Wisconsin Magazine of History

(ISSN 0043-6534) WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

The State Historical Society oJ Wisconsin • Vol. 79, No. 3 • Spring, 1996

..}.**. •-.•'••* • c-.<>>i : '>»4i,-..';,-...*fc*i ^%-! fe

m^^

\^:- <4'3%>-^

-^^^ •r^ THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN

H. NicHOiAS MULLER III, Director

Officers GLENN R. C^OATEES, President RICHARD H. HOLSCHER, Treasurer GERALD D. VISTE, First Vice-President H. NiciioiAS MULLER III, Secretary PATRICIA A. B

The State Historical Society of Wisconsin is both a state agency and a private membership organization. Foimded in 1846—two years before statehood—and chartered in 18.53, it is the oldest American historical society to receive continiioirs public funding. By statute, it is charged with collecting, advancing, and disseminating knowledge ofWisconsin and ofthe trans-Allegheny West. The Society serves as the archive ofthe State ofWisconsin; it collects all manner of books, periodicals, maps, manuscripts, relics, newspapers, and aural and graphic materials as they relate to North America; it.maintains a mnseinn, library, and research facility in Madison as well as a statewide system of historic sites, school services, area research centers, and affiliated local societies; it administers a broad program of historic preservation; and publishes a wide variety of historical materials, both scholarly and popular.

Membership in the Society is open to the public. Individual membership (one person) is $27..50. Senior Citizen Individualmeinhership is $22.50. FnmiVy membership is $.32.50. .Senior Citizen /•ami/v membership is $27.50. .Supporting-membership is $100. Sustainingmetnherfihip is $250. A Patron contributes $500 or more. /,i/gmembership (one person) is $1,000. Membership in the Friends ofthe SHSW is open to the public. Individualthemhership (one person) is $20. Family membership is $.30. The Society is governed by a Bo'ard of Curators which includes twenty-four elected members, the Governor or designee, three appointees ofthe Governor, a legislator from the majority and minority from each hoirse, and ex officio, the President of the University ofWisconsin System, the President ofthe Friends ofthe State Historical Society, the President ofthe Wisconsin History Foundation, Inc., and the President of the Administrative Committee of the Wisconsin Council for Local History. A complete listing of the Curators appears inside the back cover.

The Society is headquartered at 816 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706-1488, at the juncture of Langdon and Park streets on the University of Wisconsin campus. The State Historical Museum is located at ,30 North Carroll Street. A partial listing of phone numbers (Area Code 608) follows:

General Admhiistration 264-6400 Hours ol operation 264-6588 Affiliated local societies 264-6.583 Institutional advancement 264-6.585 Archives reading room 264-6460 Library Circulation desk 264-65.34 Contribution of manuscript materials 264-6477 Maps 264-64.58 Development 264^589 Membership 264-6.587 Editorial offices 264-6461 Microforms reading room 264-65.36 Fax 264-6404 Mu.seum U)urs 264-6555 Film collections 264-6470 Newspaper reference 264-6531 Genealogical and general reference inquiries 264-65.35 Picture and sound collections 264-6470 (iovernment publications and reference 264-6.525 Public Information office 264-6.586 Historic preservation 264-6.500 School services 264-6579 Historic sites 264-6586 Archives Division http://www.wisc.edu/shs-archives

OiV rut: co\r.R: Sand Island shoreline. Apostle Islands National iMkeshore. Photo by William H. Tishler, 1981. Volume 79, Number 3 / Spring, 1996

WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

Published quarterly by the State Historical Society ofWisconsin, 816 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin Farming the Lake Superior Shore: 5.3706-1488. Agriculture and Horticulture Distributed to members as part of on the Apostle Islands, 1840-1940 163 their dues. Individual membership, $27.50; senior citizen individual, $22.50; family, $32.50; Arnold R. Alanen and William H. Tishler senior citizen family, $27.50; supporting, $100; sustaining, $250; patron, $500 or more; life (one person), $1,000. Single numbers 'The Padre at the Front": from Volume 57 forward are $5 plus postage. Microfilmed copies The World War 1 Letters of available through University Chaplain Walter Beaudette 204 Microfilms, 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106. Sean Patrick Adams and Michael E. Stevens Communications should be addressed to the editor. The Society does not assume responsibility for statements made by contributors. Second-class postage paid at Book Reviews 229 Madison, Wisconsin. POSTMASTER: Send address Book Review Index 248 changes to Wisconsin Magazine of History, Madison, Wisconsin 53706-1488. Copyright © 1996 by Wisconsin History Checklist 249 the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. Accessions 251

The Wisconsin Magazine of History is indexed annually by the editors; Contributors 254 cumulative indexes are assembled decennially. In addition, articles are abstracted and indexed in America: History and Life, Historical Abstracts, Index to Literature on ttie American Indian, and the Combined Editor Retrospective Index to Journals in Histmy, 1838-1974. PAUL H. HASS Associate Editors Photographs identified with WHi negative numbers are from the WILLIAM C. MARTEN Historical Societv's collections. JOHN O. HOLZHUETER Looking out from the Sand Island Lighthouse, 1981. Photo hy William H. Tishler.

162 Farming the Lake Superior Shore: Agriculture and Horticulture on the Apostle Islands, 1840-1940

By Arnold R. Alanen and William H. Tishler

F the twenty-two landforms in Lake attempt to farm the islands. Almost for O Superior that comprise the Apostle gotten are the farms and orchards that Islands archipelago, only the history of emerged on several of the Apostles—even Madeline Island—including its imprint though the genesis of these endeavors of Indian, French, British, and American may be traced back several centuries to cultures—is relatively well documented. the native Americans who inhabited the Studies that provide overviews ofthe other area. Some white farming practices were twenty-one islands, all of which now con introduced to the islands following the stitute the Apostle Islands National arrival of Jesuit missionaries and French Lakeshore, are limited in number. fur traders in the 1600's, but it was the Of the wide variety of human activities that took place on the other islands, in cluding fishing, logging, brownstone quar rying, lighthouse tending, and tourism, ' For examples of Apostle Islands' studies that feature Madeline Island and La Pointe, see Hamilton many were seasonal in nature, or else Nelson Ross, La Pointe: Village Outpost (Ann Arbor, occurred over the span of a few years 1960) andjohn O. Holzheuter, Madeline Island and only.' And next to nothing has been writ the Chequamegon Region (Madison, 1974). Publica ten about the sporadic but century-long tions and reports about islands other than Madeline generally have been devoted to fishing, logging, brownstone quarrying, and recreation. See, for ex ample. National Park Service, Family-Managed Com mercial Fishing in the Apostle Islands during the 20th AuTHOR.s' xoiK: For the assistance they provided, we Century, with Background Information on Commercial especially wish to thank David Snyder and Kate Fishing on Lake Superior (Denver, 1985); Jeffrey J. Lidfors, respectively the present and former staff Richner, An Archeological Evaluation ofthe Trout Point historians for the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. Logging Camp {hincoln, 1986); Charles Twining, "The George F. Thompson's help in the field and archives Apostle Islands and the Lumbering Frontier," in the was invaluable, as were the contributions of Carol Wisconsin Magazine of History, 66:91-111 (Spring Ahlgren, Linda and Marit Alanen, Barry Gore, Susan 1983); Kathryn B. Eckert, "The Sandstone Architec O. Haswell, and Sheree Peterson. We also are in ture ofthe Lake Superior Region" (doctoral disser debted to a number of people who shared their tation. University of Michigan, 1982); and Martha personal recollections ofthe Apostle Islands with us. Neuman, ""What Are Those Cabins Doing There? Grants from the Eastern Park and Monument A.sso History and Resource Management at Aposdes Is ciation provided funds to undertake a portion ofthe lands National Lakeshore" (master's thesis. Univer background research that underlies this article. sity of Wisconsin-Madison, 1993).

Iron wood i.

Bear 1 (|iA ^ ^ York I, Ki OttdTp S3 v^^ iXo Raspberry I. W^LHtJe Manitou L X_} ^ ^O^ JO-ManHou I,

s /Stockton I. 6^ oGulll. Hermit L C^Jv^Basswood I. iiC Michigart L

Red Ch

BAYFIELD 15^

Washburn

Barksdale

ASHLAND • FARMSTEAD t * LIGHTHOUSE N

MaphyRohcrlaCotiillaul

164 ALANEN/TISHLER: .\po.srLK ISLANDS first century of statehood, from the early called "lake effect." Because of its ma.s- 1840's to the 1940's, that mark the period sive surface (almost 32,000 square miles), of most active agricultural development. Lake Superior retains some summertime Today, all but the ruinous foundations of warmth well into the autumn, thereby a few farm buildings are gone, the fences delaying the onset of the first killing and rock walls have disappeared, the pas frost on adjacent land areas. By the mid- tures and orchards are overgrown with nineteenth century, local observers noted brush, saplings, and small trees. But the that the Apostles' growing season ranged century-long effort to grow cash crops in from 130 to 140 days during an average the harsh, beautiful environment of the year. Climatologists later confirmed that Superior shore provides an interesting this period exceeded some inland sec footnote to the history of agriculture in tions ofthe state by more than forty days, Wisconsin as well as the limitless opti and equaled areas ofWisconsin situated mism of those men and women who pio hundreds of miles farther south. In addi neered on the Apostle Islands. tion, extreme wintertime temperatures To some extent, the promotion and were less likely on the islands than they evolution of farming on the Apostle Is were a dozen miles inland.'' lands reflect processes that occurred The glacially formed soils ofthe islands— throughout northern Wisconsin and the consisting primarily of a clay base overlaid entire Lake Superior region. Once the with silt loams mixed with small rocks and region's forest cover was cut or destroyed boulders—are quite similar to those of by timber companies and fires during the the Bayfield peninsula. For that reason, by latter nineteenth and early twentieth cen the latter half of the nineteenth century. turies, a veritable army of individuals— including land speculators and promot ers, railroad and timber agents, agricul - Innumerable examples exist of the promo tural scientists, politicians, government tional literature that was generated to advertise the supposed agricultural possibilities of northern Wis bureaucrats, and prospective settlers— consin. Among the most prominent were those pre foresaw a day when the stump-dotted land pared by scientists in the College of Agriculture at scape of the Cutover would be converted the University ofWisconsin. See, for example, W. A. into a productive "garden." Numerous Henry, A Handbook for the Home.seeker(M-ddison, 1896); efforts were made to farm the region, but E.J. Delwiche, Opportunities ftn F^arming in Northern Wwcon«n, Agricultural Experiment Station, Bulletin in the end, the success of such ventures no. 196 (Madison, 1910); and Harry L. Rus.se\l, Farms was severely limited by climatic and soil Follow Stumps, Agricultural Experiment Station, Bul constraints, as well as by the absence of letin no. 332 (Madison, 1921). Overviews of these significant nearby markets.'^ early promotional activities and the subsequent evo lution of agriculture in northern Wisconsin include However, despite certain similarities Arlan Helgeson, Farms in the Cutover: Agricultural between the Apostle Islands and the larger Settlement in Northern Wisconsin (Madison, 1962); Cutover region, the islands possessed sev RobertJ. Gough, "Richard T. Ely and the Develop eral unique features which set them apart ment of the Wisconsin Cutover," in the Wisconsin Magazine of History, 75:3-38 (Autumn 1991); and from mainland Wisconsin. Because ofthe Susan Olsen Ha.swell, "Colonizing the Cutover: The transportation corridor provided by Lake Environmental and Historical Context for Chang Superior, the islands and the north shore ing Land Use Patterns in Northwestern Wisconsin, were accessible to explorers and settlers from Earliest Settlement to Planned Communities well before the interior heartland was ofthe Progressive Era" (master's thesis. University of reached by roads and railways. Another Wisconsin-Madison, 1992). major factor clearly distinguished the ' Bayfield Press, April 8, 1871; A. R. Whitson and O. E. Baker, The Climate ofWisconsin and Its Relation to Apostle Islands and the Bayfield Penin Agriculture, Agricultural Experiment Station, Bulle sula from inland areas—namely, the so- dn no. 223 (Madison, 1912).

165 ^^B m

A group of Sand Island residents, date unknown. Photo from, the Mae Family Collection, courtesy the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. the Apostle Islands were perceived to be Other natural features ofthe islands, how suitable for fruits, vegetables, small grains, ever, severely limited the activities of pro and dairy farming. The inland portions of spective agrarians on the Apostles. Since Cat, Ironwood, Michigan, Sand, and Stock a number of the islands include high ton islands contain level and gently roll shoreline bluffs, and only a few possess ing land, although each displays some large and accessible sandy beaches, it of marshy and poorly drained sections. Sev ten proved difficult to find a place to dock eral of the remainingislands include much and harbor ships. When engaged in a higher ground, especially Oak, which, at survey of the Bayfield area in 1910, soil its highest point, rises 420 feet above Lake scientist Gustavas B. Maznadier and his Superior.'' colleagues claimed that "the only objec tion to the agricultural development of the islands is their inaccessibility."-^ Such ' Gustavas B. Maznadier etal., "SoilSurvey of the remoteness was especially pronounced Bayfield Area, Wisconsin," in Operations ofthe Bureau during two treacherous periods of each of Soils, 1910, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bu year when the Apostles were completely reau of Soils (Washington, 1912), 1125-1131,1141- shut off from the mainland: the stormy, 1146;J. Kenneth Ablicter and F. D. Hole, SoilSurvey of Bayfield County, Wisconsin, U.S. Department of late autumn season prior to freezeup, and Agriculture, Soil Conservation Service (Washing ton, 1961), 27, .38, 42, 50; U.S. Department of Agri culture, Soil Conser\'ation Service, "General Soils Map: Ashland, Bavfield, Douglas and Iron C^.ounties" ' Maznadier et al., "Soil Suncy of the Bayfield (1993). Area," p. 1131.

166 AEANEN/TISHEER: APOSTLE LSIANDS an early springtime interim when the ice location ofa French fort and fur-trading was breaking up. As will be seen, despite post, followed by a period of British domi the persistent efforts of a wide variety of nance from the late I700's to the close of stubborn visionaries, the Apostle Islands' the War of 1812. During the French and numerous natural constraints ultimately British regimes, some level of agricultural prohibited little more than very limited self-sufficiency was achieved. Jesuit mis agricultural and horticultural develop sionaries, for example, are credited with ments to take place. introducing cherry trees to the islands.' In 1816, the British were forced to depart the region because of a congressional act ATI\T, Americans, including bands prohibiting non-citizens ofthe United States N of Hurons and Ottawas and larger from engaging in trade. Emerging as the groups of Ojibwas, were pursuing agricul inland headquarters for the American Fur ture on some of the Apostles Islands Company, La Pointe displayed the trappings and on nearby areas ofthe mainland prior of "a busy, hustling litde place," replete with to the late eighteenth century when the first warehouses, stores, cooper shops, two hotels. contacts with Europeans took place. In 1669, Catholic and Protestant missions, a school, French missionaries reported that Hurons and dwelling units. During the four decades and Ottawas grew corn in the vicinity of that the Ameri-can Fur Company was head Chequamegon Bay, and other reports noted quartered on Madeline Island, the firm main that Ojibwa gardens existed on Madeline tained a large garden and orchard that pro Island. The German ethnographer Johann duced apples, currants, and vegetables, while Georg Kohl pointed out in 1860 that the farms and pastures were located elsewhere islands played a "great part in . . . Indian traditions," having served as a long-time residence for tribes engaged in hunting, fishing, gathering, and farming. Kohl's ob servations, as well as several anthropologi '' Johann Georg Kohl, translated into English by Lascelles Wraxall, Kitchi-Gami: Life Among the cal and archeological investigations con Lake Superior Ojibway (St. Paul, 1985; reprint of ducted on Madeline Island and in other original 1860 edition, with a new introduction and areas of the Lake Superior region, have additional translations), 2, 227, 231; Reuben G. noted that the Ojibwas cultivated pump Thwaites, "The Story of Chequamegon Bay," in the kins, squash, and corn, and gathered veg Wisconsin Historical Collections, XIII:407-409; Wil liam F. Warren, History ofthe Ojibway People (St. Paul, etables from the wild. After European con 1984; reprint of original 1885 edition), 96, 97, 111, tact, the Ojibwas introduced potatoes, 299; Edmundjefferson Danziger,Jr., The Chippewas beans, and other domestic vegetables into of Lake Superior (Norman, 1978), 3, 12; Frances their farming regimen, growing the plants Densmore, Chippewa Customs (St. Paul, 1979; re in small kitchen gardens situated near their print oi Bulletin 86, Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology, 1929), 122, 124; Charles E. settlements. Several of the Apostles were Cleland, Rites of Conquest: The History and Culture also utilized by the Ojibwas for their berries; of Michigan's Native Americans (Ann Arbor, 1992), and the remnants of a maple sugar camp 47; Robert A. Birmingham and RobertJ. Salzer, were still visible on Oak Island when federal "The Marina Site Excavations" (unpublished re land surveyors documented the archipelago port on file in the office of the Wisconsin State Archeologist, Madison); Surveyors' Notes, General in the 1850's.'' Land Office Surveys of Ashland and Bayfield Coun White settlement of the Apostles oc ties, 1852-1857, in the Wisconsin State Archives, State Historical Society ofWisconsin, Madison. curred intitally in 1665, when Father Claude Jean Allouez established the La ' Grace Lee Nute, LaA«S«penor(Indianapolis and NewYork, 1944), 25, 32-38; Ross, La Pointe, 40-43, Pointe mission on Madeline Island. From 4.5-57, 62-63,70; Maznadier et al., "Soil Survey of the 1693 to 1762, La Pointe served as the Bayfield Area," 1131.

167 WISCONSIN M.«;.\ZINE OF HLSTOR'i' SPRIN(;, 1996 on the island. Since a large portion ofthe and to have kept as many as a hundred original red and white pine already had chickens.-' been cut for fuel, building construction, Between the mid- and late 1850's, a and the production of fish barrels, residence and forty-acre clearing were Madeline's cutover had begun to regen established along the southwestern shore erate as an aspen forest by the 1830's.*' line of Oak Island by an Indian inter By the time Wisconsin Territory came preter, Benjamin G. Armstrong. Born in into existence, Hermit and Oak islands Alabama in 1820, Armstrong had moved also served as the isolated haunts for two northward, working at one time in a St. early white settlers, both ofwhom devel Croix River pinery near present-day oped gardens and engaged in rudimen Hudson, Wisconsin. While there, he had tary agricultural activities. Undoubtedly learned the Ojibwa language, and he the most infamous individual was William later married a Native American woman Wilson, a recluse who built a log cabin on from the La Pointe area. In 1855, he Hermit in 1847 and lived there until his moved to Oak Island, where he sold hard death in 1861. Although many ofthe leg wood that was used for fuel by lake steam ends and stories associated with Wilson ers and traded food and supplies for furs undoubtedly are apocryphal, it is appar provided by the Ojibwas. Six years later, ent that he was born in Canada of Scottish Armstrong transferred back to Bayfield parents, was initially employed by the to serve as an interpreter for the local Hudson Bay Company in the vicinity of Indian agent. While residing on Oak Is Sault Ste. Marie, and later worked for the land, the transplanted Alabaman, his American Fur Company at La Pointe. It wife, and four children built a house, was claimed that local Ojibwas feared barn, and dock, and cultivated five acres Wilson, and fishermen and other observ of land. Apparently their crops grew quite ers avoided the island because of threats well, as indicated by an 1860 account he made against intruders. In 1856, a which stated that Armstrong had brought Cincinnati reporter wrote that the hermit a "splendid lot" of King Phillip corn into permitted "no human being to visit his Bayfield from Oak Island, and that his solitary abode." About twice a year Wilson rye was the tallest specimen ever seen in stocked up on provisions at nearby settle the community.'" ments, and he sold some of the produce from a large garden "which he tended with care." During the fourteen years Wilson spent on Hermit, he also was re '' Benjamin G. Armstrong, Flarly Life Among the ported to have maintained a small num Indians, Dictated to and Written by Thomas P. Wentworth (Ashland, 1892), 206-210; Cincinnati Gazette, cited ber of fruit trees, to have sold hay from a in the Lake Superior fournal of Marquette, Michigan, small meadow located behind his house. September 13, 1856; Samuel S. Fifield, "Beautiful Isles of Chequamegon," in the Ashland Weekly Press, December 21, 1895; Samuel S. Fifield, "Among the Historic Apostle Islands," in National Magazine Quly, ** The descriptions of Madeline Island during the 1898), 366; Bayfield County Press, March 22, 1884, early 1800'sarefrom Danziger, The Chippewas of Lake May 22, 1886, July 2, 1892, July 19, 1902, and Superior, 3-4; C. D. O'Brien's account, reprinted in September 16, 1904. part in Nute, Lake Superior, 270-272; Ross, La Pointe, '" Folder of Field Notes for a Biographical Sketch, 74-107; and the summary by Lawrence Rakestraw el in the Benjamin G. Armstrong Papers, Wisconsin al., "Original Forest Vegetation and Land Use His Slate Archives, Madison; Armstrong, Early Life tory of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore," in Among the Indians, 261, 265-266; Surveyors' Notes, Proceedings of the F'irst Conference on Scientific Research in General Land Office Survey of Ashland County, the National Parks, "Vol. I, ed. by Robert M. Linn (New Wisconsin State Archives; Rakestraw et al., "Origi Orleans, 1979), 111. See also the Bayfield County nal Forest Vegetation," 111; Bayfield Press, May 18, Frm, June 19, 1886. 1872 (citing an 1860 issue of a Bayfield newspaper). 168 f. L •» 1 I* J^J^ •

Enjoying the bounty of a Sand Island apple orchard. Photo courtesy the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.

These early residents came to the is time when summer visitors seeking health lands for quite different reasons. William and natural beauty would venture to Lake Wilson the self-sufficient loner had sought Superior's southern shore. Noting the out Hermit Island for its remoteness and heavy timber cover still found on the is isolation; Benjamin Armstrong and his lands in 1856, he concluded—somewhat family had attempted to make a liveli optimistically, perhaps—that such vegeta hood on Oak Island by engaging in trad tion was evidence of how "well adapted" ing and farming. Yet others saw the is the Apostles were to agricultural purposes. lands as offering more than solitude or In only a few years, he predicted, the sustenance farming. Indeed, the earliest islands would be settled." proposals that actually called for the de velopment ofthe Apostles focused on the potential of the archipelago as a tourist URING the immediate post-Civil War attraction and the opportunities it pre D years, local observers were quick to sented for specialized horticulture. A re advocate fruits and vegetables as ideal porter from the Cincinnati Gazette even drew favorable comparisons between the Apostle Islands and such well-known re " Cincinnati Gazette, cited in the Lake Superior /owrnaZ(Marquette, Michigan), September 13, 1856; sort communities as Saratoga, NewYork, Bayfield Press, April 8, 1871; Bayfield County Press, June and Cape May, New Jersey, foreseeing a 19, 1886. 169 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OE HISTORY SPRING, 1996 crops for the Apostles, followed by claims Minnesota'sfirstU.S. senator (1858-1863), that Lake Superior's tempering effect and the primary founder of Bayfield in made it possible to grow hay and raise 1856, purchased the entirety of Rocky Is cattle. In 1870, a Bayfield paper claimed land in 1868. (For decades thereafter, resi that the economic potential of the is dents of the Bayfield area referred to the lands, and the proximate mainland, could small land mass as "Rice's Island.") After not be realized until more time was de supervising the clearance of some land on voted to farming. "The ring ofthe axe and the eastern side of the distant island. Rice [the] crashing of falling trees from day determined that the development of an light to darkness of night," extolled the orchard was not feasible, and he discontin commentator, would lead to the develop ued developments. In 1909, some years ment of large fields and the appearance after the deaths of Rice and his widow of "all kinds of vegetables and grains Matilda, their children sold the holding to adapted to this climate." A year later an a land company, the first of numerous trans other report gave special attention to the fers that characterized the subsequent his Apostles' climatic features, claiming that tory of Rocky Island.''' frosts did not affect the outer islands until Stearns, ajuristwho briefly served as one November and that the coldest winter of Minnesota's U.S. senators in 1871, also temperatures never dropped below mi purchased 640 acres of land on an un nus ten degrees Fahrenheit. "So it will be named island for a group of eastern capital seen," continued the account, "that in ists in the early 1870's. After hearing length of summer season, warmth of cli Stearns's claim that peaches could grow as mate and of water, we are more highly abundantly on the Apostles as they did favored than the famous fruit region of along the eastern shoreline of Lake Michi Western Michigan. Our soil is rich, the gan, the Bayfield Press announced that the islands easily accessible, and a never fail acquisition of land and the development of ing market at hand; for it has been fully such a large orchard would lead to local demonstrated that fruit cannot be suc markets being filled "with the most luxuri cessfully raised upon the rich wheat plains ant and delicious peaches, pears and of the west; owing to the want of early apples." There is no indication, however, snow and the severe frosts occasioned by that the Stearns syndicate ever attempted to the absence of the ameliorating infiu- develop its northern Wisconsin property.'* ences upon the main shore the ground Elsewhere, promoters and investors never freezes deep enough to injure pota sought to convert a few islands into horti toes. They can be planted in the fall, or cultural enclaves. An 1871 account about dug in the spring."'- Ironwood Island claimed that it's "a dark Throughout the 1860's and 1870's, loam and . . . fine growth of timber indi various schemes to develop fruit orchards cates great strength and fertility" and noted on several islands were proposed by finan that a purchaser recently had cleared some ciers who had prior associations with the land for the purpose of cultivating pota development of Bayfield. Among the best toes. Six years later it was reported that a known were Henry M. Rice and Ozara P. Stearns, the earliest of several Minnesotans who sought financial gain by investing in '•' Ibid., May 13, 1871; Warren Upham and Rose Apostle Islands property, orchards, and Barteau Dunlap, comps., Minnesota Biographies, 1655- farms. Rice, a former Indian agent. 7972 (St. Paul, 1912), vol. 14:638; Fifield, "Beautiful Islands of Chequamegon," 4; Neuman, "What Are Those Cabins Doing There?", 26, 28. " BayfieldPres.s, May 6 andjune 13, 1871; Upham Bayfield Press, October 27, 1870, April 8, 1871. and Dunlap, Minnesota Biographies, 14:736-737. 170 Getting a perspective on winter on Sand Island. Anna Mae or fosie Hill standing by the buildings along the shoreline on the Shaw-Hill farm, date unknown. Photo from the Dahl Family Collection, courtesy the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.

farmer from Ironwood had arrived in excellent soil still awaited someone who Bayfield with "a fine lot of vegetables," but would raise small fruits and vegetables. apparently the site was abandoned soon Eventually, both South Twin and Rocky thereafter. In 1868, Dr. Samuel Willey— Islands served as summer fishing stations who had served as St. Paul's first city physi for a small number of Norwegians; the cian in 1856—and his wife Mary purchased agricultural efforts of these inhabitants South Twin Island with the intention of were limited to the cultivation of small converting part of it into a farm. ("Willey's gardens fertilized with fish offal, although Island" quickly became the local name for one family did import two cows to the South Twin.) The Willeys had a small tract latter island for a few months over the span cleared, and soon an orchard and a small ofseveral summers.'-"' farm emerged on the island. The holding was abandoned after Willey died in 1872; then a wind storm demolished the farm '^ Bayfield Press,]une 3, 1871, October 17, 1877; buildings five years later. Noting the sec C. C. Andrews, History of St. Paul, Minn., With Illustra ond-growth vegetation that covered the tions and Biographical Sketches of Some of its Prominent 'original clearing by 1895, Samuel Fifield, Men andPioneers (Syracuse, 1890), 300; Fifield, "Beau an Ashland newspaperman who served as tiful Isles of Chequamegon," 4; Neuman, "What Are Those Cabins Doing Here?," 26,29,72-73; Rakestraw lieutenant-governor from I88I to 1885, etal, "OriginalForestVegeladon," 11; R.W.Johnson, commented that the island's 400 acres of "The Rise and Decline ofan Apostle Island Fishing 171 An abandoned hay mower at the site of the former McCloud-Brigham F'arm, Basswood Island, 1981. Photo hy William H. Tishler.

Rice, Stearns, Willey, and other well- much of far-northern Wisconsin was too known and financially successful individu inaccessible and remote to be settled. But als might have spoken eloquentiy about the because of the access provided by Lake agrarian potential ofthe Apostles, and even Superior, prospective homesteaders could invested their own money and that of oth reach the islands more readily, and they ers in several related ventures, but it was a were soon drawn to the region. much more anonymous group of people Richard W. McCloud, a Civil War vet who actuallydetermined both the potential eran and the first person to claim an Apostle and the limitations of the islands. Island homestead, was one of northern Wisconsin's earliest homesteaders. After filing for 171 acres of Basswood Island ^HE Homestead Act of 1862 exerted land on December 12, 1865, McCloud I an immediate impact upon some made the required improvements to his islands. When the Civil War ended in property and "proved up" the holding in 1865, and for several years afterward. 1871. By this time, he had constructed a 16' X 16'story-and-a-half log house, which included a 10' X 16' frame addition. The Camp: Comments on a Subsistence Lifestyle," in Proceedings of the Sixth Annual Research Conference, structure had lumber floors, a shingled Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, ed. by M. M. Bailey roof, two doors, and "three windows with (Omaha, 1984), 5. six lights of glass in each window." McCloud 172 \\ .' \ . V •'•• •' • •

The remnants of an orchard and clearing at the former McCloud-Brigham Farm, Basswood Island, 1981. Photo by William H. Tishler.

called himself a market gardener, having a single acre of land just prior to making fenced in and cultivated about five acres of his cash purchase." his property."' While McCloud's two neighbors soon McCloud developed a fairly viable agri departed Basswood, the agricultural accom cultural enclave on Basswood, but several plishments of the former were widely trum individuals who followed him to the is peted in Bayfield press accounts. By 1870, land either were not as diligent or as he reportedly was supplying six varieties of successful. One day after McCloud made onions and ten of corn for a crew of men his initial entry in late 1865, John Bono working at the nearby brownstone quarry applied for 151 acres of adjacent land, operated by Strong, French & Co. The but before long he abandoned his claim. squash McCloud brought into Bayfield for This property, and an adjacent 160-acre display weighed close to seventy pounds holding, were acquired for $188 apiece by apiece, while individual tomatoes tipped two separate men in 1871; each quickly constructed a small log cabin and cleared " Information on John Bono is from the Federal Land Office Record Books for Bayfield, Wisconsin "' Homestead Application No. 35, Bayfield Land State Archives. Data for the other two men, Nazaire Office (on file in the National Archives and Records La Bonte and Peter Richards, have been derived Administration, Washington, D.C; hereinafter re from Cash Entry Certificates Nos. 1762 and 1763 ferred to as NARA). respectively, Bayfield Land Office, NARA. 173 f > y***'- • *'T?ft-*.'

l"'.' '.vf..

'•'?.i-'

•-•••. -lA^

7'/je remains of a foundation at the former McCloud-Brigham Farm, Basswood Island, 1981. Photo by William H. Tishler.

the scales at three pounds. In 1877, Apostles. Situated almost sixteen miles from McCloud's "wonderful place for farm Bayfield, Michigan Island became the locus products of mammoth proportions" was for a small but steady stream of individuals alleged to have produced a pumpkin that who sought to establish nurseries, home reached eighty-one pounds, a snake cu steads, and farms from the late 1860's to the cumber four feet in length, and "monster early 1900's. Since the outer ring of the potatoes" fully eight inches in diameter. Apostles was believed to possess greater The Basswood farmer's winter wheat, even climatic advantages than islands situated though raised on an unprotected, wind closer to the mainland, and Michigan's swept area of the island, was said to "com soils and terrain appeared to be relatively pare favorably with the average Minne well suited for horticulture and agriculture, sota or Illinois grain."'^ the island received attention from several adventurous pioneers.

ASSWOOD Island was relatively ac B cessible to Bayfield and the mainland peninsula; but the next island to receive '** Bayfield Press, November 5 and 12, 1870; Sep attention from prospective agrarians was tember 30 and November 25, 1871; October 10 and Michigan, one of the most distant of the November 28, 1877. 174 AIJ\NEN/TLSHLER: APOSTLE ISLANDS

No single person was more important he had raised but was also pointing to the in the early horticultural development prodigious crop of oats he had recently of Michigan Island and the entire archi harvested. The lighthouse keeper cum pelago than lighthouse keeper Roswell nurseryman-farmer also raised vegetables H. Pendergast. Born in New Hampshire and flowers on his newly cleared ground. in 1831, Pendergast and his wife Helen Some of the Irish Rose potatoes report lived in Minnesota before moving to La edly weighed in at nearly three pounds Pointe after the Civil War. By 1869, he was apiece, the corn and beans were acclaimed tending the lighthouse on Michigan Is as "splendid," and a bouquet of pansies land. Almost immediately, he began ex presented at the newspaper office in perimenting with fruit trees, planting Bayfield was "large, beautiful, and fra several thousand specimens. Though he grant." Other observers also noted that was only in his early forties, local news Pendergast and his family had quite a paper accounts soon began to identify "hennery" on the island, with the accom Pendergast as an "old nurseryman" and plishments of the chickens being no less "enterprising horticulturist."'^ impressive than those of the farm and Believing that the output of fruit trees nursery. The Ashland Press dutifully re could provide a profit to growers on the ported, in 1872, that two eggs the hens island and throughout the entire area had laid were close to five inches in diam adjacent to Lake Superior, Pendergast eter.-' (As was so often the case through sold young nursery stock to mainland resi out Wisconsin's Cutover, newspaper edi dents. Apples were his major interest, but tors and boosters habitually inflated their the ambitious lighthouse keeper also ex claims about the region's fruitfulness and perimented with shrubs and other fruit productivity.) trees, including cherries, peaches, plums, and pears. By the fall of 1872, reports stated that he had sold $3,000 worth of ESPITE the many optimistic agricul trees during the year. Such success, con D tural claims made about Michigan cluded the editor of the Ashland Press, and several of the other Apostles during indicated that Pendergast was providing the 1860's and 1870's, some observers did the foundations for a first-class business, express the need to practice caution and perhaps for success and fortune.'^'' restraint. A report from St. Paul pointed In May, 1871, Pendergast began engag out that even though Pendergast had ing in more conventional farming en begun developing an extensive orchard deavors when he unloaded several yoke of on Michigan Island, where he was engag cattle on Michigan Island, together with ing in fruit growing experiments, many farm implements and seed. Some four years would need to pass before actual months later, the island's enthusiastic success could be determined. In fact, it booster not only was praising the apples does appear that Pendergast briefly re considered Michigan Island as the best site for his Lake Superior nursery. An 1872 announcement stated that because '^ U.S. Census manuscript schedules, 1870, avail Pendergast's nursery stock had to be trans able in the Wisconsin Slate Archives; Bayfield Press, ported from the island to property own October 13 and 27, 1870; June 3 and September 2, ers residing as far away as the community 1871 (the latter quoting from the Arg-wiofRedWing, Minnesota); "In Memoriam: Roswell H. Pendergast," in Minnesota Horticulturist, 30:437-438 (November, 1913). ™ Bayfield Press, October 27, 1870; March 4, 1871; '" Bayfield Press, May 20, September 2, 16, 23, Ashland Press, October 12, 1872. 1871; A.shland Press, September 28, 1872. 175 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1996 of Ontonagan, Michigan, he was consider crab apple trees, a few cherry trees, and a ing a move to the Fish Creek area, just west pear tree. Ed Lane, who served as keeper of Ashland. The transfer did not take place, ofthe Michigan Island light from 1901 to however, for Pendergast was still delivering 1938, maintained the grounds, expand quantities of Michigan Island fruit trees ing the vegetable and flower gardens and and shrubs to mainland residents as late as adding more cherry trees, several lilac June, 1874.22 bushes, a cedar hedge, and a croquet Pendergast's solicitations for the major green.2' ity of nursery orders took place during the Virtually every Apostle Islands light winter months when he resided in Bayfield house included a garden and displayed with his family. (Since the Great Lakes some special landscape treatment. Louis were closed to shipping from late Novem Larson, an early Raspberry Island light ber to April, the lighthouses were not house keeper, presented a "splendid mess staffed during winter.) The nurseryman of potatoes" to Bayfield observers in 1871; had other interests to keep him busy while but these accomplishments were sur residing in Bayfield, including working as passed one decade later by his successor, an agent for Brattan's Copper Strip Light Seth Snow, whose specimens of barley ning Conductor and serving as a canvasser supposedly could not "be bettered in the for the Rev. Henr)' Ward Beecher (1813- State." According to the editor of the 1887), the noted Congregational preacher, Bayfield County Press, the garden at Rasp orator, and lecturer who had been a leader berry had produced the "largest and hand in the pre-Civil War antislavery movement, somest onions we ever gazed upon," with and who later gained a reputation as a the examples ranging from eleven and a woman suffrage advocate and proponent half to fourteen and a half inches in cir ofthe theory of evolution. In June, 1874, cumference. Snow and his family also however, Pendergast abruptly resigned from his post as keeper of the Michigan light, reportedly for health reasons. One can only speculate that the accidental -•' Bayfield Press, February 17, 1872, p. 3; Ashland drowning of his two-month-old son one Press, August 16, 1873, p. 3; June 6, 1874, p. 3. After moving from northern Wisconsin, Pendergast was year earlier contributed to the nursery affiliated with the Rose Hill Nursery of Minneapolis man's malaise.'^"' and Duluth for several decades, where he achieved The Michigan Island nursery was no distinction as a horticulturist. During the early 1900's he also established a small farm and nursery on longer maintained after Pendergast, who Minnesota's Iron Range, and sold trees and shrubs with his wife and two surviving sons left to residents in the booming mining town of Hibbing. northern Wisconsin for Minneapolis and Now identified as the "old nursery man ofthe Lake then Duluth. Nonetheless, the legacy of Superior region," Pendergast briefly wrote a Hibbing his landscape enterprise continued for newspaper column that advised local residents on the proper planting of shade trees, and was no less many ensuing years in those Lake Supe enthusiastic about the agricultural prospects of north rior settlements where he originally had ern Minnesota than he had been about the Apostle sold fruit trees and shrubs to local Islands. For information on Pendergast's activities homeowners. The grounds proximate to after leaving Bayfield, refer to the Bayfield Press, the Michigan lighthouse also continued October 10, 1877, p. 1; "In Memoriam," p. 438; and to display Pendergast's handiwork for the Mesaba Ore and the Hibbing News (Hibbing, MN), August 27, 1904, p. 5; April 30, 1905, p. 8; July 10, some time, as evidenced by several large 1909, p. 3. -^ Interview with Edna Lane Sauer of East Dubuque, lllnois. May 1, 1982, conducted by Kate '^'' Bayfield Press, September 23, 1871 (quoting the Lidfors; tape and transcript on file at the Apostle St. Paul Press), and February 17, 1872; Ashland Press, Islands National Lakeshore headquarters in Bayfield October 12, 1872, and June 6, 1874. (hereinafter referred to as AINL). 176 The Sand Island Lighthouse, 1981. Photo by William H. Tishler.

raised "pansies and pinks" in their garden OLLOWING Roswell Pendergast's de and kept five breeds of chickens, the larg F parture from Michigan in 1874, the est of which was purportedly the size ofa island's homestead era began. Indeed, the turkey. When Emmanuel and Ella Luick last quarter ofthe nineteenth centur)' marks departed Sand Island's lighthouse for the the entire archipelago's most expansive era mainland each November during the late of agricultural development, with a num 1890's, they did not butcher the chickens, ber of intrepid pioneers seeking to convert but instead brought them to a nearby portions of Michigan and a few other is Norwegian farmer at East Bay who cared lands into a patchwork of pastures, fields, for them over the winter months. Ella and orchards that were dotted with diminu Luick, who occasionally served as the tive log and frame houses, barns, sheds, and island's assistantlighthouse keeper, made fishing shanties. Throughout much of this note of all this in their logbook. Noting period, local press accounts continued to that her husband, on skis, "made a poor Norwegian," she observed that he none ''•' Bayfield Press, August 27, 1881, October 21, theless was willing to use them: "He put 1871, January 28 and May 6, 1882; Bayfield County qur four chickens in a bushel basket, and Pres.s, October 10, 1885, p. 1; Ella Luick, Keeper's the basket in a bag, and the skees' [sic] on Log, Sand Island Light Station, Bayfield County, his feet, and with the bag on his back he Wisconsin, November 23, 1893, in U. S. Coast Guard Light Station Logbooks (original in Record Group 26, started for East Bay."2'' NARA; copy on file in AINL).

177 WISCONSIN MAG.'VZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1996 tout the perceived agricultural potential a sixty-year-old French-Canadian widower. of the islands. The mixed softwoods and Boutin emigrated from Quebec to Two hardwoods that grew on the Apostles sup Rivers, Wisconsin, in 1839, and then posedly produced soils that were superior moved with his father and seven brothers to any others. "An intelligent vegetable to Bayfield about thirty years later. Prima farmer," concluded one editor, "can real rily working as a fisherman, Boutin paid ize from ten acres of land more substan cash for his 166 acres of Michigan Island tial benefit than he could from one hun property six months after making the ini dred acres of Dakota land."2'' tial homestead entry. (Typically, home The first to homestead on Michigan steaders gained title to their properties by Island were Joseph and Mary Sexton who, maintaining continuous residence and in 1877, filed a claim for 140 acres of land making improvements over the span of at the far western end of the island—the five or more years; alternatively, claim area closest to the mainland. When the ants could, after residing for six months Sextons acquired title to their property on the property and initiating certain six years later, they had constructed a improvements, acquire full title for a cash frame house, cleared six acres of land, payment of .11.25 per acre.) During the and grown crops on a portion ofthe area. six months Boutin spent on the island, he To support Sexton's fishing activities, the had built a small house and a boat shanty property also included a fish house, a and grown some potatoes on a quarter- cooper shop, and a smoke house. Joseph acre parcel of cleared land.2*' and Mary Sexton and their children were Two years after Boutin's arrival, John among the first family units to attempt Baxter, a single, twenty-six-year-old Scots year-round residence on any Apostle Is man, filed for a 160-acre homestead on land other than Madeline. Soon, how Michigan Island. Baxter claimed the prop ever, the Sextons encountered a dilemma erty after five years of residence, although that virtually every young family faced he occasionally left the island to work as a when they sought to establish a perma cook in nearby lumber camps. During an nent island home: the problem of how to average year, Baxter's agricultural output educate their school-age children. As a yielded sixty bushels of potatoes, twenty solution, the Sextons and their three off bushels of turnips, and two tons of hay. spring moved to La Pointe for four months Baxter even listed his tools and humble during the winters of 1882 and 1883, bachelor furnishings on the homestead thereby enabling the two oldest children proof: a cook stove, utensils and dishes, a to enroll in school. Soon after acquiring bed, a table, six chairs, and an array of official title to their property in 1883, farm implements that included axes, grub however, the growing family left Michi hoes, rakes, spades, shovels, and brush gan Island permanently so Sexton could and hay scythes.2-' begin his career as an Apostle Islands lighthouse keeper. Sexton served a total of thirty-five years, spending all but three years staffing the La Pointe light on Long -** Homestead Application No. 308 and Cash Island.2" Entry No. 3545, Bayfield Land Office (NARA); Allen C. Boutin, "Genealogical Charts for the Boutin Fam The Sextons were followed to Michi ily," manuscript copy, 1973, in the Wisconsin State gan Island in 1881 by Benoni Boutin, Jr., Archives. For the provisions of the homestead law, see Roy M. Robbins, Our Landed Heritage: The Public Domain, 1776-1970 {2nd ed., revised; Lincoln, 1976), '•"'' Bayfield County Press, June 19, 1886. 207. '" Homestead Certificate No. 65, Bayfield Land ••' Homestead Certificate No. 204, Ashland Land Office (NARA); Bayfield County Prm,July 25, 1929. Office (NARA).

178 ALANEN/TISHLER: ,\PO.STLE LSLANDS

In 1883, five Swedish immigrantsjoined special dangers in case of medical emer Boutin and Baxter on Michigan Island for gencies, they and their adopted daughter a brief summer interim. Although the five departed the lighthouse and homestead men ordered a boatload of lumber to be from December to April. Pasque resigned delivered to the island, they made few, if from the lighthouse service in 1893 to any, improvements to their properties. In captain his own tugboat; thereafter, he 1886, three years after filing the initial and his family enjoyed the relative com requests, the General Land Office in forts of life in Bayfield and the less de Washington noted that all of the claims manding daily regimen that the coastal had been officially canceled because "of settlement offered." insufficient residence on the lands, [the] Three additional homesteaders estab claimants having made their final proofs lished claims on Michigan Island in 1888, three months and eighteen days after including Chauncy Andreas and his family. having established their residence."'"' The Bayfield jeweler, who spent only one complete year on Michigan, sent his wife and two young children back to town when HROUGH the remainder of the the closing of navigation made the isolated T 1880's, four more individuals and island too dangerous for the infants. Dur families sought to establish homesteads ing the single winter season Andreas was on on Michigan Island, including John and the island, he sustained himself in part by Josephine Pasque. John Pasque, who gradually killing the thirty-five chickens he served as the island's lighthouse keeper had brought with him to the island. The from 1883 to 1893, was a native of France fourteen dogs that Andreas used to pull his who had seen extensive naval duty during sleigh across the ice of Lake Superior also the American Civil War, including service provided him with some companionship. on President Lincoln's yacht. After filing When making a visit to Bayfield in January a homestead entry in 1886, the Pasques of 1889, Andreas claimed that his potato, made several improvements to their prop cabbage, and tobacco fields were in "a flour erty over the next six years. They con ishing condition," but he apparently aban structed a house, a barn, and various out doned the island four months later, shortly buildings in addition to clearing trees after making a $200 cash payment for the and maintaining an orchard. Apparently holding.'^2 the Pasques were fairly successful farm Andreas was joined on Michigan Is ers, at least by Michigan Island standards, land in 1888 by two Irish Canadian broth- for a newspaper recorded that in Novem ers,Joseph andjohn Lambert, who settled ber, 1889, John Pasque had brought over nearby on separate properties. Each an assortment of vegetables for sale in brother built a log house, dug a well, and Bayfield. The article concluded that ei cleared two acres of land on his holding ther he was a "dandy farmer," or there was during the first summer of residence. John something in the soil that made the island's vegetables grow so well. Since the Pasques noted that inclement weather and dangerous ice conditions during the " Homestead Certificate No. 433, Ashland Land late fall freeze and early spring thaw posed Office (NARA); manuscript schedules for the 1910 federal population census, in the Wisconsin State Archives; Bayfield County Press, November 2, 1889, March 3, 1906, andjune 10, 1927. '- Homestead Application No. 1487 and Cash '" "Letter G," March 3,1886, Tract Books, Bureau Entry No. 4980, Ashland Land Office (NARA); of Land Management, Washington, D.C; Bayfield Bayfield County Press, September 29, 1888, and Janu- County Press, May 19, 1883. arv26, 1889.

179 WISCONSIN .MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1996

Lambert also listed a menagerie of ani 160-acre tract of land located south of mals that included chickens, rabbits, and Bayfield.-''^ dogs. Joseph Lambert was a single man at A number of changes also took place the time he settled on Michigan Island, on Basswood Island during the period. whereas his brother was married and had Charles Rudd, a "Kentucky colonel" who three children. Like the Andreas family, had invested in Bayfield real estate as the latter's wife and children moved to early as 1858, acquired several hundred the mainland for the winter months be acres of Basswood property in 1883. Al cause of severe weather conditions and though the monetary value of Basswood's the long distance to medical assistance. timber stands definitely attracted his at Within a few years, all of the Lamberts tention, Rudd also stated that he intended had departed the island.''^ to demonstrate how agriculture could be Finally, four different homesteaders practiced successfully on the Apostles. made separate efforts to claim a single Soon several men were clearing timber Ill-acre parcel of land on Michigan Is and underbrush from the land so it could land land between 1889 and 1899. But be converted into a farm that eventually none was successful in this quest. By the included a house, a barn, and various end ofthe century, ownership in the land outbuildings. By 1884, Rudd's Basswood had reverted to the federal government. farm boasted of eight and a half acres of Other attempts to settle a few other is oats, millet, and potatoes, while he pro lands during this period proved even less duced sufficient hay to feed a mule team successful than those on Basswood and and several head of cattle during the win Michigan. At the northern tip of Bear ter. Since Rudd continued to spend time Island, two immigrants, one froin Swe in Kentucky, a tenant farmer was em den, the other from England, tried to ployed to oversee the operations. Follow establish small, separate homesteads dur ing Rudd's death in 1897, however, all ing the early 1890's, but both surren farming activities ceased at the site.'"' dered their holdings within a few years. A Elsewhere on Basswood, Richard similar fate befell a Canadian immigrant McCloud's original homestead was un who filed for eighty-two acres of land dergoing several transitions. McCloud along the southern shore of Stockton sold the property in 1878, with lumber- (Presque) Island in 1896.-''

•'^ Brief mention ofthe four unsuccessful Michi LSEWHERE on one or two islands, gan Island homesteaders—Lyman Price, Solomon E other forms of agricultural experi Boutin, Adolph Brensike, and Philip Boutin—has been derived from the Homestead Applications mentation were attempted.J. H. Nourse, numbered 1742, 3.390, .3549, and 3879 respectively, a leading Bayfield merchant who moved in the Ashland Land Office (NARA); and from maps to the incipient community in 1857, of Ashland County, 1898 and 1906, in the Wisconsin purchased 120 acres of land on Oak State Archives. Background data on the two Bear Island that included an extensive grove Island pioneers. Gust Brandon andjames H. Beattie, of maple trees. Beginning in the 1880's, and the Stockton Island claimant, Albert Lamb, are from the Homestead Applications numbered 1993, Nourse operated a sugar camp on the 2878, and 4041 respectively, Ashland Land Office island, and also tapped maple trees on a (NARA). '-' W. D. Boyce, compiler, Industries of Bay- field,Wisconsin, with Illustrations (St. Paul, MN: Pacific '•' Cash Entry No. 4918 (Joseph Lambert) and Publishing Co., 1883), pp. 20-21. Homestead Application No. 1488 and Cash Entry -"' Bayfield County Press, November 24, 1883, July No. 4986 (John Lambert); all from the Ashland 19 andjuly 26, 1884, September 26 and October 31, Land Office (NARA). 1885, and April 10, 1897.

180 A square nail in a fencepost at the former McCloud-Brigham Farm, Basswood Island, 1981. Photo by William H. Tishler.

man Elisha Kossuth Brigham purchasing tained a large, comfortable home in the holding about ten years later. Bayfield, a local account stated that it was McCloud's brother,Joseph, maintained a the "farm to which he gave practically all small holding on the island until 1900. A ofhis attention." After their children left Vermont native, Brigham and his family the Bayfield area, Elisha and Minnie moved to Bayfield from the lower penin Brigham lived year-round on Basswood sula of Michigan in 1886. After mounting Island until the former's death in 1923." large logging operations in northern Wis Farming on the island ended with consin for several years, the Brighams Brigham's death, but the family retained moved to the Basswood Island property their property until 1967. During that year. (which, by then, included the former Rudd farm) for at least part of the year. Brigham began to engage in logging ac '" Bayfield County Press, April 10, 1886, .^pril 12, tivities on Bas.swood in 1903, and his wife 1902, September 4, 1914, and February 16, 1923; Minnie and their six children expanded authors' interviews with Bayfield residents Halvor McCloud's farm to include chickens, dairy Reiten, May 31, 1981, and Hjalmer Olson, June 1, cows, hogs, and an orchard that contained 1981; Dave Snyder, with Arnold Alanen and William several hundred apple and cherry trees. Tishler, "A Massive Pumpkin . . . ," in Around the Ar chipelago: Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, 9:7 (Sum Although Brigham and his family main mer, 1994).

181 WI.SCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HLSTORY SPRING, 1996 descendants sold the 200-acre holding to winter months once the children reached Wisconsin's Department of Natural Re school age. The dangers that the family sources for purposes of establishing a state could face in getting to and from their forest. By this time the buildings had fallen distant property were summarized by a into ruin and the fields were choked with frustrated census enumerator who spent brush and small trees. An archeological several days on Madeline Island in late survey of the McCloud-Brigham site in April, 1910, waiting to dock his boat at 1981 determined that about twenty-five Michigan Island and interview thejacob acres of land had been cleared for fields, sens: "I was forced to wait for good weather pastures, and an orchard; also evident were [before] going there," he reported, "as a the remains of six structures in addition to boat cannot land there when it is at all a privy, a well, a few fieldstone piles, two windy." Sometime prior to 1920, the long sections ofa rock fence, a small dam, Jacobsens abandoned their holding and fruit trees, and some domestic plants.-"'*' moved to Bayfield, leaving veteran Michi As people began to recognize and un gan lighthouse keeper Ed Lane and his derstand the agricultural limitations ofthe family as the only residents of the island, Apostle Islands during the latter years of albeit only for some seven months of the the nineteenth century, the number of year.-'-* With the Jacobsens' departure, new farming starts declined markedly. Michigan Island's numerous limitations Among the rather few individuals who at and constraints brought fifty years of hor tempted to develop a farm at this time ticultural and agricultural experimenta were Jacob Jacobsen, a Danish immigrant tion to a close. from the northern German borderland region of Schleswig-Holstein, and his American-born wife, Emma. They estab HROUGHOUT the early 1900's, there lished themselves on Michigan Island, the T was a return to the more speculative fourteenth and final homesteaders to in forms of land promotion and development habit that lonely outpost. that characterized the 1870's: nonresident Moving to his eighty-acre homestead in investors and land developers once again June of 1906, Jacobsen quit the island just began looking toward the islands in hope of six months later. Sometime before 1910, financial rewards. In 1905, two separate but however, he returned to Michigan Island simultaneously proposed agrarian schemes with his wife and their three young chil that appeared for Outer Island and Iron- dren. He secured official title to the prop wood (also called Hardwood) Island exem erty in 1915. With a total of sixteen acres plified this new prospect. At Outer, a Kan being planted to hay, potatoes, and ruta- sas City entrepreneur reported his interest bagas,Jacobsen and his family cleared more in transforming the island into a fruit farm, land than any prior Michigan Island resi while investors in the Apostle Island Park dent. As had been evident among Association who purchased nearby Iron- Michigan's previous settlers, thejacobsens wood claimed they would develop a fruit left their homestead during the difficult and dairy farm, as well as a summer resort Besides its scenic attributes, Ironwood's land was considered fine for grazing and fruit growing, and its timber suitable for the '"' Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Fee Acquisition Deeds: Aposde Islands State Forest, Basswood (AINL); Patrick E. Martin, "An Archaeo logical Evaluation of Two Sites in the Apostles Is '•' Homestead Entr\' No. 514213, Wausau Land lands National Lakeshore" (unpublished report for Office (NARA); manuscript schedules for the 1910 Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, Bayfield, 1981); and 1920 federal censuses of population, Wisconsin Snyder, "A Massive Pumpkin . . . ," 7. State Archives. 182 0.«asc, Wlhio,-. Island, ,A,shiaiid Wi;->

iii. :^

Cedar Bark Lodge on Hermit Island. Postcard photo courte.sy the authors.

construction of farm buildings. Ten years verted into a resort hotel and renamed later, another brief announcement noted the Cedar Bark Lodge or "the Hermit that Talcott Barnes, son of a former con age." In addition, the island itself was gressman from Appleton, Wisconsin, was subdivided into ten-acre tracts and ad seeking financial assistance from the U.S. vertised widely throughout the Twin Cit Department of Agriculture to establish a ies and elsewhere as an ideal location for fox farm on an unnamed Apostle Island. families wishing to establish summer resi But none of the three proposals came to dences and develop stnall fruit farms. fruition.'"' The company added that a forty-acre A similar project for Hermit Island tract was being reserved for a town site actually did get underway, but it achieved and summer resort. The ambitious plan very limited success. The origins of this also called for the preservation ofa cen endeavor were tied to the Cedar Bark tral section of lanci intended to serve as Lodge, a large, well-crafted wooden struc the nucleus for a commercial orchard ture built in the early 1890's for the new and forest reserve, while a 300-foot-wide bride of brownstone entrepreneur fringe of trees along the shoreline was Frederick Prentice. Since Mrs. Prentice designated to "form a most attractive reportedly refused to spend any time at and picturesque setting for the homes of the retreat, the building and entire 775- those who locate on the island.'"" acre island were sold in 1909 to a group Despite the company's extensive ad of Minneapolis investors: the Lake Supe vertising campaign which envisioned rior Land & Development Company. One year later the Prentice "cottage" was con- " Bayfield County Press, November 19, 1909, May 13, 1910 and August 19, 1910, June 30, 1911, and September 29,1911; Lake Superior Land & Develop *"' Bayfield County Press, August 11 and September ment Co., Hermit Island (undated advertising bro 8, 1905, p. 1; September 22, 1905, February 2, 1906, chure in the William Dalrymple Papers, Wisconsin and August 6, 1915. State Archives).

183 -»«"^^^^^,

WHi (X:i) 49872

Hermit Island, as some thought it might become.

Hermit as "one massive fruit bower," the that towered over Lake Superior, a long island experienced only minimal devel pole with a bucket on the end was used to opment. Occasional newspaper accounts procure fresh lake water, and access to mentioned that a few individuals were the boat landing was provided by a pre purchasing land tracts with the intention carious ladder. Grace Bruder also leased of building summer homes and establish the Cedar Bark Lodge in 1916 and briefly ing small orchards; but in truth only one operated it as a tourist facility. As late as family actually left a brief imprint upon 1920, the three Bruders were still residing the island.'2 on Hermit and pursuing their modest In 1914, Grace Bruder and her two horticultural venture. (It appears that sons, aged eleven and sixteen respectively, Theodore Bruder, husband and father, arrived from Minneapolis and settled on occasionally came up from Minneapolis one of Hermit Island's ten-acre parcels. to visit his hard-working wife and sons.) After working on their small enclave dur But the family's association with the is ing the clement months, the three re land ended soon thereafter and the build treated to Bayfield for the winter. The ings quickly fell into disrepair. A field Bruders constructed a house and a few survey conducted sixty years following the small buildings, planted a number of apple Bruders' departure revealed little more trees, and developed a system of ditches than a few faintly discernible foundations, to drain the orchard. Since their plot of subtle evidence of some ditches, and a land was situated atop a sandstone cliff dozen or so surviving apple trees.'-'

''- Lake Superior Land & Development Co., The ^' Bayfield County Pres.s, June 4, and November 5. Hermitage, Hermit Island, Near Ashland, Washburn and 1915, April 7 and May 19, 1916, and February 7, Bayfiield, Wis. (brochure in the Dalrymple Papers); 1919; manuscript schedules for the 1920 federal Bayfield County Press, December 22, 1911. census of population, Wisconsin Slate Archives; Olson 184 AL.ANEN/TISIILER: APOSTLE ISLANDS

One other form of agriculture charac that posed barriers to any future develop terized the late-nineteenth and early ment: the deep water surrounding the twentieth-century development pattern of island, and the isolation that occurred the Apostles: the farming activities that during the winter season. "Settling there," accompanied logging operations on sev the editor concluded with colossal under eral of the larger islands. In addition to statement, would require "establishing a the potatoes, other vegetables, and fruit system of transportation to the mainland that were purchased from island farms, from the island."*-'' some timber companies kept their own meat animals. During the World War I period, thejohn Schroeder Lumber Com LTHOUGH every kind of agriculture pany even imported hundreds of cattle A.undertaken on islands such as Bass- and pigs to roam and graze on Stockton wood, Michigan, and Hermit proved to and Oak islands; after being pastured for be quite ephemeral and short-lived, a dif the summer, the animals were slaugh ferent situation prevailed on Sand Island. tered throughout the fall and winter to With Madeline Island, Sand was one of supply the logging crews with fresh beef only two Apostles to support a population and pork. In May, 1917, alone, almost570 ofpermanent residents who formed iden cattle (primarily steers) were brought to tifiable and viable island communities. Bayfield in eighteen railroad cars from Sand was also characterized by the large the St. Paul stockyards and ferried to the proportion of Norwegian or Norwegian- two islands. Since both the pigs and cattle Americans among its residents. ran wild throughout the summer months, Francis (Frank) Shaw, along with his the Bayfield County Press noted that by the wife Josephine and their children, were time fall arrived it was "necessary to hunt the first people to establish a home on them with a rifle.'"''' Sand Island. Shaw and his wife were not In early 1920, almost 200 men were Norwegians, but arrived in the Chequa employed in logging operations on Oak megon Bay region in 1870 via Pennsyl Island, and another forty-five at Stockton. vania and Ohio. The Shaws' pioneering After reviewing the rapid exhaustion of efforts were quite similar in significance Stockton's timber, Bayfield's newspaper to those accomplished by Richard editor raised a question about the future McCloud and Roswell Pendergast on of the island. Claiming that grass and Basswood and Michigan Islands, respec clover grew luxuriantly on Stockton and tively. Unlike their two counterparts, that the island's soil was sufficiently pro however, who left the region after a few ductive to supply all of Ashland County years of residence, the Shaws lived at with produce, the editor optimistically various times in La Pointe and Bayfield envisioned a day when the island would and on Sand Island. Not only were the be subdivided into 180 farms of eighty two active in the community life of these acres each. His remarks, however, were three places for almost four decades, tempered by two significant drawbacks but they also developed a Sand Island residence and farm that remained in their family for another generation. interview; authors' interviews with Lloyd Wicksten After arriving in northern Wisconsin, (Bayfield), May 31, 1981 and Ernie La Pointe Shaw initially located in La Pointe; soon (Bayfield), September 14, 1981; field notes and measurements of the Bruder site made by the au thors and by George F. Thompson in 1981. ''•'' Manuscript schedules for the 1920 federal " Bayfield County Press, April 30, 1915, and May 11 census of population, Wisconsin State Archives; and November 16, 1917. Bayfield County Press, February 27, 1920. 185 Hill's Dock at Shaw Point on Sand Island date unknown. Photo by Emmanuel Luick, Pioneer Gallery, Iron River, courte.sy the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.

thereafter, he used his Civil War veteran's Sha-v/usually remained on the island bonus to acquire a thirty-seven-acre tract of from April to November, but his wife, five land along the southeastern shore of Sand daughters, and two sons retreated to Lsland. (Eventually he expanded his hold Bayfield for the school term. There, ing to 183acres.) Ayear later, in 1871, Shaw Josephine Shaw operated the Lake Supe was setting pound nets in Chequamegon rior House, a boarding facility which in Bay, embarking upon what would become a cluded a candy and cigar store and a sales long fishing career. For a few years, Shaw, outlet for the fresh and smoked fish that his wife, and their growing family returned her husband supplied. In 1897 or 1898, to Sandusky, Ohio, to spend the winter after all but one child had finished school, months; but by 1875 or 1876 they had be the Shaws established their permanent come permanent residents of northern residence on Sand Island. Frank Shaw's Wisconsin. While Shaw spent considerable fishing operations continued to thrive, time developing his fishing operation on and his fleet expanded to four vessels by Sand Island during the 1870's, the family home was maintained at La Pointe through out the decade. In 1876, Shaw was elected treasurer of Ashland County. Sometime "' Federal Land Office Record books for Bayfield, during the early 1880's the Shaws settled in Wisconsin, in the Wisconsin State Archives; Bayfield Bayfield and established even closer link County Press, May 13, 20, and 27, 1871; May 26, 1911; and January 30, 1914; Ashland Press, November 11, ages with their Sand Island property.'*" 1876. 186 The buildings at Shaw Point, 1981. The log structure on the left is to the right on thefacingpage, and once housed the island's post office, telephone company, and cooperative store, l'he other buldings are more recent. Photo by William H. Tishler.

1899. Also gracing the shoreline at "Shaw's had brought in some 300 bushels for sale. Point" was a sizable dock and several build After making their permanent move to ings related to his fishing enterprise.''" the island during the mid-1890's, the Though Frank Shaw's primary reputa Shaws also raised strawberries, enough, it tion was gained as a successful fisherman, was announced in 1897 and 1898, to fill he and his family also maintained "a good 200 crates. Shaw then toyed with the idea snug farm" at the tip of Sand Island. After of importing goats to the island, but de clearing a portion of the land of trees, cided in 1902 that sheep raising was a brush, and rocks, the Shaws started grow more appropriate activity. Seeking to dem ing and selling potatoes during the 1880's; onstrate that sheep could thrive and prove an 1886 account from Bayfield noted that profitable in northern Wisconsin, the vet the so-called "Emperor of Sand Island" eran Sand Island resident stated he would give "the woolly animals a fair and impar tial trial." In 1905, however, Josephine Shaw's failing health forced the couple to take sanctuary in Bayfield for most of the year. For a few years Shaw continued his •" Bayfield County Press, February 8, 1890, Febru summer fishing activities, but any agricuL ary 5, 1898,SeptemlDer9,1899; Shaw Farm, National tural pursuits were now limited to the har Register of Historic Places—Nomination Form, 1975 (in files of Historic Preservation Division, State His vesting and selling of hay. Finally, in 1910, torical Society ofWisconsin). the Sand Island property was purchased by

187 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OE HISTORY SPRING, 1996 the Shaw's daughter and son-in-law, Anna on Sand for several years, he added a Mae and Burt Hill.'*' "camp" building to accommodate eight to ten lumberjacks, and constructed a blacksmith shop that was used for shoe HE Hills maintained the family's con ing his three teams of horses. The farm T tinuity on the island for almost three consisted of about twenty acres of cleared more decades following the death of hay land and another five acres used for Josephine Shaw in 1911, and that ofher an orchard and vegetable garden. Six to husband three years later. When the Hills eight cows supplied milk for the family made their permanent move from Bayfield and logging crew, which consisted of to Sand in 1910, the nucleus for a viable Norwegians and an occasional Ojibwa island community already was in place. Indian. After Louis Moe died in 1929, his Virtually all of the other residents who son Elvis lived on the site until 1934 when either preceded or followed the Hills to he moved to Bayfield; for twenty subse Sand Island were Norwegians situated quent summers the junior Moe returned along East Bay, a protected cove that pro to Sand Island to pursue the solitary life vided fishing boats with shelter from Lake ofa commercial fisherman.'" Superior's northwest winds and storms. Shortly after Louis Moe settled on Sand Among the first Norwegians who be Island in 1893, two boyhood acquaintan came a long-time Sand Islander was Louis ces from Norway, Peter and Dorthea Moe (Lars Eliason). Born in Mo-i-Rana, a Hansen, along with their son Frederick, fishingsettlementin northern Norway, Moe also established a residence along the arrived in Onalaska, Wisconsin, in 1890; shoreline of East Bay. Both the senior and one year later he moved to Bayfield, and in junior Hansen were fishermen, as were 1893 filed for a forty-acre homestead claim their neighbors Herman and Peter on an inland portion of Sand Island. Moe Johnson and Harold Dahl; but they and soon abandoned this parcel and purchased the other Norwegians on Sand Island also a farm along the East Bay waterfront that kept some farm animals and maintained had been developed by another Norwegian large gardens. Harold and Constance immigrant. In 1899, Moe traveled back to Dahl, for example, typically raised two Mo-i-Rana and married his wife, Nanne; the cows, one or two steers, and a few pigs on couple then returned to northern Wiscon their small acreage. The families also sin and Moe's Sand Island enclave.'" maintained a common cattle pasture at Eventually, the Moes' farm and fishing Swallow Point, an area located north of complex included a two-story house, a East Bay along the path to the Sand Island barn (built from lumber that had washed lighthouse.-'" up on the shoreline), a shed for the stor age of wood and other supplies, a dock and fish house, and an ice house. Since "'" Moe interview; field notes and measurements Moe also maintained a logging operation of the Moe farm site made by the authors and by GeorgeE. Thompson in 1981. One year after Nanne Moe died in 1924, Louis Moe returned to Mo-i-Rana where he courted his boyhood friend Kristine Mattson, whom he married in Bayfield in 1926. Moe ^^ Bayfield County Press, October 16, 1886, Novem died in 1929 while on another visit to Norway, and ber 22, 1902, April 8, 1904, November 24, 1905, April was buried there. See Bayfield County Press, April 9, 20, 1906, July 9, 1909, May 26, 1911, and January 30, 1924, January 21, 1926, and May 23, 1929. 1914; Fifield, "Beautiful Islands of Chequamegon," 9. •'' Moe interview; authors' interview with William ''" Homestead Application No. 3467, Ashland Noting (Bayfield), September 14,1981; Frederick A. Land Office (NARA); Bayfield County Press, May 23, Hansen, Diary of A Nonvegian Fisherman: April 1913 1929; authors' interview with Elvis Moe (Bayfield), through December 1938—Sand Island, Wisconsin, September 13, 1981. Frederick H. Dahl., ed. (Bayfield, 1989), ii. 188 y' • • • ' • &W

^T2?lÂ/S& 4 vV^îPC^feHî::?

• *

c::AfAr. DUIUPIM^, gKTK KC>T^: Tms NV^ W/v3 ^U INT^I^Vl^W WITH

U^^ \CJ^V\D0e>^

UAVCE- 5UPe.!^10f^

LJ Louis Moe standing at the far right in front of his residence on Sand Lsland in the mid-1890's. Photo from the Moe Family Collection, courtesy the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.

The state census of April, 1895, recorded Several people who purchased Sand Is forty-six part-time and year-round residents land property in 1909 and subsequent years on Sand Island; only seven adult females were attracted by the enticements of Edwin and four children were among this group. Bonde, a Norwegian immigrant who be Although a nucleus of Norwegian settlers lieved, just as Ro.swell Pendergast had envi was evident, they formed only 30 per cent sioned forty years earlier, that the Apostle ofthe entire population. For several years Islands could be converted into a fruit afterward, the total population of perma growing paradise. While Pendergast might nent inhabitants did not increase, but have been content to sell nursery stock to steady growth was evident in the number local residents, Bonde used the fruit trees of Norwegian families arriving after 1909. (and ginseng) he planted on Sand Island as Louis Moe, who occasionally ser\'ed as a land-marketing incentive. After purchas an island correspondent for the Bayfield ing several vacant and abandoned tracts on newspaper, counted a total of fifty-six resi East Bay and transplanting some apple trees dents in early 1911 and reported that after to his newly acquired holdings, Bonde ad eighteen years' residence on Sand Island, vertised the beauty and horticultural po he was "better pleased with it than ever.""2 tential of Sand Island among Norwegians residing in Minneapolis and St. Paul. He subdivided lakeshore property into small lots intended for seasonal home sites and promoted larger inland properties for farm ^^ Manuscript schedules for the 1895 Wisconsin ing and horticulture. Byjuly of 1909, the census of population, Wisconsin State Archives; Bayfield County Press, Januaiy 13, 1911. Bayfield newspaper was already reporting 190 4

mmm^^m

William, and Helen Noring and an unidentified friend from Minneapolis in 1913. The cabin was originally built for Edwin Bonde in 1909 or 1910. Photo from the Noring Family Collection, courtesy the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. that East Bay had been "invaded" by people army during 1918-1919. In 1923, the in search of home sites.''^ young couple and their three children moved to Detroit, butjonette Loftfield operated a small convenience store in her HE majority of purchasers were of home through the late 1930's, and her T Norwegian descent, such as Sigurd other three children maintained contact Loftfield, who, along with his parents Ole with Sand Island until the U.S. entered andjonette, dubbed their three lakeshore the war in 1941.-'''' lots and inland acreage Solheim (Norse Of the prospective farmers lured to for "Sun Home"). After arriving on Sand Sand Island by Edwin Bonde's promo Island in 1909 or 1910, Sigurd and his tions, the most successful were Bertrand German-born wife Katherine-Maria de and Birgit Noring. Unlike many of Sand veloped a small dairy and fruit farm. In Island's residents, who were emigres from addition, he pursued employment as a northern Norway's fishing communities, lumberjack in nearby logging camps dur the Norings traced their origins to small ing the winter season, sailed on Great farms in the south of Norway. After arriv Lakes ore carriers, worked at various jobs ing in Minneapolis in the early 1900's, in St. Paul, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, and Noring secured employment in a plow Panama, and spent about a year in the manufactory before Bonde convinced him

'* Bayfield County Press, February 26, 1915; O. M. "^ Bayfield County Press,]u\y 2, 1909; Hansen, Diary Loftfield, "Map Showing Location of Solheim, East of a Norwegian Fisherman, ii; Noring interview; au Bay—Shaw, Wisconsin,"c. 1911 (AINL); letters from thors' interviewwith Alma and Carl Dahl (Bayfield), Robert Loftfield to Arnold R. Alanen, October 3, September 13, 1981. 1993, and February 18, 1994. 191 Bertrand and Birgit Norwig constructing the root house on their Sand Island farm, about 1913. Photo from Noring Family Collection, courtesy the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.

to move to Sand Island in 1912. Following The full dovetail corner notches and re the purchase of twenty acres of land for lated construction details employed in $400, the family initially lived with Bonde these structures clearly revealed the until their log house was constructed. Noring's Nordic wood-building heritage."''' Over subsequent years the Norings devel At one time the Norings milked as many oped a relatively productive farm, includ as six Holstein cows and maintained a horse, ing a farmstead with a sizable barn, a root up to seven sheep, and several calves, chick house, a chicken coop, an ice house, and ens, and pigs. Noring also served as the a smoke house. They added another veterinarian and butcher for the island; twenty acres of land to provide more pas when cold weather set in a week or two ture for the livestock. The Norings, like before Christmas, the hogs and beef ani most of Sand Island's Norwegian resi mals were slaughtered to supply the resi dents, built many of their structures of dents with meat for the duration of the small logs or poles set vertically rather winter. During the summer, the cream that than horizontally—sometimes with assis was separated from the milk was sent, by tance provided by Swen Bergstrom, a car boat, to the creamery in Bayfield. Since penter who served as the island's sole milk and cream could be shipped to Bayfield Swedish resident during the early 1900's. only when passage over Lake Superior was The Norings' land, however, did include some relatively large cedar and hemlock trees that were used for constructing the •'•' Noring interview; field notes and measure barn and one or two other buildings in ments of the Noring farm site by the authors and by the traditional horizontal log manner. George F. Thompson, 1981.

192 AL.iStNEN/TISHLER: APO.Sri.E ISIANDS

possible, the Norings and other Sand Is couple who filed for a forty-acre home land farmers attempted to time the breed stead claim on Sand Island land in 1909. ing of most of their cows so they would calve Their tract of land could hardly have been during the spring and then produce milk less promising, being described on the throughout the summer. Any surplus cream homestead form as "all swamp, wet land, not used on the farm during the winter except about 4 acres." If that were not months was churned into butter and hauled enough, all of the timber had been re across the ice to Bayfield when the weather moved from the site; only brush remained. permitted.-'"' Despite these obvious shortcomings, the Some oats were raised for the cattle, Biorns and their ten offspring moved to with potatoes, rutabagas, carrots, onions, Sand Island in August of 1910. Over the cabbage, and sweet corn serving as the next year and a half they constructed a mainstay of the Noring's large garden single-story log house with a frame addi enterprise. Surplus vegetables were sold tion and a small barn. They cleared four to fishermen or marketed in Bayfield. or five acres and planted two to potatoes The Norings also raised strawberries, but and garden vegetables. In late 1911, the they bruised too easily for shipping and, family moved back to Minneapolis, possi like their cherries and apples, were canned bly because of health problems experi for family consumption. The Norings' enced by Erika Biorn and the children. bachelor son, William, once recalled that A year later. Nils Biorn was killed at work "it was nothing to have 400 to 500 quarts after being kicked by a horse. His widow— of [canned] things" in the house. He also now the single parent of eleven children— noted the frugality that characterized filed for and received title to their Sand Sand Island life for so many decades. Island homestead in 1913. One of the Nothing was thrown away, whether a bent Biorns' unmarried sons eventually re nail or a tin can; it was too difficult and turned to the site for some years, but he time-consuming to travel to Bayfield or did not pursue farming on the marshy elsewhere for such items. When Noring land.-^« reached adulthood in the late 1920's, he built a residence along the shoreline of East Bay to make his commercial fishing SOMEWHAT similar story character operation more accessible to Lake Supe A ized the fate of Magnus and Anna rior. Eventually he abandoned the island Palm, the brother-in-law and sister of land altogether and moved to Bayfield where promoter Edwin Bonde. The Palms, the he spent the remainder ofhis retirement third and last family to file for a home years.-'^^" stead on Sand Island, began their stay in Although the Norings prevailed 1910. The family of two adults and five through perseverance and hard work, life children resided in a two-room log cabin, on the Apostles could be harsh and unfor while their few domestic animals were giving. The obstacles and difficulties broke housed in a small barn and chicken coop. the backs and hearts of several other set Since farming opportunities were limited. tlers who sought to establish a foothold Palm engaged in fishing to a limited on the islands. Take, for example, the extent, but essentially he supported his case of Nils and Erika Biorn, a Norwegian

"''Noring inleiA'iew; interview with William Noting -'" Homestead Entry No. 1230340, Wausau Land (Bayfield), December 16,1980, conducted by Norma Office (NARA); Moe interview; interviewwith Gerald Lien and Jan Moran, transcript on file with AINL. Biorn (Minneapolis), October 30,1987, conducted by •'' Idem. C]arol Ahlgren, tape and transcript on file with AINL. 193 Magnus and Anna Palm and their five children standing in front of their homestead cabm on Sand Island, 1913. Photo by Emmanuel Luick, Pioneer Gallery, Iron River, courtesy the Apostle Island National Lakeshore.

family by working for various neighbors large and well conducted Norwegian fu and for Sand Island's summer residents. neral." The occasional Lutheran church When Anna Palm was afflicted with tu services provided by a visiting clergyman berculosis and had to be moved to a sani were conducted in both Norwegian and tarium in the 1920's, her husband and English, although the infrequent Sunday children were forced to end their perma school classes occurred in English only. nent residence on the island. Several mem Basket socials, dances, card playing, pic bers of the Palms' extended family, how nics, and holidays such as the Fourth of ever, purchased small lots from Bonde and July and SyttendeMai (Norwegian Constitu continued to maintain a seasonal affllia- tion Day, celebrated on the seventeenth of tion with Sand Island over subsequent May) drew families together over the span decades.'''' ofseveral years."" Much of the communication among residents of Sand Island's East Bay com munity was conducted in Norwegian. Elvis "'' Homestead Certificate, Land Patent No. Moe recalled that "everyone talked Scan 602385, Wausau Land Office, Bureau of Land Man dinavian" in the settiement, while light agement, Washington, D.C. house keeper Emmanuel Luick noted, in ™ Moe interview; Emmanuel Luick, "Keeper's Log, Sand Island Light Station," June 29, 1914; 1914, that the final rites for Hattie and Alma and Cari Dahl interview; Bayfield County Press, Harold Johnson's young son included "a February 26, 1915. 194 ALANEN/TISHLER: APCISTLE ISLANDS

However, it was fishing, more than ing most of its organizations. The Hills' language, which bound the residents to arrival would usher in Sand Island's most one another and to their Old World heri intensive period of community and institu tage. Weather patterns and conditions tional development. required regular monitoring through The first organization emerged in 1910 out the fishing season; nets needed con in response to the problem of educating tinual mending and seaming; boats de Sand Island's children. The typical solu manded constant attention and repair; tion was to have the mother and children buoys required painting; fish boxes had retreat to Bayfield for the school term, to be constructed; the daily catch offish while the husband-father remained behind required cleaning, preserving, and mar for some months. For those families that keting; anchors and anchor lines had to could afford to do so, many household be readied for use; and ice harvesting items were duplicated and made available occupied much of the winter season. at both locations; but other families found When a fisherman drowned in a Lake it necessar)' to transport their possessions Superior storm, as Harold Dahl did in back and forth between island and main April of 1928, the incident left a lasting land. On Michigan's Isle Royale, also lo mark upon the entire community. One cated in Lake Superior, one former resi resident recalled that no other single dent noted that most families took every event during his three decades of resi thing with them—clothes, tables, chairs, dence on Sand Island caused more sad nets, skiffs, supplies, even their cast-iron ness among local residents than a stoves—when these seasonal migrations fisherman's death on the big water.''' took place. Much hard work and aggrava tion was involved in these twice-yearly cross ings of Lake Superior. One Isle Royale N 1910, when the permanent popula veteran wryly recalled her Swedish mother's I tion of the incipient Sand Island com annual lamentations: "I spit on the whole munity wasjustbeginning to expand some thing! Never will there be more of this! what, Burt and Anna Mae (Shaw) Hill Never shall I move again!" Nevertheless, arrived from Bayfield. Upon moving to the she continued to make the seasonal transi island. Hill "began to learn the pound net tion from mainland to island and back for fishing game" from his father-in-law Frank several decades."'^ Shaw. By 1918, however, Hill had become Such moves became much less neces a full-time farmer, concluding that the life sary on Sand Island when a one-room of a fisherman was "getting [him] no school opened for the 1910-1911 term. where.""2 Though the Hills did not share Described as "a neat and natty little build the ethnic heritage of their Norwegian ing" shortly after it was constructed, the neighbors, the couple provided the cata school served children in grades one lyst and glue for much ofthe island's social through eight until it closed in 1928. Dur life, and they played a key role in developing the eighteen years it was open, no other single factor was more important in maintaining a nucleus of year-round resi dents on the island. Though a few ac " [Burt Hill], "The Diary of Burt Hill of Bayfield counts claimed that Sand's permanent and Sand Island—a Historic Record" (1941), in John B. Chappie, ed.. The Wisconsin Islands: The Famous Apostle Islands at the Top ofWisconsin (Ashland, 1945), 7 (hereinafter cited as Hill Diary); Bayfield '•' Howard Sivertson, Once Upon an Isle: The Story of County Press, May 3, 1928. Fishing Families on Isle Royale (Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin, ''•^ Bayfield County Press, November 1, 1912; Hill 1992), 17; IngeborgHolte, Ingehorg's Isle Rcjyale {Grand Diary. Marais, Minnesota, 1984), 9. 195 .» ~m& m jdk» .^ M

Students and teacher posing in front of the Sand Island schoolhouse, about 1910. Photo by Emmanuel Luick, Pioneer Gallery, Iron River, courtesy the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.

population approached 100 residents ing across the ice to a lonely area of the sometime between 1910 and 1930, the mainland in stormy weather, he virtually census enumeration of January, 1920, froze while waiting for the Bayfield car counted just forty-four people. This was rier to arrive. Still, he knew where his duty virtually the same number documented lay. "The residents of the island wanted in the state census of 1895, but the 1920 their mail," he recalled, "and it was up to figure represented a significantly larger me, as postmaster, to see that the mail was population of permanent inhabitants. kept on the move." For all of his work, During the 1895 to 1920 interim, the pro however. Hill's compensation was only portion of Norwegians and Norwegian- equal to half the cancellations for the Americans also increased from 30 per entire office—a sum that declined virtu cent to more than 90 per cent. (Madeline's ally to nothing during the winter. After 1920 population of 245 people was more enduring these hardships for five years. than five times that of Sand Island, but Hill resigned his position in early 1916, only 11 per cent of its residents had Nor and by May the office was officially closed. wegian backgrounds.)"* (For several years thereafter, residents One year after arriving on the island, Burt Hill applied to organize the Shaw post office (naming it for his father-in- law), and took the postmaster's examina "LetterfromB. D. Richardson, Bayfield superin tion. While the mail could be delivered by tendent of schools, January 16, 1914, in the WillJ. .Massingham Papers, Minnesota Historical Society, boat rather easily during the summer St. Paul; Bayfield County Press, January 13, 1911; Moe months, winter proved to be a much more interview; manuscript schedules for the 1920 federal difficult period. Hill stated that after walk- census of population, Wisconsin State Archives. 196 ALANEN/TISHLER: APOSTLE ISI..A.NDS continued to identify their local Sand record as a skilled administrator and book Island address as "Shaw Post Office.")''-'' keeper for the Bayfield County Press (from During his last full year as postmaster, 1891 to 1910). Hill hadjust given up Hill became deeply involved in the devel fishing to pursue full-time farming and opment of a telephone company for Sand would be available to serve customers, Island. Discussions with representatives of and everyone on the island knew that he the Wisconsin Telephone Company be was "very methodical and honest as the gan in the fall of 1915, shortly after tele day is long." The co-operative, which op phone service was proposed for Madeline erated for at least a dozen years, essen Island. Over the next two and a half years tially functioned as a small buying club residents raised $1,500 worth of stock and that offered staples such as coffee, sugar, organized the Sand Island Telephone Com and flour; and of course children found it pany in April, 1918. But despite the obvi a favorite place to purchase penny candy. ous advantages telephone service would As manager, Hill received a 5 per cent bring to the ksland, a schism quickly devel commission on all sales. Though he later oped when two residents who had played a explained that this never amounted to major role in forming the association were more than eighty or a hundred dollars a defeated in the stockholders' election. year, some stockholders eventually came They and their followers, Hill said, "would to believe that he was "acquiring a for have nothing to do with the organization tune," and in the early 1930's voted to after that." The lack of harmony did not shut down the operation. (So much for delay the laying of an underwater cable Hill's reputation as an honest and up that connected Sand Island with Bayfield right manager!) Despite the small amount and points beyond; in December of 1918, of business, the value of the stock had regular telephone ser\'ice began. Unfortu risen from $10 to $18 per share when the nately, the cable was soon severed and co-operative closed."' proved too difficult and costly to repair, so After giving up fishing in 1918, Hill the Sand Island Telephone Company faded started to expand and modify the farming into oblivion."" operation originally developed by his in laws, the Shaws. A new barn was con structed for the cattle and two horses that HE fourth and final major organiza typically were accommodated on the farm, T tional activity on Sancl Island took and the clearing was expanded to provide place injune of 1918 when residents gath additional hay pasture. While the Hills ered in the schoolhouse to consider the sold cream to the Bayfield dairy during possibilities of establishing a co-operative the summer months, the nearby cottagers store. Unanimous agreementwas reached, and a month later the Sand Island Co operative Association opened in a lean-to attached to one of the Hills' buildings. '" Hill Diary; Hansen, Diary of a Norwegian Fisher Burt Hill was selected to serve as both man, 54, 60, 67, 73, 80, 87, 93, 108, 115; Noring manager and secretary because ofhis long interviews by the authors and by Lien and Moran; Moe interview; interviews with Herman Jensch (New Richmond, Wisconsin), November 21,1987, Howard Palm (White Bear Lake, Minnesota), October 17, 1987, and Melvin Dahl (Minneapolis), November '''' Hill Diary; Bayfield County Press, August 11, 12,1987 (thelatterthreeconductedbyCarolAhlgren, 1911, and February 11, 1916. tapes and transcripts on file at AINL). The quotation '''' Hill Diary; Bayfield County Press, September 24 about Hill's honesty is from the Jensch interview, and October 22, 1915; April 12 and 26, October 18, while the statement about the "wealth" Hill suppos December 27, 1918; and April 25, 1919. edly acquired is in his diary. 197 ^"^

Fourth of fuly picnic on the Sand Island school grounds, date unknown. Photo from the Dahl Family Collection, courtesy the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.

comprised an even greater market for anything." Another person remembered their milk and dairy products. (The Hills the sound of Hill's hammer hitting an regularly churned butter in their kitchen.) anvil as he repaired his neighbors' tools. In 1941, for example, the last full year By all accounts, Burt Hill was an amiable that cows were kept on the island. Hill's and multi-talented man who was "just meticulous account books noted that five marvelous at doing those things.""*' seasonal families from the Twin Cities Anna Mae Hill served as Sand Island's had purchased just under $50 worth of health practitioner, displaying numerous milk during the summer season, while skills that included setting broken bones slightly more than $25 was received from and preparing homeopathic remedies for sales to the Bayfield creamery. In addi ailments ranging from sunburn to a high tion, the Hills that year sold potatoes, fever. Nothing, however, surpassed Mrs. chickens and eggs, rutabagas, apples, and Hill's reputation as a cook. In June of two veal calves. Hill also acted as care 1910, shortly after she took residency on taker for the West Bay Club, a summer Sand Island, she told the federal census retreat on Sand Island built by a group of wealthy people from St. Paul, and he pro vided maintenance services, ice, and fire wood for several nearby seasonal homes. One summer resident, recalling his boy '•"BurtHill, Personal Account Books, 1914-1944 hood years on Sand, described Hill as (copies on file at AINL); interview with Clyde and someone who "would fix that damn boat, Dorothyjensch (Bayfield),July 12, 1988,conducted he could plug anything up, he could mend by Arnold R. Alanen, tape and transcript on file at AINL; Hill Diary; Herman Jensch interview-.

198 ALANEN/TISHLER: APO.STLE ISIANDS enumerator that her occupation was IVING on an island off the Lake Su- "cook," and for the ensuing thirty-two LJ perior shore, folklorist Timothy years, Anna Mae Hill maintained a board Cochrane has observed, "was solitary con ing facility that catered to fishing crews finement for some, and a siren to others." and summer-time residents. The impor Isolation certainly affected most residents tance ofher contributions to the couple's of the Apostle Islands, both psychologi annual income became increasingly sig cally and practically. Some single males nificant as receipts from farming and Burt undoubtedly were loners or romantics Hill's oddjobs declined during the depths engaged in a search for solitude and ad of the Great Depression of the 1930's. venture, but other men brought their Between 1935 and 1940, half their in wives and children to remote islands. Once come was supplied by the meals that she family members were present, the total provided for boarders. One observer re lack of medical assistance and educational membered that Mrs. Hill would "trot facilities quickly revealed just how vulner around faster than a cat" when preserving able and inadequately served the sparsely and canning the berries, apples, choke populated islands actually were. As one cherries, and sauerkraut, and preparing long-time Apostle Islands denizen re the chicken and steaks that her boarders sponded when asked what residents did and family consumed. Her kitchen "was when someone became ill: "You didn't just like a factory, hotter than hell and get sick!"'' that range goingjust like a steam engine," Even when three or four families re while the large root cellar the Hills kept sided simultaneously on one island, their fully stocked was "a dream come true for numbers were still too small to cope with food addicts—anything you wanted to see the exigencies and possible emergencies [was] down in the bins.""^ posed by such isolated settings. Any num In late 1942, the problems of old age ber of tangible factors may have severely and Burt Hill's deteriorating health forced restricted the settlement and agricultural the couple to move to Bayfield. Though possibilities of the Apostles, but family- Hill had always kept the buildings at Shaw related concerns certainly magnified the Point in good repair, the structures began limitations. To others, the spartan condi to deteriorate after his health failed. The tions on the islands could be contrasted house settled until it looked like "an island with the "luxurious living" experienced floating on top ofthe mud," and lightning on the mainland. When recalling the sum destroyed the barn in 1944. To pay for his mer months he had spent between 1930 increasing medical expenses, the build and 1950 as part of Isle Royale's fishing ings and land were sold that year to a community, one Norwegian-American Bayport, Minnesota, manufacturer who participant observed that the move from had visited Sand Island since 1926. Hill died in 1946 and his wife six years later. By thenjohn B. Chappie, managing editor of the Ashland Daily Press, recognized that ''^ Hill, Personal Account Books; Herman Jensch Sand Island had changed forever once the interview. '" Hill, Personal Account Books; Moe interview; Hills and three other families associated quotation from interview with Elizabeth Andersen with fishing moved permanently to Hulings (Bayport, Minnesota), October 27, 1988, Bayfield. After a half-century of continu conducted by Arnold R. Alanen, tape and transcript ous, year-round occupancy. Chappie rue on file at AINL; Ashland Daily Press, June 9, and fully observed that Sand Island was now October 17, 1944. "utterly deserted."™ A way of life on the '' Timothy Cochrane, "Afterword" to Sivertson, Once Upon an Isle, 103; Noring interview by Lien and Apostle Islands had come to an end. Moran.

199 'fc-r'M?i#3r

Elvis Moe's fishing dock and camp at Sand Island, sometime in the 1940's or 1950's. Photo from the Noring Family Collection, courtesy the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.

mainland to a Lake Superior island marked tempted to farm the Cutover, but condi the transition from "a world of electric tions on the Apostles were plainly more lights, telephones, bicycles, and fast auto difficult. Every island was inaccessible mobiles ... to kerosene lamps, scrub-boards, during the early winter freeze-up and the water buckets, and 10-m.p.h. boats."" spring-time thaw; some were restricted by Despite a multitude of problems asso topographic constraints; several were too ciated with island agriculture, numerous small to support more than one or two attempts were made to farm the Apostles farms or orchards; a few were situated a during the century between the 1840's considerable distance from the mainland; and the 1940's. The majority of pioneers and a number were virtually inaccessible resided on their holdings for little more because of deep water, rugged shorelines, than a few years, but even for those who or the lack of natural harbors. stuck it out, agricultural success was mea There also was a severe marketing prob sured only in the most marginal terms. lem. Even when agricultural products Certainly all settlers in northern Wiscon from the Apostle Islands were available, sin faced many obstacles when they at- the constraints of shipping, preservation, and storage bedeviled the farmers. Main • Sivertson, Once Upon an Isle, 17. land farms simply were more competitive. 200 ALANEN/TISHLER: ,\POSTLE ISLANDS

Indeed, it was not on the islands but on slightly more than one-half did so in Oulu. the Bayfield peninsula where long-term An average homesteader claimed 120 horticultural success in northern Wiscon acres on the five islands—about the same sin was achieved. Apple growers on the as on Madeline, but seven acres fewer peninsula established the foundation for than in Oulu township. The slow, difficult a successful and productive enterprise process of clearing land throughout the after beginning their collaboration with entire Cutover region was also evident in University of Wisconsin horticulturist these areas of northern Wisconsin. On E. M. Moore in 1905. By 1987, Bayfield the five islands, a typical homesteader County was producing 1.5 million pounds managed to clear but 1.25 acres of land of apples annually—tenth-highest among per year, with the figures being somewhat Wisconsin's seventy-two counties.'-^ higher for both Madeline Island (1.5 acres) and Oulu (1.40 acres).'"' A typical Oulu homesteader required COMPARISON of the Aposdes Is 5.5 years to gain legal title to his or her A lands' early agricultural characteris property; the figure for Madeline's claim tics with those of the Town of Oulu (situ ants was a comparable 5.15 years. Those ated north of Iron River in the interior of residents who lived on one of the five northern Bayfield County) provides in islands, however, typically secured their sights into the differences between north titles within 3.25 years. Rather than wait ern Wisconsin's islands and neighboring ing five or more years to "prove up" these areas of the mainland. Overall, twenty- properties, several of the latter home six homestead claims were filed on the steaders used the earnings from other five islands of Basswood, Bear, Michi work such as fishing, lighthouse tending, gan, Sand, and Stockton, while nineteen or another activity to pay cash for the were registered on Madeline. (It appears holding just six to twelve months after that no more than two of Madeline's farms establishing a claim. Likewise, it appears ever progressed beyond the subsistence that many of the island homesteaders did level.) Oulu, identified in an early not view their claims as life-long agricul twentieth-century agricultural journal as tural ventures; instezfd, they may have Wisconsin's most densely populated town considered them as short-term invest ship, was the site of 200 homestead claims, ments that eventually could be sold for a most of which were made by immigrant profit. While the monetary value desig Finns.'* nated for each homestead at the time title On Madeline and the five-island group to the property was secured serves as a ing, fewer than half the original home rough estimate only, it is noteworthy that stead claimants were ultimately success ful in gaining title to their property, while

''' Federal Land Office Record Books for Bayfield '^ E. P. Sandsten and E.J. Delwiche, "Horticul and Ashland counties, Wisconsin State Archives. tural Work at Northern Sub-Stations," in Twenty- '" Idem; "Our Most Thickly Populated Township," Third Annual Report ofthe Agricultural Flxperiment Sta in the Wisconsin Agriculturist, 39:8 (February 18,1915); tion of the University of Wisconsin for the Year Ending Arnold R. Alanen, "In Search of the Pioneer Finnish fune 30, 1906 (Madison, 1906), 227-230; U.S. De Homesteader in America," in Finnish Americana, 4:82- partment of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 1987 85 (1981); Hamilton N. Ross, The Apostle Islands: A Census of Agriculture. 'Vol. I: Geographic Area Series; Part Brief Resume of I'heir Histmy (Batavia, Illinois, 1955), 49, Wisconsin State and County Data (Washington, 19; individual homestead records for the Apostle 1987). Islands and Oulu township, Bayfield County (NARA). 201 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORV SPRING, 1996 an average Oulu and Madeline Island helped them to survive in a harsh envi homestead was valued at $675, whereas ronment. As the geographer Matti Kaups the comparable figure for a homestead observes, most of these settlers were al on the five islands was but $435.'" ready "accustomed to a life of labor-inten The number of year-round residents sive, part-time fishing and farming and the agricultural continuity that char economy in Norway." Likewise, the Lake acterized Sand Island made it an excep Superior milieu "was sufficiently akin to tion within the five-island grouping. The the marine habitats of Norway to permit island's residents, most ofwhom were of the continuation of fishing with certain Norwegian extraction, sustained them familiar Norwegian methods, though in selves by engaging in diversified activi modified form." Their acceptance of "in ties. Fishing served as the primary source evitable seasonal isolation" displayed the of livelihood for a majority of Sand's year- "industriousness . . . [and] resourceful round residents, while farming provided ness ofthe Norwegian fishermen-settlers." produce and supplementary income. (As To fish well, Cochrane has noted, they in Norway, this age-old combination made "fished Scandinavian."'^ These factors— sense, because both pursuits rarely failed the dependable if modest economic and during the same year.) Unlike the other natural resource base provided by Sand Apostles—where farming was limited al Island and Lake Superior, coupled with a most entirely to the summer season when shared bond of ethnicity—sustained the individuals engaged in sporadic fruit and residents and allowed a permanent com vegetable growing, stock grazing, and the munity to exist and function on the island occasional planting and harvesting of from the 1890's into the 1940's. small grain crops—Sand Island also sup After 1970, northern Wisconsin's Lake ported a few small but permanent dairy Superior archipelago (with the excep operations. Milk cows require daily atten tion of Madeline Island) began to be ac tion, year-round, so dairying was most quired by the federal government for in feasible on an island where stability pre clusion within Apostle Islands National vailed.'' Lakeshore. Today, the National Lake- Fishing certainly provided the essen shore's twenty-one islands reveal only a tial foundation for such continuity, but so few scattered agricultural remnants—even too did the common ethnic and cultural though American, European, and Cana heritage that the island's residents shared. dian colonists bravely attempted to pur As also was true of the much larger Nor sue horticultural and agrarian activities wegian fishing enclaves that linked over a span of a hundred years. Except for Minnesota's Lake Superior communities a few hardy fruit trees, all evidence of with Michigan's Isle Royale, the back Roswell Pendergast's efforts to create a ground of Sand Island's inhabitants nursery on Michigan Island during the late 1860's was swallowed up decades ago by second-growth white cedar and balsam fir. No visible tracings remain ofthe more "' Federal Land Office Record Books for Bayfield and Ashland counties, Wisconsin State Archives; individual homestead records for the Apostle Is lands and Oulu township (NARA). " Ragnar Standal, "Emigration from a Fjord ™ Matti Kaups, "Norwegian Immigrants and the District on Norway's West Coast, 1852-1915," and Development of Commercial Fisheries Along the Kjell Erik Skaaren, "Emigration from Bronnoy and North Shore of Lake Superior, 1870-1895," in Norwe Vik in Helgeland," both translated into English by C. gian Influence on the Upper Midwest, Herald S. Naess, A. Clausen and published in Norwegian-American Stud ed., (Duluth, 1975), 26-27; Cochrane, "Afterword," ies, 29:199, 2'^'i (1983). 104. 202 AIANEN/TISHLER: APOSTLE ISIANDS than a dozen homesteaders and other a portion of the original clearings and settlers who arrived during later years. pastures remain in private hands under On Basswood Island, only faint indica the terms of a life-time lease, is it possible tions of the former McCloud-Brigham get a fieeting glimpse ofthe farms, fields, farm are evident (though visitors may and orchards that once dotted a number hike to the site on a trail developed and of the islands. Despite the best efforts of maintained by the National Park Service). regional editors and boosters, and the Other than the outlines of some clearings brutally hard work of a few optimists who and a few decaying foundations, little re departed the mainland for the beautiful mains of the farms and fishing enclaves isolation of the offshore islands, agricul developed by Sand Island's Norwegian ture has left little more than an ephem immigrant community. Only at the Shaw- eral footprint upon Wisconsin's north Hill farmsite, where several buildings and ernmost landscape.

""'-ii^-'.'K'''''":"•'•'•*;••'•'•'""*-•'".• "' '•••'••,'?r>

w. '.,^-': %ii^

Abandoned house on the former Moe property, Sandlsland, 1981. Photo by WiltiamH. Tishler.

203 "The Padre at the Front": The World War I Letters of Chaplain Walter Beaudette

Edited by Sean Patrick Adams and Michael E. Stevens

AS a Roman Catholic chaplain with the doughboy. In this series of letters written JTX. American Expeditionary Force between 1917 and 1919, Fr. Beaudette (A.E.F.) in France, Father Walter Ambrose paints a vivid picture of wartime life in Beaudette of Rhinelander experienced France and illuminates the often vital firsthand the horrors of the "war to end role played by men in noncombat posi all wars" and the adverse conditions un tions in the military. der which military clergymen worked. A 1917 instructional manual for chap Born in November, 1884, near Chippewa lains emphasized that the chaplain "should Falls, Beaudette attended Sacred Heart be first, last, and all the time what he pro College in Prairie du Chien and the Grand fesses to be, a clergyman, and should leave Seminary in Montreal, Canada. In 1908, the military end to those who have adopted he was ordained a Catholic priest for that for their profession and life work."* the Diocese of Superior and served in Despite this well-meaning advice, the army parishes in Bruce, Rice Lake, and Rhine chaplain in World War I played an integral lander before enlisting in the U.S. Army role in military affairs, handling numerous in 1917.' Although Beaudette's journey administrative but nonreligious duties for to France in September of 1917 was front page news in his hometown, he modestly said, "I do not desire any doings over my ' For biographical information on Beaudette, see departure from Rhinelander. The simple United Stales Catholic Chaplains in the World War (New life has always appealed to me in prefer York, 1924); Rev. Raymond Schoone, Circular letter, ence to pyrotechnics."2 September 17, 1962, Roman Catholic Diocese of Superior, Office ofthe Chancellor. Some of Father Beaudette was one of 1,300 American Beaudette's letters appear in Michael E. Stevens, clergymen who accompanied the A.E.F. Sean P. Adams, and Ellen D. Goldlust, eds.. Letters to France as chaplains. Twenty-three of from the Front, 1898-1945 (Voices of the Wisconsin these men died in the service, eleven of Past, Madison, 1992). them on the battlefield.' Because of the '' Rhinelander Neiv North, September 13, 1917. wide range of their duties and the large ' Earl Stover, Up From Handymen: The United States Army Chaplainry, 1865-1920 CW^ashington, 1977), number of men with whom they dealt, the 189, 252-253. chaplains were in an excellent position to ^ George J. Waring, Chaplain's Duties and How Best observe the everydav life ofthe American to Accomplish His Work (Washington, 1917), 3.

WHi(X3)5()2.=)6 Msgr. Walter A. Beaudette as pastor of St. Anne's Church, 1919—1946, from I'riple Centennial fubilee, Somerset, Wisconsin, fune 22, 23, 24, 1956. units. Although they were not expected to officers wanted, depending on the whims take an active part in the fighting, chaplains of their commanders. Chaplains censored often administered first aid and helped mail, handled grave registrations, kept regi evacuate wounded soldiers under enemy mental statistics, administered the post ex fire. Indeed, American chaplains compiled change, served as venereal-disease control a rather distinguished military record: officers, or even acted as defense counsel in twenty-seven Purple Hearts, twenty-seven courts martial. All of these assignments were Distinguished Service Crosses, and eigh in addition to the conventional religious teen Silver Stars. Besides battle-related du duties of the chaplaincy, such as conduct ties, the military chaplain could expect to ing regular church services, visiting the sick, be assigned to various tasks that no other and providing counseling for soldiers.

205 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HLSrORY SPRINC;, 1996

Throughout World War I, chaplains con Throughout these exploits, Beaudette's ducted their work while suffering from a letters wonderfully illustrate the essential severe shortage of men in their ranks. qualities of a successful Army chaplain The Army fell short of its goal of provid during the First World War: optimism, ing one chaplain for every 1,200 men. compassion, an observant eye, and a good Only 2,217 clergymen were commissioned sense of humor. Beaudette made no claims over the course ofthe war to administer to to fearlessness; his letters reflect the dan the 3.7 million American men in uni ger and anxiety he felt, though expressed form. This shortage often broke down with a light touch. He showed a special sectarian boundaries, and Methodist, interestin the new technology of airwar— Catholic, Jewish, and Episcopalian sol the "aeroplane"—and he often wrote diers in need rarely had the luxury of about copingwith German bombingraids. choosing a chaplain of their own denomi Living conditions, holiday celebrations, nation.' worry about attitudes toward the war Beaudette was assigned to the 14th Rail back home, and competition between way Engineers, a volunteer unit comprised units for good living quarters all emerge mostly of men from New England. When he in the letters. Beaudette enjoyed sharing joined his regiment overseas in the summer "stove-pipes"—speculations about the of 1917, the 14th Engineers were attached course of the war—with Al O'Melia, and to the British Third Army and stationed at he fully expected the war to continue to Boisleux-au-Mont, a small town in north 1920. Denominational differences which eastern France. As a narrow-gauge railroad seemed vitally important at home were unit, the 14th provided an essential ser\'ice less significant for chaplains on the front. to the war effort by building, maintaining, Beaudette reported that he "never yet and equipping the transportation and com found a mortally wounded soldier who munication network in the front4ine areas. disdained my help." Because ofthe unit's close proximity to the After accompanying the 14th Engineers front, German artillery, derailments, and on their triumphant journey home amid collisions wreaked havoc on this vital trans cheering crowds in Boston in April, 1919, portation link and provided regular work Beaudette returned to northern Wiscon for the seventy-eight officers and 1,900 en sin to become the pastor of St. Anne's listed men ofthe 14th. As a result, the unit Parish in Somerset. He left parish work in suffered thirty-two casualties and ten deaths 1946 to become chaplain at St. Mary's during their time in France.'' Hospital in Rhinelander, where he served While overseas, Beaudette wrote regu until his death in 1962. Although he was larly to Albert J. O'Melia (1889-1964), a only one of about a thousand Catholic prominent Rhinelander attorney who chaplains to ser\'e with the American Army served as district attorney for Oneida from 1917 to 1919, the letters of Father County from 1912 to 1922. Beaudette's WalterAmbrose Beaudette provide us with letters trace thejourney of the 14th as a unique insight into military life. As a they moved from Boisleux-au-Mont to clergyman, a soldier, and a Wisconsin na- Pozieres to work amid the wrecks and ruins ofthe front lines, their hasty retreat during the German spring offensives of March, 1918, the brief respite at Calais in " Edward M. Coffman, The War to End All Wars: the summer of that same year, and finally The American Military Experience in World War I the 14th's crucial role in support of the (NewYork, 1968), 79-80; Stover, Up from Handymen, 186-198. American First Army's attack during the '' R. G. Henderson et at., eds.. History of the Four Meuse-Argonne campaign in late 1918. teenth Engineers, U.S. Army (Boston, 1923).

206 WHi(X.'!)60127

Albertf. O'Melia.

tive, Beaudette paints a fascinating por Editorial insertions of words or letters trait of the American experience during always appear in brackets. Slips of the the First World War. pen have been silently corrected, and mi Fr. Beaudette's letters are preserved in nor changes in punctuation have been the Albert J. O'Melia Papers at the State made only when absolutely necessary for Historical Society ofWisconsin. The edi clarity. O'Melia apparently handled tors have tried to preserve the sense of Beaudette's financial affairs; discussions immediacy in letters often written under of these and a few similar matters have trying conditions. Accordingly, we have been omitted and are noted with ellipses not corrected grammar, spelling, capi (...). talization, or punctuation, although we have standardized the date and place lines. S.P.A. andM.E.S.

207 ^.*.*«

t^m AMERICA+ N

VVHi(X.'!)17844

Sending letters home from an American Red Cross canteen in F'rance during World War I.

November 21, 1917 France is very resigned. The people have set most of their pristine frivolity aside. Dear AL— Food is regulated but there is no sign of Letter-writing has become a difficult want. Some luxuries are scarce because of art for me. We are commanded to refrain embargoes in imports. There is one thing from talking military matters and these that the folks back home cannot send in things are about all I know. American excess to the boys here and that is tobacco censorship of mails is rigid. An officer's and reading matter. They can send boat mail could get him into deep trouble if loads and cardoads and still the demand he were indiscreet. The climate is will persist. I think a greater publicity agreable and disagreable. It is not cold, should be given to the fact that a stamp on but very damp, and cloudless. It will re a magazine moves it on to the army where main thus all Winter. Our trip over was 50 soldiers will literally devour same. The safely made. The ocean is vast and it is a boys will read anything from an essay on hard matter for subs to get a convoy even the 4th dimension to a prayer-book. It if it discovers the transports. The army makes no difference how old the maga here is very busy in spite of frontal zines are, only they must not fall apart. inactivities. I am not far from the front. More next time. Regards to everyone Our quarters are fairly comfortable: the you meet that I know. food is good, and w^e are well treated. The troops are very busy and manifest no Sincerely, home-sickness. Chaplain W. A. Beaudette 208 ADAMS/.STEVENS: FATHER BEAUDETTE

November 26, 1917 December 20, 1917 Dear Al.— Dear Al,— Have moved up to the trenches since I I went up ahead of the heavy batteries last wrote. The roar of artillery was inces recently to call at an artillery first aid sant lately. At night our (allies') 12 inch hospital many feet underground. We had Howitzers shake our huts and make sleep an ambulance train on which I generally difficult. One cannot expect comforts so ride. We were hardly at the station and near the line and we don't have them. We I was following the biancardiers (or are with the British troops and we are stretcher-carriers) to the hospital when railroaders. Today the weather was fine an inferno of shells broke loose on the and planes were visible continuously. We whole place. Was I scared? I was. We dug are provided with two sets of gas masks, for the nearest dug-out and waited for the one for "smoke-shells" which is slipped storm to subside. Out we come when again on in 6 seconds, one for "stink-clouds," a hell breaks loose, just high explosives, which requires a little more time for ad no shrapnel. Fragments fell a few feet justment. One must carry his "gas-faces" away. Our shell struck about 100 feet with him always, even at work. A fellow away—so back in the dug-out for ours. I with his mask on appears as formidable as remained imprisoned there a long time a Ku-Klux Klansman. We have enough with my gas-mask as gas shells always ac food & fuel and good at that. We are short company other shells. Really I thought I of reading material and tobacco. We have would be killed. shells, mountains of them big and small. Anyhow the shelling ceased and we I hold services on Sundays in a mess-hall. went about our business. Our ambulance The Protestants have services too. trains usually go down after wounded The Britisher is a good soldier, uses no when it is dark but it had been quiet here cot to sleep on as we do. We use 5 blankets so we took a chance. I may not say what over here. When a damp Northerner blows became of the train it may have been we could stand tons of blankets. Tents are undamaged, and it may not. used much as shifting of quarters is fre I received my battle^tags recently, one quent for certain reasons. remains around my neck, the other is The K.C.'s' have made little progress detached and sent forward. The instruc here in France, there is no K.C. rendez tions to me were: "This tag we send for vous yet anywhere but a movement is un wards, the other tag you will be buried derway—like the drive to Berlin. The with." Rather cheering isn't it. Well I'll Y.M.C.A. have not gotten far either con bring both of them home if I can. sidering their immense resources. I think What I said could happen anywhere that there is a general under-estimation along the line hence I feel certain the prevalent concerning the rapidity with censor will not object to what I wrote. which American troops are coming, hence the delay on the part of allied organiza Regards. tions for the army h.q. K.C.'s, Y.M.C.A. Chaplain W. A. Beaudette

More next time. Regards to all. Chaplain W. Beaudette

' Knights of Columbus. The Commission on bus, the Y.M.C.A., thejewish Welfare Board, and the Training Camp Activities, which consisted of civilian Salvation Army, ensured that soldiers had access to service organizations such as the Knights of Colum many ofthe amenities of home. 209 WISCONSIN MAC;.\ZINE OF HLSTORY SPRING, 1996

January 11, 1918 touch with friends once more and so many things have happened in my life since I Dear Al,— left Rhinelander. . . . All is well with me. We manage to I was on an army transport 23 days keep warm in our huts. We have 5 blan duringwhich time I could write to no one. kets also woolen socks and mittens. To Then after many delays I finally reached bacco is rather scarce, i.e. American to my regiment. bacco. We are issued a weekly ration of I intend to write very often; in fact tobacco by the British forces but we don't letter writing was the sole pastime here relish it much. European tobacco is Stan until lately. I am sorry that the new pastor dard Tobacco raised to the nth power in takes an unsympathetic stand re war move bitterness and aroma. ments.^ The Red Cross is O.K. Heaven We are issued rum also but we never knows that soldiering in this mud is tough. used it. We carry it to a neighboring hos But if there is efficiency, otherwise, in the pital—the chaplain'sjob. The folks back present administration it were well to over home must not take it amiss that our boys look this fault and support the adminis are allowed light wines (vin blanc). The tration. fact is the water is very bad where the I cannot mention my exact where enemy occupied the territory. It is a fact abouts; more than say I am at the British that the drinking water was poisoned. front I dare not without being court- Many streams still descend from Fritz's martialled and dismissed from the ser territory^ and the water is polluted pur vice. But I may say that our regiment is posely as a war measure. Hence our boys right behind the lines. Some of our boys when visiting towns should drink the harm who are track repairers live amongst the less light wines or beers in preference to batteries in dug-outs. If the track gets the contaminated waters. blown out by shells they must repair the The front is inactive now. The weather damage as soon as the shelling ceases. All renders all quarreling useless; a terrain firing from the Germans is indirect, of gained cannot be held because digging in course, hence many shells must be fired frozen ground is impossible under fire. ere one hits squarely on the track. I go Tommy and Fritzy spend their idle mo down there and say a second Mass on ments in bombing raids. We have been Sunday but I ride a motorcycle and make fortunate lately and no plane has bombed very good time going and coming. And our area for nearly two weeks. once down there we have the brows of little hills to protect us. The only way we Au revoir, could be harmed is by bombs from planes Chaplain W. Beaudette and we look out for that pretty carefully. Anyhow it requires a clear day for bomb ing hence we are not bothered much as February 4, 1918 clear days are scarce around here. Dear Al, I am proud of Rhinelander's splendid Both your letters came together lately, showing since the war started for us. When one dated Dec. 16, the other marked Dec. Co. L.'" arrives I shall certainly run down 21. Of course, I was most delighted to hear from you. It took so long to get in •' Fr. Basil Didier temporarily replaced Fr. Beaudette at St. Mark's in Rhinelander. ** That is, enemy territory. In World War I par '" Company L ofthe 127th Infantry, 32nd Divi lance, "Fritz" was the German soldier, "Tommy" the sion, American Expeditionary Force, was an infantry British, and "Sammv" the American. unit comprised mostly of soldiers from Rhinelander. 210 K^'^ 4, 'toiiij.iiteSBfc'^ ^.

WHi(X3).'i()240 A Chaplain Bayrd ofthe Marines leading the Soldiers ofthe .Sea in prayer behind the lines in France

to see them. By means of a motorbike I We Americans see the Tommies pass can travel far on these splendid roads in a ing every day to or from the lines, many few hours. . . . we carry on our narrow-gauge, poor mud- Yes you are right, my wish to be at the covered fellows, sweating under the weight front was realized quite soon. My first of their packs, then we wonder how easy impression upon coming here was de we have it. We live in warm huts, can pressing. It was in November, there was a change clothing when we are wet. It is a big batde on then along a great part ofthe fact that the farther away from the lines line, the guns pounded incessantly and the louder the complaints. I was amused air-raids were frequent. I shall give you a recently. I read the daily menu of our boys verbal description of a real bombing raid in Texas [i.e. in a training camp]. Our some day. It is a terrifying experience, boys would call any of those meals a feast. and yet very few casualties and very litde Think of it, eggs, bread, roast pork. Pork damage ever ensues. But the noise of mind you, why pork is as scarce here as it many bombs dropping in a given area is was in Moses' ice-box. Yet our boys are fat simply inconceivable. One hears a whis- and healthy. They get simple food but tiing hissing noise thru the air, then a plenty of it, and whilst not excessively flash that illumines the whole surround toothsome, it is very clean and whole ing and finally a crash like a huge build some. ing collapsing all at once. Fierce, indeed, nobody gets used to bombs, they are an Many thanks for the compliments you invention of hell. pay me—beyond my deserts—when you say I am reputed merely on furlough. I 211 WISCONSIN M,\(;AZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1996 left Rhinelander with the previous warn mail does come it is an avalanche, dozens ing from higher up that as a reward for my of letters going to some of us. serving Church & Country my parish Senator James' recent speech in Con would be forfeited by me." Itwas a disap gress was somewhat cheering.'' He stated pointment but I could not change my that we had here many times a hundred mind. So in the interim I shall not worry. thousand soldiers. I wonder if he was No one can convince me that I shall suffer camouflaging or is he on the inside of indignities when I return for having done things? a duty. I certainly shall not commence all Aeroplanes are the winners, send them over at the lowest diocesan rung. But why at once. This year will be plane year. If we worry, the war is only begun. have enough planes the war is won. Re. publishing my letters: This regi We get bombed very often now. By we I ment must follow British as well as Ameri mean our camp area. Not that the enemy can censorship rules. A recent ruling for selects our camp particularly but he spots bids the publishing of any soldier's or it along with other objectives. We were officer's communications. The soldier will bombed four times a while ago in one be held to strict accountability, hence night. Last night we had two visits but no publish nothing from me in the future. bombs fell directly in the camp. Planes do I never had the experience of accom not come singly but in fleets at least 3 or 4, panying persons when shopping. You say but once here must have been 15 or 20. The it is tough? One question. Is it as bad as racket all around was fierce. Archies'^ and getting bombed? If yes, then spare me Machine guns were firing at Fritz and he f^rom any such job. savagely barked back wherever he would You read the papers, hence you know see the flames ofthe guns. We stood outside as much about the war as we do. We don't watching the show until the machines would even know^ what takes place on our front. arrive overhead—then presto, we scattered But we do know when our area has been to our holes in the ground, sunk our heads bombed, and we also know how it feels to in our shoulders and wondered "where, oh! stand in a safety trench partially filled where, will the next one fall." These bomb with rain-water, and that for a good part ing stunts of the Germans are a source of ofthe evening. We love our trenches but funmaking around the stove-pipes, but after oh you homeland radiators. the raid is over only. During the awful din you never saw a more solemn faced out-fit Regards to all. than the 14th Engineers of the Regular W. A. Beaudette Army. If it were not for the appalling racket made by the bombs I do not think one would mind them much for we know that they cannot be dropped accurately at all. February 21, 1918 You people in the States are having Dear AL— your own tight times too. No coal, war- Some two weeks have passed now and bread now, meat-less days and what not? still no American mail. W^e are commenc ing to become a grouchy gloomy grum- blingbunch of muddy Sammies. Butwhen '- Senator Olie Murrayjames of Kentucky deliv ered a fiercely patriotic two-hour speech to Con gress on February 14, 1918, defending President Wilson and the war effort and admonishing critics '' After the war, Beaudette was not reassigned to of the American military to "hold their tongues." his Rhinelander parish, but instead was appointed {New York Times, February 15, 1918.) pastor of St. Anne's Church in Somerset. '•' Anti-aircraft guns. 212 WHi{X.?).502.W IJning up for coffee, donuts, and the mail at a Red Cro.ss canteen.

But I think that by the end of this year over a hundred per month. Yet, one feels the Kaiser will see Mane, Thekel, Uphar- he earns every cent out here, as there is an sin, and ask for a settlement.'* He will element of risk. probably get better conditions than he No great move has taken place as you would were he to wait until completely are aware from the current news but the crushed. weather will likely be favorable ere long More next time. It is 2 P..\I. now and I'm and the enemy may start his much- going to sleep. Fritz robbed me of 3/4 of heralded drive. The aeroplane drives are my nights rest yesterday. in full swing and on every favorable evening planes from both sides cross the W. A. Beaudette lines and bomb to their heart's content. Our camp has not been bombed since— well since six days. But bu.sy Fritz makes March 2, 1918 up for this on good nights for once we had four distinct and separate visits. Dear AL— . . . [W]hat I save now will be all "rain The people in the States must not be money." I could never save anything in under the impression that the British are civilian life as incomes were never of the exhausted. They have a finer and bigger breath-taking kind but now I can salt away army now in France than ever and their artillery is wonderful. Several American regiments are with the British and they " Beaudette alludes to the biblical prophecy Mene, mene, Thekel, Upharsin, which appeared on a seem well satisfied with our work in gen wall aad foreshadowed the fall of Babvlon. (Daniel eral, especially railway construction and 5:25-28.) operation. 213 WLSCONSIN M.\G.A.ZINE OF HISFORY SPRING, 1996

Our regiment is receiving its service March 12, 1918 chevrons now, for having spent six months within the "advance zone of fire." I must Dear Al.— wait two months more. But luck may have I'll air a view or two of mine about the it that we transfer elsewhere one or two war and we'll see how close we guess to days ere my 6 months are finished, hence gether. Such guesses here are called "stove my having been at the front may bejudged pipes," because they originate near the camouflage by some. I'll always remain four-inch pipes of our huts. But I really convinced I was at the front, however, and have far more confidence in a soldier's will ever have distinct recollections of "stove-pipes" than in the pronuncia- some good sized scares I had up here. The mentos made by chaps in the States who shelling experience I told you about write articles. As an instance I would point when I was up to the underground hospi to the article appearing in a late Scientific tal was tame compared to a fearful-night- American where the question is debated ambulance trip I made to my same dug whether the shell-torn fields of France out later on in Winter, I had to come back will be arable and productive after the afoot with the ambulance drivers that were war.'" Doubt is expressed whether the unhurt. We crossed old fields and en fields will yield. Now all that sounds very tanglements to avoid a "scizzors fire" as it absurd to a muddy Yank at the front. Only is called. We got more muddy and wet in certain areas, limited in size, are the trembling in ancient shell holes than we shell-holes very numerous. The shell-holes got scared and I say we did get some of France will not average one shell hole scared. We had no lights, for our pocket per 20 acres. Regarding duds the plows flash lights were lost every one of them. and harrows will not set them off because But more about this orally. I don't make they failed to explode when they hit the those trips any more. But if there is an ground with fearful impact. other push on our front it may be the Anyhow thousands of Chinamen are same old story. I hope the push, if any, will salvaging behind the lines and get so much be elsewhere. per dud found. Duds will be as scarce as I guess our boys must be over now. If Kaisers after the war. well trained, their casualties will not be We have many "stove-pipes" about the hea-vy even in going over the top in a impending Fritz drive. It is now overdue. batde. The British Tommies, with whom we are All is well with me; I am feeling fine working, carry a chip on the shoulder and and time now passes more rapidly. Just defy Fritz to do his dog-gonest. This last now the weather is miserable, it is snow word reminds me of a story I heard. Some ing and the soil is frozen. I see from the cow-boys placed a cross over the grave of papers that the folks in the U.S. are work a deceased cow-puncher with the words: ing most nobly for the army and victory. "Here lies Slim Harris; he did his But victory is not in sight this year not damndest, the angels couldn't do no after Russia's wretched collapse. Possibly damnder." in 1919 but more likely in 1920 shall The many British I meet, and also every we win. one of us Americans are very optimistic

Regards to all at home. Well-wishingly yours, ''' Beaudette no doubt refers to an article entitled W. A. Beaudette "Agriculture in France During the War," which ap peared in the Scientific American Supplement, February 12, 1916. 214 WHi(XS) 19281

German cannon on caissons on the other side ofthe line.

about the final out-come. Our only appre SO is everybody around here. The Tommies hension is lest the war may not end this in the trenches where they are not far year 1918. We do not like the Winter apart from the Germans yell out to the months. It is quite probable, we think, Germans every now and then: "Come on that the Germans will cry "hold enough" with your 'strafe,' Fritz." But it has no in 1918. But again there remains the prob affect, apparently. Fritz never even replies, ability that the end is brought about only save to say: "You chust vait, Tommy." This by an overwhelming army of Americans! is trench "stove-pipe" carried back by the I guess we shall know pretty well where Tommies as they return on our narrow we are at after the promised "strafe" ofthe gauge Trains. Kaiser has taken place."' This battle will In some respects we are better off here probably last many weeks, even all Sum than the folks home. We get meat, pota mer. I am anxious for it to start and toes, bread, coffee, and sugar every day. We never have pastries because we get no "^ The element of surprise had all but disap fiour. For dessert we smoke and exchange peared as the war entered its fourth year. Thus, the officers' "stove-pipes" which are only 1% German spring offensives of 1918 were anticipated more valuable than those of the enlisted by both sides with a mixture of dread and impa tience. men. 215 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1996

The weather is splendid at presentjust some may imagine that because Ameri like May at home. The thermometer reg cans took a small part in the fight that istered 70 today. "It's bloomin' fine offen there are not many over yet. In fact one sive weather" the Tommies say. meets American soldiers in every part of Aeroplane bombing has not taken place France, so there must be a great many in over us for nearly two weeks. We are not the back areas. If only we had American lonesome for the raids, but from Jan 25 aeroplanes over here. The keenest disap until Feb 20 we had Gothas" visit our area pointment of the average American sol nearly every evening. To watch a raid is dier is the realization of our slowness in quite thrilling provided the planes do not making planes, when they are so badly come directly over-head. We cannot see needed. We lie on our cots at night, hear the planes but we can often distinguish the alternating drone of the unmistak the gleam ofthe bombs in the moonlight able Fritz, we hear him drop his load of as they descend. And the hum of the fourteen bombs and return home un double motors is very distinct from our damaged. We then wonder where the fa own allied planes. mous liberty plane can be. They will ar rive eventually, but why not now while Sincerely yours, there is a war on? W.A. Beaudette The efforts of the civilian back home do not pass unnoticed by the Amex'* men. But the home folks must prepare for the April 27, 1918 biggest sacrifices so far, the giving up of relatives in the war. The Amex men will Dear Al.— likely take an active part in the shows this . . . Our one grouch is the wretched Summer and casualties will roll in propor weather, rain for a whole month. We rise tionate to the victories won. in the morning, view the sky. If it is colder it is quite probably going to rain—if Wishing you health success and good warmer it is certainly going to rain—and weather and moonless nights. if it remains the same, it is absolutely I am. certain that it will rain. There is only one Most sincerely yours, season here, the rainy season. It is enough W.A.B. to give one a pain in the unmentionable. Our whole out-fit is living in a number of P.S. It has been full moon lately and dug-outs, because we are quite up to old the bombing Gothas have held high rev Fritz again. It is not so much the shelling elry after their own fashion. but the bombing by planes that we pro tect ourselves against. I get Chicago papers for distribution May 29, 1918 among the men. On the whole, the pa pers are fairly accurate. There is this point Dear Al.— that both successes and adversities are You asked for an occasional line. I am exaggerated when mentioned. Then, in a large tent at present which we are using for recreational purposes. I man aged to rent an ancient piano yesterday. It '" The Gotha was a huge twin-engined German is more valuable as an antique than as a biplane used for strategic bombing from 1916 to 1918—including air raids on London. Allied sol diers tended to call all large German bombers "Gothas," regardless of type. "* American Expeditionary Force.

216 ADAMS/STEVENS: FATHER BEAUDETTE musical instrument but some sounds come tain us here all or more than an entire out of it. We are fairly well supplied with month. For my part we cannot stay here athletic goods which I procured by means long enough, it is a peach ofa spot, no mud, of a limited K.C. fund entrusted to me. only light absorbent soil. We have enor BothY. &K.C. stationery we have in abun mous appetites caused by the fresh salt air dance just now. The effect of these conve but our rations were cut down 40%. Full niences on the morale of the men is no rations of one pound of bread and meat per ticeable. man per day hold good only in the forward We have no cinema views but the men area. We make up the deficit by inhaling have access to a neighboring large port extra whiffs of ocean air. town where they can be amused.'^ Booze There is a new attack, by the enemy, cannot be sold to Americans, and in gen impending. Fritz has 200 divisions con eral the rules are faithfully observed. The centrated on this front, so the London drinking cafes are open only from 12-2 papers inform us. This new strafe will P.M. and from 6-8 P.M. The red light dis eclipse the other one in intensity but will tricts are all marked and to be merely not succeed very well. The Yanks are pass seen on those streets is a court-martial ing thru French ports very fast. We meet offense. Our provost guards plus the Brit new units every day, and all are anxious to ish guards manage to keep over-amorous go up to the "Hun shooting gallery" in- chaps away from the dives. There are stanter. Poor chaps, before long they will numerous street-sirens who parade, but be "jolly well fed up" as the Tommies say. the bombing of all towns behind the lines A few months at the lines soon convinces has rendered all cities very dark and unin one that a mere tramp-dog fight is far teresting at night. Besides all soldiers must more interesting than Fritz phosgene-gas, return to camp at 8:15, with the sun still Fritz-bombs and pine-apple shells. But it shining. Venereal troubles in our regi must be done and I am convinced that ment are almost nil, and intoxication cases our Yanks will do themselves honor. They are almost unheard of. make a splendid impression when pass I am convinced that the same men of ing through. They are lanky as grey our unit would not lead as cleanly lives in hounds and march with a snap that signi civil life as they must needs do here in the fies "we are coming, where is the job." army. The scarred Tommies look on and say We are camped by the sea-coast, a beau "Them's jolly good material, I'll say." tiful spot near a large French town. We take Our idea over here is that Fritz will almost daily plunges in the briny. The beach make one more determined effort to crush is a dandy. No civilians molest us. The gov the British before the Americans arrive ernment does not issue bathing costumes and failing that the heart of Germany will so we content ourselves with a plunge a la break and peace will come. Quite a few Adam, without even the conventional oak- bets have been made in our unit that we leaf. The water is desperately cold, how would eat our Christmas dinner at home ever, and we do not remain in the ocean "a in 1918. Personally I am not quite so day and a night" as St. Paul did.-^" The optimistic so I took up a bet of $100 simple life appeals to us more. against $50, that we would not be on We are constructing standard gauge rail American soil by Xmas this year. When I way and building bridges. This job will re- win my wager I'll put it away to buy a sack of flour and a pound of bacon as soon as I go back to house-keeping. If any change ' Probably C^alais. remains I'll give it to the orphan's fund. I Tl Corinthians, 11:25. fear the orphans will find that "there ain't

217 WHi(X3)27356

The ruins of a church in Neuvilly, near the Argonne Forest, being used as a temporary shelter for American wounded.

going to be no care," judging by the ever- Dear Al.— ascending prices of rations in America. Yours of May 18 reached me today with Last evening was a fine night and we were enclosed receipt and many thanks for not bombed. Fritz has us guessing now and we your trouble. I had not received any re wonder why we were passed up. ceipt from Superior at all. I get no an I see Francis Hildebrand was called. What swers to official communications to about Harold Doyle? But all young men will Superior. Whether anti-Americanism or be in the show before long. If the Germans anything else is the matter, I cannot say, don't surrender after their next drive the war and care less. It simply makes me angry to must go the limit and we will need five million see young men, American born of Ger men. I cannot see it in any other way. man descent, secretly sympathetic to the Well, I've rambled long enough. Drop an Prussian cause. It would do such some occasional line. I follow the politics with much good to be located in a hospital here and interest. Whatever became of the defaulting city clerk?'-^' A fine period for one to be embez- zlingwhen everybody is turning their sesterces -' Beaudette refers to Robert G. Robertson, who over to Uncle Sam to win freedom. stole nearly $5,000 from the city treasury during his three-year tenure as Rhinelander's city clerk. Regards to Mrs. A. G. Robertson fled to Detroit, but was arrested on April 3, 1918, and nineteen days later, after pleading Sincerely yours, guilty, was sentenced to two years at Waupun State ChaplainW. A. Beaudette Prison. (fi/jme/anrferA'eroiVoriA, April4and25,1918.)

218 ADAMS/STEVENS: FATHER BEAUDETTE observe the Huns bomb these hospitals I am glad to hear that all are well at with all premeditation. A billet or home. I often think of the Rhinelander hutment^^ is far safer from bombing than people and hope to be back there some a hospital. day. The campaign over here with the Don't term me brave. I never knew ofa men ofRhinelander would cement a bond person that dreaded bombs and shells of friendship between us that would re more than I do. During a heavy bombing dound to the weal of the parish. The raid I actually tremble, the darn stuff relations between the non-Catholic men comes down with such a frightening clat of this command and myself are quite ter and noise. And when we were in the identical in friendliness as those between show and shells fell on our camp, a sort of Catholics and myself. I have found at the sickening creepy feeling came over me, front that Protestant men, if helped a such as a boy experiences when he breaks little, prepare for death much as we do, by the neighbor's big window with a stone. sorrow for past faults and a request for And during the show when a British colo mercy from God. I never yet found a nel asked me to take a 48 hour stand in mortally wounded soldier who disdained the third line as chaplain I said "yes" with my help. The padre at the front means about as much pep as you would lend a something quite different from the peace hundred dollar bill to the town's chief time chaplain who was a mere supernu dead-beat. Brave? Nothing to it, shells are merary. I notice very young men are com about as popular with me as a plumber's ing over as chaplains, men just ordained. bill for repairs. I cannot approve of that. The padre must That was a wonderful showing for set a very good example of sobriety and Oneida Co. The Patriotic Fund is a fur other virtues or his influence will be nil. ther manifestation of Rhinelander's loy Temptations really exist and one not tried alty. I am pleased to hear ofthe improved may get into mischief. Personally I am a relations at St. Mary's. It takes some people teetotaler since I assumed the uniform. so long to realize that there is a war on It takes irrore courage to say no to the in which the issues at stake are as vital tempter at times than it does to pan thru as were the issues at Tours, Vienna, or a barrage. Waterloo. We are not at the lines presently, but by I do not think that fathers with chil the sea building a railway. We shall finish dren, which fathers are over draft age, very soon, then, probably go back to the ought to volunteer yet. The time may front. It is very pleasant here, we bathe in come of course. But in the interim we the sea at times, get no shells, live in tents, have over half a million young men arriv and generally enjoy life. In our last camps ing at draft age and they can constitute we were at the lines, lived in caves, had reserves. If I were in your place and wanted artillery as neighbors and got little sleep. to volunteer I would seek the quarter Artillery-men sleep during the day, unless master department. The aviation exams there is a push, and shoot all night. One are very rigorous and the training very simply cannot sleep when 9.2 inch guns long. Aviation, however, is the life, no are hammering away every 3 minutes. But dust, no speed limit, plenty of room on the bombing here is constant, practically the highways and about one half leisure every night. There are large hospitals near time. I think aviators have more off-duty here and they get bombed often. We get time than any branch of the service. bombs too, but with our six machine guns we certainly have our fun pegging at old Fritz. Six machine guns at night make a • An encampment or collection of huts. regular battle, it is a wonderful racket. Of

219 WHi(X3)19287

German troops and ivagons on the move wilh one of their balloons in the background.

course we don't hit the machines but we July 3, 1918 keep them high up so their aim with bombs will be inaccurate. An aero can hear a Dear Al.— machine gun clearly in spite ofthe noise of I am writing without any regard as to engine and propeller. whose turn it may be to write. I enjoy When we were at the front the Gothas sending a letter, when in the proper mood, flew quite low i.e. about 2 or 3 thousand as much as receiving one. feet, and their machine guns would bark I wish to tell you of our elaborate ar back saucily and savagely. That's when we rangements for tomorrow's celebration. would desert our grand stand seats and We serviced a race track thru the Ameri dig for a safety trench. These Gothas carry can consul. There will be a meet of our at least 5 machine guns. regiment and many other American units Well, I am rambling away, repeating in this base area, including aviators, hy old stories over and over and probably droplane men, quarter-masters and oth boring you beyond endurance so I'll halt. ers. An American divisional band, one British band, one band of Highland pip Most devotedly ers will furnish music. The birdmen will W.A.B. furnish air-stunts. There will be two cham- 220 ADAMS/STEVTiNS: FATHER BEAUDETTE pionship ball games, relay races, etc., and opinion. Thisjob of utterly trimming Fritz we shall wind up with several boxing is still a big one, and I think the enemy will events, one of which will be a real go for a fight to the bitter end. Fighting will be the K.O. for a hundred franc prize. bitterest when we have the enemy over I must tell you of a huge Gotha the the Rhine. I still believe that the decisive latest type that was brought down near battle will be fought out on the plains of here. As you do not know our locality I am Westphalia next Summer. not committing myself before the censor. This regiment has now been here over This Gotha was 140 feet across, a veritable one year. If one asks an enlisted man how monster. It carried four mercedes en he feels, the answer invariably is: "darn gines of 300 h.p. each, four propellers all sick of it, fed up." But if one asks: "do you in one line, two on each side of the na want an inconclusive peace," the reply celle.^'' The nacelle was like the sweetest comes: "by no means, we got to whip Fritz limousine, all plush-lined, the metal parts completely." That is the way all feel. The shined, the instruments all on a large war life is a bore, all are sick of it all, but dash board as in an expensive auto. Eight no one wants to go home unless we win wheels under the machine, with tires at completely, decisively, utterly. Personally least eight inches diameter. It simply was I don't figure on reaching Rhinelander to the swellest bus I ever saw. The maze of call at the bank until late in 1919. Then, if wires for controls was like the inside works we go back to the front I may not get a of a pipe organ, very intricate. It carries chance to return. But that is all figured as five machine guns and a ton of bombs, a part of the show. that unhook at the pressure of a foot lever Don't fail to write when you have time. similar to the accelerator of an automo Any little bit of news is interesting. Your bile. Some bus, I will say! The machine past letters made a tremendous hit with will be repaired, repainted, and will likely me. Let me know how "Dutch" Hildebrand do business in Hunland in the near fu fares, where he is, etc. also what about ture. It was not damaged much. Three Leo and Joel? Who are the newly mobi barrels of gasoline are carried in such a lized from Rhinelander? Somehow I do bus. not get the Rhinelander News regularly I have never seen a Zepp. But the Allies anymore. have many dirigibles that do excellent Co. L. was in the trenches but they had work; these we see very frequently. poor luck—nothing happened! Next time Our work is being concluded at this there may be a show on, and the boys will camp. The wildest speculations are rife get more than enough. It is no fun going among enlisted men as to our next move. over the top with old Fritz spitting mur The guesses range from Italy to Palestine, der from nests of machine guns. and even Salonika [in Greece]. In all likelihood we shall simply go whither we Regards to the family and all the folks. are told and no questions will be in order. W.A.B Personally I would be pleased to go to a warm country; I did not like Winter near the lines, the huts are mere shacks with August 17, 1918 the wind blowing across the bleak plains made a desert by warfare. It is quite sure Dear Al— that we shall Winter here again in my No use of my waiting for letters, our mail is tied up somewhere between here and the Channel coast where we were; no mail has reached us for over three weeks. 'Meaning the fuselage which enclosed the crew. We are a gloomy regiment just now and 221 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISFORY SPRING, 1996 would fight against our own Yanks at the a mile of this billet, but as they lie in a drop of a hat. A large amount of our mail copse on a high hill they are left to be is in Paris. Some of our men saw the bags. buried last. These men were told: "Lots of mail here I am convinced now that we shall Win for you people, we know where you are ter here once more—the last time I hope. but we have no orders to send the mail." Next Summer we ought to win and go Great stuff, I call it. We are reading old home. magazines of November 1917. There is an American aviation in this In this former pocket behind the Ameri village, two squadrons in fact. The "hat can lines there is considerable disorder in the ring" bunch, and the "jack-ass" and havoc created by the enemy ere he squadron-''—so called from a kicking left. The villages are in ruins, the movable mule painted on the fuselage. Quentin property was carried away and, worst of Roosevelt^'' belonged to this outfit, I hear. all, the wine and champagne was all con On a trip two days ago I passed Roosevelt's sumed by the plebeian Boche-* soldiery. grave. His demolished "jack-ass" is about To think that such fine liqueurs should be 700 feet away. The engine is removed put to so profane a use! The civilians had from it. The grave is fixed up nicely for a no time to save anything but their lives soldier's, with a rail around it. It will have and money, the Germans drove through to be dug up afterwards, for it is not in a like an avalanche and went back almost as good place. It is in a field and will bother fast when the Yanks pushed in this area. the farmer who may disturb it. There are no canteens orY.M.C.A.'s in Tomorrow we move again, the Lord this area. The K.C.'s are the only ones knows whither. Moving now is not pleas who have gotten here so far. Practically ant. We are field troops of the engineer only K.C. stationery is used for miles corps, are limited in our baggage to what around here. Last week I distributed we carry on our backs. Our officers and 50,000 sheets of writing paper and enve men must trek over the dusty highways, lopes, and the demand for more was loud sometimes 18 kilometres or more in one and insistent. The K.C. 's give away choco day. One company of our engineers hiked late, cigarettes, and stationery and are 27 miles one day with full pack. If it were making a tremendous hit. The Red Cross not for the awful yellow dust caused by does the same, but they are not every endless lines of lorries, cammions, & am where. The Y.M.C.A. does excellent work bulances, walking would not be bad, as we but the doughboys are sore at it, to a rest every few kilometres and smoke a certain extent, because they retail goods pipeful of tobacco. When we finish our instead of giving them, although their hike we resemble a bunch of small town fund was large. Personally I have much millers. Everybody whistles on the hike, it esteem for all three organizations. I deliv puts pep into one. Singing is out of ques ered some stationery to a neighboring tion, it would mean eating up half of bunch of French aviators who said they had had no writing material for over two weeks. Civilians are not returning at once to these villages. The military must police '^•' The 94th and 95th Aero Squadrons respec (clean up) the places first, bury cadavers tively. The latter was also known as the "Kicking and arrivals, exterminate flies etc. There Mule" Squadron. -'' Quentin Roosevelt (1897-1918), the son of are still over 200 unburied enemies within former President Theodore Roosevelt, served in the 95th Aero Squadron and was shot down near Cha teau-Thierry on July 14, 1918. His grave became a sort of shrine for American troops in France, who ^* Another slang term for the Germans. often broke off pieces ofhis aircraft as souvenirs. 222 wni(x;i).=;()2:i8

A Father O'Conner offering mass to soldiers fresh from the front at Bois du Foucheres.

France plus umpteen varieties of germs. back along the white posts of the highway The infantry going into line rides. One if wounded, until they get a ride in a cannotwalk a long distance in the hot sun motor truck or empty ambulance. The then ferret out machine-guns with much latter are scarce during a push. ofa heart. Our field & evacuation hospitals did At present our engineers do most any wonderful work during the drive; every thing, build bridges or watch them, re thing worked with neatness and dispatch. pair railways, roads, cars, locomotives, gun- Most of the Yank wounds were machine carriages, or dig latrines, and bury cadav gun shots thru the legs and feet, indicating ers. One wears a gas mask doing the last long range machine gunning. The fight namedjob for reasons that are too lengthy ing was bitter and our Yanks did not pay of explanation! I saw Clarence Wesley, excessive attention to capturing prisoners. young Whittaker, and a couple of other Fritz realized this and generally ran when Rhinelanderites. Co. L. was in the line in the advancing columns were nearing his the push, now they are out, but I cannot nests. I would sooner have two machine- locate them. Theodore Schlirsmann, I gun wounds than one shell wound. The heard, got a bullet in the right arm and latter tear a wretched hole that causes passed thru a neighboring field hospital. great bleeding. I prefer no wound at all the He was a walking case, hence I conclude best, if it can be done that way. Co. L. has there was no fracture but a clean flesh seen more fighting in this push than our wound. In either case he is lucky and will entire regiment in one year. come out O.K. Death from infection is I am tiring somewhat of this war. It is rare now. In the first aid an anti-tetanus almost a year now for me. But I can stand shot is given to the wounded ere they walk a year more, I guess. I don't object to the 223 ^•mAf^ * Wlli(X3) 17842

A Red Cross worker serving soldiers in France in 1918.

food or pay, both are excellent, but I placed theirs, and left to get their bag dislike this billeting in old shell torn viL gage. We returned and replaced our lages. My last billet had no roof and only names and established four sentries with two walls standing. It is a nice billet if it fixed bayonets—we have the billets now. doesn't rain. I had Mass in the village The artillerymen have warned us not to church Sunday which is pretty well shot do that again or they would send us a up. Before I got to the gospel the audi package in the shape ofa 155 millimetre. ence had to shift into the large sanctuary After enduring Fritz's 15 inch shells in as cakes of plaster came tumbling down Picardy a mere 155 is small fry. each time a heavy lorry passed by on the Excuse lead pencil. Fritz left us many street. empty bottles, machine-guns, ammuni Our present officers' billet is a fairly tion, but no ink. If one asks for ink from good place, there are only three shell another, one meets with that twinkle in holes in the roof and four or five holes the eye that one would experience if he punched through the walls. We had a went to Lewis' hardware and asked to be hard time securing the billet. When we shown a British tank among the hardware came we found that the "Jack-ass" squad on the shelf. ron officers had marked the door with About two weeks ago we billeted the chalk. As they had not yet taken posses enlisted men in a large jail along with 62 sion we marked it over "14th Engrs. Head Fritz prisoners captured by the Yanks. quarters," and left to get our baggage. In The officers ofthe regiment moved into a the interim the 55th coast artillery offic former insane asylum. Our colonel was ers came along, erased our names out and wired by corps headquarters if all was 224 ADAMS/STE-VENS: FATHER BEAUDETTE alright. He wired: "Enlisted men all in landed in succession across the road in an jail, and all officers in insane asylum, all orchard. I was curious so I looked out and well." a cake of mud from a shell-hole arched over to me and swatted me in the left eye, Well-wishingly yours, smashing my glasses and "shining" my W. A. Beaudette eye. No blood flowed so I may not be a wound stripe hero. The officers kidded August 26, 1918 me a good deal, asserting that in an en counter with an Hebrew chaplain I had Dear Friend— come outsecondbest. In the interim I can How do you like the war news? Pretty be evacuated to Paris for several days for cheering eh? Old Fritz's heart is break a remount of glasses at an optical dump ing. The war will not last 5 full years, the that the A.E.F. has established there. So it show will be over by next August 1919. We is an ill shell that doesn't smash some are now brushing up our German. All the body good. I have had no leave in a year, way from Arras to Rheims Fritz is one always a few miles (or less) from the lines. worried old pirate. The Yanks are all whis tling still. It is a difficult matter to get officers' clothing here and it has come to this that W. A. Beaudette many of us are seriously desiring the end of the war for no other reason than that we may get a chance to buy a new pair of August 27, 1918 pants. We use only one suit. We carry all our possessions on our back, the same as All is well. Good news all the time now. infantry. . . . We have forgotten the sting ofthe shows The circuit court session is always a of March 21 April 3, April 14. The British strenuous one for the Dist. Attorney. Your have the old punch again. The Yanks are next hardest job will be to get the cellar everywhere down here, whistling all the filled with coal. Fr. Bertram, my succes time, to the merriment of the un- sor, ought to make good.-*^ I wish him the whistling but talkative Poilus.'' The Yank best of luck. I cannot understand why wonders why the Poilu has so much to say, young priests do not volunteer for chap and the Poilu wonders why the Yank is laincies. There are enough older men to eternally whistling. look after the work in the interim. We are woefully short of chaplains. We have lost W. A. Beaudette several Catholic chaplains thru deaths, wounds, gas, shell-shock, and sickness. They are not all dead but they are away October 18, 1918 from their units. Prior to the Argonne push I was in a little town 5 miles from the Dear Al.— line to see a K.C. outfit. I spent the after Your letter of Sept. 17 inquires whether noon and evening there. The K.C. secre I was wounded. I was not. I happened to taries put up a shingle advertising confes use a blue card and that started a rumor. sions; the consequence was a continuous The nearest I came to getting hurt was at the opening ofthe recent Argonne show. It is laughable so I must tell you. Fritz was after a road near my tent, three fire-mines ^" Father Francis Bertram, formerly the secretary for the bishop ofthe diocese of Superior, succeeded Beaudette as pastor of St. Mary's Church in '-' Slang for a French soldier. Rhinelander. 225 WISCONSIN M.AGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1996

Stream of Yanks preparing for the big boys are having a share in this Argonne show to commence in a day or two. Most drive. of these chaps were from Cal., Oregon, The weather is very good, offensive and Washington. weather though cold at night for patrols How are the children doing and the and front line men. The nights are long, Mrs? Buying shoes for the outfit will be permitting the transportation of war ma come as momentous a question as buying terial unobserved. more bonds. Did you notice that in October only The impression here at the front is that 131,000 troops were carried over? In other by Xmas we shall [have] driven the Huns words more than half of the transports are to their border in a battered condition. doing business elsewhere. Where? Can you Then next Spring will occur one terrific guess? I have not been told but I have a fairly drive lasting some two months. After that good idea. There will be a surprise soon on it is only a mopping-up proposition and a comparatively insignificant front. units will start home. That ought to bring As soon as Germany cries "kamarad" I me home in May or June. am quite ready to go home, I do not relish Wintering here much, there is not even a Most sincerely, movie showwithin 40 miles of here to pass W. A. Beaudette away the evenings. About the only enter tainment we have evenings is watching the Huns bomb around this valley. From October 30, 1918 our quarry where we have our dug-outs we have a good view for miles around. Dear Al. . . . During early days of the present W. A. Beaudette Argonne fight came the first peace offer. That evening the soldiers gathered in crowds and unanimously decided to make January 1, 1919^9 no peace—until Germany surrendered unconditionally. This is the sentiment all Dear Al.— along the front. The last loan was a hugh Hello, how is the "flu" now?'"' It is some success as we all expected. I think itwill be war you have on over there. I hope your the last war loan. The end is surely com family was spared. Since so many M.D.'s ing fast. Very good. Boche soldiers are and so many clergymen left America you opposite us here, they fight hard. folks should be better physically and spiri The whole Argonne fight was a hard tually but the reverse seems the case. grind, so many woods with old fashioned I can imagine the clear cold days of defenses, barb-wire, pill boxes. Tanks are Winter there, the porches cracking inter useless in a wood so infantry have a hard mittently from the frost and the tight row to hoe. We, our unit, were in that storm windows. Well I'll swap seasons with show from Sept. 26 when it opened until you. The thermometer seldom goes be about Oct. 12th when we were ordered on low freezing here, but such nasty rain! a different front. We marched here in one day so we did not go more than 30 miles. We were glad to get out of that nasty '•^'' Beaudette mistakenly dated this letter "January place. Co. L. was doing salvage work up 1,1918," but from its context it clearly was written on there when I last saw them, that is less January 1, 1919. "' From September of 1918 to the summer of dangerous than fighting. I saw Clarence 1919, a global epidemic of Spanish influenza killed Wesley there too so I guess the Wisconsin roughly 675,000 Americans.

226 ADAMS/STEVENS: FATHER BEAUDETTE

It has rained 31 days steadily with snow to 20 years wear black wooden shoes for and hail mixed. The mud is fierce, the raw work or to go to school. wind wretched, this is a h— ofa country Co. L. is with its division up near Coblenz anyhow. Sunny France! Huh! It is almost somewhere. It is quite a while since I saw as muddy down here near Verdun as itwas Clarence Wesley or Co. L. proper. The last in Flanders and Picardy. The Meuse river time I saw them was on Sept. 27, I think is swollen into a mighty lake a mile and a during the Argonne push. Co. L. was in half wide and many miles long. I think the that push during some two weeks but I gay Parisians are worrying over the Seine don't know how they fared. I imagine they as that is very high also. had fewer casualties than at Fismes. At the Our present work is most prosaic, sim latter place it was their first real experi ply salvaging guns and "ammo" from the ence and their losses were awful about recent battle-areas. We blow up the duds, 70% killed and wounded, mostly wounded. this is about our only fun. These suspi Beloit suffered the most in Co. L. You cious shells, grenades etc. are gathered knew that many Beloit men were in Co. L. into heaps of six tons at times; a charge is What have you ascertained re Lt. placed under the heap and up she goes Fenelon?''^ Has it finally been accepted with a huge roar and smoke. No one that he is truly dead? If he is alive I am the stands near by but we must hide in a dug most mistaken man in this world. out as fragments scatter half a mile at The home people will breathe easier times. But usually every single shell has now, the campaigns, etc. are ended, you been exploded. may save your francs, put less sawdust in We are awaiting the termination ofthe your bread, more crystals of sugar in your armisticejan. 17 to see what will be done." coffee. The Yanks returning home will I hope no further extension is arranged always admit that whilst they had a surplus for. This is holding us up from returning of mud and hikes over here they surely home. Peace ought to be arranged in a did get square meals from the govern few days. All that the Huns have to do is ment, and that was because the home sign, then commence to "come across." people stinted themselves to overfeed My organization is expecting to sail Feb. them over here. Anyhow, all's well that 15. Our work terminates about Feb. 1. In ends well. fact we are doing little, hardly earning our "chow." Most sincerely yours, By the way, autos have climbed so much W. A. Beaudette in price that some of us will have to walk in the near-future; but walking means wear on shoes and shoes are high, so what February 28, 1919 is a person going to do? Perhaps resort to wooden shoes as the people of Europe. Dear Al.— Even in Paris children and young folks up You probably surmised that I would be home by this time, hence your taciturnity. My esteemed friend. Father Rice,'^'' spread " The Armistice signed by the Allies and Central Powers on November 11, 1918, technically stopped the fighting for thirty-six days. Eventually this dead ''•^ Second Lieutenant Harry W. Fenelon of line was extended to January 17, 1919, to February Rhinelander (Company L, 127th Infantry, 32nd Di 17, 1919, and then for a "short period" until perma vision) died of wounds on August 8, 1918, near nent peace conditions were agreed upon. The Treaty Fismes, France. of Versailles, which officially ended hostilities, was '' Father Peter Rice, pastor of St. Patrick's Church signed onjune 28, 1919. in Minocqua.

227 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1996

unsound rumors that I would arrive in In the evening we are fortunate enough January. As a consequence even my rela to have entertainments. The Y.M.C.A. and tives as well as my friends have ceased the K.C. have pooled entertaining talent. writing including yourself. It is a huge success. The entertainers, I am not alone, however, most of our however, disgust the soldiers with vulgari men are presently sans letters. Yet, we ties at times. The idea that a soldier wants get papers and magazines so we have "hot stuff is an illusion. The average something as a poor substitute for home Yank much prefers hearing Gounod's Ave mail. Maria well rendered than some pungent Rumors around camp here are very silly parody on "There are Smiles." persistent that we shall entrain in a few Most of the entertainments we have days for a base port. Our base ports are had so far were impregnated with cheap "Black Holes of Calcutta" and we almost vulgarisms and fishmonger's billingsgate. dread going to them. The mud and filth is These Hooliganisms from Whitechapel claimed to be indescribable. We hope our do not appeal much to our boys. The sojourn in the port will be short. We have Yank who was in battles is more sober- had enough of mud in Flanders and minded than was the fresh kid in uniform Picardy during almost one year to last us in the cantonment. Many entertainers an eternity. And if we have to drill in knee- forget that in catering to the boys here. deep mud at the ports for weeks or even As I get the Rhinelander News I am days we may begin to sigh for the "arid" posted somewhat on home affairs. fields of Flanders. Rhinelander is pretty much the same en Our men presently drill six hours per terprising little burg and I am anxious to day. The mud here near Verdun is bad see it once more. too. It rains day and night, the sun has not Regards to all. shone three hours consecutively since last Well wishingly, September. W. A. Beaudette

St. Anne's hand, a postwar organizational and directorial effort of Father Beaudette, standing xuith his trombone in a back row next to a tuba player. WHi(X3>50257 BOOK REVIEWS

The Family Letters of Victor and Mela Berger, known Socialist and, along with Eugene V. 1894-1929. Edited by MICHAEL E. STEVENS. Debs, one of the movement's two key (State Historical Society of Wisconsin, figures nationally. The first member ofhis Madison, 1995. Pp. 441. Introduction, if party ever elected to Congress, Berger lustrations, index. ISBN 0-87020-277-4, represented his Milwaukee district in the $50.00.) House of Representatives, off and on, from 1911 to 1929, just shortly before his death. To read this expertly edited and anno He was a moderate socialist who advocated tated collection of letters between peaceful change through the ballot box Wisconsin's famous Socialist Congress rather than revolution. On a lot of issues man, Victor L. Berger, and his wife Meta there was little difference between Berger is to be reminded of the important role and Wisconsin's other famous political Socialism once played in Wisconsin his leader ofthe time, Robert M. La Follette. tory. For all but a dozen years between (In fact, La Follette Progressives and Berger 1910 and 1960, asocialistsatin the mayor's Socialists, although often critical of one office in Milwaukee. In fact, at the same another, had a symbiotic relationship, timejoe McCarthy was spearing Reds from making it hard to understand the one his perch in the U.S. Senate, Milwaukee apart from the other.) Berger reached the voters were electing (and reelecting) So height of his prominence during and cialist Mayor Frank P. Zeidler. Nor was shortly after World War I when federal socialism confined to the state's biggest authorities unjustly convicted him for anti city. Asjames Lorence has demonstrated war activities. Meta Berger, who has eluded in this journal, it even established toe scholarly attention until the publication of holds in such unlikely places as Wausau these letters, was a significant public figure and Rhinelander.* in her own right, active in educational and Victor Berger was Wisconsin's best woman suffrage circles. It is a measure of her and her husband's stature within the state that she was appointed to the Univer sity ofWisconsin's Board of Regents and to '"'Dynamite for the Brain': The Growth and other high educational posts by Republi Decline of Socialism in Central and Lakeshore Wis can governors, one ofwhom was a stalwart. consin, 1910-1920," Summer, 1983. 229 Whi(X3)4891.3

Doris Berger, fack Anderson, Victor Berger, Meta Berger, and Lisa Berger, about 1910.

In 1990 the Berger grandchildren gence from her husband's long shadow is donated to the State Historical Society of a major theme of this collection. Wisconsin a large collection of their grand As editor Stevens suggests in an excel parents' personal papers, from which State lent introduction, Victor Berger was a Historian Michael E. Stevens has selected man of fascinating contradictions. Pub the 260 letters that comprise this book. licly he exuded unshakable confidence in These letters do not fundamentally alter the Tightness of his cause; privately he the basic story told by Sally M. Miller in confessed to Meta, "I am not as cock-sure what remains the standard work on the as I used to be about my own belief in subject, Victor Berger and the Promise of Con Socialism." American laborers had no structive Socialism, 1910—1920 (1973). But more tireless or courageous a champion they do deepen our understanding ofthe than Berger; but sometimes he wondered man and his movement, and they tell us if the working class ("if there is such a practically everything we know about the thing") was worth saving. Moreover, previously neglected Meta, whose emer Berger eschewed anything that smacked

230 BOOK REVIEWS

ofthe proletarian in his personal habits. that, like the underground threads of A natty dresser who dabbled in the stock mycelium sprouting mushrooms in vari market, he struggled to reconcile social ous locations, bring such books to life? ist values with a decidedly bourgeois Perhaps the authors saw familiar and lifestyle. None of this is to suggest that he much-loved works being moved for free was a hypocrite. He was simply more in ways, plazas, building projects. Perhaps trospective and conflicted—and therefore the authors saw the beginning of corro more interesting—than we had previously sion and decay from polluted air, as has so thought. badly effaced monuments in Europe. In These letters also shed more light on any case, something called out to these the internecine conflicts that weakened writers to at least save a record of outdoor the American Left. Berger could casti art. And if possible, by recalling for people gate the establishment with the best of the interesting history of the work, its them. But he reserved his sharpest barbs artist, its subject, how it came to be, they for those who shared many ofhis views, might arouse interest in saving the sculp people such as Debs, labor leader Samuel ture. Gompers, the "Progress-if followers of One of the best of these recent hand La Follette. (He also had a lot of scurril books is Outdoor Sculpture in Milwaukee: ous things to say about African Ameri A Cultural and Historical Guidebook, by cans, but his racist comments do not Diane M. Buck and Virginia A. Palmer. show up in these letters.) The authors made what they call a "highly It's true, as some commentators have personal" selection of ninety-seven ofthe recently noted, that scholars have not hundreds of sculptures in Milwaukee and paid nearly enough attention to conser environs. For each of these there is a vatism in the twentieth century. But as photograph, a history of the work, brief this collection of Berger letters suggests, biographical information about the artist there is still much to be learned by study with references to his or her experience ing the American Left. This volume's and other works, and often there is a usefulness is enhanced by well-selected fascinating history ofthe site. The selec photographs and, a rarity these days, a tions are pinpointed on maps which pref thorough index. ace each of four sections—Downtown, South Side, North Side, and Bradley Sculp P.ATRICKJ. MANEY ture Garden. Fulane University This is almost as much a work of civic history as of art. The authors have a rich and deep knowledge of their city and clearly enjoy filling in that background for us before placing a work of sculpture Outdoor Sculpture in Milwaukee: A Cultural in its location: the history of the Milwau and Historical Guidebook. By DIANE M. BUCK kee Journal, of the Milwaukee Public and VIRGINIA A. PALMER. (The State His Museum, of scouting in Milwaukee, ofthe torical Society of Wisconsin, Madison, early suffrage movement, of local indus 1995. Pp. xvii, 210. Illustrations, maps, tries, of the Milwaukee Athletic Club, of bibliography, index. ISBN 0-87020-276-6, the founders of social work in Wisconsin, $20.00, paper.) of the animal rights movement, of Mil waukee festivals, and much more. All is What is it about our cultural climate easily accessible through a most useful that, in the last decade or so, has made index categorized by artists, sculptures, city guidebooks to outdoor art spring up locations, street addresses, donors, like mushrooms? Chicago, Madison, Mil founders and fabricators, and even ped waukee. What are the common themes estal designers.

231 I" -•"'•/,'* •.•'fei*.^^

Samuel Buri's fiberglass cows. Mo, Ni, Que, m the Bradley Sculpture Garden. Photo by Sam Dadian from the book.

Included are a few architectural friezes, aged by vandals. This book even includes a few cemetery monuments. And a couple a photo of an empty pedestal, perhaps in of amusingly eccentric works: sculpture hopes that the 3'6" bronze figures, stolen molded from one hundred automobile from the Belle Austin Jacobs memorial in bumpers (Elmer L. Winter), which the 1975, may yet be found and restored. authors place in the context of found- Controversy seems to be endemic, es object sculpture dating back to Cubism. pecially when a proposed work is in an Mary Mohl's works of almost magical reaL advanced style unfamiliar to many view ism made from cement, driftwood, etc. ers. In 1982 a steel-beam sculpture by the Perhaps a distinctive feature of this internationally famous sculptor Mark di guidebook, because of Milwaukee's heri Suvero was approved for installation in a tage is the large number of works given by city park only after the Milwaukee Art ethnic groups to celebrate their heroes: Museum director fought for it, the au Polish, German, Hellenic, Scottish, Nor thors tell us, through eleven public hear wegian. ings—and this even though the entire In common with other recent guide cost of the work was borne by an anony books, this one recounts many stories of mous donor. An abstract sculpture by sculpture that has been moved, stored, another international sculptor, Richard lost and found, set up in a new location, Lippold, who had Milwaukee roots, was and (increasingly in recent years) dam- never installed because of a ten-vear con- 232 BOOK REVIEWS troversy. In its place an earlier, realistic, cate this book to Sam Dadian, who worked monument to Perejacques Marquette was on the project for two years until his restored. death. Lila C. Aryan then completed the Milwaukee, perhaps more than smaller photographs. cities, is blessed with wealthy citizens who As for the authors themselves, they are patrons of the arts. Primary among are eminently qualified. Diane Buck heads these was Mrs. Harry Lynde (Peg) Brad the Milwaukee SOS group—the Smith ley. Besides contributing toward many sonian Institution's project to save our other works, she personally selected, paid (American) sculpture. Virginia Palmer, for, and placed sixty contemporary sculp who is retired from the UW-Milwaukee, tures in the Bradley estate garden. The Division of Urban Outreach, guides walk works are by world-famous artists—Moore, ing tours around Milwaukee for the uni Noguchi, Hepworth. (It would be useful versity. She co-authored Around the Shores to have this guidebook's section on the of Lake Superior With Margaret Bogue. Bradley Sculpture Garden printed sepa A useful selected bibliography is in rately for use of visitors to that outdoor cluded. I could only wish it included two museum.) historical guidebooks to outdoor sculp But Mrs. Bradley was not unique. As ture from nearby cities: Chicago Sculpture, the authors summarize in their introduc text and photographs byjames L. Riedy tion, beginningwith Elizabeth Plankinton (University of Illinois Press, Urbana, 1981) "individual women often commissioned a and this reviewer's A Common Joy: Outdoor sculpture or assumed a leadership role in Art in Madison (Madison, 1990). raising funds, selecting an artist, and plac Public sculpture was stimulated by the ing the work on a particular site."' Columbian Exposition which brought west Besides philanthropy, another source such eminent sculptors as Daniel Chester that nourished Milwaukee art is frequently French, whose work is in Milwaukee, Chi referred to by the authors. That is the cago, and Madison. But as Riedy points Layton School of Art which, until it closed out, a new burst of activity arose in the in 1974, gave employment as well as train I960's and I970's with "more emphasis ing to many of these artists and was re on the value of sculpture as an element in sponsible for some of them settling in urban design." May these guidebooks spur Milwaukee. interest in what the Midwest has and may The photography as well as the text of yet have! this lively book deserves praise. Sculp ture, as it should be seen in the round, is FRANCES W. HURST particularly challenging to a photogra Madison pher. And outdoor sculpture is meant to be seen in its environment. Backgrounds can enhance or detract. The authors dedi- Radicalism in Minnesota, 1900-1960: A Survey of Selected Sources. By CARI. ROSS. (Minnesota Historical Society, Saint Paul, ' For the 1893 Columbian Exposition a Wiscon 1994. Pp. xii, 109. Illustrations, index. sin woman, Jean Miner, created a sculpture, "For ISBN 0-87351-307-X, $17.95, paper.) ward." After that fair the statue was saved by Wiscon sin women who raised money to bring it to Madison What is radicalism? What is a radical? and install it on the capitol grounds. By 1995 it was What was radicalism in Minnesota from in fragile condition and was to be moved indoors 1900-1960? This guide provides a broad but was saved again by Wisconsin women who first demonstrated and then, led by Sue Ann Thomp overview of "selected" sources for research son, the governor's wife, raised money to have a available largely at the Minnesota Histori duplicate cast in bronze for permanent outdoor cal Society, with descriptions of additional display. materials at the University of Minnesota 233 WISCONSIN M,\GAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1996 libraries, archives, and special collections into nine sections which are not in any at Minneapolis; the University's Immigra logical order and which separates like tion History Research Center at St. Paul; materials into separate sections and sub and five regional history centers at uni sections. For example, the separation of versity campuses around the state to an the listings of newspapers and periodicals swer these questions. Sources included by four sections and 51 pages is inexpli are archival and manuscript collections; cable and unfortunate. The further divi artifacts; books, unpublished papers and sion of individual items within sections articles; newspapers; oral histories; pam into subsections often complicates locat phlets and ephemera; periodicals, sound ing information. The newspaper section and visual collections; and materials on is divided into four subsections based on national and international radicalism. political orientation. This artificial divi This guide is a result of the 20th Century sion means that if a newspaper changed Radicalism in Minnesota project, of which political orientation it might be found in author Carl Ross was also the director. more than one subsection. In abreakwith The goals of the project were to compile convention, the editor chose to have sepa a guide to sources on left-wing radicalism, rate entries for each title of a newspaper, conduct and transcribe oral history inter resulting in having to follow references to views, and encourage research. As indi other titles and other entries. Similarly, cated by the project's title, it concen the oral history section is divided into trated on the twentieth century, up to eight subsections based on the projects 1960, and in particular on the farm-labor which resulted in (conducted?) the inter movement. views. A simple alphabetical list (with a The strengths of this guide are three brief mention ofthe originating project) fold. It brings together information about would have been easier to use and avoided a variety of research media (including the problem of having to find entries for museum artifacts, the research value of individuals interviewed several times. which is often neglected in such compen Lastly, the introduction seems to start dia) into one format. This type of compi in the middle and would have benefitted lation is most useful for the researcher by the inclusion of a brief overview of engaged in initial decisionmaking about Minnesota radicalism. research choices. Indeed the guide men A final note: are the days of published tions in several sections the existence of guides to collections over? It is an old saw more detailed guides to topical areas and that the minute a guide is published it formats such as Minnesota's radical press becomes outdated. But a more contem and radical materials in archives and porary question is would this guide—or manuscript holdings. Secondly, the vast any published guide—be more useful if it majority of 917 entries have annotations is also available in electronic format which which are, in general, superlative. They would allow key word searching? are complete, with enough background information to make them intelligible and KAREN M. LAMOREE helpful to researchers beginning their State Historical Society of Wisconsin work. Yet they are focussed enough on radicalism to make them truly useful in decisionmaking. Lastly, an index helps bring together disparate entries on an Neither Wolf Nor Dog: American Indians, individual, organization, or topic. Environment, & Agricultural Change. By Unfortunately the organization ofthe DAVID RICH LEWIS. (Oxford University guide into and within sections is likely to Press, NewYork, 1994. Pp. 240. Illustra frustrate rather than assist the researcber. tions, maps, notes, index. ISBN 0-19- The guide divides the formats listed above 506297-3, $ 29.95.)

234 BOOK REVIEWS

David Rich Lewis' Neither Wolf Nor Dog ted but the threat was there and discus provides a richly detailed history of the sions of allotment divided the people from economic and environmental strategies one another and intensified ongoing fac pursued by the Northern Utes, Hupa, tional disputes. This pattern persisted: and Tohono O'odham from precontact the groups responded differently to the times to the present. Lewis finds his same policies (which failed nevertheless themes in the disastrous effects of gov but for reasons unique to each situation); ernmental policies which imposed Euro so Lewis's technique of studying policy pean-style agriculture on these diverse from the Native-American standpoint peoples, but he has not written another clearly pays off. policy study. Rather, Lewis focuses on Still, despite the diverse histories of the Indians and the ways in which subsis these three groups, there are uniformi tence, cultural values, the natural envi ties brought primarily by a lack of con ronment, and the market interacted over cern for environmental constraints on time to limit the Native Americans' abil the part of non-Indians. Prior to interven ity to meet their economic needs. Lewis tion by Euro-Americans, each of these writes skillfully, but his book requires Native American groups employed a suc close reading and is addressed to a seri cessful subsistence strategy which involved ous scholarly audience. active intervention to alter the environ In Chapter I, Lewis briefly describes ment through fire, water diversion and the political and philosophical bases for storage, and horticulture. Members of government policies designed to assimi these groups exploited a variety of re late Indians after turning them into yeo sources, hoping to promote security man farmers. He then provides two chap through flexibility. Such strategies worked ters each for the three Native American well and provided a relatively safe subsis groups. The paired chapters follow a pat tence consistent with environmental lim tern in which the first examines mythol its. But Euro-Americans disrupted these ogy, the natural setting, traditional sub delicately balanced human and natural sistence strategies, and social practices systems by polluting the Trinity River, while the second looks at contacts with forbidding controlled burning, introduc Euro-Americans and responses to govern ing American-style ranching and agricul ment policies. Lewis sticks with this case- ture, and the list goes on. With their study approach and discusses each group locallybased economies ruined, the Hupa without much reference to the others, and others had to support themselves but his systematic presentation invites the beyond the context in which they lived by reader to make the comparisons Lewis exceeding environmental limits and/or typically avoids. Each of the groups tried by finding some connections with the to hold onto core elements of their old wider economy through the market. The lives but, because they differed so much breakdown of local autonomy and the from one another, they reacted differ rising disregard for environmental limits ently to government policies which sought initiated dependent relationships with to cbange them. The Hupas, for example, ranchers, cotton growers, lumbermen, who traditionally valued private property government officials, and other Euro- and acquisitiveness, welcomed allotment Americans. Here is Lewis's central argu and worked best in situations involving ment: when these diverse Native Ameri individual competition. But the Utes re cans lost the autonomy afforded by envi sisted efforts to divide communal prop ronmentally sound traditional economic erty as a threat to a "collective lifestyle strategies, they became integrated into and identity" which had grown in response the wider economy in ways that ensured to the constraints of reservation life. poverty, dependency, and environmental Tohono O'odham lands were never allot disaster.

235 ITWTMTiT'

WHi(X3).-)0108 Danish folk dance group instructed by Edna Christensen, probably Racine about 1936. Photo courtesy Elmer Christensen, Wisconsin Dells, 1981.

These arc familiar themes, but Lewis Fellers, 1842-1946. Edited by NIELS PETER has not simply applied well-worn theories STILLINC; and ANNE LISBETH OLSEN. (Danes to a few more contexts. Fresh insights Worldwide Archives, Elkhorn, Iowa, in col abound. It is the sort of book that reads laboration with the Danish Society for Emi slowly because the ideas invite thought gration History, Aalborg, Denmark, 1994. and comparison, to bioregional theories, Pp. 224. Illustrations, maps, notes. ISBN 87- for example. Neither Wolf Nor Dog will 982912-7-0, $15.00.) quickly find a place beside Roots of Depen dency and the Fisherman's Problem as a criti Immigrant letters comprised an im cal study in an extraordinarily promising portant link between those who went to field of Native-American history. America and their family and friends who remained in the "old country." Such cor ROBERT DOHERTY respondence told about "new lives" in University of Pittsburgh strange places, while concurrently per petuating old relationships. A myriad prodigal sons and daughters likely warmed their mothers' hearts by chronicling their wanderlust in letters home. Such epistles A New Life: Danish Emigration lo North America, also served as inducements for those who as Described by the Emigrants Fhemselves in were contemplating whether or not to

236 BOOK REVIEWS follow in their countrymen's footsteps. Unfortunately, the book lacks an index, The 1907 United States Immigration Com making it difficult to find those sections mission, in its report on European emi dealing with specific locations. Still, this gration, reported that letters home had should not deter those looking specifi "a great influence" in promoting emigra cally for information about Danes in Wis tion. consin. They will find plenty of interest Under the auspices ofthe Danes World ing information in this work. wide Archives, Niels Stilling and Anne Olsen have used the letters of fifty men ROBERT F. ZEIDEL and women to tell the history of one- University of Wisconsin-Stout hundred years of Danish immigration to North America. In A New Life, one reads of Lars Pedersen's success, "we now have Mr. Social Security: Fhe Life of Wilbur J. a piece of land ... a beautiful place to Cohen. By EDWARD D. BERKOWTIZ. (Univer live," and of Natalie Jung's longing for sity Press of Kansas, Lawrence, 1995. Pp. her native country: "It is so wonderful in xviii, 396. Illustrations, notes, index. ISBN Denmark. . . ." The editors have incorpo 0-7006-0707-2, $34.95.) rated the immigrants' words into an en grossing historical narrative, which allows For some time, social welfare histori the participants to tell their own stories. ans and others have been waiting for the This style allows the reader both to learn first full-length biography of Wilbur the substance and appreciate the human Cohen, "Mr. Social Security," as he was side of Danish immigration. Each chapter dubbed by President John F. Kennedy; it covers some aspect of the immigrant ex was well worth the wait. Indeed, it is re perience, from "Exodus" and "Crossing markable that only eight years after his the Atlantic" to "Churches, Societies, and death so thorough and thoughtful an ac the Danish-American Press." count could be written about the man A New Life does not offer any path- who, from the New Deal through the Great breaking new thesis or interpretation. For Society, was one ofthe key players in the example, it confirms the notion that Dan creation and expansion of the American ish immigrants settled primarily in rural welfare state. Only Edward Berkowitz, the areas. The book's innovation and value is author ofseveral other splendid books on in its methodology. Readers can enjoy the the welfare state, could have produced richness of immigrant manuscripts, with such a work. out having to visit archival centers or trans Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to Rus late documents from their native lan sian immigrant parents, Cohen attended guage. Instead, they can concentrate on the University of Wisconsin in Madi the richness ofthe immigrant world. The son, where he enrolled in Alexander scions ofthe 380,000 Danes who came to Meikeljohn's famed Experimental Col North America between 1820 and 1940 lege. He then went on to major in eco should find this to be a most enjoyable nomics, where he fell under the infiuence book, as should all students of immigrant of a host of well-known scholar-activists, history. including John R. Commons, Selig A New Life will have considerable ap Perlman, and Edwin Witte, from whom peal to Wisconsin readers. Many Danes he learned that "public service is the great chose Wisconsin as their new home, set est privilege and the highest duty," to use tling in such places as Racine, Milwaukee, Cohen's own words. Imbued with that and New Denmark, and the book includes philosophy and in the right place at the some of their stories. There was even a right time, immediately upon graduation debate among the early arrivals as to the (in 1934) he was called to Washington by extent of opportunity available in the state. Witte, the recently appointed executive

237 \Vlli(X3)50107

Wilburf. Cohen receiving an award from President Lyndon B. fohnson as Mrs. fohnson looks on.

director of Franklin Roosevelt's Commit egy was one of concession and compro tee on Economic Security, to help draft mise; it is an intimate history of social the Social Security Act. And with the ex policy and policy making in America ception of a brief teaching stint at the which, more than any other work on the University of Michigan (from 1956-1960), subject, clearly demonstrates that Ameri Cohen remained in the nation's capital can social policy is not crafted by "ex for the next thirty-five years, where he perts," or theorists; rather, it is a practical, went from a policy technician and legisla bureaucratic, and political matter—and tive analyst to secretary of the Depart it occurs in incremental as opposed to ment of Health, Education, and Welfare wholesale fashion. (in 1968). In the process, few people, if Furthermore, while a highly favorable any, played a more important role in the account ofthe Washington insider, Berk passage and expansion of Society Secu owitz certainly is not uncritical ofhis sub rity, Medicare, Medicaid, the Elementary ject. Indeed, he takes Cohen to task for and Secondary Education Act, and nu supporting the 1962 ("Social Service") merous other related measures, many of Amendments to the Social Security Act, which are described and analyzed in fasci which did not deal with the social and nating detail in the work. economic causes of poverty. He also is As a result, Mr. Social Security is far critical of Cohen for not supporting civil more than a biography of Wilbur Cohen, rights legislation as vigorously as he might a man of tremendous energy and tenacity have (in order to enhance opportunities and a pragmatist whose legislative strat to get through Congress improved health

238 BOOK REVIEWS and welfare measures), and for putting studies provide us with a more critical, too much faith in education, as opposed better-balanced approach to this impor to income redistribution, or provision, as tant decade. Peter Levy's book seeks to fill the solution to poverty. an important gap by analyzing one of the Two ofthe more interesting, and per decade's most tortuous relationships: that haps surprising, parts ofthe book are the between organized labor and the various author's accounts of Cohen's reactions to components which comprised the New the so-called War on Poverty and to Rich Left. ard Nixon's proposed Family Assistance For many people, the relationship has Plan. Cohen never strongly supported the always been interpreted as a negative one. Economic Opportunity Act, mainly be Workers loathed the actions of youthful cause it did not have strong congressional protestors who attacked American sym support and it did not really appeal to bols. Conversely, New Left activists viewed middle-class values, and thus he was fear organized labor as entrenched and con ful it would turn into a bureaucratic night servative. Levy's primary purpose is to mare and quickly lose public support— demonstrate that the relationship was a and, of course, he was correct. On the much more complex and even a more other hand, he supported Nixon's F.A.P., supportive one than most observers real for reasons, unfortunately, that the au ize. thor does not adequately explain. Levy supports this contention by de That omission aside, this is a well- veloping a dialectic to explain the rela written, impressively researched, and very tionship. In the early 1960's, the poten important work. It also is extremely timely. tial for an alliance between leftists and In an age when most Americans have organized labor was strong. The Civil Rights become cynical about government offi Movement attracted widespread support cials and politics in general, especially in from such unions as the International La Washington, it is heartwarming to read dies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU), about an admirer of the legislative pro the United Auto Workers (UAW), and cess, one whose life demonstrated that especially the United Packinghouse Work individuals, even bureaucrats, can make a ers of America (UPWA). The Congress of difference, and that the federal govern Racial Equality and the Student Non- ment can be an instrument for social bet Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) terment. enjoyed a fair amount of financial and material support from organized labor. WALTER I. TRATTNER Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee began as a student group within the League for Industrial Democracy, and one of its early programs, the Economic Research The New Left and Labor in the 1960's. By and Action Project, was financed in part by PETER B. LEVY. (University of Illinois Press, the UAW. The high point of the thesis Urbana, 1994. Pp. xvii, 291. Illustrations, stage came with the 1963 March on Wash notes, index. ISBN 0-252-02074-X, $49.95, ington when several groups coalesced to cloth; ISBN 0-252-06367-8, .$16.95, paper.) pressure the federal government to end discrimination. Studies of the 1960's multiply at an The coalition entered the antithesis ever-growing rate. The last few years have stage ofthe dialectic in mid-decade. Over witnessed an outpouring of memoirs, es the next few years, the coalition split on says, recantations, and even reference three major issues. The most important sources. Now interpretative histories writ factor in the breakdown was significantly ten by scholars who were not part of the different approaches to American for 1960's are beginning to emerge. These eign policy, especially over Vietnam. Levy

239 WI.SCONSIN M.AG.AZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1996 reminds us, however, that some unions, results. Certainly, Levy debunks the wide like the ILGWU and later the UAW, did in spread belief that it was a constant and fact oppose the war. But most of orga counterproductive battle. nized labor was more than willing to sup Levy, however, seems to stretch his port President Johnson's prosecution of subject a bit thin. It would have been the war. much better to cover this subject in a Deeper divisions resulted from the rise broader history of labor in the 1960's. of the Black Power Movement and the Equally problematic are some of Levy's flowering of the counterculture. Labor more general conclusions. Missing from leaders recoiled as white activists joined this book is any real analysis ofthe chang Black Power advocates in a much more ing character ofthe most important New vocal criticism of labor's racism. Espe Left group, SDS. Levy fails to deal with cially troublesome to union leaders was the influx of "Prairie Power" which the emergence of such radical groups as brought in hundreds of students who the Dodge Revolutionary Union Move were more casual about drugs and dress ment and the Ocean Hill-Brownsville con and much less interested in organized troversy in New York City. Black Power labor. He also underplays the early rup activists made it clear that they wanted tures between labor and the New Left real power. over foreign policy. The botched Bay of Equally divisive was the development Pigs invasion and the Cuban Missile Cri of the counterculture, and its apparent sis greatly alienated the New Left. At direct relationship with the New Left. the same time, he understates the anti- Long hair, drugs, and promiscuous sexual communist rigidity, especially on the part mores alienated conservative union lead of the old AFL unions. Lew's focus on ers. The problem was exacerbated as the the leftist unions like UPWA and the media irresponsibly associated the coun UAW limits the scope of this work. A terculture with radical politics. The worst broader study of the more conservative aspect of this division, as Lew so correctly unions might have revealed an earlier asserts, was that labor and the left began and more caustic relationship. fighting each other instead of more im Perhaps what is most important about portant enemies. this book is how the author demonstrates Lew's synthesis comes late in the de how much the world has changed over cade. With the election of Richard Nixon the last twenty-five years. Its greatest con in 1968, the two groups began to rebuild tribution is to remind readers ofa power the relationship. The clearest evidence of ful organized labor movement that was an this emerging synthesis resulted from New important leader in the cause of social Left support ofthe United Farm Workers justice; that civil right activists had wide organizing campaign. New Leftists played spread support as they tried to destroy the an important role in supporting success barriers of racism; and that a leftist stu ful lettuce and grape boycotts as well as dent organization helped push a main organizing drives. Additionally, activists stream political party to attempt to eradi also supported and participated in other cate poverty and ensure civil liberties for major strikes. all Americans. Levy makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the 1960's and R. D.-wiD MYERS fills an important gap in the historiogra New Mexico Slate University phy of this decade. He writes in a graceful, understandable style. Any reader will come away with a much deeper understanding of how 1960's activists cooperated with Preserving the Family Farm: Women, Commu organized labor to produce some positive nity, and the Foundations of Agribusiness in

240 Mrs. Ernest G. Kern of Monroe feeding her chickens. Photo by Richard Vesey. the Midwest, 1900-1940. By MARY NETH. In particular, Neth's exhaustively re (Thejohns Hopkins University Press, Bal searched study dispels the myth of farm timore, 1995. Pp. xiii, 347. Illustrations, women's isolation, proving that these maps, notes, bibliography, index. ISBN 0- women relied to a great extent on their 8018-4898-9, $39.95.) neighbors, children, husbands, and ex tended family for physical labor, medical Following the lead of Nancy Grey assistance, and recreation. Despite the Osterud's ground-breaking examination book's subtitle, however, Neth's study goes of family farming in upstate New York beyond women's history to embrace a {Bonds of Community, 1991), Neth's long- thoughtfulanalysisof the work, social, and awaited study incorporates personal docu family lives of both genders. ments and oral histories to demonstrate a Neth centers much of her study on high degree of mutual dependence among three types of farming communities: dairy members ofthe farm family and the larger farmers in Wisconsin, corn and livestock rural community in the western Midwest. farmers in Iowa, and wheat farmers in

241 WISCONSIN M.AGAZINE OF HLSTORY SPRING, 1996

North Dakota. Neth most successfully mony, 1992). For instance, Neth's discus demonstrates a high level of community sion of threshing practices in 1920's Kan interaction and cooperation across gen sas, Nebraska, and North Dakota notes der lines in her discussion ofWisconsin that Kansas farmers had "modernized" farm families, indicating perhaps—as their methods to a greater extent than Osterud's work suggests—that interde had farmers in the other two states, rely pendence among family and community ing more on outside hired labor than on members was particularly necessary in traditional cooperative work exchanges the very labor-intensive work of dairy within the extended family and rural farming. On the other hand, Neth's im neighborhood. Neth neglects to acknowl pressive analysis of dairy farm life may be edge that the situation might be ex the result of the extremely rich sources plained, in part, by the higher propor she has access to for the state ofWiscon tion of immigrant farmers in Nebraska sin. For example, she uses the diary kept and North Dakota and their preference by Anna Pratt Erickson from 1898 to for labor networks within their own local 1959 to recreate the family, work, and ethnic communities. A similar lapse oc social networks of a Wisconsin farm curs in Neth's discussion of one of the woman, in much the way that Laurel many fine photographs that illustrate her Thatcher Ulrich used Martha Ballard's book. The photograph shows a mother diary to reconstruct daily life in rural and daughters planting a garden in Maine in her Pulitzer Prize-winning A Haskell County, Kansas, and Neth's cap Midwife's Fale (1990). Neth also has ac tion notes thatwomen "produced an im cess to some particularly good oral histo portant part of the food supply in their ries for Wisconsin residents, including gardens. . . ." While this was certainly Rangar and Margaret Segerstrom, whose true for women in most sections of the experiences during the Great Depres Midwest, it was not the case for women sion lend insight into the survival strate on the entrepreneurial wheat farms of gies employed by farm families during Haskell County when this photograph this period. The Segerstrom interviews was taken in 1941. In fact, a mere 19 per also demonstrate the advantages of hav cent of Haskell County farm women kept ing oral testimony from both husbands gardens at this time, and only women in and wives when attempting to analyze the county's yeoman-oriented Menno- family gender relations. Neth apparently nite community—to which the woman did not conduct any of her own original and children in the photograph be oral history research, relying instead on longed—consistently remained involved transcripts of interviews undertaken by in such traditional activities as large-scale other investigators, few of whom inter garden production. viewed men and women side-by-side. Neth's work makes an important con Neth's examination of midwestern tribution to the historiography of rural farm life appropriately incorporates dis America. In the tradition of Osterud, cussion of the differing experiences of Ulrich, and Salamon, she has enriched people of diverse ethnic groups and does our understanding of rural labor, gender, a particularly good job of retrieving and social relations. Other historians of the experiences of Jewish and African- rural life will benefit greatly from Neth's American farm families. Nevertheless, close reading of farm residents' own words Neth might have enriched her discus and stories, and such scholars will cer sion of the impact of ethnicity by refer tainly have to incorporate her thoughtful ring to anthropologist Sonya Salamon's insights into their own future scholarship. analysis of the differing value systems of Yankee entrepreneurial farmers and im RVFHERINE JELLISON migrant yeoman farmers {Prairie Patri Ohio University

242 WIli(X3)22817

A prize-winning Sons of Norway display from Dane County, 1927.

Ethnicity on Parade: Inventing the Norwegian arrival. Few, however, have tried to cap American Through Celebration. By APRIL R. ture the struggles facing groups as their SCHULTZ. (University of Massachusetts members reached the third or later gen Press, Amherst, 1994. Pp. xiii, 156. Illus erations and, from the perspective of an trations, notes, index. ISBN 0-87023-939- assimilationist model, this made sense: by 2, $25.00.) then, it was readily accepted, the Norwe gian-American would place more currency April Schultz, a historian at Illinois on the identity to the right ofthe hyphen. Wesleyan University, is part of a growing In her book. Ethnicity on Parade: Inventing contingent of young scholars who see the Norwegian American Fhrough Celebration, ethnicity as a cultural construction or in April Schultz questions that easy assump vention. Older models of assimilation and tion and delivers with impressive and con Anglo-conformity, togetherwith their cen vincing results. tral metaphor of the melting pot, have Utilizing an interdisciplinary approach been jettisoned in favor ofwhat she calls that draws from folklore, anthropology, "a dynamic model of both accommoda culture studies, and intellectual history, tion and resistance." In this newer view of the book concentrates on one central ethnicity, contradiction, subversion, dis event in the life-history of the Norwegian- sent, negotiation, and indeterminacy be American community: the 1925 Norwe come the operative terms, replacing con gian-American Immigration Centennial. sensus, agreement, conformity, and fixity. Held in the Twin Cities during four days Much of this more recent research has injune, the celebration drew over 200,000 focused on either the pressures facing con participants from the United States and temporary immigrant groups such as Cu Canada. The Centennial commemorated bans, Vietnamese, and Mexicans, or on the arrival of the Restaurationen in 1825, nineteenth-century groups at their time of customarily described as the official

243 WISCONSIN .M.AGAZINE OF HLSTORY SPRING, 1996 beginning of Norwegian immigration to The other nagging question lies in the United States, and included an ambi places like Stoughton, Westby, and Mt. tious schedule: religious services in both Horeb, Wisconsin, which persist in cel Norwegian and English; ceremonial ses ebrating a Norwegian-American heritage. sions in both languages devoted to intro To what extent do contemporary celebra ducing dignitaries from Norway and the tions and places of memory reflect the United States, including President Calvin tensions and indeterminacy reflected in Coolidge; music performances; and ex the 1925 Centennial? Do visitors to Little hibits of Norwegian and Norwegian- Norway possess the same sense of loss as American history, art, cooking, heirlooms, Rolvaag when he laments that "a People and industrial inventions. The massive that has lost its traditions is doomed!"? historical display culminated in the Pag I'm not certain, but by taking festive cul eant of the Northmen, a grand pageant in ture seriously, April Schultz's important which 1,500 Norwegian-Americans per new book brings us closer to these ques formed a melodramatic account of Hans tions and, in so doing, provides a more Christian Heg, a Norwegian immigrant nuanced understanding of ethnicity on and Civil War martyr. Making impressive parade. use of primary sources and writing in a largely jargon-free and accessible prose, STEVEN HOELSCHER Schultz succeeds in bringing this immense Louisiana State University ethnic spectacle to life. Although the event is well-known within the extensive Norwegian-Ameri can historiography, the author finds little Chicago & North Western-Milwaukee Road Pic common ground with her predecessors. torial By Russ PORTER. (Heimburger House Where earlier historians saw the 1925 Publishing Company, Forest Park, Illinois, Centennial as merely "a last hurrah" for 1994. Pp.'76. Illustrations, maps. ISBN 0- Norwegian-American ethnicity that signi 911581-30-8, $29.95.) fied its "death knell," Schultz reads the event as "an act of resistance and negotia This short book consists of seventy-six tion." The italicized "and" is important all-color pages depicting 116 photographs for the author, as she tirelessly pushes us and paintings by Russ Porter. As the title to see such festive occasions as "signifi tells, the illustrations are of the Chicago cant sites where meaning is reaffirmed and North Western and the Milwaukee and/or constructed." Tbat the festival Road (officially the Chicago, Milwaukee, organizers could offer accommodationist St. Paul and Pacific), two railroads promi rhetoric to a wider, non-Norwegian soci nent in Wisconsin history. ety and, simultaneously, respond to more Other than a short introduction, the radical critiques of forced Americaniza text is limited to captions giving a his tion is offered as the core evidence that torical perspective about tbe paintings ethnicity is "a historically grounded act and photographs that make up the book. of cultural politics." Schultz submits con For example, page 1 contains a beautiful siderable evidence that Norwegian-Ameri painting of a steam passenger train at a can intellectuals such as O. E. Rolvaag, depot in winter. Porter captions it, "The Waldemar Ager, and O. M. Norlie saw CNW Viking crack passenger train from their ethnicity in roughly these terms. Chicago to the Twin Cities stops at The question remains, however, the ex Ablemans, Wisconsin about 1950. The tent to which wheat farmers from North town's name was later changed to Rock Dakota, businessmen from Minneapolis, Springs, and the depot was moved to the and tobacco growers near Stoughton did Mid-Continent Railway Museum at North as well. Freedom."

244 1*^:'

» L,

-;:, ;j,',,. '>^'

WIIi{X3)187«2

A woodburning locomotive at the Chicago &" North Western Railroad roundhouse in Baraboo, 1871. Photo by Allison-Lighthall, Chicago.

Some of the photographs have been streamliner at night in 1965 at the spar published before; for example, on page kling new Milwaukee depot before the 34 two Milwaukee Road steam trains paus post office covered the tracks on the east ing at Janesville in 1950 has appeared on side. a postcard published by Audio Visual De The book contains twelve paintings in signs. which Porter used strong, dramatic color Many of the photos are simply docu and fine detail. Except for a few photo mentary, showing trains with certain type graphs printed too dark, the color repro engines at various locations. But most de duction of the photos and paintings is pict scenes that are gone forever. On page excellent. 8, for example, the CNW loads the carferry In this book, we get a good look at part Spartan at Milwaukee in 1955. The ferry of Wisconsin's railroad history through still exists but is unused, and the Alco the camera and paintings ofa noted rail diesel locomotive and the 1950's-era Buicks road artist. and Che-vys have long since disappeared. It is interesting to compare how sites DEN ADLER look today with pictures of their past. One Janesville, Wisconsin Porter photo shows a CNW track-removal train in 1976 at the red-brick Sparta de pot, now beautifully renovated into the Lake Michigan's Railroad Car Ferries. Chamber of Commerce office and bike By KARL ZIMMERMANN. (Andover Junction trail headquarters. Publications, Andover NJ., 1993. Pp. 64. Porter has recorded some stunning Illustrations, maps, bibliography. ISBN photos, like the yellow Milwaukee Road 0-944119-11-5, $24.95, paper.)

245 ."jB&';-vuL^sS2i,l WHi(W63)6127

Loading a railroad carferry at Manitowoc, 1929.

For nine decades, beginning in the ing, Zimmermann introduces a feeling of 1890's, railroad car ferries were a common human loss that pervades the book's three and welcome sight in many Lake Michigan chapters on now defunct ferr)' lines. Al towns. A significant part of the Great though briefly covering the early years of Lakes maritime heritage, these distinctive- ferry service, the core of Zimmermann's looking ships were also integral parts of narrative is taken up with the futile battles America's huge and complex national rail to maintain car ferry service in the face of road network. As the American railroad impossible economic and regulatory ob industry evolved and consolidated during stacles. By the early 1970's, the ferries as the 1960's and 1970's, the car ferries' oper instruments of the American railroad in ating niche disappeared, dooming them dustry had become technologically obso to ultimate extinction. Karl Zimmermann's lete. Efforts to cater to growing passenger recent book. Lake Michigan's Railroad Car and automobile traffic were hampered Ferries, provides an engaging introduction by complex railroad regulations and the to the story of railroading on America's ferries' high operational costs. Zimmer inland seas. mann's chronicling ofthe ferries' declin The book opens with a 1979 family ing years constitutes the book's best his voyage on the i'erry Cily of Milwaukee. By tory, and provides a surprisingly sophisti skillfully conveying the warm pleasures of cated analysis of the ship's political and a no- longer-possible Lake Michigan cross economic fortunes.

246 BOOK REVIEWS

Lake Michigan's Railroad Car Ferries is a Lost Bird, also known as Zintkala Nuni, pictorial history, and its more than 150 was found beneath the frozen body ofher well-chosen illustrations, which include mother four days after the tragic 1890 postcards, interior views, menus, adver confrontation at Wounded Knee. Briga tisements, and photographs add consid dier General Leonard Colby, leader of erable texture and depth to the author's Nebraska National Guard units assigned narrative. Viewed in total, the illustra to the area, adopted the orphaned infant tions and text blend together and evoke and took her home to Beatrice, Nebraska, the feeling of a slower and, somehow, to provide a "Christian civilized" upbring more wholesome time in American life. ing. The outcome proved disastrous. The Lake Michigan's Railroad Car Ferries was troubled young woman, commonly re produced by and for railroad enthusiasts; ferred to as Zintka, perished at age twenty- this fact explains the book's many strengths nine from a combination of syphilis and and its major weakness, an absence of a Spanish flu. marine historical perspective. Throughout Renee Sansom Flood, a social worker the book, the essentially maritime aspects in South Dakota from 1980 through 1987, of the car ferry service, including ship op became intrigued with Lost Bird's story. erations and personnel, receive little atten With help from the Gage County Histori tion. For example, while acknowledging cal Society in Beatrice, Flood won a re the existence of strong maritime traditions search grant from the Burlington North aboard the Chesapeake and Ohio ferries, ern Foundation, allowing her "to travel the author then ignores them in his story. coast to coast to archival depositories, A popular railroad historian, Zimmermann gathering letters, diaries, and photo notes ofthe ferries that "their primary func graphs." Early in her research Flood mar tion had been to tote railway cars . . . and ried Yankton Dakota historian, Leonard they were run by railroads." IVIaritime omis Bruguier, who helped research and edit sions notwithstanding, Zimmermann does the book. a good job of immersing readers in the Lost Bird of Wounded Knee evolves from romance, aesthetics, and ultimate demise an impressive array of primary and sec of railroading on one of America's inland ondary sources as indicated by seventy- seas. five pages of chapter footnotes and bibli As of 1995, only one of the car ferries, ography. The letters of noted suffragist the Badger, remains active. Offering sum Clara Bewick Colby, who was the General's mer passenger and automobile service, wife until he forsook her for Zintka's gov the ship is a nostalgic reminder of a by erness, provide the richest lode of pri gone era. Lake Michigan's Railroad Car mary material. The result is that the work Ferriesv/ould be a fine purchase for people is as much a biography of the Colbys as it considering a cross-lake trip on the Bad is of Zintka. ger, or for anyone with a popular interest Clara graduated as valedictorian of the in American railroads. first graduating class of women (six) from the Univensity ofWisconsin in 1869. There JOHN ODIN JENSEN she met Colby, handsome captain of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin cadets, and married him in 1871. They moved to Beatrice where Colby established himself as a successful, if shifty, lawyer and politician, and Clara gained a national repu Lost Bird of Wounded Knee: Spirit of the Lakota. tation as the publisher of a woman's rights By RENEE SANSOM FLOOD. (Scribner, New newspaper. Neither had enough time for York, 1995. Pp. 384. Illustrations, notes, Zintka, although Clara made a determined bibhography, index. ISBN 0-684-19512-7, effort to raise her properly. From the begin $25.00.) ning Clara's well-intentioned guidance

247 WISCONSIN MAC;AZINE OF HISI0R\' SPRING, 1996 failed. Zintka did not adjust and degener surrendered. The confrontation over the ated into an immoral, antisocial, degen Ghost Dance did not "pull Nebraska out erate drifter. from under one ofthe leanest economic Flood maintains that Zintka's failure decades ofthe nineteenth century." Para can be wholly attributed to Colby's self- phrasing the many lengthy letters would serving decision to snatch her from her have made the text easier to read without native Sioux culture. According to Flood, distorting the content. Flood's thesis, the General adopted her as a "trophy" of moreover, raises the legitimate question war and exploited her for his own legal of whether we must all live together as and political benefit. The author's thesis Americans in the United States of is consistent with her contemporary posi America, where past victimization is not tion againstwhite adoption of Indian chil justification for a separate set of rules. dren. This is an attractive book. The cover is Lost Bird of Wounded Knee provides an appealing. It is well bound and techni important and intriguing narrative. As cally flawless. Last, but certainly not least, history, however, many allegations need the clothbound version is reasonably more convincing documentation. That priced and worth the money. General Colby sexually molested Zintka lacks substantive proof, for example. Big ROLLAND DEWTNG Foot's band did not come to Wounded Chadron Stale College Knee "under a flag of truce." Thev had Chadron, Nebraska

Book Reviews

Berkowitz, Mr. Social Security: The Life of Wilburf. Cohen, reviewed by Walter I. Trattner 237 Buck and Palmer, Outdoor Sculpture in Milwaukee: A Cultural and Historical Guidebook, reviewed by Frances W. Hurst 231 Flood, Lost Bird of Wounded Knee: Spirit of the Lakota, reviewed by Rolland Dewing 247 Levy, The New Left and Labor in the 1960's, reviewed by R. David Myers 239 Lewis, Neither Wolf Nor Dog: American Indians, Environment, & Agricultural Change, reviewed by Robert Doherty 234 Neth, Preserving the Family Farm: Women, Community, and the Foundations of Agribusiness in the Midwest, 1900-1940, reviewed by Katherine Jellison 240 Porter, Chicago & North Western-Milwaukee Road Pictorial, reviewed by Den Adler 244 Ross, Radicalism in Minnesota, 1900-1960: A Survey of Selected Sources, reviewed by Karen M. Lamoree 233 Schultz, Ethnicity on Parade: Inventing the Norwegian American Through Celebration, reviewed by Steven Hoelscher 243 Stevens, editor. The Family Letters of Victor and Mela Berger, 1894-1929, reviewed by Patrick J. Maney 229 Stilling and Olsen, editors, A New Life: Danish Emigration to North America, as Described by the Immigrants Themselves in Letters, 1842-1 946, reviewed by Robert F. Zeidel 236 Zimmermann, Lake Michigan's Railroad Car Ferries, reviewed by John Odin Jensen 245

248 Wisconsin History Checklist cl995. Pp. xiv, 224. Illus. No price listed. Available from author, Penn Lake - Box 52, White Haven, Pennsylvania Recently published and currently avail 18661.) able Wisconsiana added to the Society's Library are listed below. The compilers, Everson, Jeff. Milwaukee Bucks Fads & Gerald R. Eggleston, Acquisitions Librarian, and Susan Dorst, Assistant Acquisitions Li Frivia. (South Bend, Indiana, 1994. brarian, are interested in obtaining infor Pp. 79. Illus. $4.99 plus $1.24 postage mation about (or copies of) items that are and handling. Available from author, not widely advertised, such as publications 180 Auto Street, Clintonville, Wiscon of local historical societies, family histories sin 54929.) and genealogies, privately printed works, and histories of churches, institutions, or organizations. Authors and publishers wish Gojmerac, Walter L. A Brief History of ing to reach a wider audience and also to Wisconsin's Beekeeping and Honey Produc- perform a valuable bibliographic service inglndustry. (Madison, Wisconsin, 1995. are urged to inform the compilers of their Pp. 51. nius. $7.50. Available from CALS publications, including the following Conference Office, 620 Babcock Drive, information: author, title, location and Madison, Wisconsin 53706.) name of publisher, date of publication, price, pagination, and address of supplier. Write Susan Dorst, Acquisitions Section. Jungwirth, Clarence "Inky". A History of the Cily of Oshkosh, Volume 4, the Early Billings, Jane K. Clintonville Centenarian Years. (Oshko.sh?, Wisconsin, 1995. 182 Edifice: a Multifaceted Reflection of Its leaves.nius.$35.00 (hardcover),$15.00 People, Their Faith and Its Times. (softcover). Available from author, (Clintonville, Wisconsin, Christ Con 2904 Oakwood Lane, Oshkosh, Wis gregational Church, U.C.C. Building consin 54904-8437.) Centennial, 1995. Pp. 56. $5.00 plus $1.00 postage and handling. Available Kalnes, Iver M. "Eillle Visits with a fournal from Barbara Newton, l78 Fairway Reporter, "compiled by RonaldJ. Larson. Drive, Clintonville, Wisconsin 54929- (Oregon, Wisconsin, Waubesa Press, 1251.) Cover title is Christ Congrega 1995? Pp. 221. Illus. $12.50. Available tional Church, United Church of Christ, from compiler, 5403 Marshwoods Clintonville, Wisconsin. Drive, McFarland, Wisconsin 53558.) Compilation of columns that Kalnes Curry, Ross. Dells Area History and Other wrote for the Wisconsin Stale Journal Stories, VolumeII. (Wisconsin Dells, Wis (Madison) between 1933 and 1935. consin, cl995. Pp. 68. Illus. $12.50. Available from Ross Curry Printing, S- Pfaff, Tim. Settlement and Survival: Build 947 Clara Avenue, Wisconsin Dells, Wis ing Towns in the Chippewa Valley, 1850- consin 53965.) 1925. (Eau Claire, Wisconsin, cl994. Pp. 128. fllus. $12.95 plus $1.12 post Dhuey, Steven Patrick. TheDhuey Family in age and handling. Available from America: a Complete Descent ofthe Name. Chippewa Valley Museum, P.O. Box (Madison, Wisconsin, 1990. Second re 1204, Eau Claire, Wisconsin 54702.) vised edition. Pp. 157. Illus. No price listed. Available from author, P.O. Box Prevost, Tonijollay. Indians from New York 283, Madison, Wisconsin 53701-0283.) in Wisconsin and Elsewhere: a Genealogy Reference, Volume One. (Bowie, Maryland, Eggert, I.John. Peter L^ggerl of Mecklenburg 1995. Pp. 228. $27.00. Available from and Related Families in America. Heritage Books, Inc., 1540E Pointer (Decorah, Iowa, Anundsen Publishing, Ridge Place, Bowie, Maryland 20716.)

249 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY sPRiNc;, 1996

Risjord, Norman K. Wisconsin, the Story ofthe Pheasant Hill Road, Monona, Wiscon Badger State. (Madison, Wisconsin, 1995. sin 53716.) Pp. vii, 226. Illus. $16.95. AvaUable from Wisconsin Trails, P.O. Box 5650, 6225 Sharing the Past . . . a Guide lo Pinecrest University Avenue, Madison, Wisconsin Historical Village. (Manitowoc, Wiscon 53705.) sin, 1995. Pp. ix, 61. Illus. $8.50. AvaiL able from Manitowoc County Historical ScovilfRogerP. What Did YouDo, Grandpa?: Society, P.O. Box 574, Manitowoc, Wis the United States Marine Corps: an Artillery consin 54221-0574.) Enlisted Man's Memoir of World War II. (Monona?, Wisconsin, cl994. Pp. 234. Simane, M.J. The Wisconsin Central Locomo Illus. No price listed. Available from au tive Roster. (Aurora, Illinois, cl995. Pp. thor, 5509 Pheasant Hill Road, Monona, 58. Illus. $16.95 plus $1.47 postage and Wisconsin 53716.) handling. Available from Jean Simane, Desktop Publishing Service, 750 Red A Self-Guided Four to Notable Homes and Sites wood Drive, Aurora, Illinois 60506.) of Blooming Grove, Monona and Southeast Madison, edited by Robert Bean, James Torgerson, Truman. Digging Up the Past. Stickels, and C. Anne Wellman. (Manitowoc, Wisconsin, 1994. Pp. vi, 282. (Monona?, Wisconsin, 1995?. Pp. 46. Illus. No price listed. Available from au Illus. No price listed. Available from thor, 618 North 9th Street, Manitowoc, Historic Blooming Grove Historical Wisconsin 54220.) Autobiography and Society, c/o Richard Peterson, 5709 family history.

250 Accessions 1979. Included are Take Ofer administra tive and subject files and photographs, Services for copying all but certain copies of FBI files mainly concerning Madi restricted items in its Archives collections son people and events, similar material are provided by the Society. from the Madison Police Department Af finity Files, photos and slides from a 1980 trip to Cuba, and recorded speeches and interviews by Fellner with Emile de Anto nio, Harvey Goldberg, William Kunstler, General Collections Paul Soglin, members of the Weather Un derground organization, and former FBI Manuscripts: A typed memoir written by agents and others. Presented by Michael Beloit native. James B. (Buck) Buchanan, ca. Fellner. 1993, about his service as an Aviation Chief Records, 183.3-1966, of the First Baptist Radioman (and gunner) in the U.S. Navy Church of Madison, including minutes (1847- during World War 11, including his eyewit 1911), correspondence (1833-1864) of ness account of the attack on Pearl Harbor church clerks, records ofseveral church or and the destruction of the Arizona, and ganizations, a 1943-1944 scrapbook on ra later from his post aboard the carrier In cial understanding, and files on events such trepid, of the sinking of the battleship as the church centennial. Also included are Yamato. Throughout the memoir are flash brief records of the Sun Prairie Baptist backs describing events from his youth. Church, 1900-1907. Presented and depos Presented by Mr. Buchanan, Prescott Val ited by the church, with portions presented ley, Arizona. by O. D. Allen. Papers, 1949-1982, of Beverly Butler, a Records, 1841-1918, ofthe First Congre Wisconsin writer specializing in young gational Church, Madison, organized in 1841, adult fiction often based on historical including minutes ofthe annual meetings themes, consisting of professional corre of the congregation and meetings of the spondence and manuscripts ofher books trustees and the Congregational Society, published between 1955 and 1982, includ which was responsible for the secular af ing Captive Desire, which was published fairs of the church. Constitutions, finan under the pseudonym Kathleen Victor. cial information, and lists of members are Presented by Beverly Butler Olsen, scattered throughout. Presented by the Rhinelander. (Copyrigbt retained.) Congregation. Papers, 1840-1862, 1902, of Henry S. An album, 1927-1932, compiledby/o/tn Eggleston, a businessman and postmaster of A. Letter of clippings, first day covers, and Appleton, and a commissioned officer in commemorative postal cards focusing on the "Ripon Guards" (Company B) of the the inauguration of air mail service to and 1st Wisconsin Cavalry Regiment, consist from Madison in 1927 and subsequent ing of correspondence with Elizabeth activities related to Wisconsin air mail ser Washburn during their courtship and af vice and stamp collecting. Presented by ter their marriage, when he was traveling Barbara Lester Smith, Madison. in the upper Midwest, and Civil War let Papers, 1935-1981 (mainly 196.3-1981), ters, diary pages, notification ofhis death, of political scientists Michael Eipsky (1940-) and other items. Presented by the Ripon and David J. Olson, concerning their col Historical Society. laborative research on the urban race riots Papers, 1959-1980, of Michael Fellner ofthe I960's, Lipsky's separate research on (1951- ), aformer University ofWisconsin rent strikes in NewYork City, his activities at student, anti-Vietnam War activist, and edi the University of Wisconsin aimed at in tor of Take Over, an underground newspa creasing minority enrollment and develop per published in Madison from 1971 to ing a Black Studies curriculum, time spent

251 WHi(X3),5()3.';0 Antiwar demonstation coming down Wisconsrn Avenue toward the State CapUol 1972. Picture from the Michael Fellner Papers, de.scribed on page 251

as a Freedom Summer volunteer in Holly Springs, Mississippi, work for Upward and records of several church societies Bound and for Action, and other career Presented by Jacqueline Utter, Madison activines. Presented by Michael Lipsky, Cam Papers, 1978-1991, of Mn Schuchardt bridge, Massachussetts, and by David T (1939- ), an anti-nuclear/peace activist OLson, Seatde, Washington. primarily documenting his involvement in Records, 1972-1980, of MovemenI for the Plowshares movement and other Economic Justice, a national information groups, including correspondence with clearinghouse and center for grass roots Phihp and Daniel Berrigan and other co- organizing on economic issues, including defendants, publicity, legal papers, and files of founder George Wiley, Bert De materials concerning work with S. Brian Leeuw, and Madeleine Adamson; and files W illson and various veterans peace groups on related organizations and issues such as on issues in Nicaragua and Latin America- tax reform, unemployment, consumer con presented by Mr. Schuchardt, Leverett' cerns, welfare reform, energy, and neigh Massachusetts. borhood deterioration and redlining Pre sented by Madeleine Adamson and Bert Microfilm: Papers, 184.3-1950, of Milwau- De Leeuw. keean Louis Allis (1866-1950), consisting Additional records of the Pilgrim Con primarily of personal papers, 1883-1938 gregational Church, Madison, including cor including outgoing correspondence con respondence, sacramental records,'min cerning his first wife Carol Yates, the rear utes, reports, and cHppings, 1895-1970- ing of their son Edward P. Ill, manage ment of his home, golf and other recre-

252 ACCESSIONS ational activities, the beginnings of the Sound Recordings: Interviews, 1974, with sev Milwaukee Country Club, and family ac eral Polish-Americans from the Stevens tivities. Also present are scrapbooks and Point area on their ethnic and cultural many photographs taken by Allis. Some memories, conducted by Richard Zeitlin materials pertain to the E. P. Allis Com for the Ethnic Heritage Studies Project. pany factory, the Mechanical Appliance Interviewees Adam and Bernice Bartosz, Company, financial investments, and real Frank Beck, Jan Boharewicz, Theodora estate management. Photographs pre Koziczkowski, Paul Laska, Michael B. Lisz, sented and papers loaned for copying by and Frances Skupniewicz describe farm William Allis, Milwaukee. (User copies at life, religious activities, family and com the Milwaukee Area Research Center also.) munity customs and activities, politics, and Brief papers, 1929-1970, of Vincent R. relations with other groups in the commu Dunne (1889-1970), a Socialist Workers nity. (User copies at the Stevens Point Area Party leader prominent in the Minneapolis Research Center also.) Teamster Strike in 1934, including bio Tape-recorded reminiscences, re graphical materials, and correspondence corded 1974-1976, by Theresa Baughman collected by the SWP that Dunne exchanged Rickelt (1902-1976), on her growing up with partyleaders concerning conditions in near Woodford, Lafayette County (1902- Minneapolis (1958-1959) and other SWP 1910), then near Rudolph, Wood County, branches, public relations tours Dunne including descriptions of farming, do made, and biographical information on his mestic activities, social life, and education, brother William, also a radical activist. Origi accompanied by an edited transcript of nals presented by Vincent R. Dunne, 1966, the first four tapes and photocopied family and by the Socialist Workers Party, 1992. photographs. Presented by Jane Eiseley, (Copyright retained.) Madison. George Edward Novack (190.5-1992) and Oral history interview, 1993, with Akira Evelyn Reed (1905-1979) papers, 1933- R. Toki, a Japanese American, including 1992, documenting the writing and asso information on his life as a farmer before ciations of Novack, a leader ofthe Socialist and after World War 11, but focusing on Workers Party best known for his Marxist details of his military service in an all- interpretations of history, and his wife Japanese unit which fought in Europe. Evelyn Reed, an anthropologist, feminist, Included are reflections on racism in the and fellowTrotskyist, including correspon military, Toki's sense of being different dence, speeches and writings, and other among other less Americanized Japanese papers. Original papers presented by the Americans with whom he served, and diffi Socialist Workers Party. (Copyright re culties re-adjusting to civilian life. Tran tained; photocopying prohibited.) scribed.

253 Contributors

Alanen Tishler Stevens Adams

ARNOLD R. ACANEN serves as professor of MICHAEL E. STEVENS has been State Historian Landscape Architecture at the University of ofWisconsin since 1991. A Milwaukee native, Wisconsin-Madison. His primary interests are Stevens joined the Society staff in 1987 after landscape history and cultural resource pres working on the Documentary History ofthe Rati ervation. He has written extensively about the fication of the Constitution and at the South settlements and immigrant groups ofthe Lake Carolina Department of Archives and His Superior region. A graduate ofthe University tory. He received a B.A. (1972) from of Minnesota with a Ph.D. in geography, he Marquette University and a M.A. (1973) and has been both a Fulbright Graduate Fellow Ph.D. (1978) from the University of Wiscon and Visiting Professor in Finland. His 1987 sin-Madison. He has published The State book, Main Street Ready-Made: The New Deal Records of South Carolina (4 volumes), Voices of Community of Greendale, Wisconsin (co-authored the Wisconsin Past (2 volumes to date), and The with Joseph Eden), received the Gambrinus Family Letters of Victor and Meta Berger, 1894- Prize from the Milwaukee County Historical I9293.nd is co-editor ofthe microfilm edition Society and the Scholarly Book Award from of the Victor L. Berger Papers. His current the Wisconsin Council of Writers. He also has projects include Voices from Vietnam, a collec served as an advisor to the National Park tion of letters and diaries ofWisconsin Viet Service since the earlv 1980's. nam veterans, and As If It Were Glory, the memoirs of an officer who commanded a black unit in the Civil War. WILLIAM H. TISHLER is professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Wisconsin- SEAN PATRICK ADAMS grew up amidst the hills of Madison, where his teaching and researching Morgantown, West Virginia, butjourneyed to interests focus on historic preservation and the fiatlands to receive his B.A. from Purdue the management of cultural resources in ru University in 1990. That same year he en ral landscapes. A graduate of the UW-Madi rolled in the graduate program in U.S. history son and Harvard University, Tishler has been at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where a Senior Fellow in Landscape Studies at he completed his M.A. in 1992. He has worked Dumbarton Oaks, an Attingham Fellow in at the State Historical Society since 1992 and England, and a Horace Cleveland Visiting has served as an assistant editor for Letters Professor at the University of Minnesota. His FromtheFront, 1898-1945 {1992),aresesircher work has won several national awards, and he for The Family Letters of Victor and Meta Berger, has served as president of, or advisor to, many 1894-1929 (1995), and is now working on a state, national, and international historic pres handbook of Wisconsin history. Sean is cur ervation groups. He is the author of numer rently living in abject poverty in Madison ous publications, including the recent award- while his dissertation, "Old Dominions and winning book, American Landscape Architec Industrial Commonwealths: The Political ture: Designers and Places, which he edited in Economy of Coal in Pennsylvania and Vir 1989. ginia, 1820-1875," crawls toward completion. 254 Corporate Sponsors AAl. LANDS' END, INC. Appleton Dodgeville ADMANCO, INC. MADISON GAS AND ELECTRIC COMPAN'Y Ripon Madison THE ALF.X.'\NDER COMPANIES MARSHALL AND ILSLEY FOUNDATION, INC. Madison Milwaukee AMERICAN F.\MII.Y INSURANCE GROUP MENASHA CORPORATION FOUNDATION Madison Neenah AMERITECH NELSON INDUSTRIES, INC. Milwaukee Stoughton APPLETON MILLS FOUNDATION NORTHWESTERN MUTUAL LIEE INSURANCE COMPANY Appleton Milwaukee BANTA CORPORATION FOUNDATION, INC. PARKER PEN USA LIMITED Menasha Janesville THE CAPITAL TIMES/WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL PLEA.SANT COMPANY Madison Middleton J. I. CASE RACINE FEDERATED, INC. Racine Racine CONSOLIDATED P.-\PERS FOUNDATION, INC. RAYOVAC CORPORATION Wisconsin Rapids Madison CREATtiT; FORMING, INC. RIPON FOODS, INC. Ripon Ripon J. P. CULLEN .\nr> SONS, INC. RURAL INSURANC:E COMPANIES Janesville Madison CUNA MUTUAL GROUP FOUNDATION, INC. TRAPPERS TURN GOLF CX)URSE Madison Wisconsin Dells F1RST.4R BANK OE MADISON TWIN DISC, INCORPORATED Madison Racine FiRsr.^R BANK OE MILWAUKEE UNITED WISCONSIN SERVICES FOUNDATION, INC. Milwaukee Milwaukee GENERAL CASUALIV INSURANCE COMPANIES WISC-TV3 Sun Prairie Madison GERE CORPORATION WALOREENS Janesville Madison GOOD.MAN'S, INC. WEBCRAFTERS-FRAUTSCHI FOUNDATION, INC. Madison Madison GRUNAU COMPANY, INC. THE WE.ST BEND COMPANY Milwaukee West Bend HARLEY-DAVIDSON, INC. WINDWAY FOUNDAUON, INC:. Milwaukee Sheboygan THE HOUSE ON THE ROCK WISC;ONSIN ENERCY CORPOR.ATION FOUNDATION, INC. Spring Green Milwaukee JOHNSON CONTROLS FOUNDATION WISCONSIN NATURAL GAS CC:>MPANT Milwaukee Racine S.C.JOHNSON W.'VX WISCONSIN PitYsiciANS SERVIC;E Racine Madison KOHLER CO. WISCONSIN POWER & LIGHT COMPANY Kohler Madison

255 Patrons DR. DEAN M. CONNORS DR. ROBERT H. IRRMANN Mineral Point Madison DR. RIC;HARD AND MRS. MARCIA (A RKEX I MRS. K. W. J.ACOBS, JR. South Natick, Massachusetts Hartford MR. JOSEPH M. DEROSA MR. THOMAS M. JEEFRIS II Wauwatosa Janesville MRS. GERALDINE N. DRLSCOLL Mr. DAVID AND MRS. DAWN .SIUCKI W^innecoiine Madison Fellows RIC:HARD N. CURRENT ROBERI C^. NESBIT Ma.s.sachusetts Washington MERLE CURTI WILLIAM F. THOMPSON Madison Madison LE,SLIE H. FISHEL, JR. Madison Curators Emeritus E. DAVID CRONON HOWARD W. MEAD Madison .Madison JANET S. HARIZELL RoBERt B. L. MURPHY Grantsburg Middleton NAtHAN S. HEFFERNAN PHYLLIS C. SMYIHE Madison .Milwaukee ROBERI H. IRRMANN RoBERi" S. ZIC;MAN Madison Mequon HELEN E.JONES F^ort Atkinson Life Members DR. EDW.ARD P. ALEXANDER .MRS. HARVEY B. KREBS MR. J. R. AMAC.KER MR. ROY C". LA BUDDE MLSS EMMELINE A,NDRUSKE\'I<;Z MR. AI.FRED A. IAUN III MISS HELEN C. ANDRCSKEVIC:Z MR. JOHN I. IAUN MR. DENNIS ANTONIE MR. MARVIN MAASC:H Ms. MARION KUEHL APPLEC;ATE DR. EUC;ENE I. MA|EROWIC7, MS. PC5LLY ATHAN MR. C. L. MARQUETLE DR. IRA AND MRS. I\E\ A R. BALDWIN MRS. MARY C. MARTIN MRS. LUCYANN GRIE.M BESS MR. JACK AND MRS. PATPI MC:KI-:ITHAN MRS. JANE K. BILLINGS MRS. BESSIE MEL-\ND MR. ROBERT E. BILLINC;S MR. F. O. MINTZIAFF MR. 0.SC:ARAND MRS. PAIRICIA BOLDT MR. JOHN AND MRS. GREEIA MIRPHY Ms. IRENE DANIELL BOSSE MR. JOHN T. MURPHY MR. PAUL L. BRENNER MR. ROBERT AND MRS. AR,\BEL MURPIPI' MR. LOUIS H. BURBEY DR. EUGENE AND MRS. OLIVE M. NORDBY MR. THOMAS E. GAE,STEC:KER MRS. LORETIA B. PEe:K MISS CHARLOTTE D. CHAPMAN MRS. A.J. PEEKE MRS. FR.'\NC:ISJ. CONW.W MR. LLOYD AND MRS. JANE PETTIT MLSS LOUISE H. ELSEK MR.JOHNJ. PHII,IPP.SEN MR. .AND MRS. JOHN E. FORESTER .MRS. JOI IN W. POLLOCK MR. W'ALI-ER AND MRS. Dc->ROTin' FR.\urscHi .MR. LEWIS AND MRS. .MARY SIBERZ DR. PAUL W. GAI ES MR. PHILIP AND MRS. PIPITLIS SILLMAN MR. TERRY L. HALLER MR. JOHN S. SKILTON MR. TOM AND MRS. NANCY- HANSON MRS. CLAUS SPORCK MR. WILLIAM K. HARDING MR. JOHN STEINER MR. THOMAS E. HA\T.S MR. FREDJ. SLRONG MR. JOSEPH F. HEIL, SR. MRS. MILO K. SWANEON MR. GER.\LD E. HCJI.ZMAN MRS. MILLIE TAIT MRS. PETER D. HUMLEKER.JR. MR. DUANE AND MRS. SARA VEITER MR. VIRGIL GEORC;EJ.\CKSON MRS. WILLIAM D. VOGEL MS. CAROLYN JOHNSON MR. WALTER L. VOGL MR. WILLIAM AND MRS. PATRIC:IA K-\ESER MR. WALTERJ. VOLLRAIII MR. AND MRS. RVSMUS B. A. KALNES MR. FRa.Nc:is AND MRS. DELIA WENDT DR. [OHN P. KVMINSKI MR. JOHN WYNC:.A\RD 256 THE BOARD OF CURA TORS

TllOM.VS H. BARIAND Ricii.\Ri) H. HOISCHER Eau Claire Milwaukee JANICE BtACDiN MRS. PEIE:R D. HCMI.F.KER.JR. Madison Fond du I.ac JANE B. BERNHARDT THOMAS MOUATJEFFRIS II Cassville Janesville PAIRICIA A. BCK;E R-vsMus B. A. KALNES I.a Cros.se Eagle DAVID E. CLARENBACH Rt 111 DE YOUNG KOHLER Madison Kohler Cli.ENN R. COAPFS SHARON 1.. I.EAIR Racine Genesee Depot JOHN M. COOPER, JR. VIRGINIA R. MACNEIL Madison Bayside NF.SS FLORES GEORGE H. MILLER Waukesha Ripon STEPHEN J. FREF..SE JERRY PHILLIPS Dodgeville Bayfield PAIII. C. GARTZKE: MARY C^ONNOR PIERCE Madison WLsconsIn Rapids I.VNNE G. GOLDSTEIN FRED A. RISSER Whitefish Bay Madison VIVIAN 1,. Gi ZNIC/AK BRIAN D. RI DE Franklin Coon Valley CiiARi.F.s E. HAAS JOHN M. RU.SSELL la Crosse Menomonie BEITE M. HAVES MAR^ A. SAIIIER De Pere New Richmond FANNIE E. HICKI.IN GERJM.D D. VISIE Madison Wausau

JENNIFER EAC;ER EHLE, President, Friends ofthe State Historical MARVEL ANDER.S<)N, President ofthe Wisconsin Council for Society of Wisconsin Local History RocXNE G. FLOWERS, President ofthe Wisconsin History Foundation DAVID J. WARD, Senior Vice-President for Academic Affairs, University of Wisconsin System

Friends of the Slate Historical Society of Wisconsin Officers JENNIE-ER EA(;ER EHLE, Evansville NANCYJ. EMMERT, Madison President Treasurer IAWRENCE T. RIORDAN, Wausau NANCY B. AI.LEN, West Bend President-Fleet PcLst President MARGCERirE OTTO, Racine DEI ()RE:S C DUCKI.OW, Madison Vice-Presidenl Staff Liaison

Trustees Rurii WHITE ANDERSON O. W. MARTIN, JR. Edgerton MADISON Ai.EiA BARMORE KATirv I.. RIORDAN Middleton WAU.SAU THEODORE E. CRABB HOWARD ROSENBERRY Madi.son WAUNAKEE Jo GREENIIAL(;II MARK H. SURFUS Madison MANITOWOC HARVA HACHTEN GEORGE A. TALBcrr II Madison MADISON BARBARAJ. KVLSER MICHAEL UIHLEIN Madison CEDARBURG CHRIS KERWIN Madison THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY SHALL promote a ivider appreciation of the American heritage with particular emphasis on the collection, advancement and dissemination of knowledge ofthe history of Wisconsin and the West. —Wisconsin Statutes, Chapter 44

Abandoned car on Sand Island, Apostle Islands Nadonal Lakeshore. Photo by WiltiamH. Tishler, 1981.

1p YEA R S STATE HISTORtCAL SOCIETY o/WISCONSt N

Forward Throu^ The Past