Wisconsin Magazine of History

Portrait of the 'Nswshoy As A Young Man JOHN G. CAWELTI Mason C. Darling and the Groti;tk of Foni du Lac EDWARD L. GAMBILL Richardson Romancs(^uc \n V^xsconsin RICHARD W. E. PERRIN Wisconsin's Lost Missionary: TKe Mystery of Father Rene Menarci A. A. A. SCHMIRLER Historicai Societies: Their Magazines and Their EtJitors JAMES H. RODABAUGH

Published by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin / Vol. XLV, No. 2 / Winter, 1961-1962 STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN

LESLIE H. FISHEL, JR., Director

Officers WILLIAM B. HESSELTINE, President GEORGE C. SELLERY, Honorary Vice-President JOHN C. GEILFUSS, First Vice-President GEORGE HAMPEL, JR., Treasurer E. E. HOMSTAD, Second Vice-President LESLIE H. FISHEL, JR., Secretary

Board of Curators Ex-Officio GAYLORD NELSON, Governor of the State MRS. DENA A. SMITH, State Treasurer ROBERT C. ZIMMERMAN, Secretary of State CONRAD A. ELVEHJEM, President of the University ANGUS B. ROTHWELL, Superintendent of Public Instruction MRS. SILAS SPENGLER, President of the Women's Auxiliary

Term Expires 1962 GEORGE BANTA, JR. HERBERT V. KOHLER WILLIAM F. STARK JOHN TORINUS Menasha Kohler Pewaukee Green Bay GEORGE HAMPEL, JR. ROBERT B. L. MURPHY STANLEY STONE CLARK WILKINSON Milwaukee Madison Milwaukee Baraboo SANFORD HERZOG GERTRUDE PUELICHER MILO K. SWANTON ANTHONY WISE Minocqua Milwaukee Madison Hayward

Term Expires 1963 SCOTT CUTLIP MRS. ROBERT FRIEND JOHN C. GEILFUSS WILLIAM B. HESSELTINE Madison Hartland Milwaukee Madison W. NORMAN FITZGERALD EDWARD FROMM MRS. HOWARD T. GREENE JAMES RILEY Milwaukee Hamburg Genesee Depot Eau Claire J. F. FRIEDRICK ROBERT GEHRKE DR. GUNNAR GUNDERSEN CLIFFORD SWANSON Milwaukee Ripon La Crosse Stevens Point

Term Expires 1964 THOMAS H. BARLAND JIM DAN HILL MRS. VINCENT W. KOCH FRED I. OLSON Eau Claire Superior Janesville Milwaukee M. J. DYRUD E. E. HOMSTAD MRS. RAYMOND J. KOLTES FREDERICK SAMMOND Prairie du Chien Black River Falls Madison Milwaukee FRED H. HARRINGTON GEORGE F. KASTEN CHARLES MANSON WILLIAM STOVALL Madison Milwaukee Madison Madison

Honorary Honorary Life Members WILLIAM ASHBY MCCLOY, Winnipeg PRESTON E. MCNALL, Madison MRS. LITTA BASCOM, Madison DOROTHY L. PARK, Madison MRS. LOUISE ROOT, Prairie du Chien Fellows Curators VERNON CARSTENSEN (1949) HJALMAR R. HOLAND, Ephraim MERLE CURTI (1949) SAMUEL PEDRICK, Ripon

The Women's Auxiliary OFFICERS MRS. SILAS SPENGLER, Menasha, President MRS. MILLARD TUFTS, Milwaukee, Vice-President MRS. WILLIAM H. L. SMYTHE, Milwaukee, Secretary MRS. E. J. BIEVER, Kohler, Treasurer MRS. CHESTER ENGELKING, Green Bay, Assistant Treasurer MRS. RAYMOND J. KOLTES, Madison, Ex-Officio VOLUME 45, NUMBER 2/WINTER, 1961-1962 Wisconsin Magazine of History

Editor: WILLIAM CONVERSE HAYGOOD

Front Seat 78 Portrait of the Newsboy as a Young Man: Some Remarks on the Alger Stories 79 JOHN G. CAWELTI

Mason C. Darling and the Growth of Fond du Lac 84 EDWARD L. GAMBILL

Richardsonian Romanesque in Wisconsin: Vernacular Expressions of a Great Architectural Style 95 RICHARD W. E. PERRIN

Wisconsin's Lost Missionary: The Mystery of Father Rene Menard 99 A. A. A. SCHMIRLER

Historical Societies: Their Magazines and Their Editors 1J5

JAMES H. RODABAUGH

George Clarke Sellery, 1872-1962 124 Readers' Choice 126 Bibliographical Notes 148 Accessions 150 Contributors 156

Published Quarterly by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin

THE WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY is published not assume responsibility for statements made by contribu­ quarterly by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 816 tors. Second-class postage paid at Madison, Wisconsin. State Street, Madison 6, Wisconsin. Distributed to members Copyright 1961 by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. as part of their dues (Annual membership, $5.00; Family Paid for in part by the Maria L. and Simeon Mills Editorial membership, $7.00; Contributing, $10; Business and Profes­ Fund and by the George B. Burrows Fund. Wisconsin news­ sional, $25; Life, $100; Sustaining, $100 or more annually; papers may reprint any article appearing in the WISCON­ Patron, $1000 or more annually). Single numbers, $1.25. SIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY providmg the story carries Microfilmed copies available through University Microfilms, the following credit line : Reprinted from the State Histori­ 313 North First Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Communica­ cal Society's Wisconsin Magazine of History for [insert the tions should be addressed to the editor. The Society does season and year which appear on the Magazinel. that there would be some noise. By the time we recovered from that, the bright light had almost disappeared on its way to the moon. One could not keep from looking to see if the FRONT SEAT moon had ducked, too." Not everyone has this opportunity to wit­ ness a great historical drama of his time, nor have those so privileged always recorded their impressions. But when they have, as did thousands of young men in the years 1861- 1865, we can today share with them a front seat on the past. Because we are uncovering, OME of you might remember that I quoted reading, and studying the letters and diaries S from a letter from my father-in-law a year of the ordinary Civil War soldier, we are just or so ago. Since I want to quote him again, now beginning to understand that war, as a you should know who he is. His name is war. We know something about pioneer life 0. M. Richards and he and Mother moved to in Wisconsin because some of our forebears Florida about four years ago after a lifetime wrote letters and diaries which have been in northeastern Ohio, where he operated a preserved. Yet even now, the wonders of small feed mill. On January 26, they decided fifty years ago are slipping away because we to drive to Cape Canaveral for a good look do not have enough of this written material. at the moon shot (Ranger). Here is his front We scurry around with tape recorders trying seat description: to tap the memories of our elder citizens, but "We walked down the beach to the fence this is not enough. Who can describe La which keeps the missiles in and the people Follette oratory fifty years later? Who can out. I had brought our glasses but had forgot gauge the frustration of depression thirty our little radio. So we found some people years later? Who remembers accurately the who had a radio and traded sights thru our exhilaration of VJ-Day fifteen years later? glasses for a chance to listen to their radio. Front seats are everywhere, for history is We could easily see twelve installations. Every­ a continuous, all-encompassing drama. The one of course had a different idea as to front seat which historians look for—and which was Ranger and which was Glenn. But so often do not find—is the one occupied by soon the radio called our attention to vapor the sensitive nonprofessional observer who escaping from the one third from the end. records his impressions simply because they Then we knew which one to watch. We had are important to him. been there barely a half hour when the count Local historical societies should make sure down got down to twenty. It went right along that first hand impressions of local events from there without hold. Suddenly there was are made and preserved: school board meet­ a great flash of light which was almost blind­ ings, party caucuses, local reactions to nation­ ing. Instantly, everything was covered with al and international events, centennial cele­ a great dense mass of smoke and nothing else brations. These observations will not alter seemed to happen. Then slowly, like an old the course of history nor radically change its retired feed man getting out of bed in the interpretations. They will, however, give morning, the rocket began to show above the meaning to history because they will reflect smoke and start into the sky. For only a few what ordinary men, each from the vantage seconds we saw it whole—then another ex­ point of his own front seat, have seen and plosion which left only a bright light—much thought and recorded. like a bright star. The second stage had The State Historical Society will welcome ignited and blown off the first stage. About such front seat reports on significant events— that time while we were so busy guiding the observations which will make our history missile an overwhelming whush enveloped us live for our grandchildren. and for an instant we did not know whether to run or duck. Somehow, we had forgotten L.H.F., jr.

78 PORTRAIT OF THE NEWSBOY AS A YOUNG MAN

SOME REMARKS ON THE ALGER STORIES

By JOHN G. CAWELTI article on Alger, we are confronted with the paradox of a widely known and respected author whose books are almost totally unread.^ The usual explanation of this persistence CUBLITERATURE is, in general, short- of Alger's reputation stresses Alger's associa­ ^ lived. It fills some immediate need, ex­ tion with the theme of success, the rise of the presses some passing idea or fashion, and poor young man from rags to riches. Thus, then fades into an obscurity only occasionally it is argued that as "the dream of success" disturbed by curious historians in search of has persisted as a theme in American culture, information on popular attitudes. Sometimes, so has the name of Alger, its chief exponent. however, a writer of subliterature retains his The trouble with this explanation, as more hold over a culture, and defies the forces of sophisticated observers have noted, is that time and change over a long period of time. Alger was neither the only, or even the chief Such is the case with Horatio Alger. Despite exponent of success, nor did his stories em­ generations of criticism and condemnation, body the values of individualism, enterprise his name lives on as a household word, and and vigorous competition with which they are his books, though largely unread, continue usually credited.^ The social and economic to be objects of reverent sentiment in many values reflected in Alger's stories were not circles. While I was in the process of prepar­ those of unbridled success, but the traditional ing this paper, Luke Walton, or. The Chicago middle-class virtues of industry, integrity, Neivsboy was serialized by a major metro­ piety, social respectability, neatness, punctu­ politan daily. The Chicago Daily News. Yet, ality, temperance, kindness, and generosity. there is little danger that Ragged Dick or Grit, These virtues had formed the major content the Young Boatman of Pine Point will replace of didactic literature since at least the seven­ Gone With the Wind or Peyton Place on teenth century, and can be found with equal twentieth century best-seller lists. Though force in Alger's forgotten predecessors.^ Wohl Alger's books are occasionally reprinted with has suggested that twentieth century advo­ great eclat, this is the exception rather than cates of success borrowed Alger's name and the rule. They are often defended or criti­ slogans and transferred them "as something cized, but rarely read. Still, Alger's name itself is probably more widely known among adults today than it was at the time his books were enjoyed and loved. As the late R. ^ R. Richard Wohl in Reinhard Bendix and Seymour M. Lipset, eds.. Class, Status and Power Richard Wohl pointed out in an excellent (Glencoe, Dlinois, 1953), 388-395. ^ Cf. ibid, and the analysis in John G. Cawelti, "A History of Self-Made Manhood" (Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, State University of Iowa, 1960), 341-378. EDITORS NOTE: This paper was originally presented * Louis B. Wright, Middle-Class Culture in Eliz­ at the annual meeting of the Southern Historical abethan England (Chapel Hill, 1935), 121-201, and Association in Chattanooga, Tennessee, November "Franklin's Legacy to the Gilded Age," in the 9, 1961. Virginia Quarterly Review, XXlI:268-279 (1946).

79 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1961-1962 known and esteemed, to a new explanation, a new rhetoric of persuasion."* This, I think, suggests the process by which Alger the writer was transmuted into Alger the con­ temporary symbol of success and free enter­ prise, but does not explain why Alger, and not some more obviously appropriate figure— some hero of business perhaps—was chosen to occupy this important symbolic role. Somehow Alger made an impact on the generations who read him of such a kind that he was remembered favorably when others associated with the theme of success were either forgotten or had fallen into public disfavor. Probably one important factor was Alger's very traditionalism. His stories pre­ sented the triumph of simple virtue at a time when the brutal competition of large corpora­ tions with its accompanying manifestations of political corruption, depression, monopoly, and industrial warfare were shaking the nation. Alger's successful heroes suggested that traditional values were still operative, and thereby helped reassure a frightened middle class that social change had not made their traditional ideals obsolete. However, such explanations do not fully Horatio Alger, from Herbert R. Mayes, Alger, A take into account the fact that Alger wrote Biography Without a Hero (1928). for children, and presumably made most of his impact on a juvenile audience. In this Even Jacob Abbott, the best of the early 19th discussion, I want to suggest some sources century children's writers, had no doubt that of Alger's appeal quite different from either moral and religious instruction was the cen­ his advocacy of the gospel of success or his tral purpose of books for children." Though expression of traditional virtues, by consider­ Abbott's Rollos and Calebs manifested their ing his work in the context of children's creator's love for and understanding of his literature. young heroes, his stories were always built around a series of episodes in which the cen­ A LGER began his career at a time when tral character learned an important moral -^~*- American children were, for the most lesson from benevolent adults. In Caleb in the part, confronted with a choice between par­ Country, for example, the entire story was entally approved juvenile literature of a devoted to the narrative of how the hero strongly didactic character, European fairy learned to work through the gradually tales, and the stories of romantic adventure increasing dosages administered by a wise found in shilling shockers and dime novels." and kindly uncle. To a contemporary reader, most of Abbott's works seem more like man­ uals for parents than books for children. One can easily see why children turned with de­ *Wohl, op. cit. '' May Hill Arbuthnot, Children and Books (Chi­ light from this strenuous moralism to the cago, 1957), 47-50; Monica Kiefer, American Child­ ren Through Their Books (Philadelphia, 1948), passim; C. L. Meigs, et al., A Critical History of Children's Literature (New York, 1954), 142-150; Alice M. Jordan, From Rollo to Tom Sawyer (Boston, " Cf. Jacob Abbott, Caleb in Town (New York, 1948), 1-13. 1863), 3-4.

80 CAWELTI : THE ALGER STORIES excitement of fairy tales and adventure stories. group of adults, winning for himself the Yet, most of these tales were either wholly coveted status of manhood. Every Alger book of the supernatural or set in far-away lands began with the hero not only impoverished, and times beyond the experience of American but also suffering under the tyranny or children. Children who had outgrown the treachery of one or more adults. The story fairy-tale stage and wanted more realistic itself was devoted to the suspenseful narration stories must have found much that perplexed of how the hero overcame this enemy, and and dissatisfied them in the romantic adven­ it was always accomplished in the same ture tale. fashion. By some act of personal bravery and Alger was one of a number of enterprising daring—for example, an exciting rescue from children's writers who set out to create a runaway horses—the hero encountered a juvenile literature native in setting and excit­ benevolent elderly patron who helped him ing in incident, with enough didactic flavor escape from the plots of his enemies. Some­ to win the approval of parents. Though the times this patron was a wealthy merchant, basic framework of most of the Alger stories who gave the hero a start in business, but in did show a virtuous young man's rise from many of the stories an elderly well-to-do lady poverty and obscurity to social respectability, filled this position. The importance of this thus containing an obvious moral message, it patron in the Alger books is a source of some should be emphasized that the major portion difficulty if we try to interpret the stories in of the narrative presented adventures which the light of the contemporary Alger sym­ had little relation to this didactic scaffolding. bolism, for the hero of free enterprise is sup­ Hairbreadth rescues, narrow escapes from the posed to make his way alone and unaided, plots of villainous criminals, the defeat in not on the coattails of sweet old ladies. Only combat of brutal bullies, the hero's revenge if we examine their actual function in the on those who had snubbed or cheated him, stories do these patrons make sense. The these, presented in terms readily compre­ major role of the patron was to accord adult hensible to young children, were the real status to the hero, by giving him dangerous heart of the Alger story. Along with other enterprising writers like Oliver Optic and Harry Castlemon, Alger transformed the romantic adventure story into a form more meaningful to nineteenth-century American children and more acceptable to their parents.' But Alger went even further in his appeal to children than his successful contemporaries by adopting, probably unconsciously, a child's perspective on the world. An analysis of the plot and characters of Alger's stories suggests very strongly that the major source of their appeal lay in Alger's ability to express and resolve some of his juvenile audience's deepest ambivalences toward the adult world.' The Alger plot presented a boy-hero who overcame the villainous machinations of a

'' Cf. Jordan, From Rollo to Tom Sawyer, 14^6, for a general account of developments in children's books contemporary with Alger. " The following analysis of Alger's stories is based on a reading of about 40 of the 120-odd books he wrote. A scanning of the remainder suggests that the author's formula, as here presented, holds gofld for all of them. For a list of secondary materials on Cover illustration from Tom, the Bootblack; or, A Alger, see Cawelti, "History of Self-Made Manhood." Western Boy's Success, by Horatio Alger.

81 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1961-1962 and responsible missions, by treating him as expressed both his audience's suspicion of an equal and asking his advice, and by pre­ adults and their strong longing for adult- senting him with such symbols of adulthood hood's privileges and prestige: as a gold watch and a new store-bought suit. The boy spoke with calm and resolute It is significant, I think, that the patron was dignity, hardly to be expected in one so always an elderly person; Alger was probably young, and with a deep conviction that sur­ reflecting here the special relationship of prised his mother. sympathy that often grows up between grand­ "Luke," she said, "I hardly know you parents and children. tonight. You don't seem like a boy. You The major event of every Alger book was speak like a man." the hero's encounter with this idealized elder­ "I feel so, mother. It is the thought of ly adult who accorded him adult status and this man, triumphant in his crime, that helped him to escape from the authority and makes me feel older than I am. Now, control of other adults. Most of the other mother, that I feel that I have a purpose in characters were representations of aspects of life. It is to find this man and punish him the adult world resented by children. Promi­ for what he has done, unless he will make nent in the typical story was the figure men­ reparation." tioned above who tried to keep the hero in Mrs. Walton shook her head. It was not childish subservience. This figure was fre­ from her that Luke had inherited his in­ quently a foster-father or wicked uncle, for dependent spirit. She was a fond mother, it should not surprise you by this time to hear of great amiability, but of a timid, shrink­ that all the Alger heroes had lost their fathers. ing disposition, which led her to depre­ This authority-figure invariably turned out cate any aggressive steps." to be a villain who had cheated the hero out of his rightful inheritance, or who sought to /^UR Freudian friends would doubtless exploit the hero's abilities for his own bene­ ^^ point out that a universal boyhood fan­ fit. When his manhood had been recognized tasy is embodied in the Alger story and that by the benevolent patron, the hero was able our hero, who overcomes the plots of a wicked to expose and overthrow this villain. Other uncle and finds a new protector who grants secondary characters caricatured such things his wish to be an adult, is none other than as the adult claim to greater sophistication, Oedipus disguised as a newsboy. But the snobbish superiority to the activities and ideas popularity of Alger's stories was also rooted of children, old-maidish dislike of boyish in a particular time and place. The later exuberance and the condescension of young nineteenth century was a period of particular men who had just emerged from boyhood strain on the American family because the themselves. By far the greater part of the impact of industrialism and the influence of Alger books were devoted not to the hero's romantic ideas of childhood and child-rearing industrious pursuit of business, but to epi­ had weakened, but not entirely destroyed the sodes in which the boy-hero turned the tables traditional image of the child as an imp of on these representatives of the adult world. Satan whose moral recalcitrance demanded complete parental dominance," I think I can graphically illustrate this Children were caught between conflicting aspect of Alger's stories by one brief and expectations, encouraged in the direction of striking example of his treatment of the adult- child relationship. So important was the demonstration of adult shortcomings to the Alger story that even the hero's mother does " Horatio Alger, Luke Walton, or The Chicago not escape. Contrary to the traditional Ameri­ Newsboy (Philadelphia, 1889), 22. This is the book can mother-worship, the Alger mother was reprinted by the Chicago Daily News. Presumably, usually a weak, vacillating, helpless female it was selected because it was about Chicago. ^° John Sirjamaki, The American Family in the both dependent on, and in awe of, her Twentieth Century (Cambridge, Massachusetts, doughty young son. The following quotation 1953), 46^7, 108-113; Arthur Calhoun, A Social History of the American Family (New York, 1960), illustrates in brief the way in which Alger 3:131-156.

82 CAWELTI : THE ALGER STORIES

rapidly declined to nothing. Their impact remained with the last generation who had read them, however, as this generation grew up to face the problems of the twentieth century. As a source of favorable sentiment Alger's name lived on and became useful in a variety of ways. Journalists found it an effective device for dramatizing the careers of successful businessmen. Defenders of busi­ ness against the attacks of reformers found that the public esteem for Alger made his mantle a useful one for legitimating twentieth- century business. For those who feared the growing power of government and labor, in­ voking the name of Alger was a way of ex­ pressing nostalgia for the simpler ways of an earlier period when enterprise was not sub­ jected to legislative regulation and the harass­ ment of unions. As the memory of the real Alger and his books faded, the symbolic Alger became more and more important as the exponent of what people like to consider the peculiarly American values of enterprise and upward mobility. How far this process of symbolic transformation may go on, it is hard to say, but the fact that for the last

•A}...:.., \ decade the American Schools and Colleges Association has given, in Alger's name, a Frontispiece illustration from Alger's Jed the widely publicized award for distinguished Poorhouse Boy (1899). achievement on the part of men who started in humble circumstances, may be a straw in the wind. The transformation of Horatio Alger from spontaneity and independence, and then pulled an obscure writer of popular children's books sharply back into subservience to parental into a symbol of values which many Ameri­ authority. Alger, probably because of his cans esteem above anything else illustrates own psychological makeup, and his own dif­ a process of great importance to a culture ficulties with the adult world, had a strong which is continually changing. The necessity sense of these tensions, expressing them in his of constant adaptation to new ideologies, stories through the plot and characters de­ technologies, and social conditions places scribed above. For children resentful of adult great strain on a culture's expressive symbols. interference with their freedom, and longing themselves for the status of adulthood, Alger's The process by which new symbols are created implicit condemnation of authoritative uncles, and old ones adjusted to new circumstances peevish aunts and snobbish young men, to­ is of considerable importance because it is gether with his ascription of superior man­ one of the main ways in which a culture hood to a boy-hero, must have been a compel­ expresses its hopes and fears, its aspirations ling and reassuring message. and its understanding of itself. If we could When, in the 1920's and 1930's, new stand­ discover more about the operation of this ards of adult-child relationships became wide­ process, not just in the case of Horatio Alger, ly accepted and children found status and but of all of our symbols and heroes, we new kinds of norms within their own peer would better understand the course of our groups, the popularity of the Alger stories history.

83 MASON C DARLING AND THE GROWTH OF FOND DU LAC

By EDWARD L. GAMBILL the Berkshire Medical Institute. During the next twelve years he directed his energy towards raising a family and building a suc­ cessful practice in a small western Massa­ chusetts town. His neighbors soon came to respect the heavy-set doctor, not only for TN the spring of 1838 a Durham boat neared his medical skill, but also for his business -*- the completion of its journey across Lake and political acumen. On two occasions they Winnebago. From the bow of the long, flat- elected him to defend their interests in the bottomed vessel Mason C. Darling, large and state legislature. Most men would have been heavy jowled, concentrated on the advancing satisfied with such achievements, but Darling shore line. Directly ahead lay the Fond du was not content. His desire for new fields Lac River, winding its way through a valley of endeavor soon drew his attention to the eight miles square. On one side the valley was settlement of new land in the West and in 1836 defined by a low ridge of limestone which he finally succumbed to the lure and joined faded away to the south. Thick grass and an his friend Randolph Marcy in a speculative abundance of flowers gave the scene the venture in Wisconsin Territory. In the spring appearance of a large meadow, prompting the of the following year he traveled to Sheboygan intruder to declare the area "nature's flower Falls where he spent the summer months garden." supervising the completion of grist, saw, and Darling, however, had not traveled into this shingle mills and the construction of the virgin territory for esthetic purposes. The first frame house in what was soon to become lake and river gave promise of important com­ a flourishing town." mercial advantages in an age when the graphic Darling might have remained in Sheboygan lines of communication followed water routes; Falls, weathered the panic of 1837, and reaped the soil was heavy and black and would yield a profitable long-range return on his invest­ rich returns once turned by the plow; the ment, were it not for prospects of immediate limestone ridge would supply an abundance financial gain in a more promising location. of stone for homes, churches, and stores. Wisconsin had just completed the process Before Darling's eyes rose a vision—the of territorial organization, and a favorite transformation of the valley into a thriving topic of conversation was the location of the city.^ future state capital. Through Marcy, Darling Behind him was a past with a measure of learned that the leading contender was a small success, but not enough to quench the thirst settlement on the southern edge of Lake Win­ of his ambition. The death of his parents had nebago where Marcy and seventeen members left Darling to fend for himself in Massachu­ of a joint-stock company had already pur­ setts at an early age. Relying on his own re­ chased 3,500 acres. In James Duane Doty, sources, he had succeeded in obtaining an a proven politician and speculator, they had education and in 1824 was graduated from a partner who could solicit the endorsement

^ Mason C. Darling to Dennis Cooley, August 1, 1838, in the Mason C. Darling Papers. These and ^ William C. Butterfield, History of Fond du Lac all other papers cited are in the Manuscripts Library County (Chicago, 1880), 472; State Historical Society of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. of Wisconsin, Collections, 3:53 (Madison, 1904).

84 GAMBILL : MASON C. DARLING of the territorial legislature. Moreover, the company's plans for a canal connecting Lake Winnebago with the Rock River had greatly increased the commercial advantages of the settlement.' Darling found that the project had all the earmarks of success. Marcy noted his interest and immediately saw definite advantages in the inclusion of his Sheboygan partner in the venture. A doctor would be an attractive inducement to settlers who feared the specter of disease as much as the threat of Indian attack, and on the frontier doctors with Dar­ ling's business sagacity were few and far be­ tween. When Marcy presented Darling's assets to the Fond du Lac Company, he elicited a favorable response. Whereupon, early in 1838, James Doty went to Sheboygan Falls and negotiated a contract with Darling who agreed to relinquish his Sheboygan property to the company in return for 160 acres on the Fond du Lac River south of the company's holdings. Included in the contract was a clause which Darling was later to regret: he promised not to divide his land into lots which would compete with the company tract.* Mason C. Darling, from Maurice McKenna, Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, Past and Present. TVTHEN Dr. Darling arrived at Fond du Lac '' he found the barest rudiments of a du Lac House. Those who wanted to build settlement. The sole inhabitants were Colwert their own homes found themselves hampered Pier, his family of four, and John Bannister. by the uselessness of the half-finished sawmill The only building was a rough-hewn log which Bannister had been working on for structure which had to lodge, in addition to nearly two years. Farmers who harvested the residents, occasional companies of soldiers their first crops found they had to haul their traveling the Military Road between Green grain twenty miles to the nearest gristmill. Bay and the Mississippi River. Since Pier's Improveinents on the site left much to be arrival as agent for the Fond du Lac Com­ desired." pany, he had attempted to alleviate the Darling began work immediately. In his cramped quarters with the addition of two contract with Doty he had agreed to finish the rooms and a lean-to in back. But even with sawmill within the year. He did even better; such additions the building was ill-suited to he completed construction in four months and serve as a store, post office, and hotel for then sold half interest in the mill to Bannister. the steady stream of settlers arriving in the Meanwhile he worked late into the evenings, valley. Nor did the newcomers find their cutting and hauling timber for the eighteen- lack of accommodations ended at the Fond by-thirty foot log cabin which was to house

^ Joseph Schafer, Wisconsin Domesday Book (Madi­ son, 1937), 4:259. •* Darling to Cooley, February 23, 1838, in the '^ A. T. Gaze, A Business History of Fond du Lac Darling Papers; Butterfield, History of Fond du Lac with Incidents and Anecdotes of Early Days (Fond County, 567-568. du Lac, 1905), 81, 114.

85 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1961-1962 his family. Stretching back from the cabin but when the opportunity presented itself he were the first few acres of his farm. He found was only too eager to scrap the Lake Winne­ the thick mat of grass in the valley made bago site in favor of Madison, where he also plowing difficult, but it was far easier than had extensive holdings. Moreover, his chi­ pulling the numerous stumps and removing canery in the Madison deal—which elicited the countless rocks that plagued his rural charges of corruption which he never effective­ neighbors in Massachusetts. Moreover, the ly repudiated—predetermined the fate of his returns were well worth the effort. Oats, he petition before the legislature for the construc­ wrote to a friend, grew "nobly," wheat and tion of the Rock River Canal. When, a year corn "never looked better" even in New later, bills for the canal before both houses England, and the thick valley grass was "near­ of Congress failed to go beyond a second ly equal to Timothy and Clover." When his hearing, the hopes and ambitions of Darling family arrived at the end of the year, they and his neighbors continued to wane." could well take pride in the results of his Under other circumstances Darling might labor." have moved on in search of new opportunities. The settlement had also prospered. The He had, however, invested heavily in the Fond prospects of the capital being located on the du Lac project and he was unwilling to sub­ site and of the Rock River Canal being dug ject his family to the discomforts of further were sufficient attraction to Easterners anx­ relocation. Furthermore, he had taken a deep ious to begin a new life in the West. During pride and interest in the development of the the summer over forty men, women, and site and had many close friends among the children arrived in the valley, and by fall settlers along Lake Winnebago. As the only their cabins and farms lined the banks of the doctor in the area, he delivered their children, Fond du Lac River. To supply provisions reset broken limbs, prevented epidemics, and and furnishings for the newcomers, the com­ performed a host of other duties which earned pany chartered Durham boats which made their gratitude. He was a special favorite regular trips across Lake Winnebago; to keep among the neighboring tribes of Brotherton them in contact with relatives in the East, it and Stockbridge Indians, who solemnly pro­ hired a Canadian half-breed to carry the claimed him their Mushkiki-enini, or medi­ mail. Moreover, the company had also secured cine man. In addition to his duties as doc­ an act from the legislature which would soon tor, he was road commissioner and supervisor provide a road to Madison and other settle­ of the Fond du Lac-Madison road, and when ments in the southern part of the territory. the postmaster's lease on the company house The burgeoning community was already the expired, he also became the new postmaster. focal point of the Lake Winnebago basin.' Farmer, doctor, road commissioner, and post­ However, in 1839 the influx of new arrivals master. Mason C. Darling was already the dwindled to a meager few and the optimism most prominent resident in the area." of the early settlers declined noticeably. The With the endorsement of his neighbors. sudden slump in morale and population in­ Darling soon became involved in the internal crease was due to events over which Darling factional struggles of Wisconsin politics. The and his neighbors had no control. The first melee which he entered was a cross-current of these was the decision of the territorial of geographical interests and personal rivalries legislature on the location of the capital. As which made party labels for the most part president of the Fond du Lac Company Doty indefinable. Migration from two different had been present at the legislative session. sections of the country, coupled with con­ flicting demands over location of territorial boundaries and the capital site had divided ° Butterfield, History of Fond du Lac County, 748; Darling to Cooley, August 1, 1838, in the Darling Papers. ' Darling to Cooley, February 23, 1838, in the ^' Alice E. Smith, James Duane Doty, Frontier Pro­ Darling Papers; Wisconsin Democrat, July 7, 1838, moter (Madison, 1954), 192-208, 190. January 2, 1839; Glaze, Business History of Fond " Butterfield, History of Fond du Lac County, du Lac, 60. 360, 584.

86 GAMBILL : MASON C. DARLING

fight, too. Thus he was in full accord with Doty's opposition to Wisconsin's title to a strip of land along its southern border. "It would for years control the destiny of the state," he declared, and "the interests of the North would succumb to those of the South."'" In 1839, Darling was in the forefront of the Doty campaign to secure Wisconsin's seat in the House of Representatives. Riding rough-shod over the opposition during the pre-convention hustings. Darling and his co­ horts elected a solid slate of northeastern dele­ gates committed to the Green Bay politician. Darling led them to Madison where, as vice- president of the convention, he worked behind the scenes to swing uncommitted delegates into line. Charges of fraud and corruption vibrated through the charged atmosphere of Society's Iconographic Collection the meeting, but in the end Doty and his James Duane Doty, the frontier promoter with whom followers triumphed. The election was mere Darling quarreled in the 1840's. epilogue; Doty polled twice as many votes as his leading contender." Wisconsin into northeastern and southwestern During the next four years Darling and political alignments. The lead mining and Doty continued to work together to promote trans-Mississippi counties held the initial their mutual interests. With Doty's backing, advantage and their veteran Indian fighter, the doctor moved steadily up the political Henry Dodge, was appointed as the first gov­ ladder. In 1839 he became clerk of Fond du ernor. The Dodge faction, however, lacked Lac County. In 1840 he secured a seat in leadership in depth, and with Dodge in the the Territorial Assembly despite an investiga­ governor's chair the way was open for a tion which sought to prove that he illegally strong personality from the northeast to cap­ solicited Indian votes. When Doty replaced ture the territorial seat in Congress. There the Henry Dodge in the governor's chair. Darling politician to watch was the transplanted became one of the minority leaders in the Yankee who counted John Jacob Astor and assembly. Products themselves of the canal Lewis Cass among his personal friends— era in New York and the internal improve­ Green Bay's shrewd speculator and master of ments craze of the thirties, both men continued chicanery, James Duane Doty. with plans for a network of canals and roads When Darling entered the fray he was which would transform northeastern Wiscon­ among the ranks of the "Dotyites." His sin into a thriving commercial area. The alli­ choice was not one of personal allegiance; ance had brought its advantages, but it was Doty's machinations in the legislature had soon to run its course. amply demonstrated that he could not be Doty's term as governor gradually deprived trusted. Nor could Darling have easily dis­ him of authority, influence, and prestige. missed the setback to Fond du Lac and the Beset by a hostile majority in the assembly, subsequent decline in his own property hold­ he ran a gantlet of abuse for four hectic ings caused by the conniving politician. years. Patronage appointments, appropria­ Nevertheless, for the moment Doty was the tions for the state capitol, Indian treaties, and leading spokesman for the northeastern section a dispute over the right of the legislature to of the territory. The network of canals and roads he championed would directly benefit settlers along Lake Winnebago as well as Green Bay. Darling clearly realized that, for '" Darling to Cooley, April 13, 1840, in the Darling Papers. the time being at least, Doty's fight was his " Wisconsin Democrat, June 18, 25, 1839.

87 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER. 1961-1962 convene unleashed a torrent of heated debate, ing the governor and a memorial to the Presi­ highlighted by the shooting of a legislator in dent requesting Doty's removal from office. He the Council Chamber. Doty and his lieutenants then turned his attention to the Wisconsin managed to parry direct attacks for a while, Enquirer, Doty's newspaper in the territory, but the relentless war eventually began to commissioned to publish legislative proceed­ show results. A series of newspaper articles ings. Darling indignantly cited instances of and memorials demanding Doty's removal false reports, slanders, and libels by the paper from office undermined his influence in Wash­ and demanded the expulsion of the Enquirer ington, and federal appointees indicated that reporter from the legislature. Moving to a the President was courting favor with the more practical approach, he toured northern Dodge Democrats. By 1843, even several of Wisconsin stirring up petitions requesting his closest political associates began deserting legislative inquiries into the Fond du Lac to the ranks of the opposition. Among the Company's past transactions. As a limited defectors was Mason C. Darling." shareholder in the company, he and several other disgruntled members sent petitions to TOURING the latter half of his term. Doty the legislature demanding the repeal of the -*--^ began to look forward to political retire­ company's charter. The battle line was drawn." ment and once again focused his attention on Repeal of the company charter took top the southern shore of Lake Winnebago. His priority in Darling's plan of action. As presi­ company holdings there had fared badly. The dent and largest shareholder. Doty controlled defeat of his internal improvements program the organization with a firm hand. Hence had hindered land sales, but inquiries into he was free to promote his own interests in the legality of the company itself had taken Taycheedah while preventing further settle­ an even greater toll. Legislative sanction was ment at Fond du Lac by charging exorbitantly clearly needed if the land was to be salvaged. high land prices. Darling, in the meantime, Accordingly, in 1842 Doty and Darling mar­ would be hamstrung by his agreement not shalled their forces and passed an act which to subdivide his holdings into lots that would incorporated the organization. With the com­ compete with the company tract. Thus, as pany charter safely in his pocket. Doty then long as the company existed as a legal entity, blatantly proceeded to scrap the Fond du Lac the success of Taycheedah would probably project in favor of a neighboring settlement be assured; if abolished. Darling and Fond at Taycheedah; unlike the reedy marsh at the du Lac might well carry the day. Therefore, mouth of the Fond du Lac River, the shore early in 1844 Darling spearheaded a bill there was firm enough to support heavy struc­ through the legislature for charter repeal. tures. In 1843 Doty encouraged Nathaniel Faced with an overwhelming majority vote, Tallmadge of New York to invest heavily Doty grudgingly granted his approval. The in lands on the site. Tallmadge then called first round had gone to Darling.'" upon President Tyler and asked his support Although the legislature could remove its for moving the land office from Green Bay sanction from the company, it could not dis­ to the head of Lake Winnebago. Meanwhile, solve it: only the courts could perform this Doty stirred up petitions for the location of function, and it was to the courts that Darling the office at Taycheedah and the construction next turned his attention. In mid-February, of a road from Taycheedah to Sheboygan.'" he entered a suit in the circuit court at Green Darling struck back on the floor of the Assembly. Joining the ranks of the opposition, he endorsed a resolution to Congress malign- ^* Journal of the House of Representatives of Wis­ consin, 4th leg. assem., 1st sess. (Madison, 1843), 43, 196-197, 2nd sess. (Madison, 1844), 75, 83; Henry Dodge to Morgan L. Martin, December 27, " Smith, James Duane Doty, 278-297. 1843, in the Morgan L. Martin Papers; Moses M. " Journal of the House of Representatives of Wis­ Strong, History of the Territory of Wisconsin (Madi­ consin, 3rd leg. assem., 1st sess. (Madison, 1842), son, 1885), 411. 347; Doty to Tallmadge, June 22, 1841, February 23, ^" Journal of the Council of Wisconsin, 4th leg. 1842, in the Nathaniel Tallmadge Papers. assem., 2nd sess. (Madison, 1844), 196.

88 GAMBILL : MASON C. DARLING

Bay for dissolution of the company, a settle­ hied strenuously to move the office to their ment of its concerns, and distribution of the respective settlements. Doty, through Tall­ assets among the stockholders. The case madge, informed the Secretary of the Treasury dragged on for over a year until associate that Fond du Lac was a "paper town with one justice Andrew Miller, a Democratic ap­ house in it and that unoccupied." Taycheedah, pointee, finally decided in favor of Darling. on the other hand, had "several dwellings, In the meantime, a decision by the court with a large store, a tavern and other build­ master-in-chancery to the effect that no com­ ings to accommodate the land offices." Dar­ pany land could be deeded or sold while the ling, in turn, stirred up petitions requesting case was pending settlement played directly the location of the land office at Fond du Lac. into Darling's hands. He bought land south These he forwarded to Henry Dodge in Wash­ of the company tract, subdivided it into lots, ington along with a letter to President Tyler. and practically gave it away. Prospective Doty's charges, he claimed, were entirely mis­ settlers eagerly grasped the offer and eventual­ leading; the real settlement at Fond du Lac ly began crowding into Fond du Lac by the was below the company tract, not in it. Far boatload. With Doty saddled by the suit and from being a paper town, it boasted an ex­ with its population increasing rapidly. Fond cellent harbor, mail service, post office, store, du Lac's future looked bright indeed." blacksmith shop, the county seat, and the What was lacking was the county court­ accepted place for holding local elections. house. Darling had long realized that the Taycheedah, in comparison, consisted of three location of the county seat would make or families and a "small creek which is not ten break the settlement. After his breach with ft. wide."" Doty, he took advantage of the governor's A three-year controversy involving the land preoccupation in Madison and gained con­ register finally ended the possibility of either trol of the county board of supervisors. He site obtaining the land office. In 1844 John then rapidly pushed a bill through the legisla­ Horner, the register, approached Darling with ture organizing the county for judicial pur­ a proposal; he would support the location of poses and in March sold a lot to the board the office at the head of Lake Winnebago if solely for a courthouse site. Shortly thereafter Darling would sustain his present appoint­ Doty completed his term as governor, turned ment. Darling accepted the offer and solicited over the office to Nathaniel Tallmadge, and 270 signatures on petitions for the location returned to Taycheedah to take personal com­ of the office at Fond du Lac. These were mand of the counterattack. Rallying his sup­ then sent to Horner to be forwarded to Wash­ porters, he proceeded to "bastardize" Darling ington. After waiting several months for a for his political jobbery. He then enlisted reply. Darling began making inquiries. To several dissident residents of Fond du Lac, his indignation he found that Horner had came to a town meeting, and tried to remove made similar bargains with men in Oshkosh the incumbent board of supervisors. The at­ and Neenah-Menasha who also sought the land tempt proved abortive. Doty "came with high office. Moreover, Horner had detached the hopes in the morning," Darling wrote a friend, names from the petitions and added them to "but left rather crest fallen.'"' another petition requesting his continuance Fully as important as the location of the as register. Darling had been duped. Re­ county seat was the relocation of the district nouncing Horner and those "who are ready land office, and both Darling and Doty lob- to run at his bidding and kiss his—too," he spearheaded a resolution through a legislative caucus demanding Horner's dismissal. He finally had the satisfaction of watching

'" Butterfield, History of Fond du Lac County, 568; Green Bay Republican, April 2, 1844. " Journal of the House of Representatives of Wis­ consin, 4th leg. assem., 2nd sess. (Madison, 1844), "Doty to Tallmadge, October 31, 1843, in the 178, 230; Butterfield, History of Fond du Lac Tallmadge Papers; Darling to Tyler, January 2, County, 409; Darling to Strong, April 4, 1844, in 1844, as quoted in the Green Bay Republican, March the Moses M. Strong Papers. 5, 1844.

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Horner's political demise, but by then the lawsuits running into thousands of dollars, row had aroused so much impassioned interest his investments at the head of Lake Winne­ that removal of the land office to Fond du Lac bago were among the few remaining means by was an impossibility.'" which he could recuperate his dwindling for­ In the long run it made little difference, for tune. Shortly afterwards, he also packed his Darling had already assured the supremacy belongings and crossed the lake to an island of Fond du Lae over its neighboring competi­ south of Neenah-Menasha.^ tor. The opening of land for settlement south of the company tract provided the initial T^ARLING'S financial outlook was consider- impetus for a population boom that in one ^-^ ably brighter. He plowed back the profits year doubled the number of residents on the on Fond du Lac land sales into investments site. The new arrivals found no lack of ac­ which eventually made him one of the weal­ commodations. Darling personally sponsored thiest men in northern Wisconsin. In 1846 the construction of a flour mill, sawmill, he opened a stage line which ran coaches newspaper office, wheelwright shop, and a semi-weekly to Milwaukee and Green Bay. small steamer named the Manchester, which The line did a thriving business in passenger began making regular runs across Lake Win­ transportation, and Darling added to its re­ nebago. In 1846 the company land was sold turns by securing a contract to carry the Mil­ in public auction and construction rapidly waukee mail. With the returns he branched stretched north to the edge of the lake. By out into banking and in 1849 opened an the following year Fond du Lac boasted a exchange bank which handled land warrants, population of 400, and old-timers noted that real estate, and the collection of taxes. Always the continuous flood of newcomers was not alert for new business opportunities, he sys­ only "great" but "unexampled." No longer tematically purchased land in choice locations could competitors cry "paper town."^° throughout the state and near one of the sites Meanwhile the outlook for Taycheedah helped raise the first classrooms of Lawrence grew correspondingly dimmer. The location College. But however far-ranging his financial of the county seat in Fond du Lac and the interests, he reserved his special attention for prohibition against further land sales during the two-story building known as "Darling's the company suit proved severe setbacks. They Block," which dominated downtown Fond du were, however, only the beginning of Taychee- Lac. Erected in 1851, the structure was direct­ dah's troubles. Those who had hopes for the ly across from his own elaborately landscaped commercial possibilities of the site saw them home. Constructed of solid oak, the building dashed when the Manchester could not find was the business and social heart of the town, refuge there during a gale; three miles west housing lawyers, artists, a doctor, as well as other ships found safe anchor in the mouth the main shops, and also serving as a meeting of the Fond du Lac River. When the circuit place for local political parties, lodges, clubs, court finally decided against the company, dances, and conventions. For forty-five years many residents moved to more promising loca­ "Darling's Block" was a fitting tribute to its tions. During the winter eight yoke of oxen founder's business sagacity.''^ dragged a hotel along the lake to Fond du Lac Darling's victory over Doty also brought and several houses arrived by overland routes. its political rewards on both the local and The exodus was a disheartening sight for state levels. After the location of the county Doty. Badgered by creditors and plagued with seat at Fond du Lac, he became probate judge

'"Green Bay Republican, March 5, 1844; C. L. Sholes to Martin, February 20, 1846, in the Martin Papers; Darling to Strong, February 26, 1846, in the ''^ Glaze, Business History of Fond du Lac, 225; Strong Papers; Green Bay Advocate, February 4, Smith, James Duane Doty, 300-301. 1847. -^ Fond du Lac Journal, October 15, 1846; Darling "° Glaze, Business History of Fond du Lac, 455; to Martin, July 31, 1846, in the Martin Papers; Darling to Cooley, March 31, 1845, in the Darling Butterfield, History of Fond du Lac County, 637; Papers; George White to Martin, March 27, 1846, Green Bay Advocate, September 8, 1848; Glaze, in the Martin Papers. Business History of Fond du Lac, 70.

90 GAMBILL : MASON C. DARLING

and, three years later, the first president of become part of Asa Whitney's Oregon rail­ the village. Meanwhile he gained support road, destined to carry China tea and silks from many Democrats outside the Lake Win­ to all parts of the United States. With this nebago area and in 1845 was among the lead­ in mind, early in 1847 Darling and other ing contenders for the office of Territorial businessmen from Fond du Lac and Sheboy­ Delegate. When Henry Dodge regained the gan obtained a charter for the railroad from governor's chair. Darling became one of a the legislature. Darling then organized mass close-knit group of majority leaders in the meetings and attempted to drum up subscrip­ legislature; in 1846 he was chosen Speaker tions for the line, but met with little success. of the Assembly and in the following year Most Wisconsinites had bitter memories of President of the Council. By 1848 he was the the panic following the internal improvements undisputed spokesman for northeastern Wis­ craze of the thirties. While they saw the consin and one of the state's first Representa­ merits of the railroad, they feared that it tives in Congress. Well might his opponents meant an overextension of the credit needed begin raising the specter of a "Darling to build a canal between the Fox and Wiscon­ Regency.""" sin rivers."' From his political vantage point. Darling Darling had no such qualms. At the same proceeded with proposals for a network of time that he was promoting the Fond du Lac internal improvements which would benefit and the Sheboygan Railroad, he was also or­ both himself and his constituents. While, as ganizing a mass convention for all those inter­ a member of the Council and later as Con­ ested in Fox and Wisconsin river improve­ gressman, he represented a large portion of ments—a project that had intrigued him since northeastern Wisconsin, the development of he first arrived in Wisconsin. With a canal Fond du Lac nevertheless took top priority in across the portage between the two rivers and his plans. Eastern buyers were interested in the removal of navigation obstacles on the the village as a wheat center; this meant the lower Fox, Fond du Lac would become a construction of plank roads suitable for all- great inland port, perhaps even rivaling Buf­ year heavy hauling to lake shore ports. Busi­ falo, New York. It would lie at the apex of nessmen and farmers to the south were inter­ a large commercial triangle with its terminals ested in the site as a depot for lumber and at New York and New Orleans—"a depot for eastern manufactured goods; this meant the provisions for an area of 12 to 14,000 square construction of canals connecting Lake Win­ miles," by Darling's calculations. Given the nebago with Mississippi tributaries. Finally, canal, he envisioned steamboats from the East financiers imbued with the rising spirit of arriving with manufactured goods. Other Manifest Destiny saw the village as a possible ships from the Mississippi River and its tribu­ link in large trunk lines stretching to the taries would also be there with grain, lead, Pacific Ocean; and this demanded the im­ and plantation staples bound for markets in mediate action of both Darling and his neigh­ New England and mid-Atlantic states. It was bors. a project which, once completed, would dwarf Their first efforts in railroad promotion even the Erie Canal in comparison.'''^ envisioned a line from Sheboygan to Fond And by the end of 1846 Darling had little du Lac. It was a practical project; the road cause to believe it would not be completed. could be completed in less than three years Congress had just passed a bill granting pub­ and would more than double the returns for lic land to Wisconsin, to be used in financing farm produce. As long as the terminal was improvements, and the state legislature would in Fond du Lac, it would serve as a depot soon create a board of public works to sell for farmers from the interior of Wisconsin. the land and supervise construction. Inebri­ And when the line was extended it would ated with enthusiasm over the progress of the

^ Fond du Lac Journal, February 17, March 30, ^'Milwaukee Courier, May 14, 1845; South port 1847; Fond du Lac Whig, February 18, 1847. Telegraph, April 29, 1845; Fond du Lac Journal, °° Darling to Cooley, March 31, 1845, in the Darling August 3, 1849. Papers.

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Society's Iconographic Collection Little Chute, one of a series of paintings by Samuel Brookes and Thomas H. Stevenson, commissioned for promotional purposes by the Fox-Wisconsin Improvement Company, 1856. project. Darling laid the groundwork for a contractors, felt slighted and voiced charges Fox and Wisconsin improvements convention of favoritism and incompetence. The board to be held at Fond du Lac. In December, then became a political football in the legisla­ thirty delegates from all parts of the territory ture, where it reopened old sectional rivalries attended the meeting. Under Darling's chair­ and fostered innumerable investigations and manship they formed a steam navigation com­ much heated debate. By 1852 the state was pany, requested a company charter from the ready to rid itself of all responsibility in the legislature, and commended Congress for the project. When the board reported that the propriety of its grant. Corresponding commit­ cost of paying the debt and completing im­ tees were then established in fourteen counties provements would cost double the original to arouse public interest in the work and keep estimate, the legislature finally turned over a vigilant eye on the proceedings of the legis­ construction to private enterprise."' lature."" The trustees of the newly organized Fox However, the next four years dampened and Wisconsin Improvements Company had Darling's enthusiasm for the project. An in­ personal interest in the waterway, which led vestigation showed that much of the land to their vigorous prosecution of the project. allotted for the improvements was already One of the trustees, a former resident of Fond pre-empted, and Congress was unwilling to du Lac, had surveyed much of the area north make a further grant to offset the loss. Con­ of Lake Winnebago. Through his advance sequently, revenues from land sales failed to knowledge of the lands. Darling and other meet the cost of expenditures. Moreover, members of the company had purchased administration by the board of works un­ choice sites along the lower Fox River. Dar- leashed a torrent of dissention. Various seg­ ments along the route, as well as individual ^' Robert McCluggage, "The Fox Wisconsin Water­ way, 1836-1872," an unpublished Ph.D. dissertation in the University of Wisconsin Memorial Library ™ Fond du Lac Journal, December 24, 1846. (1954), 187-220.

92 GAMBILL : MASON C. DARLING ling himself was co-owner of nearly two- months, once again hummed with activity thirds of the village plat that later became as they converted the raw timber into sashes, Appleton, Wisconsin. Thus, completion of lumber, shingles, grain cradles, doors, and the waterway between Lake Winnebago and blinds. Farmers were also there with wagon- Green Bay would not only enhance his hold­ loads of grain to be exchanged for building ings at Fond du Lac, but those in Brown material and furnishings for houses, barns, County as well. As the resumption of con­ and fences. During 1854 nearly 150,000 struction depended on new sources of revenue. bushels of wheat were sold in the town, and Darling spent several months in the East seek­ rumor had it that an eastern buyer would ing loans from New York banks and lobby­ purchase an equal amount the next year for ing for an additional land grant from Con­ eight cents per bushel. Mingling with the gress. When a loan was finally obtained from lumbermen and farmers were new prospects the Bank of America and Congress allotted in Fond du Lac. By 1855 they had swollen 110,000 acres towards the improvements, the the population to 5,000 and would more than outlook for Fond du Lac was considerably double it again by the end of the decade. brightened."' Fond du Lac was the second largest town in It was further enhanced by the construction the state and, as one resident stated, was south of the town on the Rock River Valley "growing faster than Jack's beanstalk."^" Union Railroad. John Macy, the chief pro­ Its future, however, was clouded by the moter of the line, had conceived the project eruption of factional disputes between rail­ five years after his arrival in Fond du Lac road and canal advocates. Obstructive tactics in 1845. On his return East, he aroused the by Macy's railroad clique seriously hampered interest of ex-Secretary of the Treasury Robert the promotion of the Fox-Wisconsin project. J. Walker, and Walker in turn negotiated a In need of further funds. Darling and other loan from a London bank to finance the line. members of the company turned to Horatio The company charter called for an extension Seymour, Hiram Barney, Benjamin Butler, of the railroad south to the Illinois border. Erastus Corning, and other Eastern capitalists. There it would merge with the Illinois Cen­ Primarily concerned with immediate profits, tral and provide direct transportation to the out-of-state financiers turned the canal Cairo, Illinois. Once completed, the line into a giant speculative venture which event­ would place Fond du Lac at the head of a ually prevented completion of the work. The transportation system embracing the heart of Rock River Railroad suffered a similar fate. the Mississippi Valley. Its upper limbs would Aligned with Milwaukee politicians. Darling extend between Chicago and Galena; its lower and his canal cohorts defeated a federal land limbs would stretch south to Mobile and grant for the line and subsequently forced New Orleans."" it into bankruptcy. Chicago businessmen then scurried to gain control of the corpse, pre­ A MID the internal improvements hubbub vented its junction with the Illinois Central, -^*- over railroads and canals. Fond du Lac and merged it into the expanding network was prosperous and booming. During the of the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad. summer, immense rafts of logs arrived at the Darling and Macy could at least take a meas­ docks from forests north of Lake Winnebago. ure of self-satisfaction in their mutual failure."' Factories and mills, dormant during the winter

""Schafer, Wisconsin Domesday Book, 4:267; T. F. '"A. G. Ellis to Martin, January 2, 1847, in the Strong to George Paul, October 15, 1854, in the Martin Papers; Fond du Lac Journal, January 18, George Paul Papers. 1850; Darling to Ben Eastman, December 24, 1854, •" M. Kelly to Lucius Fairchild, November 2, 1852, in the Nelson Dewey Papers; Madison Argus and in the Lucius Fairchild Papers; James Legler, Democrat, September 19, 1853. "Josiah Noonan," an unpublished master's thesis in ^" Butterfield, History of Fond du Lac County, 471; the University of Wisconsin Memorial Librarv Fond du Lac Journal, May 15, 22, 1851; "Letter of (1953), 199; Robert J. Casey and W.A.S. Douglas, A. Hyatt Smith," November 17, 1851, in Wisconsin The Story of the Chicago and Northwestern System Miscellaneous Railroad Reports in the State His­ (New York, 1948), 77-80; McCluggage, "The Fox torical Society of Wisconsin, 9. Wisconsin Waterway," 241-292.

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The collapse of Fond du Lac's internal new problems upon Fond du Lac's own improvements schemes brought a halt to its deepening economic lethargy, the city's popu­ spiraling business prosperity. The flood of lace sought a tangible cause for their mis­ new arrivals dwindled to a trickle and then fortunes. Local politicians charged Milwaukee reversed its flow. Many of the town's lead­ with misuse of Wisconsin's economic and ing businessmen, faced with rising taxes and political interests. Eastern businessmen were diversion of new industry to Oshkosh and charged with the levy of heavy taxes that Milwaukee, left for more promising locations. enabled them to "grow fat and vainglorious— As Darling's own business investments drifted in riotous living." The greater share of into the economic doldrums, he also suc­ tirades, however, were reserved for Wiscon­ cumbed to the outside lure. In 1864 the sin's railroad corporations. Fond du Lac be­ managers of the Chicago and Northwestern, came a fountainhead for the Wisconsin Grange grateful for his assistance in strengthening and played a leading role in the state's rail­ their position in Wisconsin and with due con­ road-regulatory Liberal-Reform movement. sideration for his business ability, tendered Highest on its suspect list and lowest in im­ him an opening on the board of directors. munity from abuse was a corporation with Darling accepted the offer, moved to Chicago, which Mason C. Darling had been only too and spent the few remaining years of his life familiar—the Chicago and Northwestern Rail­ in the hire of the railroad corporation."" road.'*'' If he had remained another decade, he would have witnessed an ironic eulogy to his career. As the depression of 1873 inflicted "^ Edward Gambill, "A Biography of Edward S. Bragg," an unpublished master's thesis in the Uni­ versity of Wisconsin Memorial Library (1960) ; Ralph Russell, "The Grange in Wisconsin," an "^ Fond du Lac Commonwealth, April 18, 1860, unpublished master's thesis in the University of Wis­ March 14-15, 1866. consin Memorial Library (1929), 10.

Society's Iconographic Collection The Fond du Lac Coinpany house, built in 1836 and operated as an inn by Colwert Pier and his wife; a lithograph made from the painting by Mark Harrison. RICHARDSONIAN ROMANESQUE

IN WISCONSIN:

Vernacular Expressions of a Great Architectural Style

V>y RICHARD W. E. PERRIN people cared how these buildings would look as they weathered or how they would stand up under the action of time and use. It is in relation to this estrangement of architectural S America emerged from the Civil War, thought from sound building practice that the A most of its architects were still under achievements of the architect H. H. Richard­ the influence of the romantic movement, but son after the Civil War are most remarkable. the engineering faculties of the leading Henry Hobson Richardson was born at schools, if they taught design at all, leaned on Priestley Plantation, Louisiana, in 1830. the classics according to Vignola.' Seeking to Nominated for West Point by Judah P. Ben­ escape this conflict, many architectural stu­ jamin, he failed to qualify because of a dents went abroad to study, gravitating fre­ speech impediment. Deciding, then, to be­ quently toward the French Ecole des Beaux- come an engineer, he entered Harvard Univer­ Arts. For at least twenty years before the sity in 1854. Here he became interested in Civil War, a mixed architectural diet had architecture. Brilliant in mathematics, and afflicted American taste, and new stylistic speaking French since childhood, he never­ pursuits had become wearisome to both archi­ theless failed his entrance examination at the tects and public.^ Coupled with the expanding Ecole des Beaux-Arts, to which he had made and turbulent industrialization spreading over application in 1859. Following a year of solid the land in the wake of the Union victory was study on subjects in which he knew he was the decline in building craftsmanship. For weak, he was admitted to the Ecole in 1860, the commodious and sound building of the ranking eighteenth in a field of one hundred eighteenth and early nineteenth century, the and twenty, of whom only sixty were ac­ middle nineteenth century had increasingly cepted. His atelier was that of Jules-Louis substituted elaborate paper designs which Andre. He worked and studied in Paris until were then shoddily executed.'' Apparently, few 1865, when he returned to America. Richardson settled in Boston to practice architecture. His earliest work was not par­ ^ Jean Burchard and Albert Bush-Brown, The ticularly distinguished, but gradually a con­ Architecture of America, A Social and Cultural His­ sistent quality of style and competent, confi­ tory (Little, Brown and Company, Boston and To­ ronto, 1961), 126. dent handling of materials led to a distinctive ''Henry-Russell Hitchcock, Jr., The Architecture and personal character in his buildings. These of H. H. Richardson and His Times (The Museum qualities were quickly recognized by his con­ of Modern Art, New York, 1936), 11. nbid., 12. temporaries and were soon emulated and

95 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1961-1962

¥ S

s 4

1^ f r;?mfi'". ^*.

Sketch of Richardson's proposed Trinity Church, 5/. Paul's Church, Milwaukee, as drawn by E. T. Buff (do, from the Architectural Sketch Book, Mix & Co. in 1882. (Original in author's collection.) July, 1873. imitated.' Working with the basic forms of waukee architectural firm of E. T. Mix & Co., eleventh and twelfth-century Romanesque, which had won the commission in competition Richardson was, nevertheless, no mediaevalist. with Ware and Van Brunt of Boston, Harrison His plans were practical and his attitude of New York City, Upjohn of New York City, toward his own architecture was remarkably and Howland Russell of Milwaukee. Edward matter-of-fact. According to his biographer, Townsend Mix was a contemporary of "he invented when he was obliged to and Richardson. He was born in New Haven, borrowed when he could. Whatever he took, he Connecticut, in 1831 and died in Minneapolis remodelled as freely as he saw fit, and there in 1890." Whether these men knew each other was no more effort to conceal his alterations is not certain, but it is possible, since both than his borrowings. What he wished was, were Fellows of the American Institute of simply, that to an intelligent eye his work Architects. At any rate, Mix was no Richard­ should look right in the outcome."" son, although he enjoyed a very successful Working prolifically until his death in practice throughout the Northwest, extending 1886, Richardson produced many buildings. from 1856 to 1890. Mix developed no person­ Outstanding and far-reaching in their influ­ al style, but ran the range of currently popular ence were the New Brattle Square Church, styles as his own or his clients' fancy dictated. Boston (1870), Trinity Church, Boston In his design of Saint Paul's Church, however, (1872), State Hospital, Buffalo (1872), New the influence of Richardson is quite clear. York State Capitol, Albany (1875), and the Imposing even today, the church was de­ Allegheny County Buildings, Pittsburgh scribed in contemporary accounts as "pro­ (1884). Even his unexecuted designs elicited ducing an effect of solidity and reality not wide interest. *Ibid., 57. N excellent example of Richardsonian " M. G. Van Rensselaer, Henry Hobson Richardson A Romanesque in Wisconsin is Saint Paul's and His Works (Houghton, Mifflin and Company, Episcopal Church in Milwaukee. Erected in Boston and New York, 1888), 115. "Dictionary of Wisconsin Biography (State His­ building was designed by the Mil- torical Society of Wisconsin, Madison, 1960), 257.

96 PERRIN : RICHARDSON ROMANESQUE

frieze was never executed on Saint Paul's tower, but the carved stone angels were, com­ plete with bronze trumpets. The latter for reasons of safety were removed in 1953, the same year the church was badly damaged by fire. The beautifully rendered stained glass windows by Tiffany and the richly appointed interior of Saint Paul's as originally built are further evidence of the Richardson influence. Another Mix-designed building showing at least some Richardsonian inspiration is the Milwaukee Road Depot, Milwaukee, built in 1885. With walls of deep red brick and num­ erous arched openings, this structure reflects more late Victorian tendencies and less of Richardsonian vigor. Much more Richardsonian is the old Mil­ waukee Federal Building and Main Post Of­ fice, begun in 1892 and completed in 1899. Bearing a noticeable resemblance to its coun­ terparts in Washington, D.C., St. Paul, and Omaha, this grey Maine granite structure Pliuto toy tiic author possesses a great deal of dignity and char­ Present appearance of St. Paul's Church, Milwaukee, acter. The arched north portico with its as viewed from the southwest. Romanesque carvings is particularly interest­ ing and reflects definite Richardsonian taste, often seen in American churches.'" A cur­ as does the entire building which was very rent newspaper story related that the church probably inspired by Richardson's design for proper would be 140 feet in length, 84 feet the Allegheny County Building in Pittsburgh. deep, the corner surmounted by a lofty and The architect of the Milwaukee post office imposing tower, and when completed, to be may have been James Knox Taydor, who the finest building of its kind in the city." designed and supervised the construction of Incredibly, the article pronounced the design many buildings for the Treasury Department "purely Gothic." In general massing, plan, during this period." and even detail to some extent. Saint Paul's Richardsonian Romanesque died out with is an obvious take-off on Richardson's un­ its author, and admirers and imitators, even executed design for Trinity Church, Buffalo, in the vernacular, soon turned their attention which was published in the Architectural to further interpretations of Renaissance Sketch Book of July, 1873. forms which were soon to attain a high point The walls were built of rock-faced, dark in the Chicago Columbian Exposition of 1893. red Lake Superior sandstone laid in the best Nevertheless, Richardson left his mark on Richardsonian manner. A carved, high relief American architecture and his work is rele­ frieze and three-quarter engaged angels with vant even today, if for no other reason than trumpets shown on Mix's original drawings his strong sense of aesthetic expression, his closely followed the tower feature of Richard­ competent handling of fine materials, and his son's Brattle Square Church, Boston. The salutary influence upon his contemporaries.

"Milwaukee Sentinel, May 17, 1882. ' George Wolfe Shinn, King's Handbook of Notable " A History of Public Buildings Under The Con­ Episcopal Churches in the United States (Moses trol of The Treasury Department (Government Print­ King Corporation, Boston, 1889), 207. ing Office, Washington, 1901), 635.

97 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1961-1962

Photo by the author Detail of north portico. Main Post Office, Milwaukee, showing Richardsonian treatment of arches, columns, and wall surfaces.

Reproduction of architect's drawing of north elevation of the Milwaukee Road Depot, Milwaukee, designed by E. T. Mix in 1885. (Original in author's collection.)

98 WISCONSIN'S LOST MISSIONARY:

THE MYSTERY OF FATHER RENE MENARD

By A.A.A. SCHMIRLER temporaries as one anticipating his final journey in a manner worthy of an apostle. They will also know that to seek to find Father Menard's remains or to identify the precise spot where he died is beyond hope. However, in preparation for Father A historian's unusual quest for clues to Menard's tercentennial year of 1961, I did solve a three-hundred-year-old mystery of entertain some hope of locating, if not the French Wisconsin. place of his death, at least the site of the exact rapids at which he was lost to the sight of civilized man—a controverted point among historians. After studying the documents re­ lating to Father Menard's disappearance in LMOST everyone I met on the streams the late summer of 1661, after weighing all A and lakes of upper Wisconsin asked, the documented details in the light of "How's fishing?" Not one of them—particu­ nineteenth-century descriptions of travel by larly the game wardens— believed me when birchbark canoe, and after referring to Geo­ I replied that I was not fishing at all. My logical Survey maps as well, it seemed reason­ answer must have seemed odd to those enjoy­ able to think that information from these ing various conventional recreations in the various sources could better be integrated by northlands of the state. But mine was the visiting in situ each of the places described. deeper enjoyment of searching for clues to Prosecuting this purpose, I took a 14-foot the solution of a historical mystery. semi-kayak fiberglass boat down the length Three hundred years ago, or about a hun­ of the Wisconsin River, from its source in dred years before the French and Indian War, Lac Vieux Desert to a point below Wausau, a priest, the first missionary, entered what Wisconsin, where the Rib River enters the is now Wisconsin, seeking to reach a band larger stream. I also traveled the entire length of half-starved Huron Indians in need of his of the Rib River. I spent better than a day on ministrations at the headwaters of the Black Copper Creek, which is also a tributary of River in the Taylor County of today. From the Wisconsin, as well as three days on the this journey Father Rene Menard, S.J., never two tributaries of the Chippewa River which returned: somewhere en route, becoming lost are involved in this project, and a day on the near a rapids during a portage, he wandered Houghton Ship Canal, the famous old Portage into the wilderness and perished. Readers Route across the Keweenaw Peninsula in upper versed in the history of the French effort Michigan. In addition I visited numerous that was carried out on the North American other points by automobile. continent by way of the great St. Lawrence It is my conviction, following this explora­ River will know that this particular Jesuit tion by boat during the low water season of missionary has been described by his con­ the summer of 1959, that I have retraced

99 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1961-1962

sionary venture. However, when the Iroquois residing in the Genesee and Mohawk valleys of what is now the state of New York waged devastating war against the Algonquin- speaking tribes (generally called Chippewa today), many Hurons and Ottawa sought refuge westward, even as far as the Missis­ sippi. According to reliable historical theory, Radisson and Groselliers re-established con­ tact with these refugees not later than 1658, and in 1660 organized a canoe flotilla to return to Lake Superior. Among the French­ men who accompanied the flotilla was Father Rene Menard. Harper's Monthly, April 1892 Unfortunately the canoe in which Menard "The Missionary," by Frederic Remington. Pic­ was traveling was wrecked beyond repair turesque Wisconsin, a magazine published in Mil­ waukee in 1892, erroneously identified the priest as and for a critical period of days in the fall Pere Marquette and attributed the picture to artist of 1660 he and his companions were stranded H. F. Higby. on the south shore of Lake Superior. As a result, winter set in before the priest could Father Menard's last journey from Lac Vieux reach his ultimate destination; otherwise we Desert to the fatal rapids. And I am, accord­ might now know whether he was destined for ingly, inclined to question all theories which Chequamegon [Ashland Bay] or for Lac have been advanced as to his progress from Court Oreilles. Both materially and socially L'Anse, Michigan, to Lac Vieux Desert. speaking, the missionary spent the winter in austere circumstances in an Indian camp T^HERE is general agreement that this near present day L'Anse on Keweenaw Bay. -*- Jesuit, who had formerly been a teacher On April 16, 1661, he left L'Anse and on in colleges and was then a veteran of canoe May 26 first heard of the band of Cut-tail travel and who from the beginning had pos­ Hurons, among whom were probably some sessed a frail constitution, died, aging and Catholics, who were living in a state of mal­ convalescent, in a wilderness most remote from nutrition and defeat near the headwaters of the Paris in which he had been born in 1605. the Black River. Three Frenchmen, including At the time of his death, a thousand miles of Pierre Levassier, known as L'Esperance by lonely and perilous canoe trails separated him his associates, were sent on an exploratory from his confreres in the frontier Canadian trip to Sasteretsi, chief of the reduced and settlements of Quebec, Three Rivers, and starving Hurons.° After their return, Montreal.' L'Esperance again set out with Father Until 1660 the Sault Ste. Marie had been Menard.^ Deserted by their Indian guides at the terminal point of the Lake Superior mis­ a lake, the two proceeded towards their

^Dictionary of American Biography, 12:530. The were published in Cleveland between 1896 and 1901 Society of Jesus, whose members are referred to as in 73 volumes edited by Reuben Gold Thwaites and Jesuits or S.J.'s, is a special organization of Catho­ bearing the title The Jesuit Relations and Allied lic priests devoted to scholastic and missionary work Documents. One-volume selections from this work and numbering more than 35,000 the world over. were published in New York by A. & C. Boni in They conduct 41 high schools and 28 colleges or 1925 and by the Vanguard Press in 1954. In recent universities in the U.S., among them Campion High years the entire 73 volumes have been made avail­ School at Prairie du Chien and Marquette University able in a photographic offset edition. All references at Milwaukee. Founded by St. Ignatius Loyola in in this article are to the original edition. 1534, the Order could in 1660 spare few members ^Jesuit Relations, 46:143. for their vast field of work, but those who came to " Louise Phelps Kellogg's The French Regime in America had a profound and far-reaching effect upon Wisconsin and the Northwest (Madison, 1925) cor­ New France. Some of their annual reports were rectly identifies Father Menard's companion in a published in France; those for the years 1610-1791 footnote on page 149.

100 SCHMIRLER : FATHER RENE MENARD destination alone. At one of the many rapids, mant, the Jesuit Superior, also concurred. potentially a dangerous one, the priest stepped Therefore, in the minds of ecclesiastical ashore to carry the baggage while L'Esperance leaders. Father Menard had become a key took the lightened birchbark canoe through. figure in the permanent development of the Arriving at the other end of the rapids, subsequent history of the Lake Superior L'Esperance waited. He shouted to direct the region." priest and fired his gun five times. Then he It is important, then, to retrace his last did what was almost standard practice in route and to locate what henceforth shall be those days under such circumstances: he went referred to as "Menard's Rapids." Much in­ to get help for the search for Menard, who terest in the priest's last journey and the place was lost or who had even possibly been way­ of its ultimate culmination exists among stu­ laid. The residence of Sasteretsi's Hurons dents of history. Prolonged controversy must have been less than a day's journey among them has tended not only to obscure distant, and L'Esperance set out on foot for the significance of Menard's journey and the Indian settlement. Disastrously, for Father death, but also to restrain the recognition Menard, L'Esperance by-passed the place and he merits. was not found until next day by the Hurons Older commentators placed the location of who escorted him back to the encampment. Menard's death as far east as Sault Ste. Marie There he obtained help and with a number of and as far west as Lake Pepin, as well as near Hurons returned to the rapids and instituted the Noquet Islands in Green Bay and on the a search for the missing priest. But Father old St. Croix trails between Lake Superior Rene Menard was never again seen alive by and the Mississippi. Such misconceptions white men. Two years later it was estimated have since been unravelled, and it is no that death must have occurred to the lost longer disputed that the priest wintered near missionary on or about August 10, 1661.' L'Anse on Keweenaw Bay or that the Hurons he was attempting to succor lived near the TVTHERE were the rapids at which Father headwaters of the Black River. However, and ''^ Menard disappeared? Posterity will with only minor variations, writers have pro­ want to know, for among all the Algonquins, posed two different routes for the missionary's Hurons, and French, Menard alone entered last trip between Keweenaw Bay and the head Lake Superior as an authorized representa­ of the Black River. tive, the vicar general of Bishop Laval of Flenry Colin Campbell may be taken as the Quebec. Laval, who exercised—in a true best representative of the older and larger legal concept—ecclesiastical j urisdiction in all group of historians who maintain that Father New France, wrote to Pope Alexander VII at Menard left L'Anse by land trail to Lac Vieux Rome: "This past summer a priest of the Desert and proceeded down the Wisconsin Society of Jesus departed for a mission not to a point nearest the Black River. Campbell more than five hundred leagues from Que­ mistakenly identified Bill Cross Rapids as bec. . . . Seven Frenchmen attached them­ Menard's Rapids because he thought it the selves to this Apostle, they to catch beavers, only one so near the Black, on the Wisconsin he to gain souls."'^ Since Radisson and River route.' Groseilliers vacillated in their allegiances, Louise Phelps Kellogg took a departure Menard's official status in this effort to found from Campbell's view because to her it was the first mission among the Ottawa nations evident that Menard had proceeded from added an element of stability to the entire L'Anse by way of the famous old Grand venture, a view in which Father Jerome Lalle- Portage across Keweenaw Peninsula, now the

"Jesuit Relations, 46:79. ' Henry Colin Campbell, Pere Rene Menard: The ^Jesuit Relations, 48:135. Predecessor of Allouez and Marquette in the Lake '"' Camille de Rochemonteix, S.J., Les Jesuites et La Superior Region (Parkman Club Publications, No. Nouvelle France au XVII Siecle (Paris, 1896), 345. 11. Milwaukee, 1897).

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route of the Houghton Ship Canal." She as­ into the life and works of Wisconsin's first sumed that the Jesuit reached Chequamegon, missionary. As an anchor to her theory in though an objective contradiction arises general. Miss Kellogg placed great emphasis against every proof she offered; and from on a mark found on a copy of an ancient and Chequamegon she thought that he went by authentic map. Although the mark can not way of two land trails to Lac Court Oreilles, be ignored, it remains in nature an inter­ proceeded to a branch of the Chippewa River polation." down to the main Chippewa, and thence up All historians have approached the problem one of two branches coming from the east, of tracing Father Menard's mercy errand to either the Yellow or the Jump rivers. She the Hurons by following him, as it were, implied that Menard's Rapids probably were from his starting point and thence to the located on one of these two streams. But such rapids where he was believed to have met his a conclusion remains indefinite, uninviting death. My approach to the enigma is new, to intellectual curiosity which otherwise might inasmuch as I have proposed to reverse the more readily be inclined to explore further direction of study and investigation by be­ ginning with the termination of that last journey and working back up the trail. I felt that many rapids could be eliminated from ^See Louise Phelps Kellogg's sketch of Menard in the Dictionary of American Biography, loc. cit. consideration because (1) they lacked the characteristics which would have forced Father Menard to detour while his companion traversed them in the canoe, and (2) because they were too remote from the Huron en­ campment near the headwaters of the Black River, in the general vicinity of Lake Chelsea. Furthermore, it was felt that if evidence found in situ pointed to a rapids in the country west of the lake, it would lay question to the Wis­ consin River theory; and if Menard's Rapids were found to lie east of Lake Chelsea, such evidence would militate against the Chippewa River hypothesis.'" If the latter case proved strong enough of itself, there would be no

" Kellogg, The French Regime, 150. An adaptation of this map, owned by the Harvard Library, appears on page 150 of Miss Kellogg's book. A more adequate reproduction can be found in Justin Winsor's Narra­ tive and Critical History of America (1884), 4:206. See also L. C. Karpinski's Bibliography of the Printed Maps of Michigan (Lansing, 1931). Though the author of this article is convinced that Miss Kellogg's theory that Menard reached Chequamegon, with its consequent conclusions, is in error, one must admit that in her studies she shed much useful light on the story of the first missionary in Wiscon­ sin. It is unfortunate that she could not have traversed the rivers in question. '" Let the reader understand that this was the plan of deduction from the facts gathered. It was not necessarily the day-by-day procedure employed in gathering the facts from observation, in which, Harvard University for the convenience of the moment, I began with Manuscript map used by Louise Phelps Kellogg to establish site Lac 'Vieux Desert and the Wisconsin, shifted to the of Menard's disappearance. Jump, back to the Rib, and then to the Yellow.

102 SCHMIRLER : FATHER RENE MENARD need to explore the water routes between Superior in a hundred river miles or less. Chequamegon and the Chippewa-Jump River Where no dams exist, by exercising normal juncture which others had assumed to be a care one can shoot all the rapids of the Wis­ part of Menard's route. Since it was not my consin River without portaging. plan to explore the route either above Che­ Furthermore, the experienced canoeist men­ quamegon or above Lac Vieux Desert, such tally begins to distinguish between two classi­ conclusions as are presented here are only fications of rapids: those in which the pri­ those reconcilable with the facts which the mary rock strata protrude to form a primary careful research of others has established con­ rapids (now usually the site of a dam) ; cerning the northern-most, upper segment of and rapids in which the currents are formed Father Menard's last journey. by boulders eroded from glacial deposit or Four clues taken from the Jesuit Relations, where the river has touched down to uncover particularly Father Menard's letter of June 2, granite substrata lying near the surface in 1661, to Father Lallemant, plus the letter and the Laurentian Shield area of Wisconsin. reports edited by the Jesuit Superior which Here, as in the case of the Little Jump Rapids, include information received from the fur the exposed rocks have become so badly trader Nicolas Perrot, assist in the elimination broken that they resemble the boulders of an of many rapids. The first clue, used by all eroded channel and one has, in effect, a subsequent commentators, is the distinction secondary rapids. which Indians and white men invariably At a secondary rapids, two men possessing made between a falls and a rapids. A a single canoe would not normally undertake second is the destination of Menard and a portage. They would find a negotiable L'Esperance—a clue not too often used. A channel between the stones, for there is al­ third is the proximity of their destination, ways one in normal stage of water level. Flood- the Huron village, to the fatal rapids. This water level does not enter our story, since clue Campbell applied, but not quite rigidly Father Menard disappeared in August. With enough. The fourth clue—and one that seems a little bit of back-stroking going downstream, to me to have been overlooked—is that or a stint of poling going upstream, a light Menard's Rapids must have been of consider­ boat such as a birchbark canoe or a 55-pound able length to allow for the effective separa­ kayak such as mine can be held practically tion of the two men. With these clues in at a standstill and then nosed through. It mind, the number of potential "Menard's is not necessary to portage unless a man wor­ Rapids" was reduced at the outset. ries too much, and in that case the portage Apropos our purpose, it should be pointed or "carry" would tend to be short, perhaps out that for a considerable distance both the a city block in length. Thus, many rapids Wisconsin and the Chippewa rivers are mere­ not eliminated because of their distance from ly upland streams, each lacking the bigness the headwaters of the Black River can be the term "river" connotes; and that in their ruled out because Menard and L'Esperance, entire length so are the tributaries that con­ both seasoned canoeists, would not have cern us. That is to say, if one capsized in any portaged around them and become separated of them he could simply walk ashore. Dams in the manner described. have not flooded back as far upstream as may The number of possible rapids is further be imagined since the Wisconsin, for illustra­ reduced if we accept the fact that the fatal tion, drops from an elevation of 1,600 feet rapids must have lain within a day's journey above sea level at its source to above 1,200 from the village of chief Sasteretsi at the feet at Wausau. Where its natural water level head of the Black River. In the difficulties remains unaffected, its riverbed is less shal­ of the surrounding terrain a man, erring on low and potentially less damaging to a pass­ his way, could not possibly travel more than ing canoe than one finds to be the case in twenty-five miles in a day. Most commenta­ the streams flowing north off the Wisconsin tors who have studied the pertinent docu­ hump and dropping from an elevation of ments agree that the two Frenchmen, at the 1,600 feet to the 980-foot level of Lake time of the tragedy, were within striking

103 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1961-1962 distance of their goal." To their observations Hurons to disperse, two or three families to I would merely add that it goes contrary to a group, to each of the small lakes, Chelsea, all experience of partners in wilderness ad­ Black, and Wellington, or to others that sup­ ventures, between whom in their isolation a ported fish, despite fear of their enemies. bond of union often establishes itself, to think If Perrot is right, the ambuscade and the that L'Esperance would leave the rapids at abode of the chief would both probably be all unless he entertained a practical confidence located on Lake Chelsea." Hence, by inscrib­ in his ability to return on that day or early ing a circle on the map, with a radius of on the next. Because of his exploratory visit twenty-five miles centered on Lake Chelsea, to the Huron village a month before, we encircle "Menard's Rapids." L'Esperance possessed a knowledge of the Within that circle I have explored all pass­ distance involved, although he may have un­ able streams; within it you will find only derestimated, since on his earlier trip he had five rapids of the dimension and character been traveling downstream rather than up.'" which would separate two men. Continuing That the destination of the two Frenchmen the process of elimination I have listed the was the headwaters of the Black River has five according to their likelihood and have never been successfully controverted.'^ But found that only one fits the aforementioned the term "headwaters" is indefinite, and an clues, without either arousing doubts or examination of the area leads one to wonder creating new problems. if perhaps necessity did not cause the Cut-tail CPIRIT FALLS (Location No. 5 on map) ^ is ruled out, because it is a falls and because, as has been stated, both Indians and whites distinguished between falls and rapids. '^ Campbell, Pere Rene Menard, 20. Campbell estimated the two were a day's journey from the The documents clearly record that Menard Indian village; yet he pointed out that L'Esperance was lost at a rapids. Although sand and silt had spent some time searching for the priest after settled over this short, rough water just up­ he himself had traversed the rapids. In her article, "First Missionary in Wisconsin," in the Wisconsin stream in the days when a milldam was in Magazine of History, 4:417-425 (1920-1921), Louise operation, no great portage was ever required. Phelps Kellogg reasoned that L'Esperance, having by-passed the village, reached it on the second day. A few miles farther upstream an earthfill dam A manuscript in Latin, "Patris Renati Menard," has altered the scene since 1661, but no per­ Bulletin No. 770 of "Les Relations des Jesuites," in son experienced in travel on rivers by boat the Manuscripts Library of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, describes the life and death would suppose a lengthy portage around the of Menard and includes details of the intercourse rapids which existed before the dam was between L'Esperance and the Hurons, as well as a built. Above Spirit Falls the Spirit River was report of the priest's body having been found after several days. See also Jesuit Relations, 47:247-253. too puny to merit investigation, although a For further information concerning Menard's dis­ survey conducted in September and October appearance see Emma Helen Blair, Indian Tribes of the Upper Mississippi Valley and the Region of the of 1865 showed that the river, before receiv­ Great Lakes as Described by Nicholas Perrot et Al. ing flowage from East Spirit Lake, measured (Cleveland, 1911), 1:159, 172; and Rochemonteix, twenty-three feet in width."' Downstream Nouvelle France, 349. ^^ Jesuit Relations, 46:143. " Rev. Louis Charron in his article, "Where Did the First Missionary in Wisconsin Die?", in the Milwaukee Journal, March 23, 1930, seems to imply another location. Perhaps he confuses the Hurons' " Blair, Indian Tribes, 165. temporary encampment of 1661 with the later Pota- '" Original Land Survey, Interior Field Notes, Vol. watomi "Indian Farm" on the Yellow River near 28, in the vault of the Commissioner of Public Lands, Perkinstown, Wisconsin, established in the 1880's. State Capitol, Madison.

LEGEND: A. L'Anse, where Menard wintered, 1660-1661. B. Chequamegon Bay, where Menard hoped to establish a mission. C. Fishing weir on the Ontonagon River. D. Lac Vieux Desert, where Menard and L'Esperance entered the Wisconsin River on their way to the stricken Hurons. E. Chief Sasteretsi's village on Lake Chelsea, Menard's destina­ tion in August, 1661. (Arrows indicate Menard's route as set forth by the author; circle o indicates the prescribed 2i-mile radius from Lake Chelsea)

104 SCHMIRLER : FATHER RENE MENARD

105 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1961-1962 from the falls the river possesses no signifi­ 1. Carrying the boat and the baggage cant rapids. One sees backwater from a dam around the obstacle, especially falls, such on the Wisconsin; therefore, the descent of as the Grandfather Falls on the Wiscon­ the Spirit River is not great and, besides, sin River. this lower portion of the river extends beyond 2. Chuting, or shooting, the rapids when our twenty-five mile limit of possibility. going downstream, as in the Big Bull Because "both streams are full of rapids," Falls. Guidance was obtained by back- Louise Phelps Kellogg postulated the tributary stroking with the paddles. At some such rivers of the Yellow and the Jump as possible places, portage was made when traveling sites of the climactic event in Father Menard's upstream. life." Location No. 4 marks the only rough 3. Carrying the baggage only, for the pur­ water on the Yellow River of sufficient length pose of lightening a boat going down to fit the story as recorded. Yet Indians and or upstream in heavily wooded country, fur traders, whose discussion of Father since it was easier to move a boat or Menard's fate formed the basis of the pub­ canoe in midstream, free of tree branches lished reports, would not have dignified this and the ever-present mosquitoes. brook-sized stretch of water with the appella­ 4. Kneeling in the vessel to pole upstream tion "rapids." I made this rapid water down­ or down, in narrow shallow rivulets or stream, and I stayed in my kayak. Still con­ in choppy swift waters up to three feet tained in its swamp woodland watershed, this deep. beginning of the Yellow River is too narrow 5. Pulling on the branches of trees when­ to allow the use of oars extended on both ever a viable current hugged the shore­ sides of a boat. Alder branches nearly touch line. each other across the stream. The water 6. Cordelling, or leading the boat. For surges forward swiftly over some boulders, this, upstream or downstream, one might squeezes through between others, moving use one's hand, a rope, or simply the down a noticeable incline which, however, is limb of a tree picked up and grasped on nowhere abrupt. Indeed, I broke my paddle the spot. holding the kayak against the current, for 7. Any combination of the four basic I was loath to grab an alder branch to slow techniques: chuting, carrying, cordelling, the boat or to whip it around the sharp turns or poling." amid the boulders: the time was the second week in August, and such an act invariably Considering these methods, the priest and aroused a hungry horde of mosquitoes. his companion would have poled upstream But before considering what procedure on the Yellow River together. It is a stream Father Menard and L'Esperance might have that can have changed very little since 1661, adopted in these surroundings, had they come except that it may have shifted its meanders this way, it might be well to interject a cor­ hither and yon from swamp to stony, wooded rection of the oversimplified conception some plain. The alders clustering the banks are writers hold concerning portaging. mentioned in the original land survey. Poling Interesting descriptions of canoe travel in the Chippewa empire of the nineteenth cen­ tury detail many ways of making a portage, or of traversing a difficult stretch of water. Normally the response to a given set of river "Louis Agassiz, Lake Superior; Its Physical Char­ acter, Vegetation, and Animals, Compared with Those obstacles followed the following patterns: of Other and Similar Regions. With a narrative of the tour by J. Elliot Cabot (Boston, 1850), 86; Thomas L. McKenney, Sketches of a Tour to the Lakes (Baltimore, 1827), 477 et seq.; David Dale Owen, Report of a Geological Survey, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota (Philadelphia, 1852), 282 et seq.; also many passages in Henry Rowe School­ craft's various writings, e.g.. Appendix D of School­ craft's Expedition to Lake Itasca (Michigan State 'Kellogg, The French Regime, 149 et seq. University Press, 1958), 274 et seq.

108 SCHMIRLER : FATHER RENE MENARD

In this wood engraving from Harper's Monthly, March, 1892, Frederic Remington depicts voyageurs ascending rapids.

was the easiest, indeed the only practical way But since on the Yellow no separation could for L'Esperance to have brought the boat have taken place, we must conclude that the through the dense underbrush; cordelling was, missionary and his companion did not come and is, impossible. Because of the soft foot­ up this river at all. ing, it would have been easier for Father Following this line of reasoning, we are Menard to have remained in the canoe where likewise forced to rule out Location No. 3. he could have helped his companion rather Here, Copper Creek, a tributary to the Wis­ than to have gotten out to carry the brass consin, cut a gorge a mile long through a kettle and the supplies. The tricky current north-south arm of white quartzite that ages on the Yellow is so compressed that although ago overflowed the other primary strata (sec­ it provides enough depth to float a canoe it tion 5 and 6, 31 N., R. 63). This is the only is not more than two feet deep anywhere in rapids of consequence in this tributary. It this rough passage. And only on the water is also an artist's conception of a trout stream. could the two men have been relatively safe I walked the fisherman's path along the reed- from the ravening mosquitoes. This was a grown gravel below the floodline level, which lesson L'Esperance had learned on his first appeared to be two-and-a-half to three feet trip to the Hurons—to keep to the stream higher. I clambered over broken rocks and and constantly on the move. In translation, smooth banks of solid strata; at times I waded the report of this trip always says with a comfortably in hip boots. In 1852 the sur­ humorous twist that L'Esperance and his com­ veyor wrote that Copper Creek was sixty-six panions had to "run without stopping" all feet wide at the rapids and that the bottom the way from Black River to Lake Superior.'" "was subject to three feet inundation.'"" In

'Jesuit Relations, 48:137. ' Interior Field Notes, Vol. 47.

107 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1961-1962

1661 it must have been the same kind of could have brought them with less effort to stream, and had they come this way. Father the Wisconsin-Copper junction in the same Menard and L'Esperance would have alter­ length of time? The answer is obviously no. nated between poles and cordell to ascend the rapids of Copper Creek. It was not here that A LL of the negative facts which eliminate the fatal accident occurred. -^*- Copper Creek from consideration hold Additional reasons contribute to this con­ even more convincingly for Bill Cross Rapids clusion. Copper Creek Rapids lies ten miles on the Wisconsin. Henry Campbell's selection farther from Lake Chelsea than the two rapids lies three miles farther way from Lake Chelsea yet to be discussed, necessitating an overland than does the rapids I have cited at Location walk, or carry, of eight miles to the Huron No. 3, and would entail the same impractical, village. One writer supposes a trail for more improbable overland trek to the headwaters than double this distance;'^" but would the of the Black River. Campbell designated Bill small band of Hurons in but three years of Cross Rapids as "Menard's Rapids" because residence at Lake Chelsea have established a he thought it was the only one in close portage trail eight miles long? Would they proximity to the destination; or, if he had have made any trail to Copper Creek when known, he overlooked the adequate potentiali­ the Rib River was immediately at hand and ties of the rapids of Copper Creek. My own experience in cruising down through Bill ^Campbell, Pere Rene Menard, 21, 23. It might Cross Rapids did not mislead my thinking on be added that many writers depended heavily upon this point. On studying my maps I had trails which may have come into being only in the anticipated trouble at Posey and Bill Cross day of timber cruisers and of Indians traveling to receive annuity payments. Rapids. Nevertheless, it was a pleasant run.

;•• • j'r.-i . <.-4it .-"* -i' . ''v '• •;ii''''-!u•;•:«*%.•'>* i" •• • • '.

/ •"

id^lisai Society's Iconographic Collection Bill Cross Rapids on the Wisconsin River. Henry Colin Campbell believed that Menard disappeared here.

108 SCHMIRLER : FATHER RENE MENARD and not until I had arrived within sight of the other at all, it would have been by time- the rock island below both did I know for consuming expedients and circumvention; and certain I had passed through places listed as so in a day's time he would not have been rapids on the map. I judged them to be able to travel so far as to have by-passed the riffles. In summation it might be said that Huron village. Bill Cross is a secondary rapids, in reality Today hunters are said to follow the old not meriting consideration. Potawatomie Trail on the one hogback which The two remaining locations are primary rises near the Jump and continues uninter­ rapids, as I classify them, and in themselves ruptedly through miles of swampy plateau. exhibit all the characteristics one would ex­ Of all the places I visited, this is the only one pect to find at the place of Father Menard's where I felt the need of a guide. Ray Bundick disappearance. In both instances the river of Westboro is an old trapper and hunter who has cut through an outcropping of blue knows the north woods like a book. Together granite strata interlaid by white crystal the two of us planned to walk four miles along quartz. At the time that the virgin forest of the hogback, but after leaving the ridge the township was untouched, except for a few momentarily, we became so enmeshed in trees felled perhaps by bootleg loggers, a brambles and tall weeds, willows and soften­ surveyor jotted down a description of Loca­ ing swamps that we spent an afternoon just tion No. 2—the rapids of the Big Jump River getting back to the spot from which we had of the Chippewa River system. In April of started. 1858 he wrote concerning the Big Jump If, instead of taking the direct route, Rapids: ". . . the banks are high and rocky L'Esperance had set out to the right on this forming in some places a perpendicular hogback he would have had to travel forty height of 20 or 30 feet on both sides." The miles to reach Lake Chelsea. He could not river, he said, measured up to 100 links in have waded upstream. However, he might width, and fell nearly fifty feet in thirty have laboriously followed the bank, in ter­ chains (roughly .4 miles, since one chain rain so flat that ox-bow meanders exist today, equals sixty-six feet). He continued: "It is and thus deviated to the left of his objective. filled through the channel with large rocks and To have done so would have been to encounter falling in some places 5 and 6 feet, rendering soft footing, a drag on one's progress com­ it impossible for rafts or boats."^' Today in parable to walking in soft snow. Thus, should April the cascades appear still to fall that L'Esperance have set out for the Indian village far, or in summer after a heavy rain, and the directly, or to the right or to the left, each Big Jump Rapids lies about seventeen miles of the choices of route would have left him from Lake Chelsea, well within the twenty- farther from his destination than a day's five mile radius we have set. journey. Nonetheless, Big Jump Rapids are ruled out There are no other primary rapids on the by the surrounding terrain. On foot a man Jump River. I passed through Little Jump would find it difficult to walk from these Rapids without difficulty, though it was at rapids to Lake Chelsea in a single day, as night and with only the aid of the sky glow L'Esperance would have had to do to sum­ and a weak flashlight. I also made adequate mon aid. Adjacent to the Jump River in investigation of the Mondeau River and Sil­ Chequamegon National Forest, hills and hog­ ver Creek. backs appear secluded by the muskeg and tamarack swamps—surrounded eskers string­ However, a further thought suggests itself. ing out from southwest to northeast in such If L'Esperance had set out from the rapids a direction that L'Esperance would have had on the Jump River he would have found him­ to transect them in any effort to follow a self in immediate difficulty. But the original direct route to the Lake Chelsea area. If he accounts make no mention of initial trouble. had been able to cross from one hummock to They indicate that he lost his way after by­ passing the Indian village, i.e., at the end of his jaunt. The conclusion follows that ^ Interior Field Notes, Vol. 16. Father Menard was not lost at a rapids from

109 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1961-1962

which it was as difficult to reach Lake Chelsea The evidence is inescapable: the Dells as from Big Jump Rapids. Therefore, all below Goodrich (Location No. 1 on the map) rapids are eliminated except one. is Menard's Rapids.^ If we assume, then, that L'Esperance started from Location No. 1—the Dells on the Rib A BOUT a third of a mile in length, River below Goodrich—the sequence of events -^~*- Menard's Rapids extend briefly across and the accumulated clues fit perfectly and the county line into Lincoln County. Eight no new points of doubt and contradiction are successive drops, from a half to a full city raised. Knowing from his previous trip to block apart, produce the cascades. Even in the Huron village that the Rib River holds the lower, less severe portion of the rapids, a decidedly north-south direction above the the strata bedrock in low water season can rapids, the Frenchman must have necessarily be seen to be continuous transverse the stream. taken a northwest line angling away from Where a layer of granite ends abruptly, it the river on his right. Here he could have creates the effect of a perpendicular step immediately ascended rolling hills which are clear across the river. The riser of this step, farmed today. Then, their slopes were covered I should judge, ranges from twelve to eighteen with a mixed growth: hardwoods such as red inches in height. Thus, one could not pole birch, maple, and ironwood; softwoods such a boat upstream without having to lift it as pine, spruce, hemlock, balsam, and tama­ over the edge of these steps manually; nor rack; other growth such as hazelnut and rasp­ could he run the rapids downstream except berry. He would have enjoyed the relatively with the aid of high water, as in early spring. firm footing afforded by the height of coun­ Even then the rapids would be dangerous, try separating the watershed of the Rib River though passable. Between the rock steps there from that of the Big Eau Pleine and the are pools of fast but smooth water and banks Black. Speeded on his way by firm footing, of easily accessible rock on which one might L'Esperance would have known that should clamber around a cascade. While L'Esperance he unconsciously swing too far to the left would have poled, paddled, waded, cordelled, he would come upon the Black River and still or carried the canoe upstream, the priest find his way to the Hurons; should he err might have ascended one of the high banks to the right, he would regain the Rib River. in order to move under the taller trees, and There was only one chance of missing the so was soon lost to sight. village, and miss it he did. Linking the It will be argued that at this late date we Hurons' dwelling places on the lakes with the can not form a valid conclusion as to the places on the Rib where they might have kept identity of Menard's Rapids for the simple some of their canoes, there must have been reason that since the tragic events of that a passageway formed by the tread of Indians summer day in 1661 the rivers have changed. going to their boats and returning with fish We would reply that while the changes in the and game. Someone has described it as little rivers attract our attention, their basic same­ more than an animal trail, and it may have ness remains unnoticed. been three miles long.^'^ One could have Over the years, the natural wear and tear crossed it unawares, as apparently L'Esperance on the granite layers of primary rapids must did, and sealed the fate of Father Menard; because if L'Esperance was lost the next day when the Hurons found him, as the docu­ ''^ AUTHOR'S NOTE: It is difficult in a short article ments state, he must have crossed this trail to anticipate all questions which may be considered to have been left unanswered. Misconceptions may and entered territory unknown to him. arise in the reader's mind because of an incomplete examination of the material available, or from lack of experience with the physical realities of canoeing. Many mooted points are treated in detail in the author's series of articles which appeared inter­ mittently in the La Crosse Times-Review from Octo­ ber 14 to December 16, 1960. In addition, the extensive and detailed manuscript from which this article is drawn is on file in the Archives Division -'Campbell, Pere Rene Menard, 21, 23. of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin.

110 SCHMIRLER : FATHER RENE MENARD

nection between Lake Chelsea and the Black River, and from Black Lake to Black River water flows only in the spring; inches affect the fingerlet sources of rivers. But the Rib River above Goodrich, the Yellow and the Jump in Chequamegon National Forest, and the Wisconsin as far down as the sheep ranch above Merrill, retain their forest mantle and are very much what they were when the eyes of white men first beheld them. A snapshot taken on the spot shows two pines growing out of stumps at the floodline on the banks of the rapids on the Rib. The combined age of the living trees, the dead

**- '••'A- stumps, and the time needed to rot them in their centers represents a period of two hun­ dred years."" For two centuries, therefore, this river habitually has been running at the ^*^^^-;^^%K' * same height in this narrow, rock-ribbed chan­ nel. There is little reason to suppose that Photo by the author extensive changes occurred during the seven­ teenth century, before or after the arrival of Dells of the Rib River, uppe cascade of Menard's Rapids. Menard and L'Esperance. Evidence from the Interior Field Notes be merely a matter of inches. Indeed, one again points to the same conclusion of rela- chunk in the midstream of the Rib Dells appears younger than its fellows, probably ^ The pines I would judge to be about seventy because, according to existing tradition, log­ years old. They grew out of pine stumps that must gers blasted off a slab of sidewall to eliminate have been ninety years old or more. Wc may allow thirty-five years for these stumps to rot to the extent a V-eleft which had repeatedly caused logs that a pine cone, dropping in their center, might to jam. grow. Thus, seventy plus ninety plus thirty-five equals two hundred (approximately). People like to say that "Rivers were much bigger and deeper in the good old days." They have in mind rivers like the Big Eau Pleine, which has been denuded of two-thirds of its forest cover and whose swamps, for the most part, have been drained by the plow furrow, road ditches, and wells. Concerning the Rib River, whose watershed is only partially cleared, one person I talked to, the caretaker of a nearby fox farm, was in disagreement with popular opinion. "The river is the same," he said, "though since the clearings have been made the run-off is quicker, and after a heavy rain the river subsides to a low stage." Another way of presenting this thought is to say that the total hours of high water have diminished, the number of days of low water have increased, but the general volume of the river is essentially what it was centuries ago. And for all the source lakes, Vvaus.iu Daily Record Herald their watertable has been lowered, but only Menard's Rapids, showing twin pines whose root system reflects two centuries of unvarying floodline to a degree. Thus, there is no longer a con­ level.

Ill WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1961-1962 tive sameness. William E. Daugherty, who into a water-filled rut worn into the mud by surveyed Goodrich Township in 1861, re­ "fragile" canoes being dragged through it; corded much the same depth of water that and finally, the two remarkably short carries, one finds today: "between sections 25—24, one under the trees (pines), and the other at 18 inches; between sections 13-24, at 12 on a sand beach."* inches; between sections 13-14, at 12 inches." Had we no other way of establishing the At that time, the Rib River in these sections fact of the passage of Radisson, Groseilliers, above the rapids was sixty-six feet wide, al­ Father Menard, and six other Frenchmen though it measured seventy-eight feet in the through the Grand Portage to Lake Superior corner of Lincoln County below the rapids. in the spring of 1661, the following passage In my opinion, a surveyor would discover from one of Menard's last letters to Father similar readings today. Lallemant would be sufficient: ". . . We de­ Precipitation records for central Wisconsin, camped from our winter quarters on Easter going back to 1878, show that July and Saturday, to proceed to a very pleasant river August are consistently seasons of low water.''" where there was good hunting, and where And the Wisconsin River, under the control the savages found what was needed for their of courteous and scientific damkeepers, re­ subsistence. Game and fish failed us; so we tains its natural cycle of high and low months left the savages and, nine of us Frenchmen in order to capture each foot pound of energy embarking in three canoes, we continued our before it passes downstream. Thus, one can navigation. At the end of two days we ar­ argue a compensating factor for every change; rived at that formidable portage which is a and if these are taken into account, we can short league [roughly two miles] in length, see most of what Father Menard and midway between the trembling lands—bogs L'Esperance saw in 1661. wherein one sinks of necessity, sometimes more, sometimes less. TTAVING established the course of Father "On the 1st of May, we performed our -*--*- Menard's final route from Lac Vieux devotions in the cabins of some Algonquins, Desert to the Rib River rapids where he met who stole a part of our provisions during the his death, we may logically ask about the first night. We left them and found this great segment of his journey between Old Desert lake all bordered with ice. At a distance of and L'Anse. Those who follow Henry Colin 2 leagues from that place, we arrived among Campbell's thinking on this point will find other Algonquins, where fearing lest the no necessary contradiction in his conclusions. same thing might happen to us as among the But unfortunately for me, I am convinced former ones, we passed on, and after five days that Louise Phelps Kellogg was as incontest- finally reached the main body. There I ably correct in writing that Father Menard learned that the bodies of [blank space in MS] crossed Keweenaw Peninsula by the Grand and two others, who had been drowned in Portage as she was wrong in claiming that the autumn, had been found. So bad was he reached Chequamegon Bay. the weather for several days that canoes and Historical descriptions of passage through men were lost. The winter and the white Grand Portage artlessly bring forward the frosts continued until the middle of May. same sequence of identical, prominent land­ On Ascension Day, I saw a Huron who had marks: Portage entry, which is a river fifty started 11 days before from the Tobacco yards wide, deep and pleasant; next, a lake nation. He told me the people were dying large enough to "navigate" rather than to of hunger in his country. . . . This Huron left row across; then a headstream, diminishing again with 3 Frenchmen—namely Monsieur

°° U.S. Department of Commerce. Weather Bureau. Climatological Data for the United States by Sections, ^ See Charles B. Lawrence, "Keweena Portage," 1914—.See reports, 1912-1919, from Vudesare (Lac in Michigan History, 38:45-64 (March, 1954). I have Vieux Desert), and Big St. Germain dams, 1917- found no variations in other nineteenth-century de­ 1930. scriptions differing from those quoted by Lawrence.

112 SCHMIRLER : FATHER RENE MENARD du Coulombier, L'Esperance, and Brotier— Holy Saturday which, according to the and 3 Oupoutesatamis. They have a present Gregorian calendar, fell that year on April to be given to Sasteretsi on my behalf. . . . 16. From the pines beneath which they en­ [The manuscript then notes that the Ottawa camped on May 1st they could not see Lake ("the whole Algonquin nation") were migrat­ Superior, and so were surprised the next ing.] They should have arrived, and I have day to discover that ice flows, held against been awaiting them for 15 days. . . . Four of the shore by the wind, prevented them from us remain at a distance of a gunshot from setting out by canoe for Chequamegon. But 80 cabins. . . .'"=' they did not turn back; they "passed on," The letter is dated "This 2nd of June, evidently on the shore. This is hilly country, 1661," the day Father Menard had evidently and in their weakened condition they could intended to entrust it to someone. hardly have gotten farther in five days than the Ontonagon weir, fifty-seven miles distant. Knowing how in the rigorous north country feast succeeded famine every spring, we can 7\e/ncU^^ul

113 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1961-1962 the first mission among the Ottawa as a stabi­ verts among the Mohawks in their day. Had lizing element in the whole adventure. His the Jesuits not been at St. Louis, the cause of death at his post in the wilderness forced religion would not have reached out to Idaho the decision as to whether the Lake Superior and Washington as early as it did. outpost would be relinquished or continued, Thus, Father Menard's death bestowed a for as long as Menard had not returned, the permanence to the Lake Superior outpost Jesuit Superior at Three Rivers was honor which has been variously known as Chequa­ bound to send out another missionary to megon, La Pointe, and Ashland Bay. Through­ ascertain the state of affairs. Accordingly, out the French regime, the English domina­ Father Allouez was sent to Chequamegon, and tion, and on into the American directorate, providentially continued the mission beyond this fur trading post played a part, and when the Ste. Sault Marie. His successor Father the settlers came they continued some of its Marquette, after serving an apprenticeship at institutions, including the mission work. Men Chequamegon, took his cause down the Mis­ who loom large in the history of the region sissippi. As a result, by a chain of events, were formed at Chequamegon for their later there were Jesuits at St. Louis when Chief endeavors, as for example Verendrye, who LaMousse came to ask for a "blackrobe" for became one of the foremost explorers of the Indians on the west coast. LaMousse him­ Manitoba and the Dakotas. self was a full-blooded Mohawk by direct Today, meditating at Menard's Rapids, we descent, and a Christian because Fathers realize that this missionary priest, by his Jogues, Menard, and others had made con­ last defeat, gained his ultimate victory.

MIDWEST RESEARCH GRANTS ANNOUNCED

As was announced in the Spring, 1961, Randolph Chandler Downes, University of issue of the Magazine, the Wisconsin His­ Toledo, "The Ohio Man, Warren G. Harding, tory Foundation last year received from 1900-1915." Lilly Endowment, Inc., a grant of $45,000, Daniel Levine, Earlham College, Rich­ to be employed in a three-y^ear program on mond, Indiana, "Jane Addams and Ameri­ the history of the American Midwest from can Social Thought." the Civil War to World War I. Approximate­ Darrell Henry Pollard, Albion College, ly one-third of the Lilly grant was allocated Albion, Michigan, "Development of Michi­ for travel and research grants to post-doc­ gan's Oil Industry, 1860-1935." toral scholars doing research in the pre­ Francis Prucha, S.J., Marquette Universi­ scribed area, the balance to be used in pub­ ty, "A Guide to the Military Frontier." lishing selected manuscripts produced by the Dr. 0. Lawrence Burnette, Jr., Book Ed­ recipients of the grants-in-aid or by other itor of the Society and secretary of the Mid­ scholars. west Research Grants Committee, will serve On March 1, 1962, Dr. Leslie H. Fishel, as general editor of the publication pro­ Jr., director of the Society, announced for gram. Titles to be published shall include the Midwest Research Grants Committee the but will not be limited to aspects of agricul­ following awards: ture, tariff, currency, railroad legislation, Peter Beckman, O.S.R., St. Benedict's Col­ rise of industry, civil service reform, cul­ lege, Atchison, Kansas, "James F. Joy as ture and education, immigration, politics, a Railroad Promoter, 1846-1876." and foreign policy as they are related to John Albert Braeman, Ohio State Univer­ the Midwest. Manuscripts published under sity, Columbus, "Albert J. Beveridge and the the Lilly grant will be in addition to the So­ New Nationalism." ciety's normal publishing program.

114 HISTORICAL SOCIETIES: THEIR MAGAZINES AND THEIR EDITORS

By JAMES H. RODABAUGH

The editor of one of the Midwest's oldest In recent years these early publications, and most distinguished historical quarterlies many of which continued to be published describes a little-known field of publishing. throughout the century, have been subjected to unwarranted and careless criticism. H. Hale Bellot,'' for example, found fault with their content, maintaining that they con­ TJUBLISHING by historical societies and tributed little to historical journalism, and -•- agencies in the United States has become others—in the light of present-day printing "big business." In 1959, it may surprise you, developments and, I suspect, of the pressures as it did me, to learn that fifty-eight reporting of the popularization movement—have caviled state historical agencies alone published a at their appearance. Who can doubt the total of 557 items in 28,600 pages. In a worth of the Collections of the Massachusetts fifteen-year period from 1945 to 1959, sixty- Historical Society and of the New-York His­ six state historical organizations published torical Society, of the Memoirs of the His­ 7,182 items in over 450,000 pages.' torical Society of Pennsylvania, of the Trans­ From the days of John Pintard, Ebenezer actions of the American Antiquarian Society, Hazard, the Reverend Jeremy Belknap, Dr. of the Collections and Proceedings of the Isaiah Thomas, and the other pioneers of State Historical Society of Wisconsin, or of the historical society, publishing has been the Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collec­ a distinguishing activity of the maj or societies, tions, to mention but a few? Indeed, through second only to collecting and preserving the their publications and their collection pro­ records of the past, for at least most of their grams, as Julian P. Boyd asserted some years 170 years of operation. Prior to the Civil ago, the state and local historical societies War the American historical societies issued "provided almost the sole channels for effec­ more than five hundred separate publications, tive promotion of historical study in the including proceedings of meetings, transac­ United States" down to the time when the tions and memoirs, and collections of docu­ American Historical Association was founded mentary and secondary materials.^ in the mid-1880's.'' The early historical societies grew out of the quest for knowledge in the enlightened period which produced Franklin, Jefferson, Priestley, Rush, Rittenhouse, and many more EDITOR'S NOTE: this paper was delivered April 22, who were bent on exposing "Nature's hidden 1961, in Detroit, before a Joint Session of the Mis­ sissippi Valley Historical Association and the Ameri­ can Association for State and Local History. ^ Felix Eugene Snider, "Postwar Publications of ' H. Hale Bellot, American History and American State Historical Agencies" (Ms., Advanced Studies Historians (Norman, Oklahoma, 1952), 26. in Librarianship, University of Illinois, 1960), 29, 44. * Julian P. Boyd, "State and Local Historical So­ - Leslie W. Dunlap, American Historical Societies, cieties in the United States," in American Historical 1796-1860 (Madison, Wisconsin, 1944), 95. Review, XL: 10-37 (1935).

115 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1961-1962 stores." Their founders, officers, and mem­ programs. This has been especially true of bers were the scholars of the time. They were books and monographs and of the society philosophers searching for the principles and journals which have replaced the old pro­ laws that regulate the universe, attempting ceedings and transactions in the last seventy- to understand themselves and all life about five years. Even in the recent dark years of them. The very basis of their pursuit of confusion and mediocrity in the societies, truth was the historical process, which is to when they failed to move forward in step build upon the foundation of accumulated with the population growth and cultural de­ previous knowledge. Thus, they became aware velopment of the nation and other agencies of the need to preserve documentation, whether and institutions—museums, research libraries, it was to be applied to the compilation of a archives, and universities—were taking over catalog of flora or to the history of a first their functions, the society quarterlies con­ family of Boston. tinued to provide a magnificent yield of Here was the germ of the historical society. sound and substantial studies in American And, after it was formed, the founders issued history. Down through the decades the spirit publications to serve as preserving instru­ and purpose of the exchange of publications ments for documents through duplication, to also have endured. Today, in spite of the furnish outlets for the results of their inquiries fact that many of the society publication or researches, to provide an agency for the programs are secondary to historic sites, exchange of basic materials and of ideas with pioneer village reproductions, restorations, the members of other societies, and to dissem­ junior historian movements, and other efforts, inate historical information. the broad, permanent intellectual influence of The pioneer societies were intended to be the societies is felt through their journals. associations of gentlemen of "suitable abilities On the one hand, the restored home of an and leisure," as Hazard described them.° The historical figure may arouse within many memberships were composed of young men visitors a warm feeling of association with of learning who were expected to contribute the past; on the other hand, the facts and to the collecting and publishing efforts." In interpretations in the articles in the journals other words, the historical societies were find their way into the published literature founded as learned societies where members which ultimately illuminates, guides, and would exchange information and ideas. Some directs our national life. societies, like those of Massachusetts and New York, limited their memberships; the T~^HE scholarly journal is generally the Massachusetts Historical Society stated the -*- primary publication of publishing so­ qualification for membership in this way in cieties and historical agencies. In 1959 there 1855: "No person shall be chosen into it were in this country at least 52 state historical who has not proved his hearty interest in journals, and 33 county, 27 local, and 17 historical or antiquarian research by some regional historical periodicals." In that year contribution completed or in progress—or by fifty-one state societies and agencies reported some manifest token of his zeal for ye cause."' publishing 479 issues and 19,029 pages in While the character of the membership and periodicals. Two-thirds of all the publishing the councillors or trustees of the societies done by fifty-eight state historical organiza­ has changed over the years, particularly in tions was in the form of periodicals." The the twentieth century, the devotion to scholar­ circulations of the state journals run con­ ship has been maintained in their publication servatively about 2,500 copies each. On this

"^ Ebenezer Hazard to Jeremy Belknap, October 3, " Clement M. Silvestro and Ardelle J. Hough, 1790, "Belknap Papers, Part H," Collections of the comps.. Directory of Historical Societies and Agencies Massachusetts Historical Society, Fifth Series, III, in the United States and Canada, 1959 (Madison, Part 2 (1877), 237. Wisconsin, 1959). ° Dunlap, American Historical Societies, 25. ° Snider, "Postwar Publications of State Historical 'Ibid., 38. Agencies," 29.

116 RODABAUGH : HISTORICAL SOCIETY MAGAZINES basis approximately 125,000 are issued each P. Weisenburger (Columbus, 1953), I dis­ quarter and 500,000 each year. Assuming covered that approximately one-fifth of the that each quarterly was sent to 250 libraries references were to the Ohio Historical Quar­ (this figure, I think, is low; the Ohio His­ terly. Nearly twenty per cent of the suggested torical Quarterly, for example, goes to 616 readings in James C. Olson's History of libraries) and that it was used by an average Nebraska (Lincoln, 1955) are articles in of five readers each year, I estimate the total Nebraska History. A survey of the two-volume readership for one year of the approximately Indiana from Frontier to Industrial Common­ fifty journals at about 175,000 in the year wealth, by John D. Barnhart and Donald F. of publication and 737,000 over a decade. A Carmony (New York, 1954), will reveal 250 significant factor in the evaluation of these footnote references to the Indiana Magazine journals is their continued use over the years of History, and more than one-sixth of the and even over the centuries. titles in its bibliography of books and articles The society journals have become the great are from that magazine. On a broader front, source books of state and regional American a recent bibliographical study of regional history. While working on this paper, I sur­ political history between World War II and veyed several recent histories of states in an 1957, entitled The Middle West (Washington, effort to ascertain the importance of the his­ 1958), by Harry R. Stevens, listed ninety-six torical journals to the authors. In the chapter historical society magazine articles among his bibliographies in the one-volume History of total of 255 citations. Finally, to conclude Ohio, by Eugene H. Roseboom and Francis this point, let me quote from R. Carlyle Buley's

Photo by Justin Schmiedeke A selection of the magazines published by state historical agencies, showing the great variety in format. Many city and county ftistorical societies have their own publications.

117 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1961-1962

"Bibliographical Essay" in his Pulitzer Prize- among a number of contributions, of reject­ winning The Old Northwest: Pioneer Period, ing manuscripts that do not fit into the scheme 1815-1840 (2 vols., 2d printing, Bloomington, of the periodical or that are unworthy of Indiana, 1951) : "Secondary in importance to publication, of suggesting improvements to the contemporary newspapers and periodicals authors, of editing copy, checking for authen­ for a study of the history of the period are the ticity and integrity, and rewriting to provide publications of the historical societies, both better organization and style, of planning the public and private, and of the historical com­ contents of each issue, of designing the cover missions and bureaus of the five states of and designating the format and typography, the Old Northwest. Included in these publi­ of selecting illustrations, and of choosing and cations are hundreds of articles as well as a dealing with the printers. In order to carry large amount of source material." out these functions the editor is expected to be an expert in history and bibliography, in ' I ''00 often over the years the editors of public relations, in diplomacy, in literary -*- the history magazines have been taken for style, in design, and in the printing arts and granted. In fact, in recent years, they have techniques. In addition, he must also be a been received with more grumbling and glib businessman who is able to squeeze good and captious criticism than appreciation for printing out of a low budget. the efforts and sacrifices they have put into But this is not all that is required of him. the journals. They are accused of issuing Only a few of the editors we are speaking drab quarterlies, yet the funds are frequently of are fortunate enough to be assigned just to denied them for art work, illustrations, and the job of editing and publishing an historical quality printing; and in some instances state journal. They frequently serve also in admin­ printers, with whom several societies and istrative positions, especially in small organ­ agencies are forced to do business, are unable izations, as research historians, as librarians, to provide either good typography or good or as professors. Some have other publications presswork. On the whole, nevertheless, im­ to edit and publish besides their quarterlies. provements have been made in the appearance One editor, who also holds another position, of the magazines. reports that most of his editing is done "dur­ The editors are charged also with producing ing my off hours." He has no assistants and dull and uninteresting quarterlies which lack no money to hire any. "My secretary and I," general interest. This criticism is aimed pri­ he says, "do all the work." Another hyphen­ marily at the scholarly articles which, for ated editor informs me that he is fortunate in the most part, are written by persons academ­ having a capable wife who is willing to help ically or self-trained in history. There are, with the magazine at no cost to the institution. naturally, variations in the quality of the Another, who is a full-time editor, lacks assist­ productions of historians; indeed, there are ance which, he says, "means that less than highs and lows in those of individual his­ a third of my time can I function as an editor: torians, but on the whole, it seems to me, no the rest I am typist, file clerk, art and copy other professional or nonprofessional group editor, book review editor, layout man, and in the country has written, or is writing, proofreader." Probably no professional and with greater clarity, integrity, and effective­ administrative position in the historical so­ ness, and with such breadth of interest in the cieties and agencies is treated with less regard whole of human life. These virtues are demon­ and respect by the organizations than that of strable in the historical journals. You will editor. I am hoping that the magnitude of the note that here I am speaking relatively and editor's task is clearer to you and that you that I am not claiming perfection. may understand now why your contributions often are not considered for weeks or months The problems inherent in these criticisms after you send them. I can assure you that represent only some of many that face the the editor has no desire to delay his reading editors of the historical magazines. There are of them; he simply hasn't time to get his work the matters of attracting and engaging authors, done. of selecting manuscripts for publication from

118 RODABAUGH : HISTORICAL SOCIETY MAGAZINES nPHERE are also pressures that sometimes tive of those councillors or trustees who devote -'- lower the editor's morale. I am happy to themselves competently and enthusiastically to say that they seldom come from the authors; the improvement of their organizations. indeed, they are almost invariably appreciative It should be clear by now that the working of editorial improvements. They are applied, conditions of the editors are not entirely however, by trustees and members and special pleasant. One editor says of his position, interest groups, and they are often contra­ "The frustrations lie in the loneliness and dictory in nature and sometimes are opposed nerve-wracking nature of a job whose success­ to the purposes and principles of the journals ful results are all too frequently known only as defined for the editors when they were to the editor, author, and God, but whose appointed. There are, for example, cries from mistakes are apparent and permanent." Civil War buffs to load the magazines with Another, in answer to questions regarding their materials, and demands from geneal­ his position, began his letter with cynical ogists for the inscriptions on tombstones and humor. "Under separate cover," he wrote, for family trees. One editor writes that if he "I am sending you a fifteen hundred page were to please only the nonhistorian members manuscript entitled 'Confessions of Pagliacci of his society he would be publishing a journal or Why the Hell did I ever become an editor of folklore and antiques. In other instances anyway?'" I might add that I have some trustees and members press for magazines recent evidence that editing may be an oc­ like Arizona Highways, American Heritage, cupational hazard, for 25 per cent of my Harper's, the Atlantic, or whatever their editorial correspondents in the preparation favorite journals happen to be, and in a few of this paper were ill or recuperating from cases editors have felt it advisable to publish articles because of the expression of strong illness when they answered my request for interest in them by officials of the societies. information. But, in spite of the work, the Trustees and administrators who are making problems, and the pressures, the editors of no effort themselves to increase society mem­ our historical journals report that they like bership sometimes try to shift the blame for their editing tasks and enjoy the contacts low membership on the editors and their with the writers. There is a sense of creativity, "unpopular" quarterlies. Some of those ama­ of worthwhile contribution, and of fulfillment teurs whose knowledge of history and ability in the preparation of the articles and the pro­ to write are inadequate, and their friends, duction of an historical journal. Every editor charge that the editors discriminate against has experienced the spirit-lifting pleasure of them. being thanked by his authors for his improve­ ments on their articles, of hearing or reading Some critics rather vehemently resent pro­ appreciative comments on his magazine, and fessional authors, whether they are historians, of seeing his journal quoted and cited in geographers, economists, anthropologists, or articles and books in local, state, regional, and professors of English. On the other hand, national history. Fortunately for the editors some editors suffer from little or no pressure their feelings of satisfaction and gratification or criticism. Most agree that they receive too override those of frustration and discourage­ little constructive criticism. It is a sad fact ment. that too many members of the policy-making and governing bodies of historical societies and agencies know little or nothing about the TTOWEVER, two great problems still face purposes and operations of the institutions -*--'- the institutions and editors that produce for which they have a large and serious public the historical journals. One arises from the responsibility and that they make trifling seeming dichotomy of purpose—pursuing efforts to educate themselves to meet their scholarship, on the one hand, and that nebu­ obligations. Such members present continu­ lous thing called "popularization," on the ing problems alike to directors, librarians, other—both in the total operations of the curators, editors, and other staff members historical society and in the publication pro­ who are, on the other hand, deeply apprecia­ gram. The other derives from the effort to

119 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1961-1962 achieve better writing and a greater variety gobbled up by the popularization movement of articles in the magazines. or slaughtered by officers whose governing The traditional purpose of the historical philosophy is essentially opportunistic. If we journal has been to provide an outlet for destroy or neglect the rich resources of our articles and documents that contribute to the basic programs, we shall soon lack the mate­ knowledge and understanding of a particular rials with which to build the house of popu­ community or region and its people. The lar history, as well as to add to general guiding principle has been to produce a run­ knowledge. I must say, however, that in the ning source book of the locality's history for last decade, largely through the influence of interested readers, lay and professional, and the American Association for State and Local a rich compendium of valuable and reliable History, the need for maintaining a satisfac­ information for future users. The scope of tory balance between the professional pro­ the periodical has generally been a broad one, grams and the efforts to reach the people is the effort being to provide articles on many^ gradually gaining stronger recognition in the subjects and of interest to many different operation of major historical societies. people. This remains the basic purpose, and Most editors of the journals are still dis­ the strength, of practically all of the journals turbed by their own desires to serve a larger of historical societies and agencies, and in audience or by the demand of some persons most instances trustees and members have felt that their magazines be produced for the gen­ pride in their association with, and support eral reader. In their efforts to widen their of, this aim. immediate readership they have proposed or Nevertheless, the historical journals, like introduced, within the limits of their appro­ the other programs of the historical societies priations, improvements in format and typog­ and, to a lesser extent, the historical agencies, raphy, attractive covers, illustrations, and a some years ago got themselves tangled in the broader variety of article subjects. At the web of equalitarianism in American life. Just same time, better writers and editors have as the school systems developed the concept strengthened the literary qualities. Still, the that every student should and could be edu­ increase in circulations and memberships has cated uniformly—though, as we know now, been anything but startling. Three of the at the expense of quality and excellence—so magazines with the largest circulations, the also some historians and social scientists con­ result of intensive membership campaigns, ceived the idea that every man could be an have made little alteration in appearance, and historian; and the leaders of the historical the state historical j ournal with the largest cir­ societies, groping for purpose and support, culation, blessed as it is with a popular sub­ indulged themselves in visions of marble- ject, namely, the Rocky Mountain West, is palace museums and golden microfilm readers hardly likely to win any awards for its format, if they could just "reach the people." Today typography, illustrations, or printing. One few historians or historical society officials magazine recently has reported some slight hold the illusion that historians spring from increase in its circulation as it has moved its the earth full-blown, though many of them, sights into the general field of American his­ including myself, are appreciative of the im­ tory. There can be little doubt that the limita­ pressive service that a number of the historical tion of the subject matter of a magazine to societies and agencies have rendered in in­ a state or local geographic area automatically troducing a broad segment of the population fixes bounds on the circulation. On the other to the history of their country through muse­ hand, the membership or subscription cam­ ums, historical sites, restorations, marking paign, proven successful by the Missouri and programs, and other efforts, including popu­ Iowa societies, and particularly by American lar publications. The problem that the socie­ Heritage, can and does increase circulation. ties and similar organizations face, and must Such promotion, however, should not be face with determination, is to secure their loaded on the shoulders of an editor. fundamental programs of preservation, re­ The demand that the historical journal be search, and scholarly publication from being produced for the general reader, rather than

120 RODABAUGH : HISTORICAL SOCIETY MAGAZINES

Photo by Justin Schmiedeke Specialized journals such as these appeal to a wide range of historical interests. the interested reader, is a perplexing one for by Americans. If they read at all, they do it the editors. As far as I know, no one has largely for recreation and entertainment. One ever made an effort to identify this "general of the historical journal editors writes that reader" in relation to his potential reading most criticisms of his magazine, he has dis­ of the historical magazine. It has been esti­ covered, reduce themselves to the desire of mated that only about 15 per cent of our the critic to be entertained. Yet history is adult population will read a book a year in intrinsically an intellectual pursuit, a serious this "postditerate age,"'° and those who do search for knowledge and understanding, and read will read many times more of the books the historical society or agency, as the his­ of Erie Stanley Gardner, Erskine Caldwell, torian of its community, has the primary Thorne Smith, Ellery Queen, and Mickey responsibility to treat it as such through its Spillane than of nonfiction books and espe­ scholarly publication, preservation, and re­ cially books in the humanities and the social search programs. sciences. You may recall Louis Bromfield's This does not preclude the publication of "Mr. Smith," describing his own college- the popular magazine in addition to the educated middle class: "The most they ever scholarly journal, and to meet this need, a read is the more sensational items in the news­ number of societies are publishing a second papers, the comics, the sports, and easily periodical with pleasant little stories about predigested things out of the Reader's Digest history. Indeed, some societies are issuing and similar publications." The fact is that three or four or even five periodicals today— there is relatively little serious reading done the scholarly quarterly, a popular magazine for general reading, a magazine for children, a magazine for county and local societies, ^° Richard Chapin and Stanley Idzerda, "Literacy and a newsletter. Furthermore, they often in a Post-Literate Age," in Michigan State University reach the public by the millions through popu- University College Quarterly, Winter, 1961, 6-10.

121 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1961-1962 larly written, illustrated leaflets and booklets. superior" to those from amateurs. "In fact," Needless to say, these popular items are seldom he says, "most of our rejects are from the contributive to knowledge, and, like the Amer­ latter." ican Heritage, will not achieve immortality The rejection of articles by amateurs, as in historiography. The point is that the his­ I have indicated earlier, frequently brings torical society has two distinct obligations, if denunciation upon the editors' heads. Yet it assumes the additional role of popularizer, they are only trying to do their jobs to the and undoubtedly it can meet them best by best of their abilities as men and women treating them separately. trained in history and experienced in their editorial profession. They are quite aware of the fact that most amateur writings are unsuitable for either the professional journals or the popular magazines. Actually the editors T^HE great majority of articles in the his- receive relatively few articles by amateurs, -*- torical journals, taken as a whole, are but their rejections are the most provocative written by professional historians. One maga­ of criticism. As a matter of fact, every editor zine reports that 95 per cent of its articles gives more consideration to the potentially are by historians, and another, 90 per cent acceptable amateur productions than to those by members of the profession. A third states of his professional colleagues. He is quick to that professional historians contribute about return the latter when unacceptable, but he 75 per cent of the articles and about 80 per is always hopefully looking for the fresh cent of what is printed. On the other hand, approach, the personal element, and the hu­ several journals claim only about 50 per cent man interest that may distinguish those of for the historians and 50 per cent by non- the amateurs. These traits he finds at times, historians, though most of the latter are mem­ particularly in reminiscences. bers of other professions or are experienced More serious for the editors than the writers. The magazine with the largest circu­ quality of the productions of amateurs is the lation, Montana, the Magazine of Western quality of the writing of some of the historians History, lists as one of its improvements the and apprentices to the profession. While all professionalization of its articles. the editors are appreciative of the great con­ On the other hand, there is a conclusion tribution of the professional historians to their among the editors, which they express with journals, they are also disturbed by some signs sorrow because they do not enjoy discourag­ to which I would like to draw your attention. ing the efforts of any persons, that the contri­ Too many articles from historians arrive in butions of untrained, nonspecializing ama­ shabby condition, characterized by lack of teurs are generally poor writing and poor apparent purpose, poor organization, trouble­ history and are not acceptable to the journals. some sentence structure, muddy expression This is not difficult to understand, for good and unimaginative choice of words, and care­ writing is the result of training and practice, lessness in spelling, quoting, paraphrasing, and good history is founded upon the use of and annotating. Papers come to us that ob­ special methods, as well as broad knowledge viously have been prepared too hastily, and and experience. These the amateurs do not many authors, it is apparent, fail to proofread have, for if they do they are not amateurs. their typed copy. "Although rank amateurs Writers of other professions easily adapt them­ doubtless send us the least acceptable copy," selves to the techniques of history-writing, one editor complains, "a number of college and are hardly to be classed as amateurs. professors have sent copy which was utterly "With rare exceptions," an editor writes, "the unacceptable." The number of errors in foot­ articles contributed by non-professionals are notes, quotations, and facts and interpretations so poorly written that we either have to return in articles submitted to the editors, I am sure, them or do a tremendous amount of work would astound the profession. As another in re-writing." Another declares that the con­ editor reports on contributions he receives, tributions from professional people are "far "The shocker is the low quality of those of

122 RODABAUGH : HISTORICAL SOCIETY MAGAZINES supposedly 'trained historians' and graduate ated with their preparations. Without the students." enthusiasm engendered by curiosity, desire, and faith, it is impossible to develop into 'C'INALLY, the editors seem to feel also a good historian. •*- that the historians tend to ride again and These deficiencies are glaringly apparent again over old paths; they seem to ignore in too many contributions received by editors the fact that history concerns all of human from graduate students and young persons life. In the journals under review today we who have recently won their degrees. The need far more treatment of the economic, blame for them lies chiefly with their mentors. social, cultural, and institutional factors. In­ Pressed, as the instructors often are, by heavy deed, virtually the whole of the history of teaching schedules, by the guidance of too industry and commerce, of populations and many graduate students in the preparation population movements and the popular adjust­ of dissertations, and by their own researches, ment to community life, of education, news­ they fall prey to a cynical approach that per­ papers, and religion and sects, and of govern­ mits them to lose respect for the graduate ment and governmental departments, offices, student and so to ignore him and his strivings. and agencies on the state and local level is Journal editors know, for example, how often open for investigation. Articles on these and advisors have failed to check the authenticity similar subjects, I think, are more important of facts and the accuracy of quotations and than dressing up the physical make-up in footnotes of student writings, a task that the attracting readers to the quarterlies. editor can not escape. They are aware, too, My appeal, in the name of the editors, if how seldom the literary quality of those I may be so presumptuous, is for historians to writings is subjected to constructive criticism widen their horizons beyond the limits of by the teachers. It occurs to me, as I know it traditional subjects, to give greater care to does to other editors, that good and reliable the preparation of contributions for the his­ writing by graduate students is as necessary torical journals, and to provide more thorough and valid a consideration for the inner coun­ and conscientious training of graduate stu­ cils of history departments as course require­ dents in history who are trying their writing ments and examinations. wings in contributions to the quarterlies and The editors of the journals of historical may be expected to be their future authors. My societies and agencies, to a man, are proud experience as an editor indicates to me that of their magazines, and they derive a con­ present and recent graduate students too often siderable measure of satisfaction from their are devoid of a sense of purpose in history association with a great enterprise which has and in their own preparation for a career made an enormous and splendid contribution in history. They lack personal values or to the knowledge and understanding of our philosophy and the experience or rich national development. They are not content, acquaintance with life that comes from wide however, to rest upon their laurels, and are reading, especially in the humanities. And, constantly seeking ways and means of improv­ last but not least, they lack devotion to ac­ ing their journals. In this effort there is a curacy and truth. Young would-be historians, growing spirit of collaboration among the in a number of cases, in writing papers, editors. This was apparent during my prep­ seminar reports, and theses and dissertations aration of this paper, when I asked a number are only doing mechanical exercises; there of editors for their thoughts on the subject. is little of the spirit of inquiry, of awareness Ninety-four per cent of them answered me of the full meanings of facts and ideas, and with extensive statements. May I express to of conviction of the value of history, associ­ them my thanks for their aid and counsel?

123 This photograph taken by Robert Foss in 1941 was used as the frontispiece of George C. Sellery's last book. Some Ferments at Wisconsin, 1901-1947: Memories and Reflections, published for the University of Wisconsin Library by the University of Wisconsin Press in 1960.

9!ssiStf~

GEORGE CLARKE SELLERY. 1872-1962

iiTYTHAT an oak!" exclaimed one of his of the achievements of the past and unabashed ^' colleagues in both Society and faculty pioneer dealing with changing conditions; at a post-funeral coffee wake. An oak he was: intrepid fighter, master debater and a man straight and strong, unbending in the storm, of inner peace, of repose . . . Genuinely com­ hard, tough, durable, deeply rooted, of great mitted to exacting standards of life, with stature and deep wisdom. But George Clarke a subtle touch of Rabelaisian humor, and Sellery lends himself to many metaphors, of unfailing liberality in judging men's mo­ many of them mutually contradictory. His tives . . ." (Wisconsin Magazine of History, good friend. Max Otto, five years ago called Autumn 1957, p. 46). He was both cautious him "a multiple composite. Name an out­ and conservative, daring and progressive. He standing constituent of his nature and you could be gentle, but cherished the reputation are nudged by its antithesis . . . An impres­ of an irascible curmudgeon. As Otto put sively able, energetic, resourceful university it at the dedication of the Society's Sellery administrator and a thought-stimulating, Room, "The individual we propose to canonize footnote-demanding professor; a shrewd, prefers to keep on the move . . . scarcely the worldly-wise realist and a tender-hearted appropriate demeanor for the canonized." In humanitarian; creative scholar in the domain retrospect as in life, George Clarke Sellery of letters and spontaneous appreciator of is a hard subject to capture in cold type. scientific workmanship; outspoken defender To the metaphor of the oak and to Max

124 Otto's multiple composite of antitheses, must sin for twenty-three years. The impact of this be added further facets. He was correctively tough-minded, vigorous, academic statesman impatient with underachievement, bore what of great sagacity and unmatched gumption E. B. Fred characterized as a "permanent will long be felt by the great university which grudge against stupidity." He was laconic, he served and led with such dedication. a skilled practitioner of the English language, He well served our Society as a member a Lincolnesque master when appropriate of of the Board of Curators for almost thirty the powerful monosyllable: He once agreed years, 1932-1958. Almost every committee emphatically with a junior colleague—"Of of the Board benefited from his participation course you must say what you think," and during those years. Particularly distinguished added after a deliberate pause, "You might service was rendered on the nominating com­ think what you say." As chairman of the mittee, as already indicated, on the Executive nominating committee of the Society's Board Committee, and on the committee negotiating of Curators in the mid-1940's, he put a blunt the transfer of the Villa Louis to Society question to some of his colleagues: "Curators ownership. In 1949 he was given the Society's are expected to attend meetings and to work Award of Merit (over his strenuous objec­ for the best interests of the Society. Under tions), and an honorary life membership. He the circumstances, are you willing to stand chaired the Society-University joint library for re-election?" His penetrating mind and committee on redivision of fields, 1951-1953, quick wit often punctured the false argument prior to the removal of the University collec­ or terminated meandering debate with dev­ tions to the new University library, was bitter­ astating effectiveness. He was a master of ly disappointed when the University dismissed men—"the only man who could make me somewhat abruptly the possibility of making feel as though I were in knee pants" one of the Society truly the American history re­ his former colleagues, now president of a search center of the campus by expanding the large university, said recently; "The only field of the Society's collections to encompass man whom I ever approached with shaking the entire American and Canadian scene. He knees," said a younger colleague with a sub­ played a key role in the selection of new stantial reputation of his own for ferocity. directors in both 1941 and 1946, was himself Yet this was the man, full of antitheses, who acting director, January—June 1946. He en­ would buy an overcoat out of his own money joyed his work with the Society, his meetings for a needy student of Depression days, whose with the Executive Committee and the Board, tenderness for his family was matched— the easy sociability of the annual meetings. though the world knew it not—by charity He contributed generously both time and and affection for many, even for some who wisdom to the problems of the re-emerging violated his high standards of intelligence, Society of the post-war years. Time and fairness, and integrity. again he brought tangential debate back to Born in Kincardine, Ontario, January 21, the subject, put specific proposals into per­ 1872, the son of a tanner, George Sellery was spective, brought key considerations into graduated by the University of Toronto in focus. Time and again his capacity for ap­ 1897 and received the Doctorate of Philoso­ proaching a problem simultaneously from phy from the University of Chicago in 1901. many angles uncovered potential pitfalls, in­ That year he was invited to the University dicated wiser approaches. And the Society of Wisconsin by Frederick Jackson Turner, reciprocated his affection. No man stood beginning sixty-one years of dedicated service higher in its councils. No other name was to his beloved Wisconsin. He became a full considered for the new seminar meeting room professor of history in 1909, and Dean of in the renovated building of 1957. Letters and Sciences in 1919, a post he held He is already a legendary figure in the his­ with great distinction until his retirement at tory of the University, the Society and, indeed, the age of seventy in 1942. A noted scholar, the State. The legend will not likely outstrip an outstanding teacher, he gave distinguished the truth. What an oak, indeed. leadership to the arts and sciences at Wiscon­ C.L.L.

125 teac/ers' choice

CIVIL WAR tended to give us a study of the campaign. As has been said above, he is admirablv Storming Of The Gateway, Chattanooga, 1863. equipped for such a study. The fact that the By FAIRFAX DOWNEY. (David McKay Com­ book does not represent such an effort causes pany, Inc., New York, 1960. Pp. xiv, 303. this reviewer to wonder why. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, maps, ap­ A strong centrifugal force characterizes pendices, index. $5.50.) the book. The result is that it begins, then halts for a digression, then resumes, then halts again for another digression and gets Fairfax Downey is a professional writer. underway again. For example. Chapter 1, His styde is literate and colorful. He is an "The Mountain," describes the terrain sur­ expert on Civil War ordnance and tactics. He rounding Chattanooga, the objective of the is, in short, a learned Civil War military Federal army, and the strategic significance historian. For all of these reasons, a pro­ of that place. This is done with skill and fessional standard may appropriately be ap­ dramatic appeal. Chapters 2 and 3 appro­ plied to any book which he writes. Despite priately present the characters of the story, the recommendation of the Company of Mili­ the leaders and the volunteers in the ranks. tary Collectors & Historians which it carries, These are followed by two chapters about and despite the author's knowledge and grace­ ordnance, also well done and probably rele­ ful literary skill, this book does not meet vant to the reason for the book. But Chapter such a standard. 6 does not proceed with the story of the The book is an examination of the Chatta­ campaign. Instead, it restates the terrain sur­ nooga campaign, beginning with Rosecrans' rounding Chattanooga, restates the strategic brilliant advance and covering the Federal significance of the city, and proceeds with defeat at Chickamauga, the siege of Chatta­ a potpourri of information, including facts nooga, and the ultimate Federal victories at about Civil War medicine and music. At last Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain. As comes Chapter 7 and a return to the campaign. is well known, this was a major and decisive It follows Rosecrans into the Confederate trap campaign and one entitled to careful treat­ created by the passes, coves and valleys ment in depth. This book, however, repre­ around Chattanooga. But just as the reader sents simply a superficial story of the cam­ would go on to the springing of the trap and paign. It skips from high point to high point Rosecrans' success in extricating his army, and is based in major respects on published the book turns to a discussion of railroad secondary sources. Some of these sources and supply. The campaign is resumed in are worthwhile, but others, like Steele's Amer­ Chapter 9 and the Battle of Chickamauga is ican Campaigns and several of the regimental recounted. Marked by similar digressions, histories and personal recollections, are not the book moves on at last and concludes with solid authority for the facts for which they the storming of Missionary Ridge. As an are cited. It is true that the book contains inevitable result of these fits and starts, there telling vignettes of the military leaders and is a good deal of repetition. Thus, on page certain of the climactic events, but it never 82 it is stated that "at last General Rosecrans settles down to provide a detailed account or became aware of the deadly peril into which analysis of the campaign or any particular he had flung his divided columns," and on part of the campaign. This is curious because page 94 we must be told again of "Rose­ the author's foreword indicates that he in­ crans, aware of his peril at last, etc." Similar-

126 READERS CHOICE ly, when telling of Spencer repeating rifles, a wider field than The War for the Union it is written on page 39 that "General J. T. (Catton thoroughly discusses developments in Wilder had signed a note for the money to the South, which Nevins completely neglects). buy them for his Lightning Brigade, the men The Coming Fury contains numerous colorful promising to reimburse him on pay day. . . ." incidents and quotes, along with some delight­ On page 72, this event is again referred to: ful pen portraits of the important (and not so "Wilder spent his own money, later reim­ important) characters. Unlike Nevins' work. bursed, to buy invaluable Spencer repeaters Cation's is exciting—tension and drama for his command. . . ." These are but ex­ abound. Much of the excitement, however, is amples of the phenomenon of repetition. gained at the expense of significance. The Although a reviewer may only speculate crucial, although perhaps dull, story of as to the reason for a writer's organization Georgia's decision to secede is dismissed with of his book, it appears that Downey was so one clause of five words, while the adventures much concerned with so many phases of the of the small Fort Sumter garrison receive Civil War and had so many things which he close to seventy-five pages of the text. wanted to say about them that he did not do Catton appears to be afraid of original what he apparently set out to do — write ideas. After advancing the enticing suggestion a study of the Chattanooga campaign. Thus, that the war "came at least in part out of a although 198 pages of text are included in general, unreasoned resentment against immi­ the book, it is a survey account. As such, gration and the immigrant," he discusses the it will be of value to the beginning Civil War idea in general terms for two paragraphs and reader, although the organization of the book then, almost hastily, as if retreating to a needlessly complicates the already compli­ familiar haven (as indeed it is) says that cated facts of the campaign. The serious what he really meant by immigrant was the student, desiring an expert study of the cam­ Negro, whose presence caused the war. This paign, will have to wait. was the only hint of a new contribution to basic interpretation which this reviewer found. ALAN T. NOLAN For the rest, Catton mixes together all the Indianapolis, Indiana standard interpretations. This was a "blunder­ ing generation;" Southerners fought to de­ The Coming Fury: Vol. I, The Centennial His­ fend slavery, which basically was a means of tory of the Civil War. By BRUCE CATTON. race control; Lincoln relied on a Unionist (Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, sentiment in the South that simply was not New York. 1961. Pp. 565. $7.50.) there; both Lincoln and Davis bear some of the responsibility for the firing on Fort Sum­ ter; neither side was prepared for war; both Not content with monographs, pictorial his­ learned great lessons from First Bull Run. tories, reprints, selected letters, diaries, musi­ Unlike The War for the Union, which con­ cal records, and cookbooks, American pub­ tains fresh material on the industrial revolu­ lishers are now attempting to appease the evidently insatiable craving of Civil War tion. The Coming Fury has nothing in it that scholars and buffs with two multi-volume his­ is really new. tories of the conflict. The first of these, Unquestionably, as indicated by sales, Allan Nevins' The War for the Union, offers Cation's writing is the most palatable in Civil lucid writing, thorough scholarship, and some War literature today, and The Coming Fury sprightly, if occasionally highly prejudiced, is in the old, familiar Catton style. It is really new interpretations. The second, Bruce Cat- the style, rather than the contents, of a Catton ton's The Centennial History of the Civil book that is important. As this is the sixth War, of which The Coming Fury is volume book on the Civil War by Catton that this one, serves up old and by now tasteless inter­ reviewer has read, he feels justified in saying pretations along with some amazingly detailed that Mr. Catton overwrites. He can not resist research (done by E. B. Long for Mr. Catton), the temptation to overdramatize nearly every all mixed together in Cation's own inimitable situation and incident he describes, trying, writing style. evidently, to distill from it the essence of war. Cation's history will inevitably be compared This is so tedious that by the time the reader with Nevins'; in general, Nevins will prove comes to the really fine prose (of which more pleasing to the scholar, Catton to the Catton is often capable) he is so jaded it buff, even though The Coming Fury covers escapes him.

127 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1961-1962

Cation's penchant for excessive verbiage one has the feeling that he has traveled this and vagueness ("somehow" and "seemingly" (rail) road before. This is not altogether are his favorite words) is proverbial; de­ true. The uniqueness of Johnston's study lies scribing the peace conference of 1861, he in its concentration upon the railroads in says: "Actually, the delegates were men call­ Virginia; and, by drawing extensively on the ing across a wide gulf through an unquiet annual reports to the stockholders published dusk. Misunderstanding was communicating by the various railroads, the official records, with misunderstanding, and inadequate an­ regimental histories, newspapers and diaries, swers were being returned to meaningless he adds to our understanding of the military, questions." All of which is quite pleasing economic, and governmental aspects of rail­ but fails to tell us much of significance about roading. The author tells his story in a the conference. Or consider his description straightforward, dispassionate style, organiz­ of America in 1860: "Here and there, like ing his material around the major campaigns flickers of angry light before a thunderstorm, fought in Virginia. there had been bursts of violence, and al­ though political debate continued, the near­ The invaluable service rendered both sides ness of violence . . . made the debaters shout by the iron horse provides the narrative's more loudly and appeal more directly to main theme. Johnston emphasizes the im­ emotions that made reasonable debate im­ portance to the North of captured Virginia possible. Men put special meaning on words railroads, and singles out the use of the Old and phrases, so that what sounded good to Dominion as a kind of laboratory for ex­ one sounded evil to another, and certain perimenting with new techniques and methods slogans took on their own significance and which set the pattern for future railroad war­ became portentous, streaming in the heated fare. Jackson's destruction of the B & 0 at air like banners against the sunset; and even Harper's Ferry and Martinsburg early in the the voices that called for moderation became war was a pioneering effort in military immoderate." aggression against the railroad. Joe Johnston first demonstrated the effectiveness of using The dust jacket claims that The Coming a railroad to win battles by transporting his Fury "is conceived as classic tragedy." In armies to the field of combat at Manassas. many ways this is an excellent book, but it Other innovations emanating from Virginian most certainly is not classic tragedy. It simply soil include the construction of the world's lacks too many of the elements, especially first military railroad (running from Manas­ that of the terrible dilemma explained in sas Junction to Centreville, Virginia), and classically simple language. the first railroad gun, employed by Lee on the Richmond and York River Railroad against the forces of McClellan. And it was STEPHEN E. AMBROSE in Virginia that Herman Haupt, the chief Louisiana State University in New Orleans of construction and transportation on the U.S. military railroads in that state and one Virginia Railroads in the Civil War. By of the few real heroes in the wartime saga ANGUS JAMES JOHNSTON, II. (University of of the rails, devoted much of his genius to North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1961. Pp. perfecting speedy means of restoring bridges ix, 336. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, and track as well as refining techniques for tables, maps, index. $6.00.) destroying railroads. The validity of Confederate Brigadier Gen­ The late Douglas Southall Freeman once eral J. H. Trapier's maxim that "railroads remarked to Angus James Johnston that rail­ are at one and the same time the legs and roads in Virginia were the "least explored aspect of the war." Presumably, Freeman was stomach of an army" is reinforced in John­ speaking prior to the 1950's, for in the last ston's pages. In the opening months, when decade several worthwhile monographs Virginia's railroads were in reasonably good have appeared: Robert C. Black's authorita­ condition, they performed their duties ade­ tive and well-written treatment of railroads quately and the armies prospered. As the in the Confederacy, a companion volume for war wearied on, however, the multiple afflic­ the North by Thomas Weber, and George tions which plagued the Confederacy also Edgar Turner's general exploration of the befell the railroads and gradually sounded strategic role of railroads in the Civil War. the death knell for man and machine: worn In turning to the present volume, therefore, machinery which could neither be repaired nor

128 READERS CHOICE replaced, shortage of labor, both white and While most Lincoln biographers have Negro, inflation, particularism, attrition, con­ sympathized with his marital difficulties, Mr. traction, corruption, and disloyalty. As John­ Luthin, following Ruth Painter Randall and ston points out, with the short-sighted policy others, finds Mary Todd Lincoln a misunder­ of the Confederate government in pre-empting stood woman. Some of the stories about her he all foundries and iron manufactories for rejects as unfounded; others he explains with military purposes and in failing to pass an the assertion, probably true, that she was un­ adequate railroad control bill until it was balanced. There is a contradiction between too late, it is a wonder that they endured. both sides of the argument; and though any­ Yet stand they did, for it took Grant the body living in our age of psychiatry can be better part of a year finally to destroy Lee's sympathetic with mental disturbance, it was railroads. One week following the loss of no less a burden to Lincoln for all that. his last railroad supply line, Lee surrendered Luthin is also critical of Lincoln's perform­ the Army of Northern Virginia. ance as Commander in Chief. He believes George Brinton McClellan to have been the WILLIAM CHEEK best Union commander and he strongly ob­ Hollins College jects to Lincoln's playing politics with his army. The true merit of McClellan is still one of the subjects that stirs controversy at Civil The Real Abraham Lincoln. A Complete War Round tables. Lee thought him his most One-Volume History of His Life and Times. formidable antagonist, and Luthin believes By REINHARD H. LUTHIN (Prentice-Hall, Inc., that Lee should know. The fact remains that Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1960. Pp. xvii, during McClellan's command of the army his 778. $10.00.) forces usually outnumbered Lee's by a wide margin; yet he only engaged in two major In the voluminous literature on Abraham battles, both forced on him by Lee. It is Lincoln, Reinhard H. Luthin has written a regrettably true that wars are won by killing book which stands midway between the highly men; McClellan was unable to face this. detailed, multi-volumed works of Albert J. Little wonder that Lee rated McClellan above Beveridge and James G. Randall and the Grant, for McClellan did not, and his strategy briefer treatments of Lord Charnwood and would not, win the war for the North. Benjamin P. Thomas. Far from being, as The charge that Lincoln used politics as the title suggests, a personal study of Lincoln, a basis for running his army is partly true, Mr. Luthin's book, in an earlier age, would and from a strictly military sense men died have been entitled "The Life and Times of because of the unnecessary incompetence of Abraham Lincoln." Filled with detail and some of Lincoln's political generals. But mili­ based upon recent scholarship, the single tary affairs could not be strictly divorced volume encompasses the life of Lincoln and from politics in 1860. In that day people the history of the Civil War. If a reader has were unwilling to accept many military de­ the natural impulse to read up on both sub­ mands made on their liberty that we find jects at the same time he will find the book normal today. The draft was rarely used, and interesting and valuable. even then encountered much resistance. The In this duality lies the book's strength, but army of the North, as the army of the South, also its weakness. Although the book may be was in the main a voluntary army, recruited a convenience to the neophyte Civil War buff, on the basis of politics, nationality, or state. history and biography are not the same. In Lincoln was at times solicitous of Germans, attempting to combine them Luthin tends to or Democrats, or Radical Republicans and lose sight of the real Abraham Lincoln. And appointed some unspectacular generals from the tendency to lose focus is increased by the those groups to high commands. If he had repetitious treatment sometimes given the failed to humor them, enlistments would fall material. off, support for the war would diminish, and The title of the book, however, does describe in the long run the war effort would suffer. one of its qualities. Luthin, trying to divest During war it is sometimes necessary to sacri­ his subject of the sanctity he has usually fice men in order to achieve political aims; inspired, often takes a more critical view of frequently it was Lincoln's hard choice to Lincoln than seems necessary. make.

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Nevertheless if controversies did not enliven occasionally inserting an ellipsis in the middle the study of the war it would not continue to of a sentence, indicating the omission of arouse interest. Mr. Luthin's book contains several words from the original, while at the ample facts for those interested in the war to same time omitting paragraphs and even whole agree or disagree with, in the martial spirit pages without indication. which fittingly characterizes those interested In spite of this offhand treatment of the in America's great conflict. original editions, both Billings and McCarthy have stood the test of time. Ironically, when JOHN BRUCE ROBERTSON the ex-Confederate artilleryman published his Kent State University book in 1882, he wrote: "The historian who essays to write the grand movements will hardly stop to tell how the hungry private fried his bacon, baked his biscuit, and smoked Soldier Life in the Union and Confederate his pipe; how he was changed from time to Armies. Edited, with an introduction and time by the necessities of the service . . . into notes, by PHILIP VAN DOREN STERN. (Indiana a perfect, all-enduring, never-tiring, and in­ University Press, Bloomington, 1961. Pp. ix, vincible soldier." McCarthy was decidedly 400. Illustrations, index. $6.95.) mistaken; today Civil War buff and scholar alike are interested in the life of the common The publication by the Indiana University soldiers of North and South. The volume at Press of Soldier Life in the Union and Con­ hand will provide the reader with a wealth of federate Armies, as part of its Civil War "detailed minutiae" about camp and field Centennial Series, raises the question of the life on both sides of the Rappahannock. value of reissuing out-of-print classics about It is all here: from recruitment to foraging, the central event in American history. Re­ from clothing to bridge-building, from weap­ grettably, this volume seems to argue against ons to corps badges. Between them, Billings the practice, and its value is lessened by the and McCarthy treated virtually every facet publisher's apparent desire to make it seem of army life. Although Hardtack and Coffee like a new book and by Philip Van Doren is by far the better of the two, both memoirs Stern's indifferent editing. possess a good measure of literary charm and Although the front cover does not so state. an abundance of earthy humor which reflected Soldier Life is a condensation of John D. the volunteer's bemused tolerance of military Billings' Hardtack and Coffee (Boston, 1888) service. In spite of the "skirmishes" with and Carlton McCarthy's Detailed Minutiae lice, the endless dinners of flinty hardtack, of Soldier Life in the Army of Northern Vir­ and the hardships of disease and combat, the ginia (Richmond, 1882). Both of these books two cannoneers weathered four years of war probably qualify as Civil War "classics," and with commendable equanimity. Indeed, one the Billings volume in particular merited re­ is struck not only by the similarities between printing. But it behooved publisher and Billings and McCarthy, but between the editor either to issue them as they were soldiers of 1861 and those of the twentieth originally printed, or to edit them fully and century. Billings' remark that "the bayonet carefully, adding pertinent data where neces­ shank was the candlestick of the rank and sary and indicating where parts of the original file" is reminiscent of the Bill Mauldin dog­ were omitted. Instead, they compromised. face who discovered one time that his "can Stern's three-page introduction is disap­ opener" exactly fitted the end of his rifle. pointing; he rightly praises both books as sources for the lives of Billy Yank and Johnny It is unfortunate that the two memoirs Reb, but fails to mention, for example, that could not have been reprinted in their entirety. authors Billings and McCarthy served with However, supplemented as it is by the original sketches of Charles W. Reed and William L. the Tenth Massachusetts Battery and Second Sheppard, and by an adequate index. Soldier Company Richmond Howitzers, respectively— Life in the Union and Confederate Armies a fact which properly belongs in the intro­ represents a welcome addition to the litera­ duction. The editor, moreover, has supplied ture of the centennial. but eight footnotes to the text, including one to the word "mule." With footnotes at such a premium, it seems strange to devote one to the number of mules employed by the Union PAUL H. HASS armies. Stranger yet is Stern's practice of University of Wisconsin

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GENERAL HISTORY Valley, which he describes interestingly. He made the acquaintance of Mountain Bill Rhodes, typical of the best type of all-round South Pass, 1868: James Chisholm's Journal frontiersman, and accompanied him on some of the Wyoming Gold Rush. Edited by LOLA of his travels. The newspaperman went back M. HOMSHER. (University of Nebraska Press, to Chicago in December. Apparently no re­ Lincoln, 1960. Pp. vi, 244. Illustrations, notes, ports based upon his journal were ever pub- bibliography, maps. $4.50.) ished, but later he achieved a solid reputa­ tion as a drama critic. This journal is useful because so little in­ News of new gold discoveries in the South formation survives about Wyoming's gold Pass area of Wyoming seemed, in the late rush. It is well supplemented by the thorough fall of 1867, to give promise of a rush there work of the editor, who furnished everything in the spring. The possibility that the area but an index. The book's chief value is to might develop into a major mining center like Wyoming history, as it contributes nothing California or Colorado seemed strong enough new to general history of the mining frontier to the Chicago Tribune that it determined not or of the American West. The journal is well to depend on inadequate telegraph dispatches; written, entertaining, and is typical of the it would send a correspondent there. It hired adventures many an Easterner must have en­ for the task James Chisholm, reporter, drama countered when he ventured West to the min­ critic, and editorial writer for the Chicago ing frontier. Times. By mid-March he reached Cheyenne and sent back two dispatches detailing how the local vigilantes hanged two criminals in typi­ WILLIAM S. GREEVER cal Western style. He remained in town wait­ University of Idaho ing for the snow to melt, meanwhile collect­ ing what information he could about the mines. He did not set out for the mines as soon as travel became possible, but for rea­ American Railroads. By JOHN F. STOVER. sons unknown wandered around for five (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1961. months in the area where the Union Pacific Pp. 228. Index, illustrations. $5.00.) Railroad was being built. Finally on September 8, 1868, Chisholm Americans have been fascinated by rail­ set off for South Pass, beginning the journal roads for four generations. They have talked which is the substance of this publication. On about railroads, built them, used them, hated the trip by horse and wagon from Green Riv­ them, and written over twelve hundred books er to South Pass City he twice encountered about them. Today many of these books are storms of terrific severity and he graphically of interest only to the historian or collector. described them. He found South Pass City, Others deal with special topics or technical Hamilton City, and Atlantic City to be no matters of interest only to the expert. To longer rush towns, but localities which had have any value to the general reader a new settled down to an unaccelerated life of rou­ book on railroads needs to have some pur­ tine mineral production. The inhabitants pose not already filled by an existing work. either owned claims of some promise or else American Railroads has such a purpose. It had regular j obs; the drifters who had hoped is the first general history of railroads in a to get rich quick had already left by the time generation and has much up-to-date material Chisholm arrived. In his journal he describes which is published in a unified whole for the the recreation of the miners, their diet, and first time. This new material relates to the something of the mining methods employed. present-day railroad problem which can be He sketches some of the personalities, such as understood only in the light of railroad his­ the war-bankrupted Southerner who came tory. The real value of the book lies in the West to make a new fortune, the energetic ex- fact that it is the only work which presents a soldier who ran the area's leading mine, and short history of how railroads arrived where the talkative drunk who wanted to fight some­ they are today. body as soon as he consumed a considerable quantity of liquor. In presenting his subject matter the author has divided railroad history into three main Chisholm took several trips into the sur­ periods and has written several chapters deal­ rounding country, especially the Wind River ing with different aspects of each period. This

131 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1961-1962 system of organization has led to some repe­ is a book that both management and labor tition and overlapping of subject matter be­ will question, but which the general public tween chapters, but the author has been able will welcome. to hold this to a minimum. In order to cover The author gives facts and figures, but he the essential background of the twentieth- does not submerge the reader in them. Writ­ century railroad problem he has stuck to pre­ ten with clarity at all times, the book has senting the historical high lights of the devel­ elements of dry humor also, such as the re­ opment of American railroads. He has not mark that "it was not easy for one soldier to included any of the rich lore and legends surround three Indians." With facts, clarity, that make up a part of our railroad heritage, and humor the author delivers a very import­ nor has he included any detailed technical ant message—a message that will prove a accounts of the development of railroad equip­ shock for those people whose view of the ment. Both of these subjects are treated else­ railroads was formed many years ago. The where and were not germane to this book. message is this: The railroad industry is sick. What this book has intended, and accom­ To understand the causes of the present sick­ plished, is to be a basic work on railroad ness, it is necessary to know something of history for the person who has little or no the history of American railroads. knowledge of the subject. The book not only supplies a factual background for the read­ JAMES S. WATSON er, but also contains a long, suggested read­ State Historical Society of Wisconsin ing list which supplies a complete basic rail­ road bibliography with some information as to the nature and subject of each of the titles. The one real defect of the book from the historian's point of view is the lack of any The Daguerreotype in America. By BEAU­ footnotes, which makes it impossible to check MONT NEWHALL (Duell, Sloan & Pearce, New the author's sources on disputed points. The York, 1961. Pp. 176. $12.50.) most serious of these relates to the black­ listing of the men involved in the Pullman strike. The method which the author states Daguerreotypes are photographs on silvered was used has been questioned elsewhere, and copper plates rather than glass, film, or paper, the entire matter has never been settled, a and they are the earliest form of photograph, point which Stover should have called to not now produced, except for occasional ex­ the reader's attention. One other point on periments or demonstrations. But it so hap­ which he leaves the reader in the dark is pens that for purity of photographic quality, the subject of the operating ratio of a railroad, jewel-like brilliance and grainless definition, which the author cites several times but nev­ the products of this first and somewhat clumsy er explains. On the whole, however, the technique are, in the fine examples, among book is accurate, factual, and unbiased. the most beautiful. The good examples are In the past only two types of railroad his­ not likely to be in common circulation among tory have been written. One type has been family memorabilia, but are museum pieces, the history of railroads from the railroad­ in the category of valuable antiques. Except­ man's point of view, which often concerned ing as one daguerreotype was copied from itself with some one aspect of the subject, or, another, each plate was unique, as there was when covering general railroad history, was no provision for making multiple prints, as very gentle with the railroad companies. The in modern technique. other type of railroad history tended to be Mr. Newhall, as Director of George East­ written by men who thought of railroads as man House in Rochester, N.Y., the country's big, bad monopolies. Both of these schools outstanding museum of photography, has of railroad history were biased and made it charge of one of the finest collections, and difficult, for the person who did not have the subject has for many years been a per­ time for historical research, to arrive at a sonal specialty. His book has been long and true understanding of railroad history. Amer­ lovingly in preparation, and the result is ican Railroads has avoided the one-sided pre­ admirable—a specialist's book on a specialized sentation of past works in the field. It has subject, but so presented that many who never tried to present all sides to a given question before read a line of photographic history will relating to the railroad industry. The result be charmed. It is a dependable, thoroughly of this effort to cover the subject thoroughly documented and colorfully phrased exposition,

132 READERS CHOICE backed by meticulous research, accompanied The Lutheran Church among Norwegian- by eighty-three excellent large reproductions, Americans: A History of the Evangelical a biographical list of daguerreotype makers Lutheran Church. Volume I, 1825-1890. By (about many of whom very little is known), E. CLIFFORD NELSON and EUGENE L. FEVOLD; notes, and a selected bibliography. Volume II, 1890-1959. By E. CLIFFORD NEL­ While it is true that the vast majority of SON. (Augsburg Publishing House, Minneapo­ daguerreotypes were stiff, frontal portraits, lis, 1960. Pp. xix, 357; xix, 379. IUustrations, such as one sees of great-grandparents, and of chronologies, appendices, notes, index. $12.50 slight interest otherwise, the principal surprise the set.) which this book holds for the uninitiated is the diversity of daguerreotypes other than On January 1, 1961, the Evangelical Luth­ routine portraits. A daguerreotypist went with eran Church, formerly the Norwegian Luth­ Perry to Japan in 1852; another went up the eran Church of America, formally merged Amazon River in 1843; a solar eclipse, the with synods of Danish and German origin to moon, and lightning were photographed on the form the American Lutheran Church, thus silvered plates; in 1840, W. H. Goode of Yale providing an excellent occasion for a review University made exposures through a micro­ of Norwegian Lutheranism in the United scope showing specimens enlarged 600 times. States after 1825. Professors E. Clifford Nel­ In fact most of the earliest experiments, in­ son and Eugene L. Fevold have produced the kind of history called for in this situation, and cluding Daguerre's own work, were not por­ at the same time have made a contribution traiture: a living subject had to sit still, at to scholarship that will be appreciated by first, for an unreasonable length of time, students of American religious, social, and whereas streets or buildings held their poses intellectual life. Their two-volume study is indefinitely. The many early views of cities written in a clear and readable style and it and harbors, especially of San Francisco, are meets the high standards of historical scholar­ remarkable, as are the pictures of gold-mining ship. operations. One of the earliest applications was news-photography, that is, the production An undertaking of this kind, if it is to of a plate to be copied by an engraver to make be of lasting value, requires that the authors the published reproduction. utilize vast quantities of foreign-language sources made overwhelming by the controver­ Mr. Newhall includes, too, a chapter of sies that characterized Norwegian-American technical information, not only on the daguer­ Lutheranism after 1860. It demands, too, an reotype process itself, but on the folding cases understanding of European backgrounds, es­ in which they were ordinarily furnished, on pecially of the forces of nineteenth-century restoration and modern copying, points likely nationalism and social change in the home­ to be of interest to collectors. And not the land, and also, of course, of American develop­ least interesting part of the text is the treat­ ments in many areas of life. It calls for a sym­ ment of the growth of the business. With a pathetic approach to church history as such, little instruction and a very small investment, coupled with rare scholarly detachment and anyone could set up as a daguerreotypist familiarity with the best products of secular (though not necessarily a good one), and historical research. The two authors have many took advantage of this opportunity, jointly measured up to their impossible task establishing studios in every town in the in the first volume. The relatively limited country. The possibilities of photography quantity of church sources before 1860 was were apparent instantly and with the first actually an advantage in that it forced them announcement of the discovery, in 1839, many to relate their history intimately with emigra­ wrote editorial prophesies of what has since tion and the forces that produced it, and also then actually come to pass in widespread to think of church life as something tied to influence and application. Rarely if ever has the aspirations, trials, achievements, and frus­ one of the great inventions been so rapidly trations of people deeply moved by the stir­ spread over the world, within a year or two, rings of their day. They were aided greatly and caught the imagination of so many im­ by the publications of the Norwegian-Ameri­ mediate practitioners. can Historical Association and by individual authors on both sides of the Atlantic. In the second volume, which was much PAUL VANDERBILT the more difficult one to write. Professor Nel­ State Historical Society of Wisconsin son faced two serious problems. One is the

133 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1961-1962 absence of really adequate studies in immigra­ ground, on the other, may and likely will dis­ tion for the period after about 1880, especially agree with a number of his conclusions, but concerning such vital subjects as adaptation their criticisms will be muted by his mastery to American life and the conservation of of the primary church sources and by his European values and patterns of life and middle-of-the-road inclinations. On several thought in the New World. The other is the points, especially the Augsburg Seminary con­ mass of doctrinal material that the author troversy, he has made significant contribu­ was required to read and to master and that tions, and he has opened wide a field relatively almost unavoidably forced his hand when neglected or approached unsympathetically by writing. As a consequence. Professor Nelson students of immigration. Praise is also due has tended to produce largely doctrinal or the authors for research in areas of church theological interpretations of movements and activity that are easily overlooked by less con­ feelings that were also rooted in nationalistic scientious students. and social drives. Emigration, among other things, was a search for freedom in all its phases, and this search was perhaps deepest KENNETH 0. BJORK St. Olaf College in the religious field. It is possible to read into much nineteenth-century immigrant theological controversy aspirations and urg- ings that in the homeland were expressed in The Fur Trade. By PAUL CHRISLER PHILLIPS. class conflict, domestic politics, and conten­ With concluding chapters by J. W. Smurr. tion with Sweden, and were, in fact, prime (University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, movers in emigration. The Norwegian in 1961. 2 vols. Pp. xxvi, 686; viii, 696. $16.50.) America expressed his feelings within the in­ stitutions that bound him most closely to his There is an undoubted pleasure in sitting countrymen, notably the church and the for­ down to read and review two such handsome­ eign-language press. He also fought his bat­ ly bound, printed, and boxed volumes as these tles with the weapons he found conveniently from the University of Oklahoma Press. Their at hand; often these were theological. In the end, the immigrants shaped a church that, very appearance inspires confidence, and the however imperfectly, reflected the impact of over fourteen hundred pages, ample notes, democratic forces in Norway and America and large bibliography only serve to increase and still retained a conservative doctrinal the anticipation with which one turns to the base. The Norwegian Lutheran church in the first page of the first volume. This being the New World came to differ sharply from the case, it is sad to relate that the two volumes state church of the homeland in most of its are a disappointment. external aspects and in many of its internal Professor Phillips, who devoted a lifetime features. It therefore seems a bit strange to to this monumental history of the fur trade, see the immigrants as a group pushed off a died in 1956 and left it almost complete. The stage reserved very largely for individual task of finishing it was taken up by Professor theologians and their scholastic debates. More Smurr, and he ably wrote three concluding interpretations of the forces operating on the chapters (amounting to over one hundred immigrant community would have put life pages), compiled a bibliography from Pro­ into the dry bones of theology and greatly fessor Phillips's notes, and helped to see the enhanced the value of this otherwise signifi­ manuscript through the press. This last was cant volume. obviously no small task, but it has resulted in two well-produced volumes. Nevertheless, Nelson and Fevold have writ­ There is no denying Professor Phillips's ten a competent and sympathetic review of the industry, and one can have nothing but ad­ events and agreements that ultimately pro­ miration for the perseverance with which he duced the Evangelical Lutheran Church and carried out his huge task. He begins his first later united it with two other groups in the volume with a brief discussion of the interest American Lutheran Church. Dr. Nelson has in and use of furs in the later Middle Ages, given a singular example of what he calls and plunges into a consideration of the begin­ "controlled involvement" in the second vol­ nings of the North American fur trade in the ume; no one could fairly accuse him of nar­ sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. For the row synodical bias. Persons of Haugean or most part Professor Phillips's essential inter­ low-church origin, on the one hand, and some est in these volumes was not the internal work­ of Norwegian Synod or high church back­ ings of the fur trade (though there is con-

134 READERS CHOICE

siderable information on this in his two more rigorous pruning. Undoubtedly, if Pro­ volumes) but in the relationship of fur trade fessor Phillips had lived to complete and re­ and empire; in the great clash of interests on vise his work these difficulties would have the North American continent. He thus wends been reduced. A vigorous rewriting would his way through the French, English, Dutch, have considerably improved this study. Swedish, and Spanish endeavors in this area. Though these volumes have certain de­ He devotes less attention to Russian activities. ficiencies there is not the slightest doubt that The first volume carries the story through they deserve the careful attention of all inter­ the American Revolution, and the second ested in the history of the fur trade, and of covers from the Revolution to the decline of the clash of empires on the North American the fur trade in the 1840's. In the final three continent. The volumes reflect the lifetime chapters of volume two Professor Smurr pays of devotion by Professor Phillips, and also attention to subjects neglected in the main bring considerable credit to Professor Smurr body of the work, and also attempts to round who has carried the work of Professor Phillips off the whole study with one chapter on the to completion. It is indeed sad that Professor final years of the fur trade and one conclud­ Phillips could not have lived to see his life's ing and summarizing the whole work. He work published in so handsome a fashion. effectively knits these chapters into Professor Phillips's argument, and in his chapter en­ REGINALD HORSMAN titled "New Vistas in the Far Southwest" goes back into the eighteenth century to deal with University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee a theme previously neglected in the work. There seems little doubt that this work would have been far more impressive and far more of a contribution if published twenty The United Colonies of New England, 1643- years ago. In spite of Professor Phillips's 90. By HARRY M. WARD. (Vantage Press, study of the original sources, and his exten­ New York, 1961. Pp. 434. Illustrations, notes, sive use of printed sources, it is quite obvious bibliography, intercover maps, appendices, that a work of this type depends upon a care­ index. $4.50.) ful use of secondary accounts for much of its effectiveness. A difficulty with this is that In 1643 the four Puritan Colonies of New except in the three chapters written by Pro­ England- •Massachusetts, Connecticut, Ply­ fessor Smurr there are few signs of the use mouth, and New Haven—agreed on Articles of any of the secondary material published of Confederation. The purpose of their union in the last twenty-five years. This gives rather was "for offence and defence, mutuall advice an old-fashioned air to the whole work; on and succour upon all just occations both for Pontiac the influence seems to be Parkman preserving and propagateing the truth and rather than Peckham, on the post-1783 period liberties of the Gospell and for their owne it seems to be Andrew C. McLaughlin rather mutuall safety and wellfare" (p. 384-385). than A. L. Burt, and in other areas one misses Commissioners, two from each colony, met the enlightenment presented by a Grace Lee annually to discuss matters in common. The Nute or a Donald G. Creighton. Though the United Colonies had considerable success in whole work is an impressive compilation, it settling boundary disputes, negotiating with seems likely that specialists on many of the their French and Dutch neighbors, and super­ topics covered by Professor Phillips will not vising Indian affairs. In the 1650's, however, be happy with the presentation and interpreta­ a series of problems weakened the Confedera­ tion of their particular speciality. tion and necessitated writing new Articles Another problem is that in a work of such in 1672. The revived union performed a val­ scope so much depends upon organization, uable service in co-ordinating military opera­ compression, and the style of presentation. tions during the first year of King Philip's The organization of the many threads treated War (1675). The revocation of Massachusetts' by Professor Phillips presents considerable charter in 1684 and the imposition of royal difficulties, and it cannot really be said that government brought an end to the associa­ these difficulties are solved. At times one tion in spite of an abortive attempt to revive has the impression of reading a series of it in 1689. Scholars for some time have re­ papers on different aspects of the history of garded the Confederation as a significant first the fur trade. There is a good deal of repeti­ attempt at colonial union, but Mr. Ward is tion, and the work would have benefited from the first student of the period to publish a

135 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1961-1962 work devoted to the "administrative and con­ States. With no proof other than the paint­ stitutional history" of the United Colonies. ing he asserts that if the flag shown was the His study, which will particularly interest flag of the United Colonies "then on the specialists in Colonial America, corrects some American continent among the early English misconceptions regarding the Confederation colonies there was an experience in Union as well as introducing new information. Mr. and an assertion of sovereignty that was nev­ Ward's primary contribution is to demonstrate er erased from the colonial mind" (p. 84). that the weakening of the first Confederation Mr. Ward closes this chapter with a para­ was not because of the refusal of Massachu­ phrase of The Star Spangled Banner, presum­ setts to join the other colonies in an attack on ably to clinch the argument. New Netherland in the mid-1650's, but was a These flights of fancy seriously detract result of the absorption of New Haven by from the merit of the work which, in spite Connecticut and increased royal displeasure of some errors in sentence structure and in­ at the activities of the Puritan colonies. The consistencies in footnote format, is based on author has also uncovered documents which diligent research. Mr. Ward has combed all fill in gaps in our knowledge of the Com­ the more important manuscript and printed missioners' meetings, and the attempt at a sources and his bibliography and appendices new union in 1689. He further shows the are valuable. Secondary works are not in­ importance of the missionary activities of cluded in the bibliography but listed in the the Commissioners among the Indians in pro­ footnotes. The author has made good use of viding the "Cement of the Union" which held local histories, a source often neglected. Had together the structure in the 1660's (p. 230 Mr. Ward done more editing before rushing //.). With some minor exceptions, usually his manuscript to the press, an essentially footnoted, Mr. Ward's account of events is sound work would have been made more con­ in accord with recent studies. cise and considerably less irritating to the As long as the author restricts himself to reader. a factual narrative, he provides an informa­ tive account. Unfortunately his tendency to THEODORE B. LEWIS, JR. overstate the importance of the Confederation University of Wisconsin as a precedent for later developments is a very serious fault. Either directly or by in­ ference he calls the reader's attention to similarities between the New England Union Roosevelt's Farmer: Claude R. Wickard in the and the present federal government that in no New Deal. By DEAN ALBERTSON. (Columbia way demonstrate a connection between the University Press, New York, 1961. Pp. ix, two. Among the many examples of this fal­ 400. Notes, index. $6.00.) lacious reasoning which pervade the work are Mr. Ward's contention that a provision for Scholarly monographs about Secretaries of interim appointment of Commissioners in Agriculture are few. In this biography Dean some manner foreshadows the appointment Albertson deviates from traditional historical of U. S. Senators by state Governors (p. 63). techniques. Too much of this volume depends He states that the election of colonial officials on Wickard's memory, too little on verifiable was "much on the same principle today that sources. Albertson, a former Assistant Di­ the election of the President devolves upon all rector of the Columbia University Oral His­ the people" (p. 64). Loose terminology is tory Project, unfortunately assumes "that few also a defect. The trial of an Indian for an people have any interest whatsoever in foot­ infraction of a treaty can not be said to have notes and bibliographies." No bibliography is "resembled a case of treason in that the ac­ provided and footnotes are kept at a minimum. cused was working against the established The text is primarily based on interviews order" (p. 122). The power claimed by the with Wickard (4,000 pages of transcript are Massachusetts General Court to review de­ on file in the Columbia University Library), cisions of the Commissioners was not "the Henry A. Wallace, and lesser figures, e.g., right of judicial review" (p. 184). These faults are carried to an extreme in Chapter Carl Hamilton, Wickard's personal assistant Four where Mr. Ward attempts to show a in the department. It is so dependent upon connection between a striped flag of unknown Wickard, that the author felt it necessary to origin depicted in a painting of New Amster­ deny the work was autobiographical. Of 379 dam in 1647 and the present flag of the United footnotes, 190 are wholly or largely based on interviews. Few books, diaries, or personal

136 READERS CHOICE papers have been examined. Instead, the trator is relegated to four pages. Transition of author was "in constant communication, per­ ideas is occasionally abrupt; the significant is sonally or by telephone, with most of the interspersed with the insignificant; and the men who knew the farm problem best." These time sequence is sometimes confusing. Not­ interviews are unrecorded and the author withstanding these limitations and those of admits that there are limitations on his ability method and technique. Dr. Albertson has "to cite a source for every single fact or produced a worthwhile addition to the avail­ quotation which [he] knew to be valid." able information relative to the Secretaries of Claude R. Wickard, Secretary of Agricul­ Agriculture. This is a sympathetic work ture from October, 1940, until June, 1945, is about a sensitive man by a considerate author. the man the author considers "more responsi­ ble than any other for the food without which WILLARD L. HOING the war would have been lost." At a time University of Wichita when the nation was still fretting over sur­ pluses, Wickard was confronted with the need for mobilizing America's agricultural Europe Emerges: Transition Toward an In­ resources for war. "No Cabinet Secretary," dustrial World-Wide Society, 600—1750. By the author claims, "ever took the reins of ROBERT L. REYNOLDS. (University of Wis­ office under less auspicious circumstances." consin Press, Madison, 1961. Pp. xiii, 529. It does not follow that he successfully sur­ $7.50.) mounted the obstacles facing him. Wickard, a Purdue University graduate, Europe Emerges is an account of the social was a dirt farmer who knew farmers and and economic development of Western Eu­ farming direct from the Indiana farm his rope, and the effect of emergent Europe upon grandfather had homesteaded. A Democrat other societies throughout the world. Its by birth (his grandfather's given name was greatest departure from most world history "Andrew Jackson") and practice, he joined or Western civilization books is its emphasis the USDA in 1933, where he served in a upon the day-to-day affairs of men: how their number of capacities, including eight years commerce, industry, agriculture, and financial as Rural Electrification Administrator under transactions evolved from late Roman times President Truman. He retired to his farm into their modern forms. Famous men, wars, in 1953. and politics are given decidedly secondary "As Secretary," Albertson admits, Wickard roles. "was administratively over his depth." Com­ Reynolds has divided his work into five petent in a subordinate position, he seemed sections. The first describes Europe in 600 to lack the ability to inspire and to lead men. A.D.—soils, climates, what people ate, how Plagued by personal doubts, worried about they grew it, and how they made their tools performing his tasks adequately and keeping and trade goods. Physical features are de­ his position, Wickard allowed his administra­ scribed with exceptional clarity by comparing tion to become one of uncertainty and drift. parts of Europe with parts of the United President Roosevelt realized the dramatic States, and particularly with areas of Wis­ touch of a farmer in command of the agri­ consin and neighboring states. Section two, culture program, but he had limited confi­ "Medieval Economy and Society: 600 to dence in Wickard's ability and finally dele­ 1350," is the central part of the book. gated his duties as War Food Administrator Readers who have pictured Medieval Europe to others. as "manorial," "feudal," "static," and "back­ Albertson is aware of the many conflicting ward" will be surprised. The picture that forces operating in the formulation of farm Reynolds presents "seems less like the world policies: departmental factions. Congressional seen by Sir Walter Scott and more like that blocs, and opposing farm organizations. He seen by the Wall Street journal." Here we is less aware of Wickard's precise role in their see, for example, banking from the days when formation. Wickard's final two years as Secre­ the unsound money lender's bench (banco) tary are barely mentioned, possibly because was physically broken by policemen (banco the author believes "there exists a line of tact rotto), through the rise of great international and personal privacy which must not be bankers like the Medici and Fuggers; or how crossed, even in pursuit of truth," or because the growth of cities created the strong middle Wickard was divested of real authority after class that has been the mainstay of European March, 1943. Wickard's role as REA adminis­ civilization.

137 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER. 1961-1962

The three concluding sections deal with medicines under federal control. The period Europe's expansion into the rest of the world. from 1906—the natural climax of the nar­ They describe societies outside Europe and rative—to the present emerges in the book's assess the factors which enabled Europeans epilogue. to triumph over older societies. Section five And yet, this final chapter provides perhaps covers not only Western European expansion, the most significant portion of the book, for but also Russia's "eastward movement," a it shows that the problem of nostrums is with subject that would have delighted Frederick us today as inexorably as it was two hundred Jackson Turner, had he been born in Okhotsk years ago. "Despite all the differences be­ instead of Wisconsin. tween the 1860's and the 1960's in the science Although Europe Emerges was, in large of medicine and in the laws of medication," part, taken from Professor Reynolds' popular as Young informs his reader (on page 247), lectures for a freshman course in the Inte­ "there are, in pseudo-medicine, disturbingly grated Liberal Studies program at the Uni­ strong continuities." "Quackery," he con­ versity of Wisconsin, it can be read with tinues, "is not only not vanquished; never in interest at any educational level from high previous history—regulatory officials are the school up. Some advanced readers will be first to say it—has medical quackery been disturbed by the absence of footnotes or such a big business as now." bibliography, but they will still recognize the The indictment is doubly telling, for, as authority and enthusiasm with which the book Young clearly recognizes, this phenomenon was written. It is well worth reading. exists today in the face of the high scientific level and daily achievements in the medical NEIL R. STOUT health fields, not to mention the relatively Texas A & M College high literacy of the public. Young probably makes his greatest contribution in trying to The Toadstool Millionaires: A Social History find some answers (especially in chapters 11, of Patent Medicines in America before Fed­ 12, and 15) to this perplexing phenomenon eral Regulation. By JAMES HARVEY YOUNG. of self-medication—the "whys" of quackery, (Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1961. as he terms it—in an age of reputed enlighten­ Pp. xii, 282. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, ment. To offset the apparent irrationality of index. $6.00.) the situation. Young aptly shows the various roles played, in an attempt to solve the prob­ "Somebody buys all the quack lems in this social drama, by organized medicines that build palaces for medicine and pharmacy, including individ­ the mushroom, say rather, the uals, as well as journalists and others. The toadstool millionaires."—0liver most dramatic battles were fought, of course, Wendell Holmes just at the turn of the century during the This pungent epigram provides the potential campaign for pure foods and drugs, but the reader of this volume at once with a key to battle continues. the author's striking title, but more than that This reviewer's quarrels with The Toad­ it gives a tantalizing indication of what is in stool Millionaires are minor indeed. Although store in the entertaining, yet highly informa­ the so-called "ethical" proprietary drugs are tive pages beyond the title page. more or less defined (on page 206), no clear To call this a scholarly, meaningful con­ definition emerges—as it should to clarify tribution may seem to repeat the usual matters for the lay reader—of the terms cliches of the reviewer, but Young's work "patent medicine," "proprietary medicine," fully deserves these adjectives. A recognized nor for that matter, "apothecary." (The authority on this subject, on which he has "apothecary" in England, unlike his continent­ published widely for more than a decade, al counterparts, had become by the nineteenth James Harvey Young, chairman of the history century a medical practitioner, and his pharm­ department at Emory University, presents his aceutical function had been assumed by an story in the wide frame of social history. entirely new professional person, the so-called In clear, lucid prose. Young traces the "chemist and druggist" and the "pharm­ history of so-called "patent medicines" in aceutical chemist.") America from the time they were first im­ The subject of Harvey Wiley's battle for ported from Great Britain early in the pure foods and drugs and the concomitant eighteenth century until 1906, when the U. S. reform of proprietary medicines, is, of course, Food and Drug Act first brought proprietary a complex and separate story—one that has

138 READERS CHOICE been told by others, as Young acknowledges. for the first time. In this form they will help We may then forgive the author a few of the stimulate the revival of interest in his theories minor inaccuracies in this chapter of his own now so apparent in the profession, and to story that come mainly, we feel, from the Turner the frontier concept was far more im­ necessity for condensation to fit the present portant than his part in its formulation. purpose. Thus, for instance, we would argue Ten essays (one of them in two parts) with the statement (on page 232) that "even comprise the collection. Two are by Turner Wiley's research could be theatrical." The himself, his autobiographical letter to Con­ reference is specifically to the so-called stance L. Skinner and his sketch of Wisconsin "poison-squad" experiments designed to test history prepared for the 1888 edition of the the physiological effects of food additives Encyclopaedia Britannica. Three others ex­ upon a group of young volunteers. The sensa­ amine his frontier theory; two of these are tional name and resulting publicity, as bene­ by his uncritical and devoted disciple, Joseph ficial as it ultimately proved, were not of Schafer, who vigorously defends the "safety- Wiley's invention and were, in fact, accepted valve" concept and restates the frontier thesis; by him rather reluctantly. the other is the stimulating study of Turner's But these are trifling arguments. The book development and ideas by Avery Craven. Two is handsomely produced, from the dust jacket essays examine the impact of the hypothesis to the binding and stamping, the end papers, on broader aspects of thought, one by Carl and the ornamental initial letters. The his­ Russell Fish on the study of world frontiers, torian will appreciate the author's meticulous one by Curtis Nettels on the philosophy of documentation and valuable bibliographic the New Deal. Recognition is also given to the assault on the Turner concepts that raged essay, as well as his suggestions for areas during the 1930's; an essay by J. A. Burkhart deserving further research. examines this controversy in unimaginative But The Toadstool Millionaires is a book terms while one by George W. Pierson sum­ that may be enjoyed by the casual reader as marizes the views of historians in 1941. With much as by the specialist. Each will benefit, happy inspiration, the compiler chose as his and both, in his own way, may contribute final selection the masterful essay by Merle to the gradual solution of the seemingly Curti on Turner's life, hitherto available only ubiquitous problem of "patent medicines." in the hard-to-find publications of the Com­ mission of History of the Pan American In­ ERNST W. STIES stitute of Geography and History and in a University of Wisconsin volume of Professor Curti's collected essays. This brief article, which is unquestionably Wisconsin Witness to Frederick Jackson the best biographical study of Turner now Turner: A Collection of Essays on the His­ available, is alone worth the price of the torian and the Thesis. Compiled by 0. volume. LAWRENCE BURNETTE, JR. (State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison, 1961. Pp. Useful as this volume will be, its compiler xvi, 204. $4.00.) labored under two handicaps that mar its perfection. One was the decision to print If Frederick Jackson Turner was "peeking articles from the pages of the Wisconsin over the ramparts" (as he wishfully wrote Magazine of History; unfortunately some of a friend in his later years) he must have been the authors of the best work on Turner did immensely pleased with the publication of not have the good sense to publish in that this commemorative volume. Competently excellent journal. A compilation of the better compiled by the book editor of the State articles from all historical journals would Historical Society of Wisconsin, and hand­ have been more useful. His second handicap somely printed by the Society, it pays fitting becomes clear to anyone who has ever tribute to the state's best-known historian on thumbed the indexes of the Wisconsin Maga­ the occasion of the centennial of his birth zine of History; dozens of Turner items, in November, 1861. Despite his well-hidden ranging from brief paragraphs to extensive thirst for recognition. Professor Turner would articles, appear in virtually every issue. Any have been even more gratified that these selection from this mass of material is cer­ essays, all of them touching on his life and tain to be questioned. work and all but one of them drawn from the This reviewer wishes that Dr. Burnette had pages of the Wisconsin Magazine of History, chosen for publication essays bearing directly are now made readily available to students on Professor Turner's life and theories, even

139 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1961-1962 at the cost of omitting others of admitted Of some interest to labor historians will be value. Thus he misses the fine study of "Marcus Thrane in Christiania; Unpublished Turner's father by Donald J. Berthrong, and Letters from 1850-1851." These letters, trans­ especially the detailed appraisal of Turner's lated by Dr. Waldemar Westergaard, were early newspaper career by Fulmer Mood, written to a Swedish liberal, Frederick Borg. both of which appeared in the Wisconsin Unfortunately, they say little of specific events Magazine of History. Even more useful would or problems, but they do reflect the Norwegian have been a compilation of the many isolated labor leader's hopes and ambitions for the paragraphs and notes about Turner that are labor movement in Scandinavia. scattered through the back files of that jour­ Also of interest to researchers will be a par­ nal. If space was lacking for these, the omis­ tial listing under classified headings of ar­ sion of the essay by Carl Russell Fish on ticles that have appeared in the twenty vol­ world frontiers (a subject more thoroughly umes the Society has published since 1926, explored by later writers such as Paul Sharp), as well as a compilation of some recent publi­ and that by George W. Pierson on historical cations on Norwegian-American history. opinion of the frontier thesis in 1941 (which is amusing but hardly significant today), More to the taste of the general reader will would seem feasible. be the memoirs of Captain Otto Bratrud, "Beating to Windward." In this account, edit­ These carping criticisms should not obscure ed by Sverre Arestad, Bratrud tells of his the true merit of this fine volume, for they experiences after he left home as a boy of represent personal opinions on which no two sixteen years to become a sailor. Although people could agree. It admirably performs his travels were world-wide, his stories of its dual purpose: to pay tribute to one of coastal voyages out of Seattle and river boat­ America's most thoughtful interpreters of the ing in Alaska are particularly interesting. past, and to publicize his concepts at a time when they deserve particular consideration. Also concerned with Alaska is Knute L. The book lacks an index, but compensates Gravem's "Pioneering in Alaska," the per­ for this with four excellent pictures of Turner. sonal narrative of a young doctor who was drawn northward by the gold rush and who retained an interest in Alaskan mining ven­ RAY ALLEN BILLINGTON tures for the rest of his life. Prospecting and Northwestern University mining activities are vividly portrayed. Even more fascinating is the Doctor's tale of a Norwegian-American Studies and Records, voyage in which his ship became trapped in the Bering Sea ice floes and drifted helplessly Volume XX. Edited by KENNETH BJORK et al. into the Artie Sea to be held a prisoner until (Norwegian-American Historical Association, the summer thaw set in. Northfield, Minnesota, 1959. Pp. 246. $3.00.) Other items in the volume include a letter The Norwegian-American Historical Asso­ from the "Sloopers," early immigrants who ciation continues its contributions to the field founded the Kendall colony in New York, an of Norwegian-American history with this col­ immigrant letter from Texas in the 1850's, an lection which ranges from single-page letters historical survey of Norwegian studies in high to full-length articles. To scholars the most schools, colleges and universities in the United important article in the volume is that by Pro­ States, and selections from the diary of Eliza­ fessor Einar Haugen, "Ibsen in America." beth Fedde, the welfare worker who organ­ The author recounts the shocked reaction ized the Norwegian Lutheran Deaconess Home which Ibsen's plays provoked in the United and Hospital in Brooklyn. There is also a States and depicts the controversy which ac­ review by John M. Gaus of Kenneth Bjork's companied the playwright's growing literary West of the Great Divide. impact on the nation. Professor Bjork and his colleagues have Several other articles in this volume will performed a creditable task of editing and interest the professional historian. Profes­ the volume is flawlessly printed and attractive­ sor Peter Munch renews an old complaint at ly bound. the preoccupation of modern sociologists with scientific jargon in an article on "History and Sociology," and pleads for a more "humanis­ tic" sociology as a contribution toward a ARLAN HELGESON deeper understanding of social history. Illinois State Normal University

140 READERS CHOICE

A Guide to Manuscripts Relating to America and architects, missionaries and merchants, in Great Britain and Ireland. Edited by B. R. philanthropists and prohibitionists, scientists CRICK and MIRIAM ALMAN. (British Associa­ and suffragists. While the records relate pre­ tion for American Studies by Oxford Univer­ dominantly to the Colonial and Revolutionary sity Press, London, 1961. Pp. xxxvi, 667. eras, they include frequent references to the $8.25.) 19th and 20th centuries. Government archives constitute the greater part of the collections listed; there are also such documents as Designed to meet the growing interest of plantation books, travelers' diaries, mission­ scholars on both sides of the Atlantic in aries' reports, letters from emigrants, and records in the British Isles relating to Ameri­ account books of merchants and farmers. can history, this compilation of manuscript sources well fulfills its objectives. The editors A few items of Wisconsin interest illustrate have searched far and wide through all the nature and variety of manuscript types and subject matter. Among them are several classes of records—those in the well-known letters written from British emigrants in the depositories and in obscure and remote loca­ state; the business records of a trust company tions—extracted those that contained informa­ in Dundee, Scotland, regarding investments tion on American history, and issued their in farm mortgages, railroads, and land in findings in a single useful volume. Wisconsin and elsewhere in the United States; As a point of departure the editors took the personal and business archives of Sir the information presented by the teams that Henry S. Wellcome, a Wisconsin native who searched the British Museum, the Public became a manufacturing chemist; and a file Record Office, and a few other British de­ of letters, 1911-1919, in the Sir Horace positories under the auspices of the Carnegie Plunkett collection written by Charles Institution early in this century. But they McCarthy of Madison regarding agricultural differ from those predecessors in several co-operatives and the Irish movement. respects: they set no time limit on content; they sought the co-operation of scholars and Like the Guide to Archives and Manuscripts archivists in the United Kingdom and North in the United States published earlier in 1961, America; they extended their researches into this volume opens to the world of historical Scotland, Wales, northern Ireland, and the scholarship a wealth of sources of investiga­ Irish Republic; and they widened their in­ tion in American history. terests to cover information on industrial and social history. ALICE E. SMITH Throughout the compilation, the obvious State Historical Society of Wisconsin aim is to anticipate the wants of the scholar. The lengthy Introduction speaks of the neces­ sity of observing limits of time (two years) Tlie Farmer's Age: Agriculture, 1815-1860. and money and the consequent unavoidable By PAUL W. GATES. (Holt, Rinehart and lack of balance and the inconsistencies in the Winston, New York, 1960. Pp. xviii, 460. level of detail. It describes briefly the pro­ $5.50.) cedures adopted and conditions under which records may be used. There are exceedingly A sense of annoyance can hardly be kept helpful annotations to published and unpub­ out of any consideration of farm matters lished finding aids, and to documentary publi­ these days, the trouble being an inability on cations or secondary works based on records the part of an urban (not necessarily urbane) described. The Table of Contents lists alpha­ people to decide just how farmers tick. So betically under counties the locations and titles much is said in public discussions of the need of collections. The 112-page index further for aid to farming, and so much is said also guides the researcher and identifies persons to the contrary, with both sides perplexed and records. and bad-tempered about the matter, that one A multitude of subjects is touched upon. A may well wonder in exasperation what kind random sampling of pages shows information of folk are being argued about: Are they on such widely diverse topics as slavery and really alive? Why can they not take care of anti-slavery, reform movements, commerce, themselves? Do they really like being re­ the currency, health measures, boundary dis­ garded as supine, second-class citizens? And putes, tariffs, Indians, and emigration through could this vigorous American race possibly two centuries. There are records of artisans have sprung from these poorhouse escapees?

141 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1961-1962

Most writers on our agricultural history have have been avoided, but the pioneer scholar not helped the situation, for they have written must pay the price of hard work that can not largely about farmer "protest" movements in guarantee invariably exact results in produc­ a vein of mawkish sympathy, or they have ing syntheses of this kind, so useful in them­ accounted for the real triumphs of farmers selves and at the same time so full of sug­ in terms of—again urbanized—inventors of gestion for further investigation. A further farm machines or experiment station scientists. compliment must be paid for the care taken Once in a while the true yeoman who made to consider developments from the regional American agriculture gets a break, and this and even the state level when that extra book is one of them. Professor Gates is him­ effort is needed. And the author does not self a worker and devoted to finding out the hesitate to produce judgments when they are truth so as to get things to go right, and he of value to general history, as in Gates' has calmly, thoroughly, and methodically pro­ declaration that slavery was not unprofitable duced the facts, completely absorbed and in­ or doomed to early disintegration. Readers terpreted into a recognizably true picture of on public affairs may be warned that the what sort of farming provided the backbone work may be more thorough than they really of the nation in the years before the Civil need, but a skip through it is to be recom­ War. These are authentic American people: mended. To the serious student of American alert to all new methods, keen in seeking out history it is a boon. economic advantage, and aware of political involvement. The battle over the disposition W. H. GLOVER of the national domain, which only Gates Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society could adequately describe, revealed the farmers to be completely informed on the connections between land policy and agricul­ Wilson: The Struggle For Neutrality, 1914- ture. 1915. By ARTHUR S. LINK. (Princeton Uni­ It has also been taken for granted that versity Press, Princeton, 1960. Pp. xii, 736. farmers were incapable of developing a satis­ Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. factory technology on their own; spokesmen $10.00.) of the agricultural colleges have a habit of blandly explaining the success of farm science In this, the third volume of his awe- as a function of their own operations, achieved inspiring biography of Woodrow Wilson, Pro­ over the cloddish opposition of a rural popu­ fessor Link deals with Wilson's foreign policy lation that unanimously opposed "book farm­ in the fifteen months following the outbreak ing." This comfortable myth does not stand of war in Europe. He concentrates on the even cursory examination of the historv of question of the Administration's attitude the creation of the colleges, which invariably towards the War, seeing this as the period shows strong rural support for their begin­ in which Wilson and his aides tried to evolve nings, and Gates' book cites a mass of evi­ a coherent policy which would both establish dence indicating that the farmers of the period America's neutrality and preserve her national before the Civil War were avid in seizing rights. The book ends in October, 1915, whatever was to be found in experience or when, with the issue of unrestricted German laboratory results that might be of use. It submarine warfare apparently disposed of, prepares one, with the equally clear evidence Wilson turned towards the settlement of the of their political enlightenment, for such question of the violation of American neutral brilliant successes as that of the dairymen of rights by the British blockade. Wisconsin following the Civil War in the Although the book focuses primarily on rationalization of their operations in concert the dominant issue of the day—the European with the University and the state government. War—chapters on American involvement in One would be impressed with this work China, Mexico, and the Caribbean are inter­ without knowing how solidly it keys the spersed. structure of our agricultural history since the As in the two preceding volumes, the most period it treats. It is patiently and carefully impressive feature of the work is the tremen­ worked up out of hard research in the sources. dous amount of research that went into its If the literature of the subject had been rea­ writing. As would be expected. Link has ex­ sonably developed, some minor slips (none ploited the Woodrow Wilson Papers and other that this reviewer noted seriously misleads American sources to the fullest, but he has anyone on any momentous matter) would also relied very extensively on numerous for-

142 READERS CHOICE eign sources, including the Asquith Papers, shaking of the tenuous supremacy of the civil­ the Papers of the German Foreign Office, and ian over the military power within Germany. the German press. This makes the picture Wilson was aware of the power struggle that that he paints of the diplomatic jousts and was going on inside Germany, yet the "settle­ machinations that took place between London, ment" that he imposed on the Germans did not Washington, and Berlin uniquely full and really take into account the possibility of well balanced. Unfortunately, because in his future developments in this struggle. chapters on Mexico and the Caribbean he Of course, there are other points on which relies to a much greater extent on purely someone not as sympathetic with Wilson as English-language sources, they suffer by com­ is Link would draw conclusions differing parison. Possibly because of this, Wilson's from his; but to enumerate the ones with extension of American imperialism in Latin which this reviewer disagrees would be quib­ America is looked at and justified mainly bling. Because he has only taken the story through the eyes of Wilson and the State up to 1915 the author has not really had a Department. Whether Wilson's intervention chance to sum up his view of Wilson's foreign can be explained away and implicitly justified policy. His description of Wilson's attitude, in quite the manner that it is by Professor not only towards the European War but Link, as an admittedly disagreeable task re­ towards Mexico and the Caribbean as well, sulting primarily from Wilson's desire to remains unfinished. Thus, most his judgments foster well-ordered democratic government in are made, not on the over-all policies, but on Latin America, is a moot point. individual actions. As in the two previous volumes, Wilson Although Link may not be writing the emerges from this book with Link's slightly definitive interpretation of Wilson, he is un­ qualified but still hearty vote of approval. doubtedly writing the definitive biography. He is portrayed as both a masterful molder This volume, like the two preceding it, is of public opinion and a follower of the "must" reading for anyone with a serious national will, a sincere seeker of neutrality interest in Wilson. The wealth of new informa­ and a wily diplomat adept at achieving his tion which it brings to light and the author's goals. It is primarily with regard to the latter clear and lucid style easily justify its length. of these considerations—Wilson's success in It presents a formidable challenge to those accomplishing his own objectives—that Link who have the temerity to disagree with his casts most of his judgments. Questions of the view of Wilson. basic wisdom of Wilson's course are often played down, either by^ virtually ignoring HARVEY LEVENSTEIN them or by too severely limiting the possible University of Wisconsin realistic alternatives open to him. Thus Bryan and his point of view on the submarine ques­ tion are dismissed far too easily. One feels that the author has tried to treat Bryan sym­ STATE AND REGIONAL pathetically and fairly but that, like Wilson himself, he could not bring himself to believe John Coit Spooner: Defender of Presidents. that Bryan could act as much more than an By DOROTHY GANFIELD FOWLER. (University idealistic conscience in debates on foreign Publishers, New York, 1961. Pp. ix, 436. affairs. Yet, in spite of (or possibly because $6.00.) of) his idealistic, pacifistic bent, Bryan's stand on the issue of the right of Americans This biography of a nearly forgotten Wis­ to travel on belligerent ships was bluntly consin Senator is based primarily on the realistic. In fact, as subsequent American lengthy correspondence of John C. Spooner entry into the war over the issue of unre­ and on many other documentary sources, stricted submarine warfare would seem to in­ including the papers of several American dicate, it was a far more realistic stand than Presidents. In the volume, Spooner appears Wilson's. Certainly, in terms of "neutral first as a rising but impecunious young at­ rights" and "national honor", the temporary torney; and next, as a proficient corporation solution which Wilson achieved in 1915 was lawyer of easier circumstances. Finally, there far better than what Bryan would have settled emerges the mature statesman who, according for at that time. But the bounds this settle­ to the Washington Post, "earned the grati­ ment placed on the German Navy proved to tude" of the nation because of his long and be much too restrictive for it to survive a meritorious career in public affairs.

143 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1961-1962

The rare quality of Senator Spooner's ser­ Sawyer, the friend of long years of campaign­ vice to the people of the United States lay in ing, once made slighting references to his his remarkable ability to achieve a nice bal­ courage. Yet, Belle Case La Follette has ance between opposing forces and conflicting described Spooner's attacks on her husband views by devising workable solutions for in 1904 as "fierce." Content with the half points at issue in law and policy framing. loaf at a time when many Americans de­ In the jungle of parliamentary and legalistic manded the whole loaf (or nothing), the maneuver, the Wisconsin statesman early Senator was assailed by muckrakers as the demonstrated his keen perception of constitu­ "mouthpiece of special privilege" and the tional principles in discussions leading to representative of the "interests." Nevertheless, such important measures as the Interstate Spooner fought hard for greater suffrage Commerce Act, the Sherman Antitrust Act, rights for Southern Negroes, protected the McKinley and Dingley Tariff Acts—and workers who left employment voluntarily doubtlessly to the deep satisfaction of Wiscon­ from blackdisting by his amendment to the sin farmers—the bills which placed a federal 1898 Erdman Law, and contributed much to tax on oleomargarine, or "hog fat even when structuring regulatory reform measures such colored," as the Senator saw the butter sub­ as the Pure Food and Drug Act and the stitute. Hepburn Act. In 1907, Spooner terminated In foreign affairs, Spooner followed only an outstanding Senatorial career by resigna­ slowly the expansionist trend at the turn of tion. Private legal practice occupied his re­ the century. In 1898, he spoke against war maining years. over Cuba, yet favored intervention on hu­ Mrs. Fowler's work provides students of manitarian—but not imperialistic—grounds. American history a substantial account of the No empire builder, the many-sided Senator role of one whose part in government during did, however, propose the amendment whereby a highly transitional stage in American life Theodore Roosevelt was enabled to pursue was indeed significant. The study will also do plans for the Panama Canal; nor did he much to give a clearer view of a record whose shrink from hoping that one day the United author has thus far fared skimpily in history States might absorb Canada. Taken aback and memory. It is, however, regrettable at times by the nervous haste which char­ that the book is not invigorated a bit acterized Roosevelt's actions, Spooner more more by some well-chosen photographs or than once was merely lukewarm toward a lively cartoons. It is also regrettable that some given decision, but as a good party man he evidence of hurried writing is present. For proved dependably valiant in defending the example, beginning on page 393 and ending administration's colonial policies. on page 394, are two paragraphs of over In one area, however, it was impossible thirty lines in which Spooner is identified for the Wisconsin conservative to compromise. only as "he, his, or him." Flaws of this sort A stanch advocate of individual liberty and are obviously just as much the responsibility a devotee to saving essential features of the of the editor as of the author. To offset such existing system, Spooner repudiated principles lapses, are sprightly excerpts from Mrs. of the Populists and the progressive wing Spooner's diary which add a sparkle to Pro­ of the Republican Party. Eventually, he fessor Fowler's steady pace. led the unsuccessful battle of the Wisconsin EDWARD NOYES Stalwarts against the rising reform movement Wisconsin State College-Oshkosh of Robert La Follette whose tenets Spooner found most repugnant. "I am utterly opposed The Windsor Border Region: Canada's to such a primary law as Mr. La Follette Southernmost Frontier. Edited by ERNEST J. would wish. . . ," he wrote of one progressive LAJEUNESSE. (University of Toronto Press, plank during the raucous and crucial cam­ Ontario, 1960. Pp. cxxix, 374. $5.00.) paign of 1904. Senator Spooner seldom lost sight of pos­ This volume is the fourth in the Ontario sible implications a proposed law or policy Series, directed by the Champlain Society, might have for his constituents or the Republi­ sponsored by the provincial government, and can Party, and he firmly believed that the intended to provide a documentary history of office should seek the man. Slow to enter the province of Ontario. The present volume the hustings to do battle for the Party, Spooner relates events occurring on the Detroit River irritated many a colleague; even Philetus from its first exploration in the late seventeenth

144 READERS CHOICE

century to the settlement of the United Empire index will reveal many a nugget to that worthy Loyalists at the end of the eighteenth. The group. The local historian will find a multi­ early emphasis on Detroit gives way to a con­ tude of facts in this "gathering up of the centration on the Canadian side of the river fragments lest they be lost," as the author after the Americans were given legal title, intended. The antiquarian will find much though not actual possession, to the north side that is unique and interesting in the develop­ in 1783. By joining together documents re­ ment of civilization along the Detroit River. lating to this exciting period. Father However, the author has failed to write good Lajeunesse hoped to serve both the historian history in his introduction. Filled with fact and the general reader. and excerpts from the very documents it seeks Attempting to serve too many masters and to introduce, the volume does not give the actually serving none well is a fault shared reader, general or otherwise, the needed per­ by many. Father Lajeunesse states his inten­ spective. The only stated object of assembling tion to serve only the two mentioned above, these documents is that "wide interest will be but his book comes closer to serving the aroused" because the Windsor border had the genealogist, the antiquarian, and the local his­ longest period of continuous French occupa­ torian. In trying to serve the wider audiences tion in Ontario and because this area was the of the general historian and the general site of extensive United Empire Loyalist settle­ reader, he has seriously weakened his still ments. In addition, the book was intended to admirable service to the latter three. describe the brief period during which an Father Lajeunesse makes no claim to being Indian wilderness was turned into a "fruitful a trained historian, nor does he pretend this county." to be an interpretive history. Yet in the 129- Overlooked or underestimated was the sig­ page introduction, the author does write his­ nificant role that the Detroit River played as tory and makes interpretations. The historian the gateway to the entire upper lakes area. demands exacting standards in his writing. The political and economic importance of Each fact must be documented and every Detroit to the Northwest during the French conclusion must be based on carefully sifted period and the British period made the city evidence. Though a mass of facts is presented of the straits the ultimate object of explora­ here, conclusions are supported by rather tions, settlement, and military campaigns dur­ flimsy evidence. For example, the conclusion ing the eighteenth century. This essential fact, that the French in Detroit were neutral during which makes the study of this frontier worth­ the Revolution, though commonly assumed in while and important, is but touched upon and local lore, is certainly not established by the never examined in depth. An opportunity to presented facts that thirty volunteered for produce an interpretive local history of a sig­ Hamilton's dangerous counterstroke against nificant area has been missed. Clark or that none of the French crossed the river in 1796 to remain under British rule. WALTER S. DUNN, JR. Thirty volunteers out of a population of mili­ State Historical Society of Wisconsin tary age of less than 300 seems a fair per­ centage for a rather dangerous mission. Events of 1796 are poor evidence of attitudes of 1778. Wisconsin Heritage. By BERTHA KITCHELL In the section devoted to documents, the WHYTE. (Charles T. Branford Company, volume has achieved some notable success in Newton, Massachusetts, 1961. Second Impres­ the publication of useful documents in an sion. Pp. vii, 324. Illustrations, notes, bibli­ easily accessible form. However, of the 225 ography, index. $7.50.) pages, perhaps half are in print in widely available sources such as the Michigan His­ Wisconsin Heritage is like a platter of torical and Pioneer Collections and the Re­ tantalizing hors d'oeuvres, for it is made up ports of the Canadian Archives. The most of substantial historical data, seasoned with valuable documents are the eighty-two pages sweet folklore, spicy intrigue, and tart con­ in the original Latin and French taken from troversy. It is modern in the brevity of prose relatively obscure sources. These alone, with the able translations, would have served the and the abundance of authentic illustrations, historian well. but unlike the popular "picture" books, it carries ample references for further study. The genealogist will find this a valuable It takes the reader from four-lane expressways book. Fifty pages of data and a good name to the dusty winding byways of Territorial

145 days, pointing out along the way, unusual houses, octagonal houses and barns, covered people and places, what happened to them bridges, early iron, pottery and glass indus­ and when. tries, lumbering and horses for all purposes— One of the most charming aspects of the draft, carriage, riding, and racing. Scattered book is its informality. Mrs. Whyte considers through the pages there are odd bits of in­ a reminiscence "as much of a collectable formation about hundreds of unrelated ob­ item" as one of her yellowed Currier and jects—the peavy and other logging tools, Ives prints, a toy mechanical bank or an out- wooden Indians, quaint shop signs and tomb­ of-print book, and has gathered them with the stones and handwork from certain ethnic same collector's zeal. Many such memoirs groups, especially Norwegian. came by word of mouth from the faded Wisconsin Heritage is an excellent intro­ memory of a pioneer, and often was one of duction to the study of state and local history, several versions, which accounts for certain and if placed in every school library, would discrepancies. Mrs. Whyte is still checking offer innumerable topics for themes and es­ some diverse opinions. This in no way de­ says. Mrs. Whyte is to be commended for tracts from the book for it was not written her years of painstaking research and the as a documented text. As expressed by a excellent choice of material which she has reviewer at the University of Montana, "it woven into a living and lasting picture of is a most worthwhile contribution to settle­ Wisconsin's formative years. ment geography." The chapter headings arouse interest in a somewhat heterogeneous list of subjects, NEITA 0. FRIEND including early taverns, old mills, cobblestone Hartland, Wisconsin

BOOK REVIEWS: Albertson, Roosevelt's Farmer: Claude R. Wickard in the New Deal, reviewed by Willard L. Hoing 136 Bjork, et al., eds., Norwegian-American Studies and Records, Vol. XX, reviewed by Arlan Helgeson 140 Burnette, comp., Wisconsin Witness to Frederick Jackson Turner: A Collection of Essays on the Historian and the Thesis, reviewed by Ray Allen Billington 139 Catton, The Coming Fury, reviewed by Stephen E. Ambrose 127 Crick and Alman, eds., A Guide to Manuscripts Relating to America in Great Britain and Ireland, reviewed by Alice E. Smith 141 Downey, Storming of the Gateway, Chattanooga, 1863, reviewed by Alan T. Nolan 126 Fowler, John Coit Spooner: Defender of Presidents, reviewed by Edward Noyes 143 Gates, The Farmer's Age: Agriculture, 1815-1860, reviewed by W. H. Glover 141 Homsher, ed.. South Pass, 1868: James Chisholm's Journal of the Wyoming Gold Rush, reviewed by William S. Greever 131 Johnson, Virginia Railroads in the Civil War, reviewed by William Cheek 128 Lajeunesse, ed., The Windsor Border Region: Canada's Southernmost Frontier, reviewed by Walter S. Dunn, Jr 144 Link, Wilson: The Struggle for Neutrality, 1914-1915, reviewed Ijy Harvey Levenstein 142 Luthin, The Real Abraham Lincoln. A Complete One-Volume History of His Life and Times, reviewed by John Bruce Robertson 129 Nelson and Fevold, The Lutheran Church among Norwegian-Americans, Vols. 1 and 2, reviewed by Kenneth 0. Bjork 133 Newhall, The Daguerreotype in America, reviewed by Paul Vanderbilt 132 Phillips, The Fur Trade, reviewed by Reginald Horsman 134 Reynolds, Europe Emerges: Transition Toward an Industrial World-Wide Society, 600-1750, reviewed by Neil R. Stout 137 Stern, ed., Soldier Life in the Union and Confederate Armies, reviewed by Paul H. Hass 130 Stover, American Railroads, reviewed by James S. Watson 131 Ward, The United Colonies of New England, 1643-90, reviewed by Theodore B. Lewis, Jr 135 Whyte, Wisconsin Heritage, reviewed by Neita O. Friend 145 Young, The Toadstool Millionaires: A Social History of Patent Medicines in America before Federal Legislation, reviewed by Ernest W. Stieb 138

146 Mary Stuart Foster NOTHER former staff member, whose A career closely paralleled that of Miss Welsh, was Mary Stuart Foster who died at her home in Madison on November 28, 1960. Born in Monroe, Miss Foster was brought to Madison as a child, was educated in the city schools, graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1884, and joined the Society's staff in 1897, two days before Miss Welsh. Since Miss Foster's name did not appear on the official payroll until January, 1898, a friendly rivalry existed for years between the two as to which had served the Society the longer. During the summer both women helped in the transference of the Library from the State Capitol to the Society's newly constructed building at State and Park streets.

Sma^iis^mmtn. M&--'^'L-> After distinguished careers—Miss Foster Hjrold H

147 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1961-1962

Bibliographical Notes industry's growth in a state which raises about half of the nation's supply of cigar-binder leaf, has two dozen registered factories producing Unless otherwise noted all publications listed are available for use in the Society's Library. 11 million cigars annually, and whose citizens bought over 428 million packages of cigarettes in 1959. Free copies may be had by writing to the publisher. Of particular importance to state bibliog­ raphy is Catholic Serials of tlie Nineteenth Century in the United States: A Descriptive • Miscellaneous commemorative publications Bibliography and Union List; Second Series, received include the following: Part Two: Wisconsin, compiled by Eugene P. Willging and Herta Hatzfield (Catholic Uni­ Columbus, 100th Anniversary and Opening versity of America Press, Washington 17, of New Addition, 1961. Farmers & Mer­ 1959—. Pp. 125. Paper. $2.95). This is the chants Union Bank (12 pp.). latest in the valuable series begun in 1954 un­ Ephraim, Tales of Ephraim Waters: 50th der the auspices of the American Catholic His­ Anniversary of Ephraim Yacht Club, 1956 torical Society of Philadelphia to survey the (24 pp.). more than 1,200 Catholic periodicals published Kenosha, The Kenosha Evening News, 1894— in 19th-century America, only about half of 1947 (22 pp.). which are recorded in standard reference Neenah, Growing with Neenah for a Hundred works. As a supplement to such guides as Don­ Years [First National Bank of Neenah] ald E. Oehlert's Guide to Wisconsin Newspa­ (12 pp.). pers, 1833-1957, it will be especially help­ ful to the student. Of the fifty-four Wisconsin Tripp Township (Bayfield County), The titles listed, the majority are newspapers. The Fifty year History of the Town of Tripp, ethnic diversity of the last century is reflected 1911-1961 (95 pp.). by the fact that twenty-nine of the publications were in English, thirteen in German, twelve in • The following publications commemorating Polish, and one each in Czech, French, and anniversaries of Wisconsin churches and Chippewa—the latter an Indian almanac pub­ schools have been received: lished in a single issue in Green Bay in 1834 under the jaw-breaking title of Kikinawaden- Arcadia, St. John's Independent Lutheran damoiwewein. Church: 50th Anniversary and Dedication, January 31, 1960 (32 pp.). Jon Doerflinger and D. G. Marshall are joint authors of The Story of Price County, Wiscon­ Ashton, Saint Peter's Church, Centennial, sin: Population Research in a Rural Develop­ 1861-1961 (36 pp.). ment Community (University of Wisconsin Augusta, First Baptist Church, Centennial, Agricultural Experiment Station and Agricul­ 1861-1961 (6 pp.). tural Extension Service, Research Bulletin 220, Bloom City, Home Coming al llie Bloom City June, 1960. Pp. 32), a socioeconomic study Methodist Church (5 pp.). which contains a historical summary and a Blue River, Five Points Evangelical Lutheran useful bibliography. Two Young Ministers of Church, Centennial, 1861-1961 (58 pp.). tlie Wisconsin Conference of the Now Known Caledonia, Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Evangelical United Brethren Church Who Church, 1855-1955 (28 pp.). Were Killed by Indians in Minnesota in 1862 is a pictorial folder assembled in 1959 by Her­ Fillmore, St. Martin's Evangelical and Re­ man A. Block to commemorate the deaths of formed (United Church of Christ) Cen­ Reverends Lewis Christian Seder and August tennial, 1861-1961 (20 pp.). Nierens, both victims of the Sioux uprisings Forest Junction, Au Revoir: Yearbook of tlie of 1862. Forest Junction Elementary School, 1960- 1961 (24 pp.). Striking typography and beautifully repro­ duced engravings of the early La Crosse and Golden Lake-Sullivan, Centennial, St. John's Milwaukee waterfronts characterize a small Lutheran Church, 1861-1961, September twelve-page pamphlet published in 1960 by 24, 1961 (25 pp.). the Tobacco Institute, Inc., 910 17th Street Golden Lake-Sullivan, Dedication Booklet, N.W., Washington. Entitled Wisconsin and St. John's Lutheran Church and Parish Tobacco, it is a short history of the tobacco Hall, April 24, 1960 (18 pp.).

148 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

Hartford, Peace Evangelical Lutheran Church, East and with the Twentieth Corps in the Dedication, June 12, 1960 (20 pp.). West. He took part in the gallant stand of Madison, Securing Our Catholic Heritage: the 26th Wisconsin at Chancellorsville, was Blessed Sacrament School and Convent, wounded on the first day at Gettysburg, and 1960 (16 pp.). died of wounds received at the battle of Manitowoc, A History of the Garfield School, Resaca, Georgia, on May 16, 1864. Although Manitowoc, Wisconsin (24 pp.). none of the letters is long, the collection as Manitowoc, Redeemer Lutheran Church, Ded­ a whole conveys to the reader Wickesberg's ication, 1960 (14 pp.). boredom and loneliness, his disgust with Menomonie, History and Directory of the rascally politicians and generals, and his First Congregational Church, 1861-1961 soldierly pride in acquitting himself well in (23 pp.). combat. The volume is enhanced by the Mondovi, First Congregational Church, Cen­ cover portrait of Wickesberg, by the annota­ tennial Book, 1861-1961 (29 pp.). tions, and by the inclusion of the brief, almost Mount Horeb, Centennial, 1861-1961 (100 callous note sent to the boy's relatives after pp.). his death. A collection such as this, carefully Oshkosh, One Hundred Years With Peace edited and attractively presented, makes as Lutheran Church, 1861—1961 (70 pp.). worthy a contribution to the centennial com­ memoration of the Civil War as any re-enacted Rosholt, Faith Lutheran Church, Dedication, battle. May 21, 1961 (24 pp.). Rural Deer Park, Ninetieth Anniversary, Of more than state-wide interest is the 1870-1960; June 26, 1960 (10 pp.). announcement that in the course of the past Stettin Township (Marathon County), Im- year the Marquette University Memorial manuel Lutheran Church, Centennial, 1861— Library has received the first deposits of the 1961 (24 pp.). Joseph R. McCarthy Papers and the Records Union Grove, First Methodist Church, Cen­ and Papers of the Catholic Association for tennial, 1861-1961, September 17, 1961 International Peace. Both collections in their (95 pp.). entirety have been donated and are related Wayne Township (Washington County), to the American Historical Collection and Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church: 100 Studies, a program of acquisition, research, Years of God's Grace, 1861-1961 (27 pp.). and publication originating in the Depart­ ment of History. The University has been left free by both donors—the widow of the Mrs. Neita 0. Friend, formerly editor of late Senator McCarthy and the Association's the now defunct Creative Wisconsin, has Washington office—to make the material become an associate editor of Wisconsin available according to standard archival prac­ Tales and Trails. In the June issue, the first tices and the latitude of the law. An estimate to appear under the editorship of the maga­ of these requirements will be made after the material has been processed. zine's new publisher, Howard Mead, Mrs. Friend had an article on "Early Dairying in Wisconsin." A modest but praiseworthy addition to the Index Available rising tide of Civil War literature is the The annual index for volume 44 mimeographed, spiral-bound "Civil War Let­ (Autumn, 1960, through Summer, 1961) ters of Sergeant Charles Wickesberg" (Mil­ has come from the printer. Curators, waukee, 1961. Pp. 39.). Compiled by Alfred exchanges, schools, and libraries auto­ Wickesberg of Milwaukee, translated by Mrs. matically receive copies. All other sub­ Ernst Wolferstetter, and annotated by Donald scribers receive copies only on written A. Woods, Director of Libraries at the Uni­ request. Indexes are mailed without versity of Wisconsin—Milwaukee, this collec­ charge. tion consists of the German and English ver­ sions of twenty letters from a Union soldier Address: to his parents in the town of Herman in Magazine Index Sheboygan County. Charles Wickesberg, who State Historical Society was twenty-one years old when he enlisted in of Wisconsin the fall of 1862, served with the 26th Wiscon­ Madison 6, Wisconsin sin Infantry of the Eleventh Corps in the

149 ACCESSIONS

Manuscripts

Services for microfilming and photostating all Materials in the decade, 1930-1940, deal pri­ but certain restricted items in its manuscripts marily with NRA codes, hearings, and wage collections are provided by the Society. For details write Dr. Josephine L. Harper, Libra­ and hour decisions. The 1940-1950 papers rian, Manuscripts Library. are concerned especially with World War II and deal with production, housing, wage and working problems, post-war adjustment and N recent years the Manuscripts Library has demobilization, the OPA, and other war and I received several important additions to its post-war governmental agencies. labor history collections. These are now pro­ cessed, inventoried, and ready for use. Series 5. Files of the Economist of the AFL, 1938-1948; informational letters from The American Federation of Labor Papers, the NLRB to Boris Shishkin, and his cor­ covering the period from 1881 to 1953 and respondence with unions concerning NLRB comprising approximately 550 file boxes of rulings and instructions; four volumes of correspondence, speeches, and statistics, were correspondence, minutes, reports, and recom­ presented to the Society by the American mendations of the Labor Policy Committee of Federation of Labor. The papers are com­ the War Assets Administration, of which posed of files from various offices or divisions Boris Shishkin was a member; and personal of the organization, and are arranged in a and official papers relating to Shishkin's manner similar to their original form in the work as the economist for the AFL. AFL offices. One exception is the Gompers material, which is now arranged chronologic­ Series 6. American Federationist Files, ally. The files of each office are designated 1932-1943; correspondence of Miss Florence as a series and include the following: Thorne and the editor of the American Fed- erationist; comment and criticism relating to Series 1. Files of the Executive Secretary articles; and correspondence between William of the Labor Housing Conference, 1935-1939; Green and various universities and scholars correspondence, pamphlets, and statistics from concerning research subjects prepared by the AFL on labor problems. the office of Miss Catherine Bauer concerning housing problems, housing legislation, and slum clearance. Series 7. Strikes and Agreements File, 1898- 1953; correspondence, telegrams, and reports Series 2. Legislative Reference Files, 1919- between local unions and the president of the 1930; correspondence, memoranda, briefs, AFL concerning negotiations with manage­ and other materials dealing with federal and ment, strikes, and agreements. state legislation on banking, agriculture, education, civil rights, and other subjects of Series 8. Files of the Director of Research, interest to the AFL. 1935-1952; correspondence of Miss Florence Thorne as Director of Research; correspond­ Series 3. State Legislation Files, 1942- ence and reports relating to the problems of 1951; correspondence of William Green con­ Social Security, old age assistance, unemploy­ cerning pending bills in state legislatures, ment compensation, and health; and materials especially those dealing with anti-labor laws, relating to World War II problems of defense, right-to-work legislation, unemployment com­ education, international relations, and post­ pensation, and court decisions in labor cases. war adjustments.

Series 4. Industry Reference Files, 1930- Series 9. Works Progress Administration 1950; correspondence of the president of the File, 1933-1938; correspondence of the presi­ AFL, research personnel, union members, dent of the AFL with local unions regarding and affiliated unions; memoranda, statistical problems arising from WPA projects. data, legal proceedings, and information con­ cerning local unions; clippings; and other Series 10. Information and Research File; material dealing with Labor and Industry. requests directed to the Office of Information

150 ACCESSIONS and Research concerning the financial status William English Walling Papers, given by of various companies and wage scales in Mrs. William E. Walling to the University of particular crafts and industries—information Wisconsin Library and transferred to the So­ sought for bargaining purposes. ciety, contain correspondence, 1871-1939, of the noted author and lecturer on social and economic problems; articles and speeches on Series 11. Files of the Office of the Presi­ labor, the national economy, and race rela­ dent, 1881-1952; correspondence, articles, ad­ tions; clippings; and reviews of Walling's dresses, press clippings, interviews, reference books. materials, hearings and testimony, and con­ ference notes relating to President Samuel Gompers, 1881-1937, and to President William Charles P. Howard Papers, presented by Green, 1934-1952. Among the topics discussed Mrs. Charles P. Howard, Colorado Springs, are local unions, boards of trade, war pre­ Colorado, deal with Howard's career as a paredness, the eight-hour law, woman suf­ labor leader and as president of the Interna­ frage, Negro labor, government by injunction, tional Typographical Union. The papers con­ child labor regulations, conventions, relations tain correspondence, [1917? ]-1938, relating with the CIO, international unions, and state to personal affairs and Howard's failure to federations. win re-election in 1938, and articles and speeches, 1918-1938, expressing his labor philosophy. The AFL-CIO Committee on Political Edu­ cation (COPE) Papers, presented by the AFL- Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Papers, presented CIO office in Washington, D. C, through Mrs. by Miss Flynn, New York, left-wing author, Mary G. Zahn, include a file of correspond­ and organizer for the Workers Defense Union, ence, reports, and lists relating to local Con­ contain miscellaneous papers relating to gressional elections, chiefly in the period efforts during the years 1917 to 1923 to secure from 1948 to 1954; and clippings and reports, justice for political prisoners, anarchists, 1946-1957, kept by COPE and its predecessors, labor agitators, IWW members. Socialists, the Political Action Committee of the CIO and others whom the Workers Defense Union and the Labor League For Political Education believed were being deprived of their civil of the AFL, concerning the senatorial career rights. of Joseph R. McCarthy.

The Wisconsin State Industrial Union Civil War Papers. "Four Years with the Council Papers, 1937-1960, presented by the Western Army in the Civil War of the United Wisconsin CIO office through Charles Schultz, States, 1861—1865", reminiscences of Calvin include records of the Wisconsin State In­ P. Ailing, musician with the 11th Regiment dustrial Union Council prior to and during Wisconsin Volunteers, presented by W. E. its merger with the Wisconsin State Federation Ailing, Hobart, Indiana; correspondence, of Labor in 1958. The collection is made up 1862-1865, of Adelbert M. Bly, Metomen, of correspondence; labor management agree­ Wisconsin, school teacher, concerning his ments; and files of the Political Action Com­ experiences in the 32nd Regiment Wisconsin mittee (PAC), the Merger Committee, and Volunteers, presented by Mr. and Mrs. Burns the Governor's Industrial Development Com­ Kaupanger, Stoughton; papers, 1833—1937, of mittee. Edward P. Bridgman, relating to experiences in Kansas under John Brown, 1856, in the Civil War with the 37th Massachusetts In­ Ernest E. Schwarztrauber Papers, the gift fantry, and as a storekeeper on the Menominee of Mrs. Ernest E. Schwarztrauber, Santa Indian Reservation, 1876, presented by Louis Monica, California, consist of correspondence, W. Bridgman, Madison; reminiscences of the 1908-1953, reports, speeches, articles, and Civil War service of Hamlin L. Chapman, diaries, 1894-1950, of a noted labor educator. 39th Regiment Wisconsin Volunteers, with descriptions of his enlistment in Wisconsin, Many of the papers pertain to his work at the his journey to Memphis, and army experiences University of Wisconsin School for Workers, at Fort Pickering, including Forrest's raid and the Portland Labor College, Portland, on Memphis, presented by Mrs. Robert H. Oregon. Cantwell, Hammond, Indiana; letters.

151 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1961-1962

:«'^.v

Pancake batter pail representing a functional piece of thrown earthenware. Its walls are perfectly even and well finished, and the capacious spout has been separately turned and applied by hand. The } pail was brought to Wisconsin from the East in early pioneer days. Donor unknown.

0 W^:jk

Exquisite craftsmanship is exhibited in these four- inch shell-back teaspoons of early American make. The blunt oval of the bowls and the rib in the handle date them in the early 1700's. They were Gray stoneware jug, made by the well-known pot­ a gift in the year 1800, as family heirloom silver, to tery firm of Cowden & Wilcox of Harrisburg, Pennsyl­ the donor's great-great-grandmother. The backs of vania. The petals of the hand-painted blue flower the spoons are initialed "A.V." are repeated where the handle joins the body. Gift of Mrs. Galen A. Fox, Clearwater, Florida. Purchased in 1931 from Sharratt's Treasure House.

152 ACCESSIONS

[18641-1865, from Lewis Chase, 43rd Regi­ from friends describing the siege of Vicks­ ment Wisconsin Volunteers, relating to army burg, presented by Mrs. Monroe Gilbert, life and skirmishes in Tennessee, presented Salem, Oregon; and correspondence and by Mrs. Oliver Gray, Platteville; letters, receipts, 1859-1863, relating to the operation [1862, December ?] from Eliza B. Wilcox of the steamer, Daniel B. Miller, under con­ Graves, describing war conditions and the tract to transport Confederate troops on the writer's difficulties in "escaping" from Little lower Mississippi. Rock, Arkansas, where she and her husband operated a school, presented by Miss Calista Mary Miles, Eau Claire; manuscript copy of Wisconsin Papers. Papers, 1897-1951, of Dr. Special Order 149 issued by Colonel Samuel Alfred Belitz, containing correspondence, Fallows, Commander of the 49th Regiment speeches and articles, and volumes listing Wisconsin Volunteers, directing Corporal daily calls, presented by Dr. Belitz, Pepin; Nathan B. Hood to guard a deserter being sent papers, 1919-1960, of Lewis C. French, agri­ to Springfield, Ohio, presented by Victor cultural editor of the Milwaukee Journal, in­ Gassere, Blue River; letters and diaries, 1861- cluding correspondence, speeches, articles, 1864, of Alfred Galpin, 1st Regiment Wiscon­ and annotated news releases concerning agri­ sin Volunteers, describing army skirmishes, culture, marketing, and conservation, pre­ camp life, treatment of prisoners, countryside, sented by Mrs. Lewis C. French, Milwaukee; and commodity prices in Tennessee, Kentucky, diaries, 1898-1954, of Herman J. Gebhardt, and Alabama; papers, 1863-1866, of Frank Black River Falls cranberry grower, socialist, D. Harding, Captain, 99th Regiment U. S. and exponent of reforestation, relating to Wis­ Colored Volunteer Infantry, consisting of consin cranberry production and business muster and descriptive rolls, discharges, and conditions during the first half of the twen­ pension certificate, presented by Willis H. tieth century, presented by Mrs. Herman Miller, Hudson; diary, 1864-1865, of George Gebhardt, Black River Falls; papers, 1940- 1948, of Dr. William E. Ground, Superior, M. Hinkley, 6th Michigan Cavalry, relating to including manuscripts concerning surgical army maneuvers in Maryland and Virginia, and sterile techniques, health, and sanitation, his capture at Tremillian Station, Virginia, presented by Mrs. Walter Peck, Superior; and prison life in South Carolina, presented papers, 1843-1888, of William B. Hazeltine, by Alberta J. Price; letters, 1860-1863, from Methodist circuit rider in Wisconsin, includ­ Franklin B. Howard, 10th Regiment Wiscon­ ing correspondence and diaries, presented by sin Volunteers, describing skirmishes, troop William E. and Weston L. Hazeltine, Baraboo; maneuvers, guard duty, and railroad destruc­ the private letterbooks, 1880-1909, of William tion in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama, Dempster Hoard, governor of Wisconsin and presented by Mabel A. Krohn, Brandon; publisher of Hoard's Dairyman, relating to diary, 1863, by William Noble, 2nd Regiment politics, dairy practices in Wisconsin, and Wisconsin Volunteers, describing battles and the policies of Hoard's Dairyman, including army life in Virginia and making frequent one diary, 1889, presented by W. D. Hoard, references to personnel of various companies, Jr., Fort Atkinson; papers, 1845-1899, of presented by Mrs. Mable Earp Cason, Whit- Friedrich A. Meissner, Cashton postmaster, more, California; letters, 1827-1864, of Al­ farmer, and seed specialist, including cor­ bert J. Rockwell, 20th Regiment Wisconsin respondence, letterbooks, diaries, and seed Volunteers, relating especially to army maneu­ record books, presented by Loren F. Meissner, vers in the lower Mississippi area during the Lafayette, California; papers, 1838-1940, of Civil War, presented by J. Russell Wheeler, Harrison Reed, Wisconsin real estate investor Milwaukee; typewritten article by George and later Governor of Florida, including let­ Baldwin Schick dealing with the experiences ters to his sister written from Washington, of privates Jacob Frederick Schick and D. C, 1862-1864, and miscellaneous docu­ Andrew Bright who fought with Ohio regi­ ments and notes on genealogy, presented by ments, presented by Mr. Schick, West Mrs. W. J. Bury, Phoenix, Arizona; papers, LaFayette, Indiana; pass, December 7, 1863, of Dr. Peter L. Scanlan, including cor­ used by H. K. Smith, newspaper correspond­ respondence, 1884-1954, research notes on ent, in moving among the armies composing local history and churches, genealogical notes the Military Division of the Mississippi; let­ on early Wisconsin families, and papers of ters, 1863-1866, written to William W. Will- his daughter, Marian, presented by Dr. Scan­ cox, 14th Regiment Wisconsin Volunteers, lan and by Marian Scanlan, Prairie du Chien;

153 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1961-1962 papers, 1853-1947, of Laura Case Sherry, Voice of America, May 31 - June 29, 1960, actress and play director, containing personal and news copy from the International Broad­ correspondence and scrapbooks relating to casting Service, January 11 — April 30, 1960, Mrs. Sherry's theatre work and "The Wiscon­ presented by the United States Information sin Players" of Milwaukee, presented by Agency, Washington, D. C. Avery Sherry, Milwaukee; papers, 1916-1953, of Arthur L. Tatum, University of Wisconsin professor of pharmacology and toxicology, Microfilm. Selections, 1857-1921, from the including correspondence, 1916-1954, lectures records of the Ansche Chesed Jewish congre­ and speeches, records of experiments, 1923- gation. La Crosse; papers, ca. 1746-1806, of 1953, and material relating to a field observa­ Isaac Backus, New England Baptist clergy­ tion trip to Guatemala, 1943, presented by man, including correspondence, an autobiog­ Mrs. Arthur L. Tatum, Madison; papers, raphy, diaries, household records, and geneal­ 1940-1958, of Bradley R. Taylor, Rhinelander ogy; papers, 1747-1783, of the British Head­ businessman, relating to Republican party quarters in America under Sir Guy Carleton, politics, the War Training Service program consisting chiefly of Carleton's correspond­ during World War II, and the American ence, 1782-1783, with previous commanders- Legion Memorial Library at Indianapolis, in-chief, intercepted letters of American gen­ presented by Mr. Taylor; papers, 1835-1951, erals, and sixty-nine letters of George Wash­ of William A. Titus, Fond du Lac business­ ington; three letters, 1863-1864, from Thomas man and local historian, including correspond­ Chandler, 28th Regiment Wisconsin Volun­ ence, studies relating to Indian tribes, articles teers, describing army experiences in south­ on the history of Fond du Lac and Wisconsin, east Missouri and Arkansas. and biographical manuscripts, presented by Mrs. Clarence Richards, Rhinelander. Newspapers Newspaper files on microfilm recently Mass Communications. Scripts for "Radio acquired by the Library through gift or pur­ Liberty," American Committee for Liberation, chase include: Atlanta (Ga.) Independent, as broadcast from Munich, Germany, to the January 23, 1904-1918; Liberty (Mo.) The U.S.S.R. every eight days from May 2, 1960, Far West, August 11-October 6, 1836, and to April 27, 1961, and on May 5, 1961, includ­ Liberty Weekly Tribune, April 16, 1852-April ing Russian script and English translation, 8, 1853, both donated by Thomas LeDuc, presented through Dr. Gene Sosin, Director, Oberlin College; Raleigh (N.C.) Sentinel, New York Bureau, Radio Liberty; papers, August 8, 1865-December 2, 1876; and Mem­ 1915—1960, of F. Darius Benham, reporter phis (Tenn.) Daily Appeal, July 18, 1857- and public relations counselor, including mis­ May 11, 1863; June 6, 1863-July 3, 1864; cellaneous correspondence, typescript articles, November 3, 1864; November 7, 1865-May and clippings relating to Benham and his 4, 1866. work, presented by Mrs. F. Darius Benham, The following newspapers have been made BayviUe, N. Y.; papers, 1947-1958, of Ken­ available for microfilming through the cour­ neth MacKenna, story editor for Metro- tesy of publishers and libraries: Los Angeles Goldwyn-Mayer, including correspondence, (Calif.) Transit Reporter, December 12, two speeches, comments on screen plays, and 1945-June 15, 1951; Cudahy (Wis.) Enter­ a typewritten diary of a scouting trip to prise, 1924-1930, 1944-February 14, 1952; London, 1947, presented by Mr. MacKenna, Cudahy Remainder-Enterprise, February 2, Culver City, California; papers, 1790-1951, 1939-1942; Cudahy Tracer, September 1943- of James D. Preston, Superintendent of the February 1946; Cumberland (Wis.) Advo­ Senate Press Gallery, 1897-1932, including cate, 1882-1890; Portage (Wis.) Badger research notes, copies of parts of diaries, and State, March 11, 1854-December 10, 1859, photostats of letters, presented by Edward H. and Portage City Record, April 29, 1857- Preston, Massapequa, N. Y.; one three-page April 17, 1861; Sturgeon Bay (Wis.) Door memorandum by Merriman Smith, reporter County Democrat, 1893-July 26, 1918; Door and commentator, describing a conference. County News, July 1, 1914-August 31, 1939; May 22, 1944, that Franklin D. Roosevelt had Sturgeon Bay Democrat, October 24, 1873- with Negro newspaper publishers, presented March 7, 1895; and Marshall (Wis.) Record, by Mr. Smith, Washington, D. C.; scripts April 27, 1895-1908, 1911-1933, 1936-1943, used by the Central Services Division of the 1946-1948, 1951-June 23, 1960.

154 ACCESSIONS

Norwegian woodcarving and decorative coloring are featured in this Mangeltraer, a smooth plank used for pressing linens. The handles were usually of the shape shown here, suggesting a stylized horse. This specimen is unusually long. Acquired from Glenn Ridnour, Monroe.

(Left) This extremely rare marked Betty lamp has the distinctive feature of a heart-shaped applied brass nameplate with the maker's name, Henry Boker, inscribed thereon. This type of lamp is much sought by collectors. Acquired from Glen Ridnour, Monroe.

(Below) Ginger canister from a nineteenth-century Illinois drug store. Flags of all nations surround the central medallion, which represents a Hessian soldier on a bay horse. The canister was made in Germany. Gift of Mrs. W. T. Stephens, Madison.

155 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1961-1962

committees on General Studies in the Humani­ ties and History of Culture. He is co-author CLonttLlyutot6... with Marvin Meyers and Alexander Kern of the anthology text Sources of the American JAMES H. RODABAUGH, editor Republic and has published articles on nine­ 1^^ of the Ohio Historical Quar- teenth-century American culture and litera­ I \ terly and head of the Division ture. He is currently working on a book on W^^''' of History and Science of the the self-made man and is doing research on ^ Ohio Historical Society, was other aspects of American culture. ••^|^H| born in Cincinnati 51 years ^Hl MmBt 3go and raised in Findlay, "~" ""^ Ohio. He took the A.B. and A.M. degrees at Miami University at Oxford and received the Ph.D. degree in history at REVEREND A. A. A. SCHMIR- LER, pastor of St. Patrick's Ohio State University. After teaching history Parish, Enderlin, North Da­ at Ohio State and at Denison University and kota, was born in Frankfort serving as assistant director of the Historical Township, Marathon County. Records Survey in Ohio, he joined the staff His seminary studies were of the Ohio Historical Society as assistant made at St. Nazianz, near director of the Rutherford B. Hayes Library Manitowoc, Wisconsin. While at Fremont in 1940. In 1946, following two continuing his education for the priesthood years as research historian for the Society, at St. Francis Seminary, Milwaukee, where Rodabaugh became editor of the Ohio Histori­ he completed work on his M.A. degree in cal Society. Author or co-author of twenty history under the tutelage of Msgr. Peter Leo books and booklets, he has written over one Johnson, he first became interested in the hundred articles and reviews for various jour­ character and career of Father Rene Menard, nals throughout the country and has edited the French Jesuit who was the first missionary and produced, besides the Ohio Historical to Wisconsin. Father Schmirler completed Quarterly, other periodicals and a number of his theological studies at St. Paul Seminary. books and pamphlets for both the Ohio His­ In 1942, having been ordained by Aloysius torical Society and the American Association Cardinal Muench, then Bishop of Fargo, for State and Local History. In 1959-1960 North Dakota, Father Schmirler celebrated Mr. Rodabaugh served as president of the his first Mass at St. John the Baptist Church Ohio Academy of History, the organization at Wuertzburg, Wisconsin. For four years he of professional historians of that state. served as an assistant and since then has ministered exclusively to rural parishes in the Fargo Diocese. He is the author of "Our Page," a history of Page, North Dakota, which was published under the auspices of JOHN CAWELTI was born in the North Dakota Agricultural College in ^^ 1929 in Evanston, Illinois. He Fargo. #Pm graduated from Oberlin Col- W^B lege in 1951 and, after mili- ^jHp^k^ tary service, entered the State ^^H^BH| University of Iowa where he ^^^^^^^H received an M.A. in 1956 and EDWARD L. GAMBILL was born ^^^^^ a Ph.D. in 1960, in the field in 1936 in Lexington, Ken­ of American Civilization. His doctoral dis­ tucky. He resided in Roches­ sertation was on the ideal of the self-made ter, Minnesota, from 1941 to man in America and it was from this angle 1960, attending a Rochester that he became interested in the significance high school and obtaining the of Horatio Alger. Since 1957, Mr. Cawelti B.A. degree from St. Olaf Col­ has taught in the College of the University of lege in 1958. He received the Chicago. He is currently chairman of the M.S. degree in history from the University of general education course in art, music, and Wisconsin in 1960 and is currently teaching literature, and teaches advanced courses in U.S. history at Rockford Auburn High School American literature and culture for the Eng­ in Rockford, Illinois. Mr. Gambill is married lish department and for the interdisciplinary and has two children.

156 aai^WL A History of by L American Medical Ethics, 1847-1912 DONALD E. KONOLD The first effort by a historian to trace the development of American medical ethics. Mr. Konold handles a perennially contro­ versial subject with vividness and honesty. lan^^ 128 pp. $3.50

The Historical Roots of the Principle of by Conservation of ERWIN HIEBERT Energy The origins of the theory of conservation of energy are considered through an analysis of the principles of ancient machines and early treatises on mechanics. 128 pp. $3.50

Farms in the by Cutover ARLAN HELGESON An account of one of the last great efforts to promote individual pioneering in Amer­ ica: the Wisconsin land promoters' attempts to settle the cutover land. 192 pp. $4.25

Anglican Reaction by SEVEN NEW LOGMARK TITLES to the Revolution, 1688-1702 GERALD STRAKA These attractive cloth hound editions The Anglican Church, not Locke's theories combine good writing and sound on the natural rights of men, provided the scholarship to create a quality book . . . major seventeenth century justification for the Glorious Revolution. 192 pp. $4.25 in every sense of the word.

Michel Eugene by Chevreul ALBERT B. COSTA A neglected pioneer in organic chemistry whose work on fats and oils turned soap making into a big business and gave organic chemistry a new dimension. 128 pp. $3.50 Nettie Fowler McCormick: Profile by of an American CHARLES BURGESS Philanthropist The wife of reaper magnate Cyrus McCor­ mick, who gave away eight million dollars, was a fascinating woman as well as a repre­ sentative philanthropist. 96 pp. $3.00

General William The State Historical Society Groener and the by of Wisconsin for Imperial German HELMUT HAEUSSLER Army The Department of History of the This story of a bourgeois provincial who University of Wisconsin rose to the highest ranks of the World War I Prussian army provides a scathing comment 816 State Street, Madison on the current power struggle. 176 pp. $4.00 To promote a wider appreciation of the American heritage The Purpose with particular emphasis on the collection, advancement, of this and dissemination of knowledge of the history of Wisconsin Society shall be and of the Middle West.

State Historical Society of Wisconsin 816 State Street Madison 6, Wisconsin Second class postage paid Return Requested Madison, Wisconsin