperating to have him returned. Nelson has been ' pizen ' to the McKenzie gang on account of their persecu- tion of the Scandinavian miners, and Mr. Borchsenius is a Scandinavian." 09 Nome Nugget, July 16, 1902. 70 Borchsenius to Spooner, Aug. 26, 1902, Spooner Papers. "Borchsenius to Attorney General, Jan. 19, 1904, General Accounting Office Records, Accounts of the second judicial division of Alaska, File No. 102232. 1949] A MADISON MAN AT NOME 183 missioners and recorders, has charge of the disbursements and is busy all the time. It might be added that Judge Moore is very cautious about order- ing anything to be paid out of the court funds, and Mr. Borchsenius scru- tinizes every such order jealously, so that by the time an order to pay passes both of these gentlemen, it is probably just and correct.72 With respect to the character of the clerk the examiner had this to say: I have always liked Mr. Borchsenius, because I think he is honest and competent, though he is firm to the verge of obstinacy; but if there is any place on earth where rigidity of the spinal column is demanded it is at Nome. Why did the three writers mentioned at the beginning of this article ignore the role of Borchsenius in the Nome affair? All of them must have been aware of the strength of the political influence that Borchsenius brought to bear to get Noyes removed and himself reinstated. They must have known him personally. Beach probably met the clerk in Nome in 1900, Morrow heard him testify in San Francisco, and Wickersham undoubtedly met him in Nome in July, 1902. Their silence in regard to him is hard to explain. Possibly they did not like this man whose awareness of his own rectitude resembled that of John Adams.

"Plato Mountjoy to Attorney General, Dec. 20, 1904, Justice Dept. Records, Appt. Files, No. 10005. William George Bruce A Maker of History

By EDWARD A. FITZPATRICK

ILLIAM GEORGE BRUCE, a member of the Board of Curators of this Society from 1930 to 1947 and one-time Wvice-president, died August 13, 1949, in the ninety-third year of his age. Then ended a long life of continually expanding growth within and of wider and wider service to the people of the State and more particularly to his beloved Milwaukee. William George Bruce was particularly interested in the history of Milwaukee and wrote the historical volume of a three-volume book on Milwaukee in the twenties. He was not only interested in the history of the city but he wished to make its history generally known. One of his efforts at popularizing it was his book, A Short History of Milwaukee, published in 1936. This obviously was intended for use in the schools and to give the students a pride in their social backgrounds. To celebrate the Centennial of the city in 1946 he wrote a little book on The Builders of Milwaukee which is a very useful compila- tion of the persons identified with all phases of the city's development. If you want to know who were the mayors of the city, or the judges of particular courts, or the presidents of leading corporations, or the heads of the city departments or civic institutions, Mr. Bruce has done here a very helpful piece of work. Always desiring to point out with pride the accomplishments of Milwaukee, this book contains a list of the "firsts" in Milwaukee history. The general spirit

THIS EULOGY, written by DR. FITZPATRICK, was read in his absence by Father Peter Leo Johnson at the Society's Annual Meeting, September 9, at Appleton. The author is the president of Mount Mary College, Mil- waukee; both he and Father Johnson are curators of the STATE HISTORI- CAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN. 184 WILLIAM GEORGE BRUCE

WILLIAM GEORGE BRUCE 185 animating these volumes is indicated in his dedication to the school history. He writes: Milwaukee, an American City! What splendid forces and achievements—spiritual, civic, economic—are implied in these words! What an honorable place she occupies among her sister cities in the Great Republic! As her children, let us not only proclaim her progress in city planning, city building, and city living but let us in our lives exemplify the best and truest of American ideals, so as to render ourselves worthy of her as an integral part of the Nation. As a modest contribution to sentiments here espoused this book is re- spectfully dedicated by The Author In the Wisconsin Magazine of History for 1932-34 the "Mem- oirs" of Mr. Bruce were published. These later became the first eleven chapters of his autobiography entitled, / Was Born in America. Ten additional chapters were added. This is a pleasant, conversational, anecdotal history of Mr. Bruce's experiences. It throws a great deal of light on the kind of events that historians overlook and have difficulty in finding. His pride in his city was only matched by his pride in the nation. We might quote in this connection the concluding statement of the philosophy of life which ends the autobiography. It expresses his pride in his country, in his citizenship, and his Americanism: The nation is young, strong, and self-reliant. But the strength of the whole must spring from the character of the individual. The responsibility which rests upon the nation to bring its own resourcefulness and power into full realization, to hold its supremacy among the nations of the earth, falls with equal force upon every shoulder. We must individually and collectively manifest the same inventive spirit, the same constructive ability, and the same ethical force that have characterized the nation as a whole. We are inseparably linked to the nation's decline as well as to its ascendancy; its prestige and prosperity are our prestige and our prosperity; its hopes and aspirations must be our hope, our aspiration, and finally—our destiny. Mr. Bruce was born on March 17, 1856, and was stricken with illness when he was six years old, remaining an invalid at the time for four years; the limp in his walk indicated the permanent effects of this injury. This in no way affected the spirit of the man, his determination, or his ultimate success. 186 EDWARD A. FITZPATRICK [December

He received his education in St. Mary's parish school for a few months in 1867 and was apprenticed in a factory to learn the cigar-making trade. He became a cigar maker and then a clerk in the Milwaukee Times, and later a cashier and bookkeeper in the Milwaukee Sentinel. His activities in the political life of Milwau- kee County resulted in his only paid public office as tax commissioner which he held for three and a half years. He was a candidate for mayor in 1906 and a candidate for United States senator in 1925 to succeed the late Robert M. La Follette, Sr., with the usual results in a State overwhelmingly Republican at the time. Mr. Bruce gave fully of his time and his energy and his thought to civic service and civic bodies, particularly the Auditorium Board and the Harbor Commission, the latter activity leading him into national service and membership on national boards promoting the deep waterway commission. He has been honored by universities for his educational and his civic service. He has been honored by the Pope. He has been an active worker in his Church, and has, as in civic affairs, taken active leadership in many and diverse lay activities particularly for the charitable institutions. He has been a considerable influence in American education. Out of the need of his own experience as a member of the Mil- waukee School Board he founded and developed the American School Board Journal intended for school board members. This Journal has become the most authoritative and constructive journal of school administration in the United States and has had this repu- tation practically from its beginnings fifty-three years ago. Through the Catholic School Journal and the Industrial Arts Magazine he has affected widely those phases of education. He has cooperated in the development of Catholic hospitals through the publication of Hospital Progress. He has also through the activities of the Bruce Publishing Company, which he founded and of which he was president until his death, contributed generally to the culture of the nation and more specifically helped to develop a Catholic literature. He has personally been interested in taxation, in immigration, and 1949] WILLIAM GEORGE BRUCE 187 particularly in problems of religious prejudices. He has published pamphlets on these subjects, spoken frequently about them, and helped in every way he could to do something about them. Mr. Bruce was not only a member of the Historical Society of Wisconsin, he was a maker of history, and his activities will find ultimate record in all the histories of this State. Dr. Still in his History of Milwaukee pictures Mr. Bruce as one of the representative twentieth-century citizens of that city. As civic leader, as public administrator, as publisher, he has dedicated his energy to the common welfare. This was motivated from a pride in his city, in his state, and the nation, and this is something which in these doubting days should inspire all of us. His personal life in spite of his handicap was filled with all blessings —in its family aspects, its social aspects, and its personal aspects. He was a warm friend, a lovable person, and possessed all those qualities which we sum up when we think of the gentleman. When the Railroads Came to Kenosha By CARRIE CROPLEY

HE MIDDLE of the nineteenth century saw some activity in railroad construction in Wisconsin, boasting 891 miles in Toperation by the close of I860.1 In the little city of Kenosha,2 in the southeastern corner of Wisconsin, transportation was a serious problem, and railroads were universally desired. Since its settlement in 1835, Lake Michigan had been the main channel for its commerce, but each winter that route of import and export was closed. Overland traffic, too, was forbidding since the few roads were dusty and rough in dry weather, with ruts and sometimes stumps to contend with; during seasons of rain, they became almost impassible in places. The fact that land not far from the present city limits, now converted into rich farms and truck gardens, once was called the "grand mire" is indicative of conditions then. In such places horseback was the only possible way of conveyance in wet weather. At times the roads were so miry that in order to use them at all wooden horseshoes 3 were fitted over the iron ones, thus enabling the horse to walk through the deep mud. The employment of snowshoes by persons who cross through deep snow is based on the same principle. Deep or drifted snow was cleared off the roads by means of hand shovel and man power, assisted by crudely made horse-drawn " snow plows " when it was not too deep. Naturally agitation for railroads resulted!

Miss CARRIE CROPLEY, Kenosha, a curator of the STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY and long secretary of the Kenosha County Historical Society, is well informed on both Kenosha city and county history. This narrative depicts the Southport-Kenosha area in the throes of its transportation difficulties, which eventually resulted in the arrival of the railroad. Capitalization, punctuation, and the like were faithfully retained in the items taken from Colonel Frank's diaries. 1 William F. Raney, Wisconsin: A Story of Progress (New York, 1940), 179-80. 2 In 1850 its population was 3,437. That was the year Southport changed its name to Kenosha. 3 Some of these shoes are in the Kenosha County Historical museum, Kenosha. 188 RAILROADS AT KENOSHA 189

The first road to be built through Kenosha is what is now known as the Chicago and North Western Railroad. In 1851 the Green Bay, Milwaukee and Chicago Railway Company was chartered to construct a road from Milwaukee to the Illinois State line. There it would connect with a road from Chicago called the Chicago and Milwaukee Railroad. Both roads were completed in 1855, and operated until 1863 when they were consolidated as the Chicago and Milwaukee Railroad. To prevent it from passing into the possession of the rival road, the Milwaukee and St. Paul, "the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad Company secured it by perpetual lease, May 2, 1866," and operated it as the Chicago Division of the Chicago and North Western Railway.4 Colonel Michael Frank was the first mayor of Kenosha, co-editor of the Southport Telegraph in the early 1840's, promoter of the free public school, and drew up the section pertaining to schools— and several other subjects—when he was a member of the Com- mission to Revise the Laws of Wisconsin, which the State adopted, 1849.5 From his diary one learns of his interest in the building of the railroad. He writes: August 18, 1852 The Lake Shore rail road6 is exciting considerable interest in this place. September 4, 1852 Met with rail road committee from Waukegan and Milwaukee at the Durkee House.7 December 9, 1852 Note: the Lake Shore Rail Road prospect in- spires some little business confidence, also the preliminary steps for the establishment of a Bank in Kenosha. August 9, 1853. Note: The Lake Shore Railroad commenced in this city today on West Main Street, South of Plank road.8 December 31, 1854. Remarks The Lake Shore road is finished to Waukegan & it is said that it will be completed to this place by the 15 th of February. May 17, 1855.. ..Lake Shore R road fast drawing to completion. The track layers both North & South have been in sight from my house two days past. May 18, 1855. A great day on West Main Street besides more than 100 workmen on the road, large numbers of spectators filled the side walks. 4 History of Racine and Kenosha Counties (Western Historical Company, Chicago, 1879), 177. 5" Autobiography of Michael Frank," Wisconsin Magazine of History, 30:470-74 (June, 1947). 6 The popular name for this road, evidently. 7 A hotel which was rather pretentious for a city of that size and day. 8 Now 13th Avenue and 60th Street. West Main Street (13th Avenue) was then a desirable residence street, on which Mayor Frank's residence was located. 190 CARRIE CROPLEY [December

May 19, 1855. The ceremony of laying the last rail on the Lake Shore road was performed this A.M. at 10 1/2 o'clock. A short speech was made by the Mayor of Chicago, also by the Mayor of Milwaukee. Flags were raised, cannon fired & bells rung. A large crowd in attendance. At 11 A.M. 7 passenger cars from Chicago, containing a large number of citizens of Chicago & Waukegan started for Milwaukee. Over 100 went from Kenosha, (myself among them) The ride was a free one, invited guests went. The excursion returned from Milwaukee at 6 P.M. without accident. November 2, 1855. Lake Shore R road Co. commenced building rail road depot about a week ago near Grand Street[.]9 A railroad running parallel to the lake shore and connecting Kenosha with Chicago and Milwaukee was good, but it was not enough. When an Eastern land company chose the Southport site during the Western land boom of the 1830's, it looked for a place that would have a good harbor and a " good back country." The only ready way of transportation at that time was the Great Lakes, and the thought was to found a thriving lake port. Soon the country to the west became a great wheat producing section. Wheat was brought to Southport from as far west as Beloit; in addition lead came from Galena, Illinois, for shipment from Southport, long wagon trains plodding slowly along the poor roads. Leading citizens of the city watched this trade with the West anxiously, fearful lest some other lake city entice it away. About this time the Kenosha Democrat published a long article, later issued in pamphlet form—What We Need in Kenosha—stressing the need for harbor improvement and roads.10 To aid in the competition with other ports a plank road was constructed on the Town Line Road,11 between the townships of Somers and Pleasant Prairie. Then, as various railroad projects began to threaten the trade with the wheat lands to the west, a railroad project was promoted. In 1853 the Kenosha and Beloit Railroad Company was incorporated to build a road from Kenosha to Beloit. At the same time the State Legislature passed a Railroad Loan Act, " authoriz- ing the people of Kenosha County, to vote on the question of loaning their credit in aid of the Kenosha & Beloit Rail Road and 9 Now 52d Street. 30 A typed copy of this pamphlet is among the papers of the Kenosha County Historical Society. "Old Prairie Avenue, 60th Street, extended west into the country. 1949} RAILROADS AT KENOSHA 191 providing for issuing bonds therefore." It was approved by the governor on July 12, 1853-12 This legislation caused a great deal of financial difficulty for Kenosha, which retarded its growth and, "old timers" have said, impelled the "city fathers" to go into hiding when stringent action threatened. The name of the road was later changed to "the Kenosha, Rockford & Rock Island Railroad, and the route changed to run to Rockford instead of to Beloit Kenosha and its citizens were the principal subscribers to its capital stock. The company issued its bonds, secured by the usual mortgage on its franchises and property." 13 The line was constructed from Kenosha to Genoa City in 1862. "Failing to pay its interest, the mortgage was fore- closed, and the road was sold to the Chicago & Northwestern Company in 1863/*14 which operated it as the Kenosha Division. It was the chief means of transportation from the West for many years prior to the coming of motorized vehicles. It was finally discontinued ten years ago. The story of this little railroad is closely connected with Kenosha's ambition and effort to become more than a mere village. The diary of Colonel Frank, as one would expect, has a running comment on the progress of the building of this road. He states: January 26, 1853 Rail Road the chief topic of conversation. Road from this place to Beloit the subject. February 5, 1853. Attended meeting to hear from Rail road committee at Court House this evening. February 24, 1853. Rail Road meeting this morning to consider the Kenosha & Beloit road and to take stock the Court House was full. Great rail road meeting in the evening Some 15 delegates from Geneva present. February 25, 1853 Agreement signed by Kenosha committee and Geneva committee in respect to Rail road west. Over $90,000 stock subscribed in the city for the road. March 16, 1853. Agreement made today with Mr. Irving to survey Kenosha & Beloit R. R. at salary of $3000. per annum.

« Kenosha Telegraph, July 29, 1853. 13 The Directory for the city of Kenosha, 1858, lists the following officers for the Kenosha, Rockford and Rock Island Railroad Company: president, Josiah Bond, Kenosha; vice president, C. H. Spafford, Rockford, Illinois; secretary, Levi Burnell, Milwaukee; treasurer, C. C. Sholes (brother of C. Latham Sholes), Kenosha; superintendent, Charles L. Prescott, Kenosha. Of the eighteen directors, Josiah Bond, Henry Lines, L. G. Merrill, A. B. Smith, and Z. G. Simmons were all Kenosha residents; Charles M. Fowler, from Paris Township, Kenosha County, and S. W. Bronson, Genoa, Wai worth County. The remainder did not live in the State. 14 History of Racine and Kenosha Counties, 111. 192 CARRIE CROPLEY [December

March 21, 1853. Mr, Irving, the Rail Road Engineer arrived in town today, preparatory to looking over the route between this place and Rock River. April 9, 1853. Prospects of the Kenosha & R[ock} River R.R. have considerably lessened within the past two weeks. October 1, 1853. Note: The contract for building the Kenosha & Beloit R.R. was let a few weeks ago. Most people are sanguine it will be built; some are not. Town property is not yet in demand. December 31, 1854. Remarks. During the year past the condition of things in this city has in some respects improved. Real estate in the city has risen some in value and is rather better in demand Business of most kinds has been better than for some years previous; this is owing doubtless to the prosperous condition of the country round about, especially the farming interest. The population of the city has increased some during the year there are now very few houses to rent Three- fourths of the grading is now finished on the Western Rail Road between Kenosha and Fox River & the work is slowly progressing. July 24, 1855 Nothing has been done on our western rail road since March last. The general belief now is that the prospects of the road are in a bad condition. Real estate in the city is not in as good demand as three months ago. There is evidently a depression in conse- quence of the discouraging prospect of the Western road. July 30, 1855. Rail Road meeting at the Court House this evening. Resolved to make an effort to raise $50,000 in the city & $100,000 in county to aid road. August 11, 1855. Another great Rail road meeting this evening. Noth- ing definite done. People greatly perplexed how to raise the means to build the road. The plan of raising 25 percent by voluntary effort is abandoned. August 28, 1855. Election to determine the question of levying a tax $150,000 for Western Rail road. Subscription of $84,000 now unpaid to apply on payment, leaving $66,000 to be raised by tax in three years with interest at 10 pr ct. Scrip to be issued for the $66,000, $22,000 payable annually. Vote in city 212 for tax 22 against. September 6, 1855. Note: Prospects of Western R Road not very flattering. The contract for building the road which was expected to be closed with Mr. McConnell is deferred for the present. The work of getting stock subscriptions in the country is making some progress. December 31, 1855 There have been more improvements than during the preceding year. Property (real estate) is considered rather better than one year ago, although there is now no demand. The Western Railroad is still a question; no work has been done on it since last Spring. To build the road it is said to be necessary to raise $100,000 additional stock to that of one year ago. To raise this amount efforts have been making [sic\ in the county during the past two or three months. The sum thus far obtained has reached about $70,000. Most people seem to think the $100,000 will be raised. Taxes this year in the city are higher than ever before: and if the proposed rail road tax is levied next year taxes will be considerably more than double another year The prospects of heavy taxation necessarily has an unfavorable influence on the sale of real estate; besides, it tends to discourage many 1949] RAILROADS AT KENOSHA 193 people in respect to the future of the city. I would without hesitation sell my house and lot for $1500. if I could get the offer. August 14, 1856. Railroad meeting at the Court House this forenoon. Large attendance Speeches by a great number of persons from Rock- ford & other places. Chowder dinner on the Island in the P.M. Rockford people left for home on 12 boat midnight. August 22, 1856. Note: Rail road Co. commenced building a dock on Harbor about 2 weeks ago. Kenosha Western Rail Road has at last managed to secure the iron & in other respect insure the building of some 12 miles of the road: to accomplish this some 30 or 40 of the principal men in the city gave their individual notes to E. Corning of Albany for $30,000. payable in six months. September 1, 1856. Note: The K & B Railroad Co have some 200 feet of wharf constructed at the Harbor. November 21, 1856. Note: The Kenosha & Beloit Railroad commenced laying track in this city several days ago & have now laid from Main Street to Chicago Street.15 A temporary Engine House has just been completed 30 rods west of my house. November 27, 1856 First engine put on to the Kenosha Western Road today; a switch being built temporarily for that purpose in front of my house. Quite a crowd of people during the day to witness the operation. December 31, 1856 Remarks There has not been a first class dwelling house built in the city during the past year, there have been some two or three first class stores erected on Main Street. Real estate is about the same as last year; no demand whatever for city lots at present The Kenosha Western R R has the track laid about two miles west from the Harbor. The company own three locomotives; the prospects of the road are considered much better than a year ago. Taxes in this city are enormously high, vastly higher than ever before. My tax last year being a little over $18.00 this year over $57 (including Rail road tax) on the same property. September 15, 1857. Mem: A census of the city has just been completed by R. R. Allen. Total number of inhabitants 4065. It has been concluded not to publish the result of the census as it falls below expectation. December 31, 1857 During the past year there has been a greater amount of improvement in the city in value than in any one year since 1850 Quarles new Ware House, Kimball's block, Cahoons House are however the principal improvements which are expensive The prospects for improvements in the city another year, are indefinite. No enterprise, of importance are now spoken of The Western railroad has the track laid 12 miles; no more iron on hand to lay it further. December 31, 1858 The past year has been one of unprecedented money pressure; never before in the history of the country has there been such a long continued scarcity of money and general stagnation of business. There are scarcely any sales of real estate. Added to the scarcity of money is the scarcity of most kinds of agricultural production failure of the crops last season. Notwithstanding the hard times, there 15 Two blocks, from the present 6th Avenue to 8th Avenue. 194 CARRIE CROPLEY [December

has been a more than usual number of buildings erected in this city during the past year. It is difficult to account for this increase of buildings in view of the money market and other business prospects of the city. The Western Railroad from this place is now completed to within about 4 miles of Geneva, where it now stops for the want of iron. September 1, 1859 Note: The citizens of Kenosha are desponding on account of the business prospects this fall. Grain market does not compare with other places; people predict the ruin of the city on account of taxes to pay for a railroad which does no business. Just one instance of the hardship the building of the railroad brought to the people of the county is told in one of the " century family histories," 1848-1948, of Kenosha County.16 An early comer in the county who had first settled in Salem Township, but later removed to Brighton, had found conditions exceedingly difficult on the frontier. For a number of years it had been a struggle to maintain his family, but at last his circumstances had become better. He invested $7,000 in the railroad bonds, endangering his farm as well as using his surplus money. Of course he never received a cent of it back. The first train on the Western Road that was generally patron- ized was an excursion on the Fourth of July, 1861. The train was made up of flatcars with seats of plank arranged along the side, shade being afforded by oak and poplar saplings from the woods, nailed to the edge of each car. The ladies on the excursion went dressed in their prettiest clothing, many of them wearing white dresses. In the open cars, with the wood burning engine belching smoke and cinders, those dresses were in a deplorable condition on their return! The city debt, January 1, 1862, was $410,000; $320,000 of this was principal, the balance unpaid interest for three years. The decisions of the courts conceded $180,000 of the principal to be valid and a legal debt; one decision of the supreme court held the $120,000 balance invalid, but the United States District Court held the entire debt valid. A pamphlet, Facts and Reasoning in Refer- ence to the Debt, issued in 1862, discussed at some length the problem of the city and the several alternatives since the payment

16 These family histories refer to the material collected during the Centennial year from families whose ancestors settled in Wisconsin in 1848 or earlier. A transcript of all such family material gathered by the Kenosha County Historical Society, in its area, is on file in its library. 1949] RAILROADS AT KENOSHA 195 of the whole seemed almost impossible.17 It went on as follows: Influenced by the doubt which hangs over our future, many business men have already left the city; many more are preparing to follow. Laboring men seek in vain for constant employment. City property of every kind is greatly depreciated in value, and this depreciation must rapidly increase with our lessening business and population.18 There are now but few who would not leave the city, could they sell their property for the prices which a few years since it would have readily commanded. This should not be. This city is the natural market town of a large and wealthy agricultural district. Our former prosperity can be restored and more than restored by a united effort Any steps in this matter should be taken at once. Our buyers of grain and produce, having to purchase in small quantities and to be perhaps weeks in securing sufficient for a cargo, cannot pay, with safety to themselves, as high a price as the buyers in better supplied markets. This drives sellers to other markets, who from their location would naturally seek ours, and every day trade becomes more and more settled in its new channels, and more difficult for us to regain. Delay is dangerous, is perilous, and may be fatal. At that time only 6 persons held property of an assessed valuation of more than $10,000, the highest being $27,000; 17 had an assessed valuation of from $5,000 to $10,000; 145 from $1,000 to $5,000; and 400 at less than $100. It took the city thirty years to get out from under this load of indebtedness. The semi-centennial edition of the Kenosha Telegraph Courier, May 29, 1890, contained this observation: The Kenosha of 1890 is a vastly different city from the Kenosha of 1885. The growth of Kenosha in that time has been a surprise to its citizens and the wonder of neighboring cities. The heavy debt that had been incurred years ago in building the Kenosha & Rockford Railroad had threatened the City with bankruptcy. The prospect of being obliged to pay the debt or even the interest on it, appalled many persons who otherwise would have looked very favorably upon Kenosha as a place to buy property and go into business, and the result was that for many years the place stood still or retrograded. Real estate was almost value- less, very little property changed hands at all, and the transfers that did occur were made at such remarkably low figures that no one cared to buy property here. But all this has changed. In 1886 the city's obligations were purchased by enterprising citizens, led by Mr. Z. G. Simmons, reduced to $200,000. and refunded at 5%. This debt the city has paid the interest on every year, and also paid $25,000 of the principal within five years, leaving but $175,000 of a debt.19 1TThis reprint appeared originally in the Kenosha Telegraph. The pamphlet apparently exhausted all of the type of one size in the print shop, for the last three pages are set in smaller type. A copy is in possession of the Kenosha County Historical Society. 18 The population was given as 3,968 in the 1860 census. 19 The coincidence is that the above was written by Colonel Frank who had returned to the newspaper after some years in "Washington, D.C. 196 CARRIE CROPLEY

Many stories are extant of the road's informality in its earlier years. The following letter from the Kenosha Telegraph in the winter of 1870 is an example: Kenosha, Wis. Jan 24, 1870 Editor Telegraph: In coming to town on the Rockford train this morning, just after the train had started from Woodworth, I saw a man step up to Dr. McClellan who was on the train. The man said " Doctor, I am just going to Kenosha after you, now can't we get Reeves to stop the train and we can get off right here? " With that off stepped the young man and spoke to the conductor, who at once consented and stopped the train and the doctor got off. Now that is what I call obliging and I was glad to see it. Yours,

This road is now but a memory. The late C. E. Dewey, then president of the Kenosha County Historical Society, rode with the engineer of the last train to pass over the road. He brought back the schedule board from the depot in one of the smaller towns of the county, with train schedules still noted thereon, and placed it in the Kenosha County Historical Society's museum. There it is kept as a reminder of a road that was closely associated with the hopes, ambitions, and heartaches of Kenosha's earlier years. Many old desks used in that bygone time were found to contain stacks of bonds with uncut coupons, issued for many thousands of dollars, which proved as worthless as did many railroad bonds of that period. Today the signatures upon some of them are of special interest: among them are noted the names of Z. G. Simmons, founder of the Simmons Company of Kenosha, and of O. S. John- son, founder of the Johnson Wax Company of Racine. Though these men are no longer living, their great industrial plants are known round the world. Letters of James Stark, 1841-1842 Friend and "Most Ob. Servant''

Contributed by GEORGIA DOW TOWNSEND

T WAS PROBABLY in 1838 or early in 1839 that my grandfather, George Dow, having lived in New York City ever since his I arrival from Scotland in November, 1830, "with only an Eng- lish farthing in my pocket, and an acquaintance with but one man," was lured by the plat of a prosperous city on the banks of the Koshkonong River in the Territory of Wisconsin. Clinton (now Rockdale), platted in 1836 by William Murray Dennis on 320 acres of land, spread its " thousand blocks" over the hills on both sides of the river whose clear and rapid stream could furnish power enough to turn any number of mill wheels. Numer- ous stores, schools, and churches dotting its streets as well as its position in the center of a wide and fertile valley made it appear to be the fulfillment of any man's dream of a perfect home. My grandfather, a city man and the head of a young family, decided to have his brother-in-law, Robert Black, also without farming experience, make the trip west to locate and purchase land to which he might remove his family a year or two later. Of Robert Black's trip west only a hazy memory remains. Upon arriving in Fort Atkinson with its rotting stockade and probably a few more log houses that had been added to the first one built by

Miss GEORGIA DOW TOWNSEND, Madison, has supplied the introduction and other explanatory matter to the James Stark letters. These were written from the Territory of Wisconsin to Stark's friend and employer at New York City, George Dow, who was Miss Townsend's grandfather. She has donated several of the letters to the State Historical Society Library. In reproducing this correspondence the spelling and punctuation—or lack of it—were observed carefully throughout. It will be noticed that Stark sometimes expressed monetary values in pence and shilling. Here life is recorded at its frontier best: "stout boots and shoes," "stout chairs," and especially stout hearts were its substance. 197 198 GEORGIA DOW TOWNSEND [December

Dwight Foster in 1836, he was anxious to push on the few remaining miles west and reach the city that was to be the end of his journey. Leaving Fort Atkinson on foot after a slow and tedious march, he arrived at what should have been the location of the city of Clin- ton. The creek glinted in the late evening light, the dark wooded hills rose on either side, but without welcoming lights or visible signs of habitation of any sort. Walking about in his search for some place in which to spend the night, he frequently stumbled over stakes that seemed set with great regularity and came to the conclusion that Clinton was a New York promoter's dream of what might be some day. His disappointment must have been great, and how much more unattractive Fort Atkinson must have appeared when of necessity he had to walk those same long, slow miles back to it. Some correspondence in regard to another location must have been carried on as the next definite fact known is that the patent covering 242.74 acres of land (S. V2 of Sec. 7, T. 6 N., R. 13 E.) bears on the back the words, "U.S.A. to George Dow, Patent Re- ceived for record the 30th day of December, A.D. 1839-" An ad- joining 80 acres in Dane County (S.E. VA of Sec. 12, T. 6 N., R. 12 E.) must have been acquired at the same time, but the patent from the government was not received until later (March 3, 1843). This land extended from the west shore of Lake Ripley nearly to the banks of the same Koshkonong Creek. Progress on the new farm must have seemed so slow that my grandfather decided to send a trusted friend, James Stark, west to push the work. The following letters to his friend and employer are an outstanding picture of the man himself as well as of the new country. His industry and honesty, his piety and peppery tongue, his regard for and interest in the small things of the farm make his letters as interesting as the diary of Samuel Pepys, and gossip seemed to pass as freely between New York and the settlement as it did about the drawing rooms of London. The letters from Stark ceased when the Dow family finally arrived at the farm (now the Lake Ripley Golf course), on May 24, 19493 LETTERS OF JAMES STARK 199

1842, after a slow, three-day journey on wagons drawn by oxen.1 My grandmother, having spent her girlhood in Glasgow and the remainder in New York City, was very fearful of the "terrible beasts " that were to transport the three loads, so sat on the end of the last wagon with her feet hanging. She probably never had to jump to save herself and her baby from any wild capers of the heavily burdened oxen but often may have been glad to walk for a rest from the jolting. Mr. Stark and another man, by the name of Coburn, remembered by the family as " the hunters," continued to live on the farm so that my grandmother, who was as frightened of the Indians as she was of the oxen, might never be left alone. After some years, Mr. Coburn moved farther west, but Mr. Stark died and is buried on the farm that he labored so eagerly and faithfully to make a "substantial and comfortable home" for the friend he so generously served.

To Mr. Geo Dow In Care of Messrs. Goodhue & Co. Merchants New York Buffalo 13th May 1841 Dear George I arrived here yesterday morning and leave tomorrow. Am on board the Steam Boat "Bunker hill" crowded with Passangers all for the far west, a large proportion for Milwaukee, all in high Spirits longing to see the land of promise where they intend to spend the Remainder of their days. This Season there is but one Company running Steam Boats to Mil- waukee and of course they have their own price, $10 for each Passanger, and 7s per 100 lbs, or 12s per Barrel. I could have gone by the trading Vessels for one half, perhaps a little less, but the weather is so far advanced I did not think it prudent to run the risk of a long passage. As to receipts I have purchased as under 1 first reat plough with extra Irons &c $9.00 1 grindstone 761b .95 2 cast steel scyths warrented 2.00 1 Presumably the trip was made from Milwaukee. 200 GEORGIA DOW TOWNSEND [December

2 snaths 1.50 2 five pronged manure forks 2.25 2 hay ditto 1.50 1 garden rake .75 1 shovel .88 2 scyth stones .25 There is no B up plough made such as used in the west. The plough from $4.00 to $6 I did not think worth carrying out. I concieve they would have been used up in one season in fact from all information I could collect confirmed me in my opinion. All I have done has been done with thought and care. The plough I have got is made by Gibson a Scotsman and he promised to warrent it for Years to be used with care. The wheat crop all along the canal looks well, but the season in other respects far back. Flour retailing here at $4. per Bbl. I shall again write You from Milwaukee in the mean time I am Dear George Yours Truly JAMES STARK

Milwaukee Thursday 20th May 1841 Mr Geo Dow Sir I arrived here last evening. Rob Black has been here with the cattle Since last Friday. We leave this today and expect to Reach home in three days. The oxen are just now a medium size and appear active, the Goods will be rather too much for them but rather than leave a part shall give them time and feed well. I am happy to inform you John and Rob are well, as regards the crop, they have been advised not to put in Spring Wheat, it appears the flour made from such wheat keeps but a short time, obliged to receive it from the mill every few weeks, " So I am informed " More on this subject hereafter. Bob informs me they have in the ground 4 acres corn VA acre Potatos, There is also in the Ground " or Garden " Beets onions Raddashes parsaly. The cabbage plants are not yet trans- planted but shall be as soon as ready. Bob informs me the corn that is to come from the Ground that part we may not want for ourselves can be Bartered for flour. 1949] LETTERS OF JAMES STARK 201

He also informs me that there is on the farm 3 sowes, 2 of them has pigs, say 16, and the other one expected to pig in about a month, we cannot want for " pork " he has given a pig for a cannon to enable us to go after the ducks and geese which he says can be shot in large quantites, and will serve us in Hew of Butcher meat, as under you have list of money paid out here. Rob Blacks bill since his arrival $7.88 Starks .62 Wrights Bill for Goods Cash Rec'd by Bob when he left 1.50 Greaves " " " " " by " " " " .31 Boat hire and storage here 2.25 Passage and freight from Buffalo 23.18 Lead shot purch here 3.50 I have neither time nor convenience to enter into particulars but shall do so in my next, which shall be from home, when I shall explain the Boat hire and Storage, and all such matters as they occure to me. The Bal of Ground that is broken up shall be put in crop at the proper Season. Say wheat, Turnips &c. As Regards purchasing land for Scott, I have been advised not to enter land until I see it, " it is also my own opinion " more on this hereafter, You can draw your own conclusion. I shall explain when I arrive at home, and wright to the point. You may be assured nothing on my part Shall be wanting to forward Your interest, which of course will add to my own personal comfort. In the mean time I am Your Most ob Servant JAMES STARK N.B. Since writing the above I found the waggon wheels not in a state to perform the Journey, the Boxes in the wheels Brock and dis- troying the axeltrees we are getting it repaired which will detain us this day and add to our expenses. J.S.

Wensconsen Lake Dow 12th June 1841 Mr Geo Dow Sir I had the pleasure from Milwaukee which I have no doubt but you have received. I arrived here on the Tuesday following. I was obliged 202 GEORGIA DOW TOWNSEND {December to leave at Milwaukee, the Stove and Stove pipe, Grindstone and Plough, the weight of the articles being too much for the oxen taking into consideration the Road which is very bad for the first thirty Miles after leaving Milwaukee. The oxen did wonders. When within 25 Miles of this place I was obliged to employ a Couple of oxen to help us along the way our own being worn outen. As regards a vegetable crop the Farm this Year will not produce them. There is as nigh as my judgment serves me from 6 to 7 acres the Plough has never been over. But such ploughing! It is so badly done it is almost past discription. It was the widow Berrey's sons who were employed to break the Ground. I consider the $20 as so much money lost also one years crops. It is now planted with corn and potatoes which I am looking forward to. I have purchased a cow, 5 years old. I had her of a Drover and paid him $15. She is of medium size and a Beauty in all her points I know she would bring $30 in New York. They are now digging out the cellar for the house and their timber will only work 22 feet by 18. Money will be wanted to purchase flooring and Shingles, Nails etc I will do all in my power to further Your Views and endeavor to make the farm a comfortable one to You and Yours. Your land is all high lying land and covered with oak timber the greater part has the appearance of an old apple orchard somewhat thickly studded with trees. You can drive the waggon and oxen over the greater part of it. There is from 15 to 20 acres chopped and fenced with a stout and sufficient Fence. I am Sir Your Most Ob. Servant JAMES STARK

Wisconsine Lake Dow 3rd August 1841 Mr. George Dow Sir: The newspapers You sent dated the 3rd Ultmo came to hand on the 28th. As under You have a list of a few Articles wanted for the farm, 1 Steel Yard from 1 to 150 lbs, small tacks and nails for the soles and heels of Boots and shoes, a few stout Braces for trousers, 200 lbs Rice useful in the Summer with milk, Sugar and Tea very high here, 1 1949} LETTERS OF JAMES STARK 203

Riding saddle with stout Stirrup leathers and Stumps, 1 Boiler from 15 to 20 Gallons with Brass Cock for Boiling Cow and pigs meat Soap making etc, 1 Box hard Soap, 1 Chain for measuring land useful in this quarter, 2 stout hay forks, the stoutest You can find they have broken those I purchased. I believe had they got justice they would have lasted for Years, 10 feet of 5 Inch Stove pipe one of the joints with a damper and one with a drum. There is no Such thing as Bricks made in this quarter I have made repeated inquiry after them and can hear of none, all the Houses I have been in have large wood Stoves and the Stove pipe goes right up and out at the top of the House, the joint with the drum is to warm the garret which is used for sleeping in, 1 Sodreing Iron, Some Soder and Resin, Stout calf skin Boots and Shoes and Stockings for Mrs. Dow, Slight Boots and hose of no use here, the Same for Your Self and John, 1 dozen tin milk pans. You had better bring your chairs " especially the Stout ones". You can take them tops and stow them in Box with your Beds and Bed clothes Table linen etc. Keeping out as many Bed Clothes as serve you on the lakes. Make 2 ozenburgh beds to be used on the lakes and you can purchase Straw for them at Buffalo. Many Respectable Families who take what is called a deck passage do so, by doing so you will Save $10 each. You can also cook your own provisions on board the Steam Boat, by so doing you will also save money or you can Receive your Meals on board the Steam Boat paying 2/ each, Brass Sieve to Strain Milk when it comes from the Cow. Kitchen utensils almost any article that is used in the Kitchen, Mrs. Dow can judge for Herself. Rutabago seed, the turnips good feed in winter for the Cows and pigs, 3 to 4 Good and sufficient pork barrels, you can pack part of your goods in them, 1 stout Black silk Handkf for John. Some prs Blankets and bed covers such as called comforters. I had this pleasure on the 12th Ultma which I believe will be with you by this time. You will observe Your favour on the 3rd June last did not reach me until the 6th Ultma. I am informed letters and papers coming to Wisconsine are often missent, the fault I believe is with Some of the Post Masters out of N.Y. I observe you intend to leave N. York for this on the 15 th Oct. next. I can assure You that I never before was so grateful for information. When I wrote You that I was of opinion You had better remain in N.York for the Winter it was with a view that You might save a little Cash during Your stay as we 204 GEORGIA DOW TOWNSEND [December would have but little food to receive from the farm this fall and that we could better put up with meal milk and Potatoes, then the family can come out in the spring with but little expense. The corn will return the seed, the Potatoes are an average crop. Those I planted far exceed those planted before I arrived and they now stand forth as a Monument of what a little labour will produce, there is not a weed nor a grub to be seen among them. The foxes are taking the Hens and Chickens we lost a Hen and seven young Birds a few days ago also one of the young pigeons. I believe the Hauks got the pigeon, the old pigeon has left her eggs, I cannot conceive what can be the matter unless they be too nigh us, they are by far too tame, they watch when we go out and in, then they will all be after us and cling to our Heads and breasts. The calf is now a fine beast running about the door like a young dog. I have named him Jack and can call him by that name. He is the largest and fattest for his age I have seen in this quarter. I am of opinion You had better Send your Goods on to Buffalo so as to have them there before Yourself. You can then take Steam Boat to Albany and from thence by Rail Road to Syracuse, if You take the line boats on the canal I think You had better allow the 2 cents pr Mile and they will find you in provisions which is very good, You must be careful that Mrs. Dow and John be not much on the deck of the canal boats, the decks are dangerous and the bridges very deceiving. When agreeing for Your passage and freight be particular in having it understood that Yourselves and Goods are to be landed on the wharf at Milwaukee without extra charge. Unless you do So You will be charged $2 or $3, the Steam Boat cannot come to the wharf, a Steam boat comes out into the lake and receives the goods and Passangers and Unless You have provided at Buffalo for what I have just stated to You, you will be done out of the above mentioned Sum. Yours truly JAMES STARK

Lake Dow 4th August 1841 Mr. George Dow Sir:— I expect by the time this reaches You to have your House up and nearly covered in. You had better before You leave N. York if You 1949] LETTERS OF JAMES STARK 205 possibly can turn your Harlam lots into Cash, and turn Your whole attention to Your farm, and in a few years if health and strength is allowed You, you and your family will have a substantial and comfortable home. The most of the people that has come into this quarter this Summer has gone two days journey west of us and has squated down on the Wisconsine River near fort Winabago, the land is said to be very rich and not yet come into the Market. A number of Scots families have passed by this, The River is also navigable and I am told Steam boats have been up the River as far as the Fort and that profit- able trade is carried on with the Indians in whiskey Tobacco, powder and Shot, Blankets, Guns, etc. I have given You my opinion how to send your goods also how to export yourself and family. There is but little corn for sale here at present it was 2p to 3/ the Bus when I came. Wheat is also the same as last winter 50cts Cash at the Mill. As to News papers we are 18 Miles from Madison and as to Jefferson there is only one or two shabby farm houses at it, a printer there would have to go on short allowance. I am Sir Your Most Ob. Servant JAMES STARK

Lake Dow Wensconsene 23rd August 1841 Mr. Geo Dow Sir I had the pleasure on the 3rd and 4th inst Since then the news papers you sent have been received. As under you have a list of a few additional articles wanted. You no doubt will perceive that they are all usefull but in purchasing You must use Your own judgment and study Your own convenience. Money is very usefull here and I have no doubt You will want more of it in this quarter than You anticipate. The returns from all farming operations are Slow especially from a new farm in a new country where all are producers of BreadstufiFs. It is the Emigrant that has as yet taken the most of the surplus produce. I also may add Mil- waukee with the exception of the new Settlers on the Wisconsine River and the miners at Mineral point is the only market the farmers have at present to look to, and for the farmer to transport his produce there 206 GEORGIA DOW TOWNSEND [December the mode of transportation is so expensive it would eat up all the profits. Clinton some 2 to 3 miles from Your farm is one of those an- ticipated towns, the land taken up and the town laid out by a batch of Speculators or rather desperadoes in 36 and there it still lays in a wilderness State. Madison 18 Miles there is only some 18 Houses and the inhabitants Chiefly farmers and they of course want but little. A small Settlement distance from Your place 18 miles, called White Water, there is a Grist mill and the only one the farmers at present have for a number of miles around. I am informed the owner last winter purchased wheat and paid 50 cents per bushel cash. The Settlers on the Wisconsine River and at Mineral point have at present to purchase their flour at White Water. This Summer the proprietors of the Mines at Mineral point are transporting their lead to Milwaukee by the road that passes this place, today 8 waggons 8 oxen in each passed this on their way to Milwaukee. I am also informed in two months from this the Mail for Madison will come this way which will be a great convenience. Since I last wrote You I have learned that Bricks are made to order some 12 to 15 Miles from this $4.50 pr tn akill has been burned there this season. As regards lime those that use it generally burns for themselves but it is in vain to think of plastering a log house. The frame of the house is up and the first floor laid. We are harrowing the ground " which is in fine order " preparing it for wheat which will be in the ground early next month, I think there will be from 8^2 to 9 acres and I am of opinion by giving the ground a complete and thorough Harrowing, so as to get a sufficient mould on it, so as to cover the seed, a good crop may be looked forward to. The potatoes are very fine, we use them every day. I never found any potatoes in New York to equal them in quality. I never return from digging them but with a greatfull heart indeed I have not words to express myself and return thanks to the Creator of all in the Heavens above and the earth we inhabit for his goodness and care bestowed on us poor mortals. The cow and her calf are doing well, the calf is the largest and the fatest of his age I have seen in this quarter. I have some times to stand forward as an Advocate for him so as he may have his full share of his mother's milk for You must know You have more calves to provide for than one, he follows me like a dog and when he wants his milk he dumps me in the bottom with his head. I have named him Jack and can call him by that name. We have put up one 1949} LETTERS OF JAMES STARK 207 of the sows to be fat by the time You and Your family arrive. She is a ferocious beast, it is her that has destroyed the Hens. She used to come home from the woods by her selfe and get in amongst the Hens and get hold of them without noise and eat them up feathers and all. The dog is a fine watch at night but he will not hunt the pigs. If you could get a water dog he would be very usefull, the wild ducks are just making their appearance we had 2 canvas backs a few days ago for dinner. I cooked them in the dutch oven, a few slices of pork the ducks some potatoes peper and salt and apest over all, and the way they went off was not slow, as regards Archy's money I concieve it was not my duty to take up my time to inform him I had delivered it, me writing him stating I had given up my charge, must have gone for nothing, he could not say I had done so, all I had to do was to deliver and take his Brothers receipt, it was for him to inform his Br. what he had sent and by whom, and it was his Br. duty on receipt of the cash to inform Archy he had received the same. If Archy has no better acquaintance with business then what he displayed in this transaction give him my compliments and say I am of opinion he had better apply to some person who teaches the rudiments of business and take a few lessons. As regards the Grubs on Your land if they were all down the Rock River it would be equal to the best $2000 You shall ever handle, and as regards myself going down the said River if I only use the few abilitys the Creator of all has bestowed on me, it will take one well versed in rougery and deception to send me there or any where else without my consent. If the turf on Your land was carted into the lake I would not give You much for it, that is the great fault I have to it, it has too little turf or vegatable matter and too far from the highway. I concieve to be situated on the main road to be of very great importance in this new country. Most all the farmers keep Houses of entertainment and charge 2/ pr night for a pr of oxen and 2/ for each meal, 1/ for lodging and 1/ when You want only bread and milk. You will perceive by so doing they pick up a good dale of cash and dispose of their produce at a high reat. There is no whiskey made within 40 or 50 miles of this place and I am informed it is sold only by the quantity from 2/6 to $4. Mares are scarse in this quarter I do not think you can get them within 70 or 80 milles. There is a Norawagan some 8 miles from us who I understand has some Cows for sale, I intend to give him a call in a few days. Articles wanted 1 circular saw with frame 24 meal Bags 1 Cwt ed to go to the mill with, what I 208 GEORGIA DOW TOWNSEND [December

Brought with me are potato bags and will not answer for flour, 1 wood screw for Carpenter bench, 1 ps stout tweild Blue and white strip for shirts, 1 ps stout tweild red flannel for shirts. A few pr stout woolen half hose large size what Mrs. D sent with me are only youths size, 10 Gallons lamp oil, 1 horse bridle to suit the saddle. Magnelwortal [mangel-wurzel, large kind of beet] seed locust tree seed, 1 cooper adze, locks and Keys for cupboards to keep out honest hinds, Walkers and Johnsons dictionary combined You cannot on a/c of your Son want it, School Books and one Arathmatic Book with the Key to it such as is used in the N Y schools, be sure and purchase the Key You can then teach and instruct Your family all the useful rules and some of the higher ones, washing tubs, 1 Bucket for milking in, Tobacco and snuff, 3/ by the lb here, sugar 1/ to 1/3. Some stout osenburgh or cotten over alls for the summer especially for hay time. 1 Tin horn to call Your hinds from the woods. 1 Tenor Saw, 1 few bibs Seleratas. I have all the packages that were on my list checked and rechecked at all the landing and Shiping places. I believe one of Greives Boxes was of the same number as one of mine say 23, if it was put on board at N Y it must have been left at Troy, they had to be passed over a tow boat to be put on board the canal boat and it might have been left on board of the boat they had to be passed over. I do not know exactly that I want a Box, but I remember handing You some bowles and 2 decanters to be packed and a bladder of snuf and a bag with (broken by seal) sample sugar neather of which came here. Bob wants clothes that he can go to the church with, but the secret is there is a widow on the banks of Rock River possessed of 150 acres of land and some cows and he wishes to appear in full dress, when he in future approaches her, he had been writing her pointing out the necessity of being married and the ruinous consequences that might befall our race of living a Single life. He has appointed Mrs Berree and Mrs Greives to plead for him and he says if he do not suceed it will be my fault in letting his frolick from this to Milwaukee be known, he might as well bleam me for spreading Greives and his $40 adventure to Milwaukee, his first adventure I was in New Y. and the last one was up through the settlement when I was nearly 1000 Miles off. A week ago Mrs Bryce had not arrived. You must take care who You advance money to it will be hard to collect it here. Mr. Brown left this on the 6th for New York in quest of His money and I believe You will have seen him ere 1949] LETTERS OF JAMES STARK 209 this. I do not expect to write You again unless some thing new oc- curs, or in reply to Your letter should You require it. I will write to Milwaukee to Mr Murry to have windows ready for the House by the time You arrive. Annexed You have a list of what have been purchased since I wrote You, I am Sir Your Most ob Servant JAMES STARK Purchased at White Water Paid Rockwell for Bob 6 lb rice 42cts sugar 88cts Soap 31 46 lb Pork 6d 2.78 Salaratus 25 3cwt flour 12/ 4.50 Sugar 37 10 Bus Brand 80 Matches 6 4 Shingles 21/ 10.50 to- 7 Lumber for house 18." snuff 19 Ferrage 63 23 lb nails lOd 2.30 Snuff Box 13 Expences 50 I am pleased to hear of Mrs Dow and Jonney being in good health we are all well this is ii healthy place, when Richardsons place is covered with mist we have none.

Fort Atkinson 4th Sept. 1841 Mr. George Dow Sir Yours dated the 11th I received yesterday just as I was Starting for this place for Seed Wheat. I have purchased 15 Bus 6/ $11.2/. it is wheat of a Superior quality, this kind only found its way into the Territory last fall. The ground is ready for the Seed and I think we Shall have it all in the ground by this day week, it takes a great dale of harrowing. I cannot leave this for Milwaukee until the wheat is all in and completely covered. I wrote Mr. Murray Milwaukee Regarding the Goods and have given him orders to forward the Same to White- water or F. Atkinson if he can fall in with a careful and trustworthy person that is coming out and will bring them at a cheap rate, say 2p carrage. So as it may pay his expense. If he cannot I have told Mr. M. I would come for them so Soon as the wheat is in the ground. It is 210 GEORGIA DOW TOWNSEND [December uncertain when the package may arrive there by Sailing Vessel they often take 3 and 4 weeks to come up the Lake. I wrote You near a week ago and You will observe I have purchased Shingles and I believe the House will be habitable by the time you and your family arrive and God knows I have for this sometime back longed for to have once more the pleasure of Seeing you all. You write me to present the receipts to Bryce for payment just as I had to walk from 16th Street to Wall Street. I went to see him yesterday and had to walk upwards of 16 Miles and some of it through swamp up to the ankle in water. If you was making anything by the transaction I should with cheerfulness go to the utmost of my Strength to accomplish the object, but for You through Benevolence to advance money to Strangers and put Yourself in their power and not be so much as thanked for Your Kindness is too much to be pleasing to me. He was not at home and I am now waiting him here to receive his answer. Yours truly JAMES STARK

The next letter as to date is from Robert Black and presents something of the gayer side of life in the growing settlement as well as the many business openings possible in this new country.

Lake Dow, January 1842 Dear Brother, We are happy in hearing that you have Some thoughts of coming here. I hope you will continue in that mind. Last Summer there were a great Number of New Houses Built around us and could not get hands enough to dig Cellars and Wells and stone them up and the ensuing Summer there will be more. Men working by the month in hay time and harvest have fifteen Dollars per month or six Shillings per day and found and for Nipping and Cradling they have 1 Dollar and found per Day. They Built a Steam Boat on the Rock River last winter and sent it down to St. Louis in the Spring but the thing has never Returned. If you were there you may have seen her. She was intended to have drawn 12 Inches of water but she drew a great deal more, however there is no doubt but the River will be made Navigable as there is 1949] LETTERS OF JAMES STARK 211 only one place, it is what they call De(?) aus Rapids where there is any impediment in the whole course of the River. With that exception Vessels of four feet water could run the whole way. It will be a Great place this in a few Years as it lays Conveniently for both Rail Road and River Navigation. On the west of George's land there is a stream of water Rolling Rapidly at the rate of 3 miles an hour and water enough to Carry on factories to any extent. It is a beautiful stream 3 or 4 feet deep and you might lift a Silver Sixpence from the bottom of it. I want you to bring a Drilling hammer and a light Sledge. You will get them in Some junk Shop very cheap. I have seen a great Deal of quarries around here Capital limestone, it lays all in flags of from 6 inches to 1 foot but after being wrought deeper I have no doubt it will turn out large Blocks. The lime after it is Burnt is as white as Chalk. Another way a man can make Rich here would be making Bricks. George has got Some Clay on his place which is as good as any Japan has ever seen. They sell here at five Dollars per thousand (I think a man could not carry Many of them away on his Back). There is a tavern started at the fort and you ought to see how the people get drunk. Can you play the fiddle yet if you can you will get Something to do at that trade if you will take produce for it. I suppose George and you have been practicing this winter. It is a great place this for Musick and dancing, but I have never been out yet. I have written part of this letter to Janet. You must take it to her. Give our Kind love to Mary Ann and tell her we want her out here. I Remain your Aff. Brother, R. B.

Dear Sister, Mrs. Scot has opened your Chest and aired your clothes. I expected some snuff but you will bring it when you come yourself. We had Mrs. Brown here on a visit for 4 days. She is a Jewel of a woman. Mr. Brown is going to get him a farm on the opposite side of the Lake so you will have to Sail over the lake when you visit each other. George must bring little Sails with him and the American Flag and hoist it on Lake Dow. I think you may be called the lady of the lake, Janet. I really think I see you Scimming the loch in Canty glee and in your own Bark or little Canoe. You can have no idea of the happiness that awaits your coming. I was in great hopes that you would be here this winter 212 GEORGIA DOW TOWNSEND [December but as it is maybe it was best you didn't. But Geo. should not have set the time so often and not come it disappointed other people and made them talk very sharp. There has a good deal of Scotch men and their wives come here since we came and wonderful merry folks they are. Some of them have been looking at land beside yours for friends that they expect next Summer which will make it very agreeable for you. By the By you must make a party when you come here and have a few of your Neighbors at it. We are going to Build a kitchen to the end of this house and make this your dining Room. I have Boarded off a bedroom off one end but it is large enough to hold 12 Couples Dancing the Hilland fling. They had a fine Ball at the fort on New Years Eve I was invited but I could not go. I was very sorry indeed. There was a good deal of people there and many Married people all the Settlers here are young Married folk like George and yourself. George must bring a net for Catching fish in the lake we can see them in droves in the Summer and fall. How is your little girl have you called it Mary and John he must be big now. Mrs. Scot sends her Compliments to you. Dear Sister I Remain your loving and Affectionate brother ROBERT BLACK

The birth of a little daughter, Joanna, not Mary, on October 14, 1841, seems not to have been mentioned until after her arrival. Thus the seemingly unwarranted postponement of the family's westward trek must have caused much comment in the settlement. The identity of the brother to whom the letter was written can be surmised by the reference to St. Louis and the hope that he had seen the steamboat that "drew more than 12 inches of water." Mat- thew Black had served in the Seminole Indian War and may have remained in the south for some time. Anyway, to Robert, there seemed the possibility that he might have been fortunate enough to have seen the boat that had been built and launched in Wis- consin. 1949] LETTERS OF JAMES STARK 213

It is with regret we learn that one letter was lost, but the following and last with its much " sound " advise must have taken some time to read. When the usual " single sheet" was filled with Mr. Stark's fine script, it was turned and as the red ink gave out the cross writing in the same now faded brown ink makes reading slow and difficult.

Lake Dow, Near Fort Atkinson Wenconsin 10th March 1842 Mr. George Dow Sir I had this pleasure on the 1st Jany which was mailed on the 6th and I have no doubt the Same reached you in due time. We expected an answer on the 21st Ultma, but no answer has Reached us. In regard to the Stove No 6 of James Manufacture they are not suited for this western quarter of the world being by far too small and the oven too near the fire. The Stoves that answer in this quarter are to be Bot at Buffalo and when complete with their furniture cost from $25 to $40 Size of pipe generally in use here 7 inches. The Stove suitable for a small room and a small family when they are near a Bakery and Receive their Bread from the Baker. With such a Stove as the one here, Yeast and Bread must be made each day and Mrs. Dow knows going on so takes considerable time and at the same time always scarce of Bread. As regards your coming here by way of Racine it is all Humbug. I have informed myself as Regards the Route. Racine is Some 15 to 20 miles farther from here than Milwaukee and the road no better and the landing inferior you have to land at Racine in an open Scow, at Milwaukee a Steam boat comes along side of the Lake Steamer and lands you on a good wharf. To give you some idea of the Road, when I was in Milwaukee last fall I brought from there full 16 cwt with Your oxen to this place, the Road was much improved by what it was in the Spring. We will find it inconvenient to take the oxen off the farm and come to Milwaukee for you in the Spring. It will cost you but a trifle more to hire a double horse team which can be got at Milwaukee than what Your own oxen can do it for. You will see by the annexed Bill 214 GEORGIA DOW TOWNSEND [December of Charges what the man and oxen will cost and you must also allow Something for tear and wear and to do the oxen justice it cannot be done per day cheaper that is to say in the Spring and fall, during the Sum- mer Months the journey can be done Somewhat cheaper, the man can then carry the most of his Grub with him and the oxen can also then find the most of their feed. You can hire at Milwaukee a double horse team to come out here for $15 at the Most and will take baggage from 11 to 20 cwt. the teamsters calculation is to have $3 per day until his return, it will take him 5 days to do justice to his horses that is to come out and return. Perhaps you may get a team for something less. Mr. Murray your friend will assist you to get a smart team. Whatever goods you may be under the necessity of leaving at Milwaukee can be sent for and got to Whitewater for 4/ per cwt. That was the price last Summer and fall, or your own oxen can go for them during the Sum- mer Months. It is reported in the House you intend to bring a Servant Girl with you. If you do I can assure you she will only be a bill of expense to you, Say from $50 to $60 per Year and she will be of little use to you or Mrs. Dow. The washing in a country place like this is but trifling. The water will have to be brought into the house, the wood cut up and laid down in the house and indeed for a good part of the year the fire made and breakfast on the table before you can get her from bed, and I am of opinion you will find it more to Your Satisfaction to have all that done for Mrs. Dow than to indulge a Servant Girl and at the Same time be obliged to advance the needful to her. I am up every morning by 5 o'clock and have breakfast by 6 o'clock. You will find it inconvenient to pay cash for Services rendered however Small. Money is not in general circulation in this quarter in fact no Wen- consin farmer can pay cash for work done whatever extra work he requires is paid for with produce, Such as wheat, flour, Pork, potatoes, corn, etc. In making these remarks and what May hereafter follow I do not mean to dictate to You nor do I intend to interfere with any arrangements you and Mrs. Dow may have entered into, I am merely giving you my opinion and wish so to be understood in every sense of the word, at the Same time I am confident on Your arrival and when you get acquainted with the country in general You will find the Same to be correct. At the Same time it is not intended in any way what so ever to discourage you from farming which I conceive to be the Most Rational way of getting through this world. This part of these United 1949} LETTERS OF JAMES STARK 215

States is in a very thriving situation and Remember you are preparing a permanent home for your Self and family and what is pleasant far Removed from the toils, troubles and disappointments of a City Life. All bear the face of Independence, No Boss to Say " Geo too late this morning " no hungry land lord at your door on quarter day, and what is still more pleasing with moderate industry you have all within your Self that is necessary for comfort and support of the body. What a pleasing Reflection, what would 10s of thousands of Your poor country men now give to be so situated 2 and if this worlds goods are Your object you are advancing fast in that way, at this moment if Your farm were mine Unless I wanted to leave this place, I would not take $1000 for it and I have every Reason to believe unless Some Scourge comes over the country property so situated will double in value every 4 or 5 years for some time to come I am, sir Your Most ob. Servant JAMES STARK

2 James Dow, a brother of George, had moved from Scotland to Lindley, England, and on March 3, 1841, wrote to his brother. Of the condition of his homeland he says: "I have not heard from Scotland since I left. It was very bad then and from all accts they are ten times worse since in fact trade in this country is completely at a dead stand and more so since Peel Brought in the new Sliding Scale. We are making a few pieces of Coat Cloth. But nothing can be made not scarsely Wages but what can we do since we cannot come to America and as to Scotland I do not care a Straw altho I should never hear nor see it Wisconsin in 1847: Notes of John Q. Roods

Edited by EARL S. POMEROY

OHN Q. ROODS, a resident of Newark, Ohio, went to southeastern Wisconsin in the fall of 1847. Part, at least, of his Jmission was to examine farm lands. Leaving Newark on Sep- tember 28, and traveling by way of Cleveland, he arrived by boat at Sheboygan on October 7. This was a common route in the 1840's. On the return trip he went by way of Racine, Southport, and Littleport, arriving at Chicago on November 4 "after up- setting in the stage twice." Roods recorded his experiences in a Note Book, now in the New York Public Library. The first entries, until October 16, include a methodical expense account; he then stopped recording his ex- penditures, after a thief took some of his money: I stop for the want of time to set my things down at present time since I have lost my money I am not like the same person. My trip now will [?] cost me about one hundred dollars but I cannot avoid it Upon entering Wisconsin, Roods had begun writing down de- scriptions of town and countryside; when he left the territory, the entries again became scanty, and of little or no historical interest. When he left Detroit (November 9), he recorded his opinion of the city but no description of it. Farewell Detroit I leave you this morning Gladly. I never was so tired of any City in my life as of you we are leaveing you in the distance and I am d—nd glad

EARL S. POMEROY is an associate professor of history at the University of Oregon, Eugene. His volume, The Territories and the United States, 1861-1890, was published in 1947 in the Albert J. Beveridge Memorial series. The Rood Notes contain numerous misspellings and almost no punctuation. The printed version is a duplicate of the original, with additional space allowed for missing punctuation. 216 WISCONSIN IN 1847: NOTES OF ROODS 217

Perhaps he disliked it because he was eager to get back to Newark and had to wait two days for a boat. On the whole, however wrong he was in his estimate of the value of Wisconsin farm lands, Roods seems a fairly alert and accurate observer. His statements of data such as population and numbers of mills check fairly well with other sources. He saw southeastern Wisconsin when population and wheat production were increasing rapidly, and in somewhat sub-literate and hurried fashion recorded some of the flavor of the boom.

1847 Scheboyan. Scheboygan Co W T Oct 7 We arrived here 10 minutes ago. It is a hansome little place situated on the Scheboygan River where it emties in Lake Michigan 47 miles blowe Milwaukie There are a great many goods left here for the inland Merchants Indians are as thick here as flees in dogdays 1847 Milwaukie. Mil. CoW.T. Oct 9 Arrived here this morning at 6 oclock it is the most buissness place I ever have been in and numbers 16,000 inhabitants 1 When I arrived I walked out in to the most buisness part of the city and there was not a person to be seen hardly but now what a contrast. A fellow has to go a side at a time and then can hardly get along the side- walk A man not used to the like of such things to come here and see the number of wheat teams could hardly believe himself every kind of Mechanism is a going on in this place from street hawking to Manufacturing steam Engines and every kind of citizens from the rude Norwegian to the polished Italian This is a great place for professional men such as Legal Physical dentical Dogmatical and all the other ah But it certenly is the d—mdst place for Old maids that ever it has been my lot to see before. They go in such droves along the side walks that it kept me a dogeing all the time to keep clear of dresses or being struck by a bustle when they are a swinging them along I shall be glad when I get to smell country air once more and get out from amongts the dandy.

1The Territorial Census shows the population of Milwaukee in 1846 was 9,655; in 1847, 14,067; U.S. Census, Seventh, 1850, 20,061. John W. Hunt, Wisconsin Gazetteer (Madison, 1853), 147; Attainment of Statehood, Milo M. Quaife, ed., State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Collections, xxix, 352-53. 218 EARL S. POMEROY [December

Oct 12th 1847 Walworth Co W. T. I thank my God that I am yet a single man and hope that I ever may remain so if I could not get a better companion than the one is for her husband where I am now staying If she was a wife of mine I should be under the painful necessity of leaving her and let her shift for herself for a short time untill she worked some of her spells off Her husband draws wheat to Millwauke a distance of 40 miles and when he is at home she is as sick as the very Dv—1. But when he is gone she is as pert as a woman could be Cutting shines around me and with more boldness than she does with her husband I am with her more thant half of my time But I shall leave for Janesville as soon as I can and from there to East Troy where I hope to get a letter with some money from home then I shall leave Wisconsin very soon The land around here is very poor in my opinion generally sandy and gravelly and so thin a soil that there is no [illegible} grows of any kind if I only had my money back and was at home Wis- consin might go to the Devil and I would stay there for a while any hour 1847 Janesville Rck Co W.T. Oct 16 Janesville is on the edge of rock prairie is as large as Newark2 and has immense [illegible] privaladges on Rock River and is 70 miles West from Milwaukee Some of the hansomest locations that I have seen ly between here and Meechem's Pararie3 there are some splendid farms around this place but they are higher than Land in Ohio society is good in this place, woman hansome, young men bold, as lambs and Old Maids thick I have nothing more to say East Troy 4 Walworth Co W T Oct 16 landed here at 1 oclock It is a hansome place situated on [Honey] creek 30 miles west of Milwaukie and nofrth] East of Janes- ville and as large as [Linton? Lisbon?] and the inhabitants as rough as the Devil himself 1847 Geneva Walworth Co W. T. Oct 20 Geneva I arrived here about 1 oclock it is a very hansome place situated by an inland Lake of the same name 9 miles long and

2 Janesville's population on December 1, 1847, was 2,587; in 1850, 3,451; Newark's in 1850 was 3,654. Ibid., 353; U.S. Census, Seventh, 835, 923. 3Meacham's Prairie, Troy Township, named after Major Jesse Meacham. 4 East Troy's population in 1847 was 1,027; in 1850, 1,318. Quaife, Statehood, 354; U.S. Census, Seventh, 923. 1949} WISCONSIN IN 1847: NOTES OF ROODS 219

3 miles wide and affords water power for a saw and Fleuring mill also a carding machine The Vilage is as large as Newark nearly 5 The land around it is of a good quality with tolably fare timber it being all white and swamp Oak. It is 6 miles from here to the Illinoise line and 14 miles south of East troy and 44 miles from Mil- waukie 1847 East Troy W.T. Oct 22 Today there is a fancy ball at this house Everything is in a bustle and confusion The Musicians have just arived and are tune- ing up their Banjoes and I think to judge from apearences they will have pretty much of a ball as there is some 30 couple already here and they are comeing yet. 1847 East Troy W.T. Oct 22 [?] Any person unacquainted with this country would hardly blieve his own eyes if he was here and see the teams that are on the road, drawing wheat and flour in Milwaukie.6 On the 20th wheat was worth 1 dollar in the Citty and as soon as this news got out in Country Every Body started to the city with wheat on the night of the 21st there was 93 teams put up at the 2 ins in this place and to day I counted 36 in one string this morning 1847 East Troy Oct 26 Robery. Last evening there was 185 dollars missed from this house and no certain clue has been got of the person that took it It has been took by somebody that is acquainted with the house and knew where it was. It strange there has been and is more thefts commited in the place [illegible] than has been known before. So others have bad luck as well as myself so the world goes. I think I shall be out from here in a few days. Madison City W. T. Oct 27 I arrived here about 1 oclock to day it is a very hansome place and the only one I have seen where I could stay The Land is good water pure and [illegible] timber is mostly Yellow pine Indians and Deer and plenty and some of the former are hansome and use as good English as I can Tomorow I am going to take a deer hunt in company with a couple of gents from Ohio and some Indians We

5 Geneva's population in 1850 was 1,557. Ibid., 923. 6 Wisconsin's wheat production in the year ending June 1, 1850, was 4,286,131 bushels. Walworth County produced 655,704 bushels. Ibid., 931. 220 EARL S. POMEROY shall have a fine time one that will drive sorrow and grief far away The young man that travels in this country wants some thing to stimu- late him into action consequently there is a great amount of brandy and Gin used in it But as yet I have not got in the habit of it To kill my trouble I use the more of the weed I smoke and chew both There is 4 hansome Lakes in this County which attract the attention of of [sic] the traveler more than any thing else they indeed hansome the City is built Close by one of them and the road runs by the other 3. But supper is ready. Book Notes

History of the White Pine Industry in Minnesota. By AGNES M. LARSON. (University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1949. Pp. xvi, 432. $7.50). The lumber industry offers peculiar difficulties to the historian who strives for objective all-inclusiveness. Its many ramifications present inviting byways to the student of technological development, the business historian, the land economist, and many others, including the ubiquitous antiquarian. Agnes M. Larson's study of white pine lumbering pays due regard to each of these interests. Carrying the reader in one broad sweep from the earliest beginnings to the inevitable end of uncontrolled forest exploitation in Minnesota, its fact-packed pages deal with every conceivable facet of lumbering. This is all based upon sound scholarly research and is told clearly and forcefully. Altogether it would be hard to imagine a more satisfactory book for the specialized student of lumber history and for reference purposes. But anyone other than a specialist is likely to find his attention engulfed in massed details. By actual count, the book mentions by name over a hundred individual lumber and booming companies, in addition to even more pioneers, loggers, lumbermen, and speculators, many of whom have only ephemeral or local significance. " To give an idea of the changes that had come to the industry " by 1870, the full equipment of no less than eight Minneapolis sawmills is listed (pp. 148-49), and this is followed by pages outlining the saws and machines in other individual mills. The book is replete with such facts as the ground dimensions of the first sawmill at Stillwater (p. 18) and the name of the first man to make a purchase at the St. Croix Falls land office (p. 53). In many cases these raw data are properly used to point up or build up a generalization, but they often receive only episodic treatment. There is, however, much excellent writing; the truly masterful chapter on " Life in the Woods " deserves special mention. Despite its discursiveness, there can be no serious question of the book's scholarly merit. The prodigious research and devoted interest of the author are obvious on every page. In all of its clustered details practically no errors of fact are apparent. Only a purist in method- 221 222 BOOK NOTES [December ology would question the substantiation of facts by interviewing aged men, since the information thus gained is usually of the general nature for which memory is normally adequate. And probably only a strongly prolabor critic would discern anti-union bias in the author's suggestion that the small number of strikes in the Minnesota lumber industry from 1881 to 1900 "may have been due to the fact that Minnesota sawmills employed large numbers of Scandinavians, generally peaceful and law-abiding citizens" (p. 358). Taken as a whole, Professor Larson's book is an important contribution not only to the economic history of Minnesota but also to that of the Midwest. Except for localisms, what she has to say about lumbering in Minnesota is generally true for the industry throughout the Upper Mississippi Valley. Much research remains to be done in the different phases of the lumber industry, as Professor Larson points out in her Preface, but the completion of her fine survey is one of the indispensable preliminaries to such further progress. De Paul University ROBERT F. FRIES

The Life of Ralph Waldo Emerson. By RALPH L. RUSK. (Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1949. Pp. 592. $6.00). Professor Rusk's monumental biography of Emerson will long remain the definitive life. Other works may be consulted for their interpretation of Emerson's career and significance or for their charm, but Professor Rusk's is certainly destined to be, for some time, the authoritative account of Emerson's day by day life. In preparation for this task, Professor Rusk, long an Emersonian of high standing, edited Emerson's letters, examined the unpublished documents of the Emerson Memorial Association, exhumed long forgotten newspapers and diaries, secured a Guggenheim award in biography, traced Emerson's century old footsteps through Egypt, Europe, England, and America, and then devoted five years to his drafts. The result is a substantial and scholarly account of Emerson's mortal existence, fully annotated, and, in spite of its sometimes tedious detail, eminently readable. Since its scholarly triumph is assured, one may dispense with conventional praise or blame and push on to the central question. To what extent does familiarity with Emerson's daily life enable us to grasp his significance? For example, do the external records of Emerson's appearances in Madison and Milwaukee and of his losing investment in 120 acres of Wisconsin land (which Professor Rusk 1949] BOOK NOTES 223 omits) suggest the role that he played in our development? Is there a discernible relation between Emerson, the man, and Emerson, the poet, the essayist, the seeker, the seer, and the seminal influence? Was the Emersonian institution really the lengthened shadow of the man? As one reads the detailed account of Emerson's activities, one becomes increasingly aware of the pressures, sometimes malignant, that family, class, school, lyceum, church, and society put upon him. One is steadily less aware of the means whereby Emerson eluded these pressures, rose superior to them, attained his individual point of view toward the world, and expressed it in lectures, essays, and poems. No doubt in all great writers there is this disparity between experience and expression, between mortality and immortality; yet in Emerson the problem is peculiarly insistent. How, and why, did this shy, re- served New Englander whose life was so quiet and undramatic come to be the conscience of America? Of all the American writers, Emerson's life seems most at variance with his writings. Melville's tales were based, again and again, upon his personal experiences. Hawthorne's lunar writings matched his hermit existence. Thoreau carried his philosophy into the fields, the woods, the jail; Alcott his into the classroom and the home. Even Poe's broken life seems but the fitting converse of his writing. But Emerson, seated fast in his provincial study, journeyed to the Greece of Plato, Proclus, and Plotinus, to the Palestine of Christ, to the East of Gautama, to the Germany of Kant, Goethe, and Hegel, to the Eng- land of Coleridge and Carlyle. The resulting elixir, labeled Transcend- entalism, seems to have little enough relation to the diurnal round at Concord. And little enough relation, one might think, to America, however often Emerson is considered the most " American " of our writers. Professor Rusk's meticulous presentation of Emerson as a living being merely sharpens this question. He forces his readers back to Emerson's writings, to the essays on Nature, say, or the Poet or the Oversoul with the overwhelming question " Was this the man? " Beloit College FREDERIC R. WHITE

Rural Artists of Wisconsin. By JOHN RECTOR BARTON. (University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, 1948. Pp. 196. $5.00). In Rural Artists of Wisconsin John Barton has successfully done something rarely achieved in more pretentious volumes. He presented 224 BOOK NOTES [December art and its makers as something normal and close at hand. In his behind-the-scene sketches of some thirty Wisconsin citizens who paint pictures, he has brought home the fact that art is a natural part of everyday life. The arts, particularly the art of painting pictures, have been ob- scured somewhat in recent decades by the smoke of controversial issues and by the popular typing of the creative artist as an incomprehensible and irresponsible creature. The tendency of critics to disagree, the tendency of successive generations to rebel against their predecessors, and the inevitable lag between change and public acceptance have not destroyed the desire of people to create. Mr. Barton, without venturing too far into art criticism, points out this simple fact, fortifies his statement with charmingly human examples, and modestly suggests some possible reasons. Barton is to be congratulated for a workmanlike job of gathering and presenting essentially new material. He must also be commended for omitting any promotion of a Wisconsin school of painting, recog- nizing that the universal aspects of art are of greater validity than any attempt to delimit it. Mr. Barton apparently accepts primitivism in rural art as natural and even desirable. It occurred to me again and again during the reading of this book that there is a very real danger in encouraging artists, urban or rural, to be smug in their isolation, particularly in the cultivation of a quaint primitivism. The latter could easily become as synthetic as often-criticized urban mannerisms. We would not speak proudly of isolationism or primitivism in modern medicine, modern agriculture, or modern science. The Mid- west has already tasted the fruit of an isolationist policy politically and economically, and in the realm of art the recent over-emphasis upon provincial thinking known as " regionalism" may serve as a constant reminder to look outward rather than inward. "Regional- ism " in art, to use a popular expression, is a "dead duck," dead because it was in essence reactionary, a temporary escape from the chal- lenge of disturbing new ideas from abroad which ultimately have reshaped our thinking in all the arts. It would be as great a mistake to place too much emphasis on the unique qualities created by isolation as to ignore them. Rural communities are, after all, avid readers of Life magazine and other publi- 1949] BOOK NOTES 225 cations which bring the issues of modern art to their homes almost daily. The teachers of rural children are products of modern education, and the rural population has an increasingly high percentage of university-educated people. Are they not to be regarded as alert and aware of changes occurring in twentieth century life, manners, and thought? In short, the conditions which once promoted primitivism and quaintness are largely nonexistent today, and we must face the fact that urban issues are rural issues to a very great extent. Personally I do not fear that art may be " cut off from the people by an insistence on subtle techniques and abstruse meanings" as, apparently, does Mr. Barton. These are typical of the complexity of our age, and the rural community should neither need nor want to be sheltered from the issues. I am strongly inclined to endorse Mr. Barton's own words to the effect that "new concepts, new methods and even new institutions must arise to direct the dynamic stream of modern living." I agree heartily with Barton that the increasing interest shown by rural communities in the visual arts is a sign of dawning maturity in our American culture. Anyone who reads Rural Artists of Wisconsin will certainly keep a sharp eye on further developments in what seems to be a remarkable decentralization of art activity. If we look back no further than the sixteenth century, we will see a precedent for the small community to lead rather than to follow in creative activity. No review of this worth-while volume would be complete without mention of the excellent quality of the color plates and half-tones so liberally used to demonstrate the productivity of rural Wisconsin in cultural as well as agricultural pursuits. Beloit College CLAYTON CHARLES

Lincoln's Vandalia; A Pioneer Portrait. By WILLIAM E. BARINGER. (Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, 1949. Pp. 141. $2.50). Lincoln, as a member of the Illinois State Legislature in the 1834-39 era, was a transient resident of Vandalia for forty-four weeks. That period of Lincoln's life is the subject of this compact volume, the 1949 publication of the Abraham Lincoln Association, Springfield, Illinois. The first portion of the book is devoted to Vandalia as the " wilderness capital " of the young state of Illinois. Historian Baringer reviews the early history of this Kaskaskia River town, mentions its problems, and introduces its notables. 226 BOOK NOTES [December

The second part, entitled " Enter Lincoln of Sangamon," evaluates the Salem resident's contribution to law-making in the ninth regular session (lasting from December 1, 1834, to February 13, 1835) of the State Legislature. Here young Lincoln, as the protege of John T. Stuart, learned the elementary lessons of statecraft, became acquainted with a host of lesser politicians, attracted little attention, and scored few successes. Surer of himself, the Salem satellite took a more active part in the two-week special session which convened on Decem- ber 10, 1835. The third section of the volume treats of Lincoln's activities as a sophomore legislator. During the Tenth General Assembly, Abe of Salem emerged as the leader of the " Long Nine," the Whig delegation from Sangamon County. These nine legislators experienced a busy session in which they scored three distinct successes. They repulsed the parliamentary assaults launched against the State Bank of Spring- field, prevented the partition of Sangamon County, and secured the removal of the State capital from Vandalia to Springfield. That master stroke was accomplished through log-rolling—the " Long Nine " secured votes for their pet scheme by promising their support of various and numerous internal improvement projects in return for votes to designate Springfield as the new capital city. At Vandalia, during the two biennial and two special legislative sessions, Lincoln learned the lessons of practical politics—compromise, patronage, publicity, party discipline, vote-trading, personal contact, and parliamentary tactics. Baringer's latest contribution to Lincolniana is based upon thorough research and sound scholarship. The 152 footnotes, grouped together in the appendix, attest to his mastery of the historical arts. Yet, it is a small volume when compared with the author's previous works, Lincoln's Rise to Power (1937) and A House Dividing (1945). Although Baringer does not wield a facile pen, the material is still readable. The three-page index contains too few subject entries. Those who are not Lincoln cultists may wonder why Lincoln's Vandalia days receive a volume rather than a chapter. Those who are, will study this book intently, noting that Lincoln's political experiences on the banks of the Kaskaskia were stepping stones to his greatness. Marquette "University FRANK KLEMENT 1949} BOOK NOTES 227

Joseph Benson Foraker: An Uncompromising Republican. By EVERETT WALTERS. Ohio Governors Series, Vol. I. (Ohio History Press; Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, Columbus, 1948. Pp.xiii,315. $3.50). Many noteworthy if not exactly great men deserve biographies but lack the broad interest to rate one from a commercial press. Fortun- ately, in one state after another, historical societies are sponsoring books about these more or less neglected figures of the past. Wisconsin has projected a number of such studies, the first of which is scheduled to appear early in 1950. Ohio has already begun her "Governors Series " with Everett Walters' account of Joseph Benson Foraker. Foraker, actually far more notable as senator than as governor, was in many ways a typical Republican politician of the generation after the Civil War. He advanced his own and his party's cause by waving the bloody shirt until it was in tatters. He used his power to boost tariff rates for local interests, to resist the regulation of railroads and other corporations, and to start the nation on the imperialist path of overseas expansion. As a corporation lawyer, he made a fortune by serving the " interests " such as Standard Oil. If his practices finally led to exposure and political ruin, this was not because he was any worse than many of his predecessors and contemporaries. After all, even the great Webster had labored assiduously for private corporations while ostensibly representing the public interests of his state, and Webster remained in the hearts of his countrymen the God-like Daniel. No, Foraker was no different. He merely lived too late: his career extended into the Progressive period when the etiquette, if not the ethics, that people expected of politicians was beginning to change. The story in Ohio is much like that in Wisconsin, with a few interesting differences. In the 1880's and 1890's the Wisconsin Republicans performed with remarkable teamwork under the triumvirate of Philetus Sawyer, Henry C. Payne, and John C. Spooner. The Ohioans never achieved such unity, never succeeded in patching up a lasting truce between Cincinnati and Cleveland, between the Foraker men and the followers of Marcus A. Hanna. Yet the Ohioans put one man after another into the White House; they had to yield to no such upstart as Robert M. La Follette; they reached their ultimate triumph in the elevation of Warren G. Harding and the Ohio Gang. By that time Foraker himself was dead and his frustrated ambitions at rest. He had possessed great talents as a lawyer and orator, though 228 BOOK NOTES [December

Mr. Walters considers him inferior in the Senate to Spooner (with whom, among Wisconsin politicians, he is most closely comparable, just as Hanna and Payne were very much alike). He perhaps cherished a certain idealism in his advocacy of Negro rights. He left something of a monument in the Foraker Act for the territorial organization of Puerto Rico. Yet, all in all, he accomplished little in the way of constructive statesmanship. Mr. Walters' study, though the bookmaking itself is undistinguished, sets a high standard for the Ohio series. His research is thorough, his documentation full and meticulous, his presentation forthright and clear. Though he has tried to write no "life and times," he has sketched in the times well enough to provide a setting for the life. He is so chary of both praise and blame—indeed, of " interpretation " in any form—that some readers may feel he has carried his impartiality a little too far. Those who expect from Allan Nevins' foreword to find " the description of a highly effective political mechanism " are likely to be disappointed. The precise workings of Foraker*s machine are nowhere described or analyzed. For this, the author is hardly to be blamed; anyone who has struggled with writing a politician's biography knows how elusive are the details of his ways of getting and keeping power. Mr. Walters does reveal in a general way the sources of For- aker's support, the uses to which he put his influence, what manner of man he was, his significance for the period in which he lived. Mills College RICHARD N. CURRENT

The Territorial Papers of the United States, xvi, The Territory of Illi- nois, 1809-1814. Compiled and edited by CLARENCE E. CARTER. (Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1948. Pp. xi, 506. Index. $3.25). This most recent of the volumes of the Territorial Papers begins with the creation of Illinois Territory and presents many important documents concerned with the development of Illinois to the end of Governor Ninian Edwards' second administration. These were important years in which the people gained for the first time a government of their own, although it was not one in which they participated at the beginning. Secretary Nathaniel Pope organized the government, and Governor Edwards, who arrived shortly, took charge and directed affairs with skill. The advance to the semi-representative stage came in 1812, and a legislative assembly and a territorial delegate to Congress 1949] BOOK NOTES 229 were added to the governor, secretary, and judges. Progress, however, towards statehood was delayed by the War of 1812 which kept the governor and the people busy with defense measures and which dis- couraged the arrival of new settlers. It was fortunate for the people of Illinois that they had as their governor a man of such ability and good sense as Ninian Edwards. The volume contains documents from the State Department of the national government which was in general charge of the territories, materials from the Postmaster General's office, and memorials and petitions in the files of the House of Representatives and the Senate. These materials have been presented quite completely. Some of the documents concerning land titles and policies, Indian affairs, and defense have been included but less completely. The Executive Register, 1809-1818, has been republished because the earlier publication was faulty. The editorial work has been done with the same excellence that has marked the earlier volumes in the series. If one were to single out certain documents of importance, the letter of Governor Ninian Edwards to Congressman Richard M. Johnson of Kentucky (pp. 198-202) would hold high rank. The people of Illinois wished to enter the second grade of territorial government, but the land policy of the federal government and the property qualifications for voting and office holding in the Northwest Ordinance created an impossible situation. Edwards requested as a remedy the extension of the franchise and the popular election of the delegate to Congress. The law which Congress passed in response to this appeal gave Illinois a democratic territorial government. Some of the petitions of the people which asked that Congress amend and liberalize the land policy are also significant. A minor criticism might be made because the passage to the second stage of government receives so little attention, particularly the election of a territorial legislature. This is no doubt due to the principles of inclusion and exclusion which are quite necessary and not to a slip upon the part of the compiler or his staff. It does seem, however, to have been as significant as other developments if not more so and might therefore have been treated as an exception to otherwise necessary regulations. There are a few documents which cast some light upon Wisconsin in this period. They deal with the Indians and Indian trade and the War of 1812. In the main, however, the people of Wisconsin must 230 BOOK NOTES [December wait until the volumes treating Wisconsin Territory appear. Historians hope that this work will continue without interruption. Indiana University JOHN D. BARNHART

Shadows Cast Before. Early Chapters of the History of the Society of Mary in the St. Louis Province. By PETER A. RESCH, S.M., S.T.D. (Maryhurst Press, Kirkwood, Missouri, 1948. Pp. 12, 158, $3.00). This little book grew out of a series of lectures by Father Resch which were delivered in 1935, apparently, before a group of younger members of the Society of Mary. In the Foreword the author states that he has published his work on the occasion of the centenary celebration of the society's advent to America in 1849, " simply to throw a spotlight upon certain important phases and documentary souvenirs " connected with this group of clerics who devote themselves to the education of boys. One of the " documentary souvenirs " which will have great interest for Wisconsin historians is a letter from one of the brothers who did missionary work in the State in 1856. It portrays a vivid picture of the rugged life of those times (pp. 111-18). Another letter of even wider appeal, perhaps, is that from Father Hercules Brassac, dated July 14, 1818. It was sent to the Society in Europe, by a priest not of their order, who was working in Kentucky and then moved to Mis- souri (pp. 11-24). Scattered through the book, one also finds many excerpts from early letters which illustrate Catholic beginnings in the Mississippi Valley. However, the character of the book, as a whole, is rather tantalizing to an ordinary reader, unacquainted with the history of the Society of Mary. A caution that the book " does not tell the whole story... of the beginnings of the Brothers of Mary " is hardly sufficient excuse for mentioning names of persons and places without further explanation; or referring to episodes of internal operation of the Brotherhood as of " common knowledge " (p. 129). Perhaps the young men who listened, in 1935, to Father Resch's talks knew the connotation of these things. The uninitiated reader is left confused by such statements, and they occur too frequently. The same dissatisfaction is often aroused by the citation of sources which one finds throughout the work. Footnotes frequently omit the date and place of publication of books; and there is no bibliography to help remedy this defect. Nevertheless, by publishing his book, the author has preserved certain interesting information from oblivion, and this is good. If other 1949] BOOK NOTES 231

Catholic historians would do their share in this regard, material might ultimately become available from which an adequate account of the Church on the frontier might be written. Marquette University R. N. HAMILTON, SJ.

From the Log of a Trout Fisherman. By DR. ARTHUR TENNEY HOL- BROOK. (Privately printed by the Plimpton Press, Norwood, Massa- chusetts, 1949. Pp. 204. Copy available for use at the STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY Library). To one who has had the pleasure of trout fishing on the Brule, Dr. Holbrookes " log" will bring many nostalgic feelings and will serve to emphasize again the fact that " man does not live long enough." In his exceedingly interesting way he tells how in one location on Wisconsin's most famous trout stream, three generations of Hol- brooks have for nearly three-quarters of a century enjoyed the best of everything nature provides in the way of recreation. Dr. Holbrook has not only told in minute detail some stories of trout fishing which might well be recorded in the " Log of a Trout Fisherman," but he has combined these with an accurate local history, a well thought out bit of natural history of the fish and animals of that section and some wise observations on how the Brule may be perpetuated as a source of recreation for countless generations to come. Not everyone will agree with his theories on the perpetuation of brook trout fishing in the Brule, but that is only to be expected, since of late anyone who learns to "flip a fly " becomes, in his own estimation, an ichthyologist of no mean ability. As in many other things, it might be well to listen to the voice of experience, particularly from one who has for seventy years been actively interested in fish and fishing. Dr. Holbrook's analysis of people with whom he has come in contact on the stream and in the field is priceless. He has met them all from the unassuming, quiet fellow who is a real sportsman to the loud-mouthed braggart and the game-hog. His manner of describing those whom he has met is highly amusing, and the various types are readily recognizable to anyone who has fished or hunted anywhere in the world. There is one thing which is brought out forcefully in this book, perhaps unconsciously by the author, and that is that basically boys do not change with the years. Dr. Holbrook tells a story of his maneuvering around to get a new birch-bark canoe for a certain trip on the 232 BOOK NOTES [December river because of its " speed." The idea was the same, although today the boys may have a counterpart in a hot-rod engine or a high-powered outboard. The many other situations which he recounts which include his friends from schools and colleges are but confirmation of the fact that boys haven't changed, and that men are merely boys with more birthday anniversaries. There is something about a trout fisherman which keeps him from growing old. There is ever the constant hope for the thrill of one more skillful encounter with a brook or a rainbow. It is a pity that this book will not have wide circulation since it was privately printed for dis- tribution to the author's friends. It contains many good chuckles for the initiate and much good common sense for those who read and heed the many observations he has made on the great outdoors and how to get the most out of it. In these days when so many people, and particularly young people, seem content to get along without expending too much physical or mental effort to help themselves and are only imbued with something they call " security," I am particularly struck with the homely philosophy contained in the last chapter of Dr. Holbrook's book. I am taking the liberty of quoting it here in hope that many may read it. Lord—let me never settle down— Though failing riches and renown, Ever keep alive in me That gasping curiosity That keeps me young, and all aglow To see, to feel, to hear, to know— Though Fate should smile on me or frown— Lord—let me never settle down. Rothschild, Wisconsin D. C. EVEREST

The American Spirit in Europe. By HALVDAN KOHT. (University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 1949. Pp. 289. $375). Halvdan Koht, distinguished Norwegian historian, has made a timely and major contribution to American historical literature with his work, The American Spirit in Europe. Today United States stands alone as leader of Western civilization, its position challenged only by Russia. The world influence of America has not been an overnight phenomenon nor does it date from the atomic bomb. The cultural, political, and economic impact of America upon European civilization has formed a continuous process since colonial times. Various aspects of this interaction of cultures have 1949] BOOK NOTES 233 previously been treated, but Koht is the first to give the subject the ambitious treatment it deserves. In doing this he has perhaps written the most significant book on America by a European since Lord Bryce's American Commonwealth. Koht covers an amazing amount of ground in this short volume. Assuming a knowledge of the development of America from a sprawl- ing sparsely settled wilderness to " leadership of western civilization," he traces the European reactions to this growth in a series of concise, finely drawn essays. Some of his main themes treat the European reactions to the American Revolution; to America as the land of opportunity; to American humanitarianism, economic power, technological genius, imperialism, and finally, world power. Koht's book leaves no one clear picture as to what really has been the meaning of the American spirit in Europe. This is perhaps only just, as we have presented many images to foreign eyes, some of them contradictory. Implicit in Koht, however, is the conviction that the American spirit has embodied the belief in the dignity of the individual, freedom of opportunity, and adaptability to change. Perhaps the major criticism to be directed to Koht is that he has been too kind. He has certainly glossed over many unfavorable aspects of America's transatlantic influences. "Uncle Sham" and "Uncle Shy- lock " have also cast their shadows on foreign soil. Koht's work brings to light an amazing dearth of material concerning the major historical problem of the times, America's influence on world civilization. Aside from his extensive knowledge of European history, Koht was dependent upon a handful of specialized monographs for references. Independently of Koht, Merle Curti of the University of Wisconsin had recognized this dearth and initiated a series of studies on " The Impact of America Abroad." Until similar studies are launched and widespread talent is drawn to this field of research, a more definitive study of the American spirit abroad is unlikely. Thus the importance of Halvdan Koht's American Spirit in Europe. Madison BERNARD GRONERT

The National Road. By PHILIP D. JORDAN. The American Trails Series. Edited by JAY MONAGHAN. (Bobbs-Merrill Company, Indianapolis, 1948. Pp.442. $4.00). Half a century ago Professor Archer B. Hulbert undertook to write the story of America's historic highways. Although he performed a 234 BOOK NOTES [December notable feat of historical pioneering, the subject is too vast for any single writer to encompass. Since Hulbert's time, too, the automobile era has come into being, enabling Americans to travel wherever highways run with a degree of comfort, speed, and economy hitherto un- dreamed of. A century or more ago when settlers left the Atlantic seaboard to seek new homes in the beckoning West, they commonly expected never to see their birthplaces again. Commonly, too, they never did. Now, as all readers know, anyone possessed of an automobile may travel several hundred miles a day more easily, than his covered-wagon ancestor journeying one-tenth as far. The ease and frequency of present-day overland travel makes it a cause for wonder that the publication of a new and comprehensive series of narratives dealing with America's historic highways should have awaited the enterprise of the present publisher and editor. The volume on The National Road is the third book in the series, and to its writing the author, Professor Philip D. Jordan, brings a lifetime of background study. Professor Hulbert's study of half a century ago was written primarily for historians and never attained any considerable circulation. Jordan's book is aimed at the general reader, of whom, let us hope, there will be many. His easy-going narrative style is well- calculated to hold their interest, and the tale he unfolds is intimately bound up with the growth of the nation to which they belong. It is a story of almost exactly 200 years of time. In 1753 young George Washington was sent across the mountains by Governor Din- widdie of Virginia to carry a message of warning and protest against the French occupation of the upper Ohio Valley. The trail he traced out—quickly to be followed by marching armies—was the later path of the Cumberland Road; and this, extended westward across central Ohio and Indiana, was to become the famed National Road of our present story. The Seven Years' War for which Washington's activities furnished the prelude gave to Great Britain the Western country, and paved the way for her loss of it to the burgeoning United States. Hesitantly and after long and painful questioning the federal government authorized the construction of the highway westward from Cumberland to the Ohio River in 1806. Actual construction of the road was begun several years later, and by 1818 the mail was being carried over it as far as Wheeling. Already constitutional difficulties and doubts were rising 1949] BOOK NOTES 235 to cloud the prospect of the road's continuance. In 1838 the last important federal appropriation was made; St. Louis, the original goal of the road, was never reached, and its continuance across Indiana and into Illinois was left to state action. Judged by present-day standards, the National Road was a puny enterprise. To Vandalia, Illinois, beyond which it was never located, the distance was 591 miles and the federal appropriations made during thirty years totaled about $7,000,000. Today the single state of Michi- gan spends seven times this sum on its highways in a single year. Politically, however, the National Road provided a vital measuring rod for the growth of national sentiment and power. Materially, it was utilized and blessed by tens of thousands of settlers and other travelers for whom k provided the best available entrance to the western country. Today, as U. S. Highway 40 it is probably familiar to vastly larger numbers than ever traveled it in the covered-wagon era. Author, editor, and publisher are all to be congratulated on their enterprise and skill in at last telling its story so well. Highland Park, Michigan M. M. QUAIFE The Man Who Knew Trees, The Autobiography of James W. Girard. (The Forest Products History Foundation, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul, 1949. Pp. 35. $.50). To the young foresters of the nation the name of Jim Girard has become almost legendary. For whenever older foresters meet, the tales that are apt to be told of the exploits of this famous cruiser, or " timber looker," approach the stage of forestry fiction. This pamphlet (No. 4 in the publications of the Forest Products History Foundation) attempts to get together some of the facts and fancy in the life of Jim Girard. It is unfortunate that it is labeled an autobiography because it is not written by Girard and is not in the first person. Yet there is much information on the life history of this pioneer cruiser which should serve as an inspiration to many, in or out of the field of forestry. For this is the story of a man whose formal education stopped short of graduation from high school yet who rose through the ranks of the Forest Service to the position of director in charge of field work for the Nation-wide Forest Survey. The rise was accomplished mainly through sheer ability and perseverance. Upon his retirement from the Forest Service in 1945, he left behind him not only a highly creditable record in practical field work, but also many 236 BOOK NOTES [December improvements in the techniques of cruising which are in wide use today throughout the nation. Retirement for most people means the end of their working days, but for Girard this was certainly not the case as he joined the firm of Mason and Bruce in Oregon, and as he says, went to work. There he will probably continue his high level of service to the forestry pro- fession. His hope that he will be able to accomplish a little something in forestry that he will be remembered by has certainly been long since fulfilled, but to stop now and rest on his laurels is certainly not characteristic of Jim Girard. University of Wisconsin R. W. ABBOTT

Titans of the Soil; Great Builders of Agriculture. By EDWARD J. DIES. (University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill [1949]. Pp. 213. $3.50). America has accomplished something that no other nation has ever achieved—the combining of both complete agricultural and industrial supremacy. Our country is both the world's foremost agricultural and industrial nation. When one considers that up to 80 percent of the populations of many well-known European and South American coun- tries are required to provide a food supply that is frequently a scant step ahead of a starvation diet, one begins to appreciate how America's agricultural supremacy has contributed to its over-all greatness. Titans of the Soil has as its objective the saluting of a few individuals whose contributions may be considered indispensable to America's fan- tastic capacity to produce food, fiber, and agricultural wealth. Naturally, many will question the qualifications of some of those persons chosen by the author and placed in his agricultural hall of fame. It can be cited, for instance, that Washington and Jefferson, ad- mittedly outstanding farmers, lacked any effective means of communicating their advanced ideas to farmers generally and consequently made small if any impact on the improvement of our agriculture generally. The author himself seemed fleetingly to have realized this when he said of Washington, "... in 1796 he urged the creation of a (federal) board of agriculture, but little interest was shown, for he was far ahead of his time." Mr. Dies could have circumvented the wrath of many readers if he had dealt with his selections more realistically and had not over-simpli- fied them. He would not have detracted from the greatness of John 1949] BOOK NOTES 237

Deere, by pointing out that others, some of them earlier than Deere, fashioned steei saws into the shape of a plow and demonstrated that our vast prairies could be tamed. John Deere was more than an inventor as Dies's story clearly points out. Likewise he presents George H. Shull as the father of hybrid corn while those who are well acquainted with the development of hybrid corn recognize that a half dozen or more men made contributions equal to or greater than those of Dr. Shull. Perhaps the author's greatest fallacy is his failure to recognize that it has been the exception when a single individual, lone-handed has conceived, developed, and promoted projects which have changed the course of American agriculture. In most instances it has taken the energies of a group of men working in concert over long periods of time to change the shape of our agriculture. Not all of the selections or the manner in which they are treated are vulnerable. Even the most informed will salute Dies for his accounts of Eli Whitney, Cyrus Hall McCormick, Stephen Moulton Babcock, and others. The style of writing is both so clear and so interesting that even school children will enjoy the book. Viewed against its very worthy objective of paying tribute to American agricultural greatness, Titans of the Soil, with its imperfec- tions, is a book distinctly worth having—deserving of a place in the library of anyone interested in the reasons for America's greatness. Wheaton, Illinois RICHARD CRABB

Looking Back Fifty Years, 1898-1948. By MSGR. E. C. O'REILLY. (Bara- boo, Wisconsin, 1949. Pp.117. $1.50). Monsignor E. C. O'Reilly's brief life sketch might well carry the title " The Building Churchman," for his material and spiritual achievements reached enviable proportions. Modestly told, his reminiscences of a half-century sparkle with an Irishman's wit and at times become as ten- derly appealing as " Mother Machree." The arrival of Father O'Reilly in a Wisconsin community without a place to rest his head or a pulpit from which to admonish his congregation, quickly resulted in the acquisition of funds, and then the appearance of a parish house, a church, or a school—whatever was needed. One wonders whether his success in building was the result of precise planning, intuition, luck, or the answer to prayer. However im- plemented, as one follows project after project one feels assured that " Father O'Reilly is ' coming through '! " 238 BOOK NOTES [December

His fund-raising activities varied, but box socials and special dinners were often resorted to; the manna that rained down when a crisis ap- proached sometimes baffles the reader. A box social once meant auction- ing off a sheep and a turkey, resulting in filling the Father's larder and in addition acquiring a neat sum to add to the building fund. The red tape of functioning building committees, and sub-committees, does not clutter up the narrative. His procedure was simple. For instance, he and his companion took off in a spring-seated wagon and returned " with a hog, a calf, and seventy-five roosters " generously bartered by his good rural parishioners for the Kingdom of God. A successful bazaar and dinner and additional funds were the immediate reward. He must have written with a twinkle in his eye when he told of winning " a dandy rooster " at an evening gathering. He did not wish to walk up Main Street with the fowl under his arm, so chose a side street. Unfortunately, he heard the whistle of the marshal, halted and was confronted with, " Good heavens, Father O'Reilly, are you the one? " Chicken thieves having been troublesome, he understood the im- plication, and explained to the marshal how he happened to be caught with a rooster tucked under his arm on a dark night. He sowed and reaped, spiritually, with abandon. When Viroqua lacked a Catholic congregation, he immediately set about taking a census. " When I completed the census, I found twenty-one souls, good, bad, and indifferent, mostly indifferent," he writes. First the little group met in a rented hall, resulting after a few years in the dedication of St. Mary's in the summer of 1907. At once he instructed the children and says that he " had quite a few little converts " when the six-week period closed. Wherever there was suffering, sorrow, or disagreement, Father O'Reilly lent a helping hand. After a short stay at Reedsburg, he was called unexpectedly to the fine Baraboo congregation, but his enthusiasm was somewhat lessened when the bishop instructed him to build a school and a convent. Un- daunted, he set about the task. One Friday night, entirely dismayed over lack of funds to pay the workmen the day following, a frugal old woman called on him, leaving a gift of $1,000. And that's the way the obligations melted away from Father O'Reilly! Just as miraculous was the appearance of transportation funds for his voyages to Old Ireland. Sometimes with a little headwork he found a way, but most of the time, it seems, these half-dozen trips were financed in Heaven. He longed desperately for his parents, and what joy when he 1949] BOOK NOTES 239 returned to them and roamed the Island and the Continent. Of his first visit he writes: " I am deeply touched as I notice my dear mother tiptoe to my room every night, as she did when I was a child, to tuck the blankets around me." Far, far more fortunate was he than many a pioneer who forever hoped but never was able to return to the homeland. Intimate, humorous, without prejudice, and completely enjoyable is his life story in which he states: " There is nothing unique in my experience in the Priesthood." Many a clergyman, and layman too, could read the simply written Looking Back with profit. The manuscript was given to the Rev. Albert P. Roemer, Viroqua, once his assistant, to use as he saw fit. Father Roemer is using the book proceeds toward building a parochial school in his city. Address: St. Mary's Catholic Church, Viroqua. State Historical Society of Wisconsin LILLIAN KRUEGER

The Whole of Their Lives: Communism in America—a Personal History and Intimate Portrayal of Its Leaders, By BENJAMIN GITLOW. Foreword by Max Eastman. (Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1948. Pp. xvi, 366. $3.50). The author epitomized the American labor rebel in the twenties as much as Bill Haywood in the preceding two decades, until a defiance of Stalin in 1929 hurled him from his top position in American communism. And because he was no time-server but a courageous rebel in the earlier tradition, his story rings true and is full of significance in the central issue of our day—West versus East. The title, The Whole of Their Lives, was derived from Lenin's specification at the beginning of the century of the professional revolutionary, to him the only sort of a Marxian that counted, a revolutionary whose espousal of the cause rendered null and void all other loyalties including that to revolutionary honor. But first a few words about this new religion, Marxism- Leninism. The Marxian pictures the workingman as a class-conscious proletarian who, at the dawn of a real revolutionary opportunity such as a world war or a similar upheaval, will unhesitatingly scorn all the gains in his material conditions and in his individual status which as a trade union- ist he has already conquered from the employers, and will buoyantly face an uncertain future—all for the sake of the dictatorship of his class. To Marx, history has irrevocably determined that the proletariat must follow the revolutionary path. The capitalists might throw labor back, 240 BOOK NOTES [December but that can be only temporary. In the end, the revolutionary must win against all obstacles. If, however, organized labor hesitates and turns from the revolutionary course, the Simon-pure Marxian will admit only one conclusion: labor has fallen under a treacherous or cowardly leadership. To remove that corrupt and corrupting leadership, by whatever expedient means lies at hand, then becomes the revolutionist's first and foremost duty. If that means an inevitable factional fight within the organization, which may threaten its very existence, the risk is still worth taking. If the revolution and the ensuing dictatorship mean a more or less prolonged period of industrial disorganization fraught with fatal dangers in the case of an industrialized country depending upon exports for its food supply, the risk still remains worth taking. This ruthless philosophy, ruthless not only towards the bourgeoisie, but to the labor movement and to the laboring people as well, was originally the product of the " will to revolution " of the intellectual who, like the prophet of old, has heard the voice of God and has dedicated his life to making God's will prevail on earth—except that the " God " of the " determinist-revolutionary " intellectual is not a personal God but the " law" of the development of society. With Stalin's ascendancy the new religion has acquired an infallible High Priest with all free discussion within the movement under a ban if it could be charged with any deviation from the party line. Gitlow was an alumnus of the American socialist movement with Eugene V. Debs for its standard bearer, but brought up as he was in a milieu saturated with the aspirations brought by the older immigrant generation from Russia, he was completely confident that the Revolution of October, 1917, in Petrograd was the tocsin call of the delivering Messiah and a command that could not be ignored to align his whole life with his duty to the revolution. This included underground work during the immediate postwar, infiltration of the leadership positions in the trade unions, and above all a forging and reforging of the party as an instrument. Lenin's demand for the " Whole of Their Lives" had sounded exaggerated and hysterical in the early 1900's with European socialism apparently settled in the civilized groove of " moderation " and constitutionalism, but not so when it now came from the leader of Sovietized Russia. Gitlow was ready to offer the " whole of his life " which included seven years of imprisonment in a New York penal institution, but only on terms satisfactory to his revolutionary con- 1949} BOOK NOTES 241 science. When Stalin seized the Lenin inheritance and proceeded to use it in his own coarse way, disregarding all the merits of his fellow revolu- tionists or even singling out the best of them for elimination (the purge trials and executions took another decade to jell), Gitlow got started on the path which led to a genuine awakening to the menace of the original Lenin amorality and eventually to his service to America done in this book. University of Wisconsin SELIG PERLMAN

American Social Reform Movements, Their Pattern Since 1865. By THOMAS H. GREER. (Prentice-Hall, Inc., New York, 1949. Pp. ix, 313. $5.35). The author of this study states that it is his purpose " to set forth the essential pattern of modern reform movements." This leads one to expect a treatment that is essentially interpretive, that leans more to the sociological than to narrative history, perhaps even a re-examination of the so-called reform movements in the light of recent theories of social revolution. Such is not the case. The body of the volume is made up of summary histories of the National Labor Union, Patrons of Husbandry, Farmers' Alliance, A.F. of L, I.W.W., Progressive Movement, Nonpartisan League, C.I.O., American Farm Bureau Federation, National Farmers' Union, the New Deal, and a number of other organizations of lesser importance. These have been compiled from obvious secondary works and break no new ground either in facts presented or in interpretation. Each organization is treated as a unit and is not integrated into the general reform movement out of which it arose, and which continued on after casting aside many of the organizations as being no longer socially useful. Such vital sociological data is ignored as the influence of the introduction of the corn-hog and dairy farm systems upon the decline of the Grange, as well as the importance of the various commercial farm systems in shaping the later farmer organizations. The old, discredited idea that drought was the major factor in producing Populism is accepted without question. Even the recognized fact that the Nonpartisan League flourished in a period of agricultural prosperity and declined with the approach of a recession raises no qualms in the author's mind as to the efficacy of the hard times thesis as an explanation for reform movements. After reading these histories, and in spite of the title given the study, one is quite ready to agree with the stated conclusion that, " Individual 242 BOOK NOTES [December reform movements do not follow any fixed pattern. They are as varied as the people who lead and follow them." The author, however, feels that " many significant observations can be made concerning" these movements, which observations apparently constitute his pattern of reform. These consist of such stereotyped generalizations as the following: " Economic distress gave rise to most of the reform efforts "; " Re- form movements, whether in the shape of independent parties or otherwise, rise up and disappear ";ft Movements depending upon spontaneous popular support generally stopped when the public lost interest"; "Most social reforms are closely related to organized reform movements." It is hardly necessary to comment that the enlargements upon these theses do little to explain social reform. There can be no doubt that a sound sociological study of each of the organizations here covered, and of the reform movement as a whole, would be immensely rewarding. The pattern of social reform which would emerge would give us indeed a deeper understanding of the immediate past and the present. But American Social Reform Move- ments does not accomplish this highly desirable end. State Historical Society of Wisconsin BENTON H. WlLCOX

The Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters Transactions, Volume 39 (1947-1948-1949), was published jointly by the Academy and the Milwaukee Public Museum in late summer. The only biographical sketch found in this publication is entitled " A Wisconsin Chemical Pioneer—the Scientific Work of Louis Kahlenberg " written by Norris F. Hall. In it are discussed the scientific contributions of a great re- searcher and writer and an outstanding teacher once laboring in the University of Wisconsin. " Few if any teachers at this University have so vividly impressed so many students," Hall writes. Kahlenberg's knowledge of chemical history was of great dimensions, and he gave interesting lectures for many years on this subject. His worth, however, should be chiefly assessed " as a contributor to the edifice of science, and to that of physical chemistry in particular." Appended to the sketch are the publications of Louis Kahlenberg and his associates, 1893-1902. There are forty-eight Scientific Papers listed, and an incomplete enumeration of Book Reviews (1899-1902), containing nineteen volumes. Willis M. Van Horn, research associate, The Institute of Paper Chemistry, Appleton, Wisconsin, is the author of a paper entitled 1949] BOOK NOTES 243

" Stream Pollution Abatement Studies in the Pulp and Paper Industry." An effort to cease the contamination of streams by pollution from the pulp and paper industry is being promoted by the Sulphite Pulp Manufacturers Committee on Waste Disposal, recently changed to the Sulphite Pulp Manufacturers Research League, Incorporated. Its research program consists of the study of (1) the chemical utilization of the waste materials, and (2) the biological disposal of waste. The Committee of Kraft Waste Disposal, made up of representatives of kraft companies of the State and the Bureau of Sanitary Engineering, is also active in the study of pollution abatement. The National Council for Stream Improvement of the Pulp, Paper and Paperboard Indus- tries, Incorporated, has been organized recently. Acid, alkaline, and other types of pulping are discussed, as well as paper machine wastes. Since large amounts of water are essential to pulp and paper manufacture, industry does not have the right to impair or destroy the value of such water to other groups. " The industry re- cognizes this fact and feels sure that, in time, it will be able to correct or eliminate the abuses that have occurred in the past As in the case of most all research, this extension [of knowledge] is slow. But we hope it is sure," concludes Mr. Van Horn. Among the eleven studies listed, readers may turn to such titles as "The Black Bear in Early Wisconsin" and "Squirrels in Early Wisconsin " authored by A. W. Schorger; " Fungi of the University of Wisconsin Arboretum " by H. C. Greene; " Antibiotic Aspects of Copper Treatment of Lakes " by Arthur D. Hasler; " How Chemicals Entered the Official Pharmacopoeias," by George Urdang; and "A Preliminary Creel Census of Perch Fishermen on Lake Mendota" by representatives of the Wisconsin Conservation Department. L.K.

Hudson, St. Croix County, has found its historians who have produced a two-part booklet (23 pp.) entitled Distinguished Hudson Men and Women by Willis Miller, and the History of the Public School System of Hudson by Edward P. Rock, superintendent of the city's school system. These sketches are reprints from the centennial edition of the Hudson Star-Observer, July 1, 1948. Mr. Miller discusses the personages who contributed significantly to Hudson's growth in three periods: frontier (1840-71); lumber and industry (1871-1913); and the Toll Bridge era (1913-48). To mention only a few: Ammah Andrews, builder and contractor and Charlotte Mann, teacher and niece 244 BOOK NOTES [December of the eminent educator, Horace Mann, both active in the frontier era; H. C. Baker, distinguished attorney, John A. Humbird, millionaire lumberman, Christian Burkhardt, milling and power plant proprietor, and John C. Spooner, a leading United States senator, of the second period; and James A. Frear, State legislator and congressman, Otto W. Arnquist, county judge, and Spencer Haven, well-known lawyer and attorney general of the State, of the most recent era. Fifteen portraits are used with these brief biographies. Another phase of Hudson's history deals with the first school which was conducted in a single room by Miss Sarah E. Partridge, over a three-month period. The term began in September, 1849, and according to her contract, she received $4.00 a week. Mr. Rock tells of the building of the first schoolhouse in 1855, of the creation of a school district independent from the city government, 1917, the advance made in education which resulted in organizing the high school, of building operations, and of the leading men and women educators of Hudson. Address: Willis H. Miller, Hudson. Price 75 cents.

The development of a region whose feature is the Little Eau Pleine River is told in Stories of the Little Eau Pleine from a collection by John G. Pinion (29 pp.), printed by the Marshfield News-Herald. This stream, important to the logging industry in the early years, enters Wis- consin River near Dancy, northwest of Stevens Point. Clearing the dense pine growth was a prodigious job which the settlers completed though poorly paid. For example, in 1889-91 a buyer for a mill at Dancy paid $5.00 per thousand for red oak; during World War I it had increased to $105 and more in price. Rice Lake, created by the widening of the river, was once a popular hunting and fishing paradise of the Indians. The lake and adjacent marshlands became a reclamation project, and Pinion tells of the " not too rosey " outcome of the dredging operations. Interesting is the tale of the battle of Smoky Hill—a Chippewa camping and village site—which these Indians lost to the Winnebago and fought to regain. The founding of Rozellville, a Marathon County settlement, and the growth of the surrounding area in spite of forests, Indians, and almost impassable roads, are told in the final sketch in this collection. Address: Marshfield News-Herald, Marshfield. Price 25 cents. A pictorial history of ample dimensions, Semicentennial Commem- orative Brochure. ..St. Norbert College, West De Pere, Wisconsin, 1949] BOOK NOTES 245

1898-1899 ... 1948-1949 (56 pp.), tells of the progress made by the men of St. Norbert, the Order in Education. The college at West De Pere had its beginnings in 1898 with an enrollment of two students, whose purpose was to prepare for the priesthood. Main Hall, the initial building on the campus, was dedicated in 1903, and Francis Boyle Hall in 1914. Other structures followed, with a campaign now under way to secure funds for the erection of Science Hall. Among the first pictures may be found prominent Catholics who received honorary degrees at St. Norbert's June, 1949, Commencement. The dean and faculty; the various teams developed by the department of athletics; R.O.T.C. band, cadets, and clubs; classrooms, dining and sleeping accommodations; and the members of St. Norbert Abbey, West De Pere are also included. Activities and scenes pertaining to the Order in Wisconsin portray the Norbertine Novitiate, Madison, St. Norbert High School, West De Pere, and Central Catholic High School, Green Bay. There also are pictured several educational institutions which are situated beyond the boundaries of the State. Of founder Abbot Pennings' achievements and those of his co- workers Father S. M. Killeen says: " We cannot understand how this pioneer group, having so little, accomplished so much, unless we appreciate how their trust in Divine Providence pointed the way to men of means who, having appraised their work as deserving, responded generously." The proof of great faith and great courage is found in the ever- growing influence of the Order of St. Norbert as pictured in the commemorative brochure. Address: Library, St. Norbert College, West De Pere. Price $1.00.

The title, Miss Melissa Brown's Cook Book (144 pp.), is recommendation enough for those who have eaten a single meal or years of meals in the cafeteria at Madison of which Miss Brown was once the proprietor. Now eighty-eight years of age, she is content to spend her time in her comfortable home at Madison where her knowledge of food and its preparation has made her many friends. The recipes which her cooks used in readying the cafeteria meals are now available in a neatly printed book with brown spiral binding. Her page of contents lists the usual food subjects found in such publications, and the guarantee of their goodness is Miss Brown's own record as " mistress of the kitchen." Since there is no index—greatly to be desired—such essential instructions as "A cup means a large coffee cup and not the small 246 BOOK NOTES [December tea cup sometimes used " should be brought to the immediate attention of the cook and not buried with other "helps" on page 134. The exact temperature of the oven, too, is an aid in baking, especially to the " learner," which is omitted from many of her recipes. But these are minor complaints; there are thousands who will cheer the appearance of the Brown cook book. Address: Melissa Brown, 602 Stockton Court, Madison. Price $1.00.

The Busy Bee Homemakers Club of Rib Lake has compiled the Taylor County Centennial Cook Book, 1948 (79 pp-)« The contributors have passed along their favorite, home-tested recipes. Some of these are not stated clearly and might well frustrate the young housewife. The vagueness of such statements as " a pinch of salt," " 2 rounding table- spoons melted lard," and " just so it rolls out nice " may mean that Mother must be consulted by the beginning cook. But there are many recipes worth trying. How about " Red Devil's Food Cake " or " Orange Chiffon Cake " for that birthday party; " Maple Walnut Cookies " or " Pecan Fingers " for tea refreshments; and a plate stacked high with " Prize Doughnuts " for breakfast? Address: Gertrude Mielke, Rib Lake, Route 1. Price $2.00.

Kern Pederson has created a pictorial story of Minnesota in booklet form, entitled Makers of Minnesota (54 pp.). During 1948-49 these drawings appeared in Minnesota newspapers as a contribution to the Territorial Centennial of that State. Of the fifty-two persons represented, three are women. Each person's life is portrayed in its significant aspects—with short legends—on a single page. Explorers, politicians, educators, industrialists, editors, lawyers, missionaries, authors, all are presented. Address: Kern Pederson, 2066 Case Avenue, St. Paul 6, Minnesota. Price 50 cents.

Additional volumes for the use of the genealogical hobbyists arrive frequently. From Mrs. R. J. Griesemer, Lake Mills, representing the Owens clan, has come the gift of the family history of Thomas and Elizabeth Owens of Merionth Co. Wales in North America, 1820-1949 (37 pp.)> with genealogical chart appended. It was compiled to com- memorate the centennial farm ownership of Hugh Owens at Iron Ridge, Dodge County, Wisconsin, September 4, 1949. 1949] BOOK NOTES 247

Daisy E. Rogers has prepared Winneconne's 100-year history, 1849- 1949 (48 pp.) replete with pictures of every description. The pages are large which provide excellent display space and an abundance of entertaining reading. Wolf River brought life to this little settlement, when steamboats were the popular mode of travel; logging and lumbering were important to the growth of the community, and a half mile of logs being towed to Oshkosh, Fond du Lac, and other cities was a common sight at the height of the season. Sawmills in Winneconne were one of the factors of its early expansion and prosperity. There are sketches of "firsts" throughout the book; schools, churches, industry, and social groups are given adequate coverage. Address: Winne- conne Businessmen's Association, Winneconne. Price $2.50.

The following church publications, marking the anniversary dates of the founding of the churches, have come to the attention of the Society: Elkhorn, Sugar Creek Evangelical Lutheran Church, Centennial, 1849- 1949 (12 pp.). Hartford, St. John's Evangelical and Reformed Church, Diamond Jubi- lee, 187'4-1949 (16 pp.). Kenosha, St. Mary's Evangelical Lutheran Church, Seventy-fifth Anni- versary, 1874-1949 (28 pp.). Marytown (Fond du Lac County), St. Mary's of the Visitation Parish [Catholic], Centennial Jubilee, 1849-1949 (48 pp.). Stockholm (Lund, Pepin County), Lund Mission Covenant Church [Swedish Evangelical Lutheran], 75th Anniversary, 1874-1949 (23 pp.). Tomah, A History of the Evangelical Lutheran St. Paul's Congregation, 1874-1949 (12 pp.). Waukesha, St. Joseph's Parish [Catholic], 1842-1942 [Observance, 1949] (160 pp.). Waunakee, St. John's Parish [Catholic], Diamond Jubilee, 1874-1949 (68 pp.). Wisconsiana-Here and There

Dr. W. J. BRECKENRIDGE, director of the Minnesota Museum of Natural History on the campus of the University of Minnesota, has contributed " A Century of Minnesota Wild Life " to the June, 1949, issue of Minnesota History. His present installment deals with mam- mals; the second, on birds, will follow. Since much of the wild life of which he writes is common to Wisconsin and Minnesota, many readers of this Magazine will find his narrative stimulating. Dr. Breckenridge, early in the article, states " that Minnesota wild life did not exist in a continual state of abundance in the early days, but that it had very pronounced ups and downs." He has something to say of the original big game: the bison, the moose, the elk or wapiti, the white- tailed and mule deer, the woodland caribou, and the antelope. Alexander Henry, who traded on the Red River south of Pembina, saw in the stream on the last day of March, 1801, " great numbers of dead buffalo from above, which must have been drowned in attempting to cross while the ice was weak." Of the dead bison he observed on the day following, he comments: " It is really astonishing what vast numbers have perished; they formed one continuous line in the current for two days and nights." The fortunes of the beaver—on his fur-bearing list —" have varied greatly through the centuries." In the late 1800's the intensive trapping resulted in " almost the complete disappearance of beaver," but the conservation officers " carried on a continuous battle with poachers during the early 1900's, and they have succeeded in their effort to such an extent that the income from the beaver today is ex- ceeded only by muskrat and mink." After a baptism by centennial fire, no doubt " history " has acquired a new meaning to Wisconsin citizens. Professor Henry C. Hubbart's paper on " The Contribution of Local History to the Community," in the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly, July, 1949, points out that local and regional history " is integral and fundamental." He believes that history should " come up from the grass roots, up from where the people live The general is not complete without the concrete, the regional, the environmental." 248 WISCONSIANA 249

He suggests that writers in the supposedly more scholarly fields might well write " a state history, a county or a college history, or a family genealogy." Poets, artists, and novelists excel the historians in using the provincial scene, the homely raw materials, for creating their masterpieces. Thoreau, Emerson, and Hardy are among several examples mentioned. Nation-wide forces find expression locally; national legislation and national leaders and platforms greatly influence the community. Inter- national trade and the World wars are cited as examples of the impact of the great upon the small, remembering, too, that State legislation is an important local force. Local history, because of this larger relation- ship, gives to the community " a sense of continuity and personal intimacy with the past that a study of general or national history cannot give A study of the local settlement and development of a township or county brings a realization that the processes of civilization have been at work near at hand." He touches upon the fact that local historians' interest may take the route of the genealogist, it may lead to friendships with older men and women who have something to communicate not yet in print, it may be a substitute for the indifferent amusements of today. He believes " The best in so-called provincialism has nothing to apologize for An interest in local history is not a sign of senility; it is rather an evidence of the maturity of civilization."

As long as there are Presidents and Presidents' families, there will be biographies and stories relating to them. Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln are in the vanguard of those whose publicity is limitless, and their presence on Wisconsin soil has been faithfully recorded by the Historical Society. Of special interest to the Lincoln enthusiasts is Ruth Painter Randall's informative narrative on what is known as ".a Mary Lincoln myth," appearing in the Abraham Lincoln Quarterly, September, 1949. Mrs. Randall is attempting to erase the myth: the distorted impressions which the American public has of Mrs. Lincoln's character. Mary Lincoln's besmircher, " her devil's advocate was Lincoln's law partner and biographer," William H. Herndon, whom the writer ex- poses with vehemence. As told in Herndoris Lincoln, Mary was an ill-tempered shrew " who made her husband's life miserable." This 250 WISCONSIANA [December characterization was continued by later biographers " and is generally accepted today except by certain Lincoln scholars," writes Mrs. Randall. During the more than eighteen years spent in Springfield, " the Lincoln marriage was normal and happy from the time the Lincolns went to Washington her life to its end was a Wagnerian tragedy." Willie's death, in 1862, was a dark valley for both the President and his wife. The raging Civil War and Lincoln's increasing administrative strain brought anxiety to Mary; her mental condition became more acute, with an obsession especially over financial matters. In her efforts to bury the myth, the writer has used letters exchanged between husband and wife, the testimony of physicians relating to her abnormal outbursts, the words of Julia Taft Bayne who as a child knew Mrs. Lincoln in the White House, the defense of Elizabeth Keckley, a colored modiste employed by Mrs. Lincoln in Washington. Added to the " mud instinct" and " dog sagacity " of Herndon is John Hay, on the secretarial staff, who knew of Mrs. Lincoln's obsession over money from experience. One day she asked him to turn over to her the salary of a vacant post on the White House staff. In his diary he recorded, " She is in * a state of mind.' " And later, " The Hell-cat is getting more Hell- cattish day by day." The weighing of the pros and cons, in an attempt to portray Mrs. Lincoln as she truly was, makes a fascinating bit of Lincoln history.

There may be some play-producing groups about the State who are unfamiliar with the Extension Division's Play Library, University of Wisconsin. Ruth M. Rowland, play librarian since 1927, has in her care 15,000 plays, including duplicates of the more popular ones, according to a short article which she has contributed to the June, 1949, Wisconsin Idea Theatre Quarterly. She writes: " On request these plays are loaned for a two weeks' period to any interested group or individual in Wis- consin at no cost to the borrower except the return postage. This service makes it possible for the play committee or director to read a number of plays without having to purchase copies before a choice is made. Specific titles may be requested, if desired, and if sufficient information is given as to the type of play required, the librarian will make a choice and will send several plays, for consideration." At times the requirements for a certain play may be too detailed, but the library staff attempts to meet the needs of " groups of all ages with 1949] WISCONSIANA 251 widely differing talents and interests, from elementary schools to experienced little theatre organizations." Address: Bureau of Information and Program Services, 1327 University Avenue, Madison.

" From stunted panfish to thriving rainbows: that's the story of Little Granite Lake, Barron County," say Leon Johnson and Wallace Niemuth in a " feat performed " true-story contained in the Wisconsin Conserva- tion Bulletin, August, 1949. Read about the poor fishing in Little Granite, the planting of brook trout fingerlings in it in 1946, the absence of trout the year following, the poisoning of the lake in 1947 to ascertain if any brook trout were still there—only one was found— the planting of 4,000 sublegal rainbow trout in the spring of 1948. Angling in 1948 produced rainbows averaging 7.4 to 9.6 inches in length, " which supported the original contention that Little Granite could be developed into a trout lake." Legal size rainbows—2,800 of them—were planted during the spring of 1949, marked so they could be distinguished from earlier plantings. How an " insignificant little lake became famous," is told in its creel census, May 14 to June 1: a total of 186 men angled 497 hours and caught 651 trout. "The average ran 2.7 hours time per fisherman, with 1.31 trout caught per man-hour." Since fishermen do not always fill out the voluntary creel census cards, " the periodic checks of the catch and the fishermen provided a basis for the estimate that a more correct figure would, be 1,200 rainbows removed" [Italics by the authors] The fish management policies as related to Little Granite are not yet definitely established, but the results of cooperative effort by conservationists are encouraging.

The revision of portions of his doctoral dissertation (University of Chicago, 1947), by Dr. Frederick Kuhns, has resulted in "A Glimpse of Home Missionary Activities in the Old Northwest, 1826-1861," published in the June, 1949, Journal of the Presbyterian Historical Society. The purpose of the Missionary Society was to aid congregations unable to support a church organization, and to send the Gospel to the destitute within the United States. Churches were sometimes planted on the frontier by the organization and migration of new ecclesiastical societies; church growth was stimulated by the purchase of entire townships of land at government prices, resulting in the establishment of towns by Eastern land companies. Often the agents of such transactions were Congregational and Presbyterian ministers. New settlements were 252 WISCONSIANA also formed by groups buying land on shares. The hardship of the frontier missionary's life and the slow numerical gain of membership are discussed. One minister labored for thirteen years among several denominations in one township, with a membership increase of from nineteen to sixty. Of special Wisconsin interest is the portion concerning the establishment after 1841 of an agency by the Home Missionary Society in the territory of Wisconsin in charge of the Rev. Stephen Peet, with headquarters at Beloit. He retired from the field in 1848. The agency system (sub-divisions of larger areas) worked well, but there was sometimes tension over the operation of the " Plan of Union," as when Flavel Bascom of the Chicago agency disputed marginal ground with Peet when both were organizing churches on the Wisconsin- Illinois boundary. Bascom claimed that Peet was " rather fond of taking a part of our territory under his wing."

North, South, East, and West are resounding to the " shuffling " of the Square Dance which is sweeping in increasing tempo through the states. That Wisconsin is doing her share of " swinging " is evidenced by the numerous news items publicizing this type of amusement. How well neighboring Michigan is carrying on, is contained in a brief sketch on the subject in Michigan History, June, 1949, contributed by Juana de Laban of the University of Michigan. This popular recreation is vieing with ballroom dancing, and bands are responding to requests for such tunes as " My Darling Nelly Gray " and " Ocean Wave " in place of rumba, tango, and waltz accompaniments. With the revival of the old-time dance, it behooves the would-be swingers to become acquainted with their traditional folk dances. For some twenty years Grace Ryan of Mount Pleasant has been attempting to familiarize Michigan folks, old and young, with the regional dances. In Flint a popular fall festival had as many as seventy-two sets of squares on the floor at the same time. After an hour of general " shuffling " and " swinging," a demonstration of square and couple dances by four Michigan college groups was applauded by an audience numbering 3,200. Accessions MANUSCRIPTS A valuable book recording abstracts of title to property in Madison held by Delaplaine and Burdick, a prominent real estate firm in the city during the second half of the nineteenth century, has been given to the Society by Mrs. William S. Middleton of Madison. The partnership of George P. Delaplaine and Elisha Burdick acquired the ownership of many lots originally platted in Madison in 1836, and in the volume the transfers of these lands are recorded from 1836 to the eventual disposition of them in 1896-97 after the deaths of both men. As the firm claimed residuary interest in the land in Capitol Square, the volume also contains copies of early legal documents made by James Duane Doty, Stevens T. Mason, and others, affecting the title to the site of Madison. Accompanying the records were several maps, including an early manuscript plat of the town.

From Mrs. W. Elwood Ingersoll of Fennimore and Mrs. Marie Parker Keller of Indianapolis, Indiana, the manuscript section has received a collection of papers of their great-uncle, Arunah A. Parker, who in 1846 came from Vermont to Lancaster, Wisconsin. The manuscripts include three volumes of his diaries for the period from November, 1846 to March, 1849, letters to his family in Vermont, and a letterbook kept in Pennsylvania where he became interested in copper mining shortly before his death at the age of thirty in 1854. An observant, intelligent, and ambitious young man, Parker described in detail Lancaster social and political life, his experiences as a Wisconsin surveyor, law partner of J. Allen Barber, and deputy county clerk of Grant County.

Other manuscript accessions include: typewritten copies of four letters written in 1839-40 by Lyman H. Seaver to his brothers in New York to describe his trip to Milwaukee and his settlement at Turtle Creek, now Darien, presented by the owner of the originals, Allyn K. Ford of Wayzata, Minnesota; microfilm of a small group of papers relating to early Sheboygan, including five letters written by Charles D. Cole in the years 1842 to 1845, made from the originals loaned to the Society by Ray Van Handel of Sheboygan; five letters, 1840^41, concerning the emigration of George Dow from New York to a farm near Stoughton, and photostatic copies of school records, 1849-51, kept by Dow when treasurer of the school board of District Number 5, Town of Christiana, Dane County, presented by his granddaughter, Miss Georgia Dow Townsend of Madison; thirteen legal documents and letters relating mainly to the Milwaukee land boom prior to the panic 253 254 ACCESSIONS of 1837; a letter written from Neenah in 1857, presented by the Indiana Historical Society; a typewritten copy of the autobiography of George N. Knapp, professor in the Wisconsin college of agriculture from 1904 to 1907, presented by his wife, Mrs. Winifred C. Knapp of Corvallis, Oregon; three small notebooks kept by Rasmus B. An- derson, three volumes of records of the Governor's Guard of Madison from 1858 to 1861, and a book of minutes of the Dane County Agricul- tural Society from 1870 to 1903, presented by Donald McGill of Oregon; a group of twenty-one papers relating to the Civil War service of Daniel R. Sylvester, captain of Co. K, Twelfth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, presented by W. C. Willing of Denver, Colorado; photostats of six letters, 1887-91, between Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes and Dr. Irving D. Wiltrout of Hudson, and one letter from John C. Spooner to Dr. Wiltrout, April 13, 1888, the originals of which were loaned for copying by Willis H. Miller of Hudson; a note, dated April 16, 1866, and signed by James Walsh, which was secured by a mortgage on land in Dane County, presented by William H. Spohn of Madison; seven business papers, 1867-1913, of Ole P. Paulson of Elk Mound, presented by Mrs. Roy A. Gilbertson of Marshall, Minnesota; a typewritten copy of a paper read by John J. Wood, Jr. in Berlin in 1907 on the Mascouten Village in the Fox River valley in the seventeenth century, presented by the Rev. H. A. Block of Berlin; a typed history of Joint School Dis- trict Number 3, Town of Sherman, Sheboygan County, written and presented by Emil C. Thiel, clerk of the school board from 1927 to 1949; two small diaries for the years 1882 and 1883, kept by William F. Scott while superintendent of schools in Ozaukee County, presented by Mrs. Lenore Harms of Port Washington; a letter written by Mrs. Lydia B. Townsend of Walnut Creek, California, dated July 9, 1949, relating her childhood impressions of Alexander McKenzie and experiences of her father, Donald Stevenson, pioneer rancher in Dakota Territory, presented by Joseph W. Jackson of Madison. Of Wider Interest On March 3, 1849, Congress passed a bill which brought territorial status to Minnesota, and on the same day 100 years later Minnesotans commemorated the event. The Twin City Philatelic Society arranged the morning's program when interest was centered on the " first day of issue of the commemorative stamp" and was further emphasized by an excellent rare stamp display. Governor Youngdahl and Bergman Richards, president of the Minnesota Historical Society, were among the speakers. A gala open house at the Historical Building attracted numerous afternoon visitors who viewed the special exhibits, including the notable Kensington rune stone returned by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington to add luster to the centennial observance. Later some 400 persons attended a dinner at Coffman Memorial Union, on the University campus, honoring the State's " 100 Living Great," of whom 65 were present. A centennial message by the Gover- nor and the presentation of "The Homesteader" by the University Radio Station, KUOM, were after-dinner features. The national capital, too, noticed the Midwest celebration by creating, in the Library of Congress, an extensive over-all history of Minnesota which contained maps, portraits, manuscripts, newspapers, and various types of artifacts. Its opening, March 5, was the occasion for an address by the Honorable H. H. Humphrey, senator from Minnesota, whose subject was " Minnesota—the Saga of the North Star State." A holiday spirit reigned in city and hamlet when Minnesota citizens recalled the birthday of their territory and the significant century of progress.

The " J. T. Wing " is the last of many commercial sailing ships that over a period of 270 years helped to build Detroit, the State of Michi- gan, and the region surrounding. There are legends about it, but the factual recent history is that the vessel was bought by a group of Detroit men in 1935 and brought from a Connecticut port through the St. Lawrence River to Detroit. Its bellying canvas carried the craft between Green Bay, Wisconsin, Port Huron, and Detroit delivering pulp- wood, poles, logs, and lumber. In 1938 the area Sea Scouts used it for three seasons as a training ship. Offered to Detroit by its owners in 1946, it was put in the care of the newly created Detroit Historical Commission. A slip was dredged, and the " J. T. Wing " placed in its permanent berth along the Detroit River, on the Canadian side of Belle Isle in July, 1948. Not only is the ship itself attracting visitors, but between decks in the hold there is a spacious display area showing ship models and the equipment of ships and shipping on the Great Lakes. 255 256 OF WIDER INTEREST

This unique museum, a branch of the Detroit Historical Museum, is open to the public during the summer season with Captain Joseph E. Johnston in charge.

Leif Erikson Day, October 9, was observed by a great many communities and organizations throughout the land. This day marked the nine hundred and forty-ninth anniversary of the discovery of the mainland of North America by Erikson. Seven of our states, Wisconsin, Minne- sota, South Dakota, Illinois, Washington, Colorado, and California have legally designated October 9 as Leif Erikson Day; the Province of Saskatchewan, Canada, also observes this event. To familiarize school children with the significance of the anniversary, they are encouraged to write essays on the subject " Why Do We Celebrate Leif Erikson Day?" in connection with School Essay Contests. Honoring this staunch Viking, a monument has been unveiled recently on the capitol grounds at St. Paul, Minnesota.

REQUEST The staff of the Museum of the STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN is interested in securing any information available concerning Joseph Jourdain, blacksmith and artisan of the territorial period, located variously at Green Bay, Prairie du Chien, and Oshkosh. The staff would also like to be advised of any wrought-iron work by Jourdain held by museums or by individuals about the State. Information can be directed to: F. A. La Fayette, Assistant Curator Museum, State Historical Society of Wisconsin 816 State Street, Madison 6, Wisconsin SIDE ROADS Excursions into Wisconsin's Past by FRED L. HOLMES

Thousands will applaud the appearance of Fred L. Holmes's Side Roads, a posthumous volume, recently published by the State His- torical Society. The author's usual lively style moves pleasantly, and Wisconsin personalities—taverners, barbers, hot stove leaguers, soldiers, bee hunters—pass by in colorful succession.

Swiftly, too, Holmes spans the period from Indian trails and water- ways to sky lanes. Fur trader, farmer, and millionaire are introduced in a discussion of the architecture of the crude log cabin, the clapboarded cottage, and the century-old mansion.

Speaking of food preparation, Side Roads offers tasty fare: maple syrup or sorghum over pancakes; the barkeeper's nickel beer and free lunch of roast beef, baked beans, cheese, sausage, and other hearty concoctions; ice cream sundaes—the first; Pfeffernuesse, saffron cakes, plum puddings, and other Christmas treats.

Remembering the feminine readers, the author recalls for them the flowers of Grandmother's time, Dr. Stephen Babcock's holly- hock garden, and the "Gerry nee Dule" pansies at Baraboo. With avidity will be read the serious harangues and hilarious incidents centering on the adoption of the "boned, stayed, and tight-laced" feminine garment. (And the Legislature was in the melee!)

Holmes ends his Wisconsin tales with a warm portrayal of Christ- mastime worship, frolic, and food, characteristic of the several nationalities, reminiscent of his widely-read Old World Wisconsin. Side Roads is a handsome volume and may become his "best seller."

Attractively illustrated. $2.75 (For discounts see front inside cover)

Order from THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN 816 State Street, Madison 6, Wisconsin