(ISSN 0043-6534) WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

The State Historical Society of Wisconsin • Vol. 76, No. 4 • Summer, 1993

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n% f ^ I ^j'^V f ^'! ffl THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN H. NICHOLAS MULLER III, Director

Officers FANNIE E. HICKLIN, President GERALD D, VISTE, Treasurer GLENN R. COATES, First Vice-President H. NICHOIJVS MULLER III, Secretary JANE BERNHARDT, Second Vice-President

THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN is both a state agency and a private membership organization. Founded in 1846—two years before statehood—and chartered in 1853, it is the oldest American historical society to receive continuous public funding. By statute, it is charged with collecting, advancing, and dissemi­ nating knowledge of Wisconsin and of the trans-Allegheny West. The Society serves as the archive of the State of Wisconsin; it collects all manner of books, periodicals, maps, manuscripts, relics, newspapers, and aural and graphic materials as they re­ late to North America; it maintains a museum, library, and research facility in Mad­ ison 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 memhershvp (one per­ son) is $25. Senior Citizen Individual membership is $20. Family membership is $30. Senior Citizen Family membership is $25. Supporting vnemher^Yivp is $100. Sustaining membership is $250. A Patron contributes $500 or more. Life membership (one person) is $1,000.

MEMBERSHIP in the Friends of the SHSW is open to the public. Individual mem­ bership (one person) is $15. Family membership is $25.

THE SOCIETY is governed by a Board of Curators which includes twenty-four elected members, the Governor or designee, three appointees of the Governor, a legislator from the majority and minority from each house, and ex officio, the President of the University of Wisconsin System, the President of the Friends of the State Historical Society, the President of the Wisconsin History Foundation, Inc., and the President of the 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 Administration 264-6400 Library circulation desk 264-6534 Affiliated local societies 264-6583 Maps 264-6458 Archives reading room 264-6460 Membership 264-6587 Contribution of manuscript materials 264-6477 Microforms reading room 264-6536 Editorial offices 264-6461 Museum tours 264-6555 Film collections 264-6466 Newspaper reference 264-6531 Genealogical and general reference inquiries , 264-653.5 Picture and sound collections 264-6470 Government publications and reference 264-6525 Public information office 264-6586 Historic preservation 264-6500 Salesdesk 264-6565 Historic sites 264-6586 School services 264-6567 Hours of operation 264-6588 Speakers bureau 264-6586 Institutional Advancement 264-6585

ON THE COVER: The Civil War statue on the courthouse square in Monroe. The story of how it differs from other monuments begins on page 235. Photo courtesy the author. Volume 76, Number 4 / Summer, 1993

WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

Published quarterly by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, A Statue for Billy 235 816 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706-1488, John Evangelist Walsh Distributed to members as part of their dues. Individual membership, $25; senior citizen individual, $20; family, $30; senior Changes and Choices: citizen family, $25; supporting, Two and a Half Generations of La Follette Women 248 3; sustaining, $250; patron, I or more; life (one person), Bernard A. Weisberger $1,000, Single numbers from Volume 57 forward are $5 plus postage. Microfilmed copies available through University Book Reviews 271 Microfilms, 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106; Book Review Index 289 reprints of Volumes 1 through 20 and most issues of Volumes 21 through 56 are available from Accessions 290 Kraus Reprint Company, Route 100, Millwood, New York 10546, Wisconsin History Checklist 292 Communications should be addressed to the editor. The Society does not assume Contributors 294 responsibility for statements made by contributors. Second-class postage paid at Madison, Wisconsin, POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Wisconsin Magazine of History, Madison, Wisconsin 53706-1488, Copyright © 1993 by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin.

The Wisconsin Magazine of History is indexed annually by the editors; cumulative indexes are assembled decennially. In addition, articles are abstracted and indexed in America: History and Life, Historical Abstracts, Index to Literature on the American Indian, and the Combined Retrospective Index to Journals in Editor Histcrry, 1838-1974. PAUL H. HASS Associate Editors Photographs identified with WHi negative numbers arc from the WILLIAM C. MARTEN Historical Societv's collections. JOHN O. HOLZHUETER The Givil War statue on the courthouse square in Monroe was a gift to the community in 1913 by Gaptain Benjamin M. Frees. The face for the statue was modeled on a picture of William R. Hawkins, who died at the Battle of Petersburg while under the command of Captain Frees. Photo courtesy the author. 234 A Statue for Billy

By John Evangelist Walsh

T is peaceful and tidy and spa­ one rare, indeed unique distinction. The r cious, the old town square. bronze figure of the brave soldier is not just Along each of its four sides stand neat rows the usual bland depiction of a stalwart-look­ of mostly small brick buildings, their dain­ ing military type. Instead, the face of the tily decorated facades exuding a feeling of figure is an actual portrait, a faithful repro­ the 1890's and before. At its center sits one duction of the features of one particular of those classic red-brick courthouses in young man from the town who gave his life the Romanesque st)'le, trimmed in white in battle: eighteen-year-old Corporal Wil­ stone and with a stately bell tower rising at liam Reese Hawkins. one corner, that were the special triumph Curiously, however, that intriguing fact of nineteenth-century architects. The town is nowhere recorded on the monument it­ itself—Monroe, Wisconsin, population ten self, and only a very few older residents of thousand—has been thriving for a hun­ the town are aware of it. Also unexplained dred and fifty years and more, beginning is how or why Corporal Hawkins was cho­ in pioneer days. sen as model for the figure, a truly unfor­ Adding to the impression that here time tunate oversight. As it turns out, the story halted a century ago, or at least slowed its of this otherwise unknown young soldier (a galloping pace, is a monument honoring story now recoverable only in fragments), the men who served, not in World Wars 1 is an inspiring one. If ever an ordinary en­ or II, but in the Civil War. Its eighteen-foot listed man deserved a monument, Billy base of pink Wisconsin granite, topped by Hawkins did. a ten-foot figure of a Union infantryman, occupies free-standing space of its own at another corner of the courthouse. In the 'Y curiosity about the statue attitude of the proud figure is seen an air M'wa s first aroused by a line in of bold defiance: protectively the left arm the inscription cut into its base: "Gift of B. curls around an American flag, while the M. Frees, Capt., Co. H, 38th Wise. Vol. Inf." right hand reaches across the body to grasp The circumstance that so obviously expen­ a sword hilt. sive a gift should have come from one of Though it appears little different from the soldiers themselves, a lowly company many other Civil W'ar monuments across commander at that, was decidedly unusual. the country, the Monroe statue does have WTien, in addition, I noted that the mon-

Copyright © 1993 t}y The State Mistcmcat Society of Wisconsin 235 Ail rigfits of reproduction in any form reserved. WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1993

ument had not been erected until nearly fifty years after the close of the war—it might well have been the country's final Civil W'ar monument—I was sure I wanted to know more. What I was seeking I found in an account given by the local paper, the Monroe Evening Times, of the dedication festixlties held on Memorial Day in 1913. At the ceremonies a letter was read from Captain Benjamin M. Frees himself, who was unable to attend.' Once a resident of Monroe, Frees was then living in California, a man of considerable wealth (after the war he had prospered in the lumber business). It had long been his desire, he wrote, "to see erected in the courthouse square an appropriate monu­ ment in honor of my comrades." The statue being dedicated that day, he added, was "crowned by as brave a boy as ever car­ ried a musket," and who was meant to stand as a symbol of the many other men from the area who "laid down their lives on their countr)''s altar." Frees did not mention the name of the Benjamin M. Frees, about 1912. Photo couUesy the author. brave boy in his letter, nor was it given by the day's speaker in his lengthy and emo­ tional address to the crowd that filled the had been published the year of the mon­ town hall. Only on page two of the Evening ument's dedication, more information sur­ Times, in a column of miscellaneous notes, faced. A letter from Capt Frees to the Mon­ did Billy's name appear, linked with a ref­ roe town fathers is quoted in which he erence to his sumving brother. Frank Haw­ makes his original offer, pledging the then kins, explained the paper, who was in town large sum of ten thousand dollars if the for the dedication ceremonies, "is a town donates a suitable plot "near the brother of William R. Hawkins who was the courthouse in the public square. . . . Don't first member of Co. H, 38th Wis. Inf., un­ think I would accept any location not in the der command of Capt. B. M. Frees, to be public square." The model for the face of killed in battle. The head of the statue on the statue, added the volume, was William the Frees monument is an effigy of W. R. Hawkins, a member of Frees's old infantry Hawkins." company "who was killed in the charge Nothing else about the young soldier ap­ upon Fort Mahone, at Petersburg. Mr. peared in the paper that day or subse­ Frees regarded him as a model soldier and quently that I could find. Then, in an old had preserved his photograph since the volume of Green Count)' histor)-, one that war."- A souvenir brochure distributed on the day of the dedication in 1913 supports that

' Monroe Evening Times, May 31, 1913, The letter of Cap­ tain Frees, dated from San Diego, is given in full. It supplies - Charles Booth, Memoricds of Green County (Madison, nothing further about his link with Billy, 1913), 99-100,

236 WALSH: A STATUE FOR BILLY claim, referring to "the life-like head and claiming to be eighteen when he was not face of a young soldier named William yet seventeen. He took the oath on Febru­ Hawkins . . . reproduced from a photo­ ary 19, 1862, joining the Third Wisconsin graph." Great pains were taken, the bro­ Volunteer Infantry Regiment. That fall in chure explains, in transferring Billy's fea­ a battle in Virginia he was badly wounded, tures to the larger-than-life bronze head: and after a stay in hospital was sent home ' 'The model was first made in plaster. It was to recuperate.® For two anxious months inspected by the Committee, and, with Billy observed his stricken brother slowly some slight alteration of the features, it was mending, then he too managed to enlist by pronounced excellent. The moulds were padding his age. In December, 1862, barely then made for the statue, and a bronze sixteen, he went off for his first enlistment, containing 90 percent copper was cast with joining the Thirty-first Wisconsin Infantry. a perfect result."^ The original muster roll describes him as It was that passing, almost offhand, ref­ aged eighteen, standing nearly five feet erence to Fort Mahone and Petersburg— seven, and having a light complexion, dark along with some original records of the hair, and blue eyes. Thirty-eighth Wisconsin Volunteer Regi­ For fifteen months Billy served as a pri­ ment, the military pension files, and several vate with the Thirty-first, doing mostly es­ eyewitness descriptions of the battle—that cort and guard duty in Kentucky and Ten­ has allowed Billy Hawkins' story to come nessee, but seeing no combat. Perhaps alive again in all its sad and simple glory.'' because of his youth, his service record was undistinguished, to say the least. Twice he was cited for being absent without leave, ILLY Hawkins was born in 1846 and three times he managed to get home B'o r 1847, in Indiana, a year or on furlough. During the waning months of so after his brother Frank."' The family his enlistment he was in and out of army (three boys, four girls) later moved to Wis­ hospitals, suffering mainly from chronic di­ consin, settling on a farm in the Town of arrhea (a serious hazard for Civil War sol­ Clarno on Monroe's southern edge. At the diers, always difficult to treat and not infre­ start of the Civil War both older boys were quently resulting in death). At last, in April too young to take part, but Frank soon of 1864, diagnosed as being in the early managed to enlist by falsifying his age, stages of tuberculosis as well, he was given a medical discharge and sent home, where he joined his brother, now almost recov­ ered.' That summer, while the war raged 'Dedication brochure, 1913, in the collection of Dorothy Kundert, Monroe, Consisting of fourteen pages, besides the day's activities it details the arrangements surrounding pro­ curement of the statute and its pedestal. Design and casting " Federal census records for Green County in 1860 do of the figure was done by the Luchsinger Monument Works not list dates of birth (microfilm at Ludlow Library, Mon­ of Monroe. The pedestal, of Barre granite, was provided by roe), The Hawkins family entry was made on July 16 that the Montello Granite Co. of Wisconsin. year, giving Billy's age as thirteen. If, when he joined up in * The original muster roles and orderly books of the December, 1862, he had recently turned sixteen, which is Thirty-first and Thirty-eighth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry- probable, he would have been just over eighteen at his are preserved at the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, death, Madison, For the Hawkins brothers' military careers, in ad­ " His wound must have been a nasty one. He is quoted dition to the works cited below, I have consulted the follow­ in the Monroe Evening Times (May 31, 1913) as saying, "he ing: Roster of Wisconsin Volunteers in the War of the Rebellion was pronounced dead at one time in a field hospital in the Compiled by Authority of the Legislature (Madison, 1865); E. B, ser\-ice, but recovered from his wounds, returned home and Quiner, The Military Histcrry of Wisconsin (Chicago, 1866); later re-enlisted," Wm, DeLoss Love, Wisconsin in the War of the Rebellion: A ~ The discharging physician noted how serious was Billy's History of All Regiments and Batteries (Chicago, 1866); and H, condition at the time: "He is totally disabled and in my Bingham, History of Crreen County (Milwaukee, 1877), opinion will not recover" (see pension records). Since he

237 W-Hi(X3)22U7

A portrait of General fames Bintliff painted by A. Bintliff.

on in Georgia and northern Virginia, the the briefest of training before being two invalids built up their strength by work­ thrown into combat. The brothers were as­ ing their father's farm. In late August Bill-y signed to H Company as privates, Billy felt strong enough to re-enlist, and Frank some time earning a corporal's stripes. went with him. Their company commander was Capt. Da­ Managing to stay together, the Hawkins vid Corey, the lieutenants were Ben Frees, brothers were assigned to a contingent of James Heth, and William Adams. In Janu­ new companies being recruited to fill the ary, when Corey was given a medical dis­ undermanned ranks of the Thirty-eighth charge. Frees was promoted to captain and W^isconsin, commanded by Col. James Bint­ given command of the company. liff, a Monroe lawyer. Then on duty in Vir­ Within days the Hawkins brothers found ginia, the regiment had been mustered themselves on their way to Virginia, where into service in April and had enjoyed only they took their places in the Union lines laying siege to Petersburg, just south of the Confederate capital at Richmond. The re-enlisted five months later, it seems the diagnosis was Thirty-eighth Wisconsin became part of IX somewhat overstated. Corps, .Army of the Potomac, which held

238 WALSH: A STATUE FOR BILLY the extreme right of the Union siege line, ven, partly open, partly wooded terrain be­ between the Appomattox River and the Je­ tween themselves and the fort. More than rusalem Plank Road. one man, as a result, was heard to echo the By the winter of 1864 the rebel fortifi­ hopeless sentiment reported as being cations ringing the gracious old city of Pe­ loudly voiced by one federal trooper: tersburg had been under construction for "Well, goodbye, boys. This means death two years. The result was some forty miles for us all."-' of elaborately linked trenches, bombproof No word of these apprehensions or of dugouts, batteries, rifle pits, and stout ear- the imminent battle reached the folks back thenwork forts, a massively formidable de­ home. A correspondent with the Thirty- fense system. Within the city, under per­ eighth sent a report to the Monroe news­ sonal command of Gen. Robert E. Lee, paper. The Sentinel, assuring his readers that waited the proud veterans of the Army of all was well. "The health of the regiment is Northern Virginia. The siege, planned and good," he wrote on April first, "and I be­ conducted by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, had lieve that every man is prepared to do his been going on for eight long months be­ duty. The weather is warm and pleasant, fore the Hawkins brothers arrived. Though and the few apple and peach trees left are it several times came under artillery fire af­ in full bloom."^° The daytime may have ter the brothers' arrival and was frequently been pleasant possibly, but not the nights. harassed by snipers, the regiment saw no "Deadly chill and raw," is how one man actual combat. With most other units in recalled the interminable night before the Grant's army it was held in readiness attack as the waiting Union troops through the winter for the planned great crouched "benumbed and shivering on assault which, it was hoped, would mark the the damp ground. . . . How long it seemed, beginning of the end for the Confederacy. waiting in the darkness and cold!"'' Through the winter months the siege lines tightened and the two armies sniped and sparred, waiting for the decisive blow to OME half-dozen contemporary fall. At last, in the waning days of March, S descriptions of the storming of 1865, came the fateful word from Grant's Fort Mahone, written by men who took headquarters: at dawn on the second of part in the action or who were close ob­ April the Union would launch a full-scale servers, still survive. None are lengthy and attack on Petersburg. none specifically mention Corporal Haw- Leading the Union forces on the right, its objective the bristling walls of Fort Ma­ hone, would be the Thirty-eighth Wiscon­ ' Hazard Stevens, The Storming of the Lines at Petersburg by sin with its mixture of green troops and vet­ the Sixth Corps, April 2, 1865 (Military History Society of Mas­ erans, a total of some 700 men.** The deadly sachusetts, Providence, Rhode Island, 1904 [paper origi­ task they faced was well summed up in the nally delivered in 1884]), 20. At Petersburg, VI Corps was nickname the men had bestowed on Fort on the immediate left flank of IX Corps, The Thirty-eighth Wisconsin was assigned to the Third Brigade, First Division, Mahone after months of staring at its thick, of IX Corps, sloping walls heavily armed with artillery: '" Monroe Sentinel, April 12, 1865, The letter, dated April Fort Damnation. All winter they had gazed first, was written from the camp of the Thirty-eighth Wis­ ruefully across the half-mile or so of une- consin. Its description of the artiller)- barrage that preceded the big attack by two days is graphic: "The night was very dark and the course of every shell could be distinctly seen; at one time it looked as though all the stars were falling from the heavens , , , while the terrific roar shook the " The Thirty-eighth's full complement w-as about a thou­ ground for miles around," By the tiiue the letter saw print, sand men, but two of its ten companies, A and D, had been of course, Lee had already surrendered at Appomattox, placed in the second a,s,sault line. " Stevens, Storming of the Lines, 22,

239 WISCO.NSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1993 kins. Taken together, however, they make that mighty shout. It swept away all misgiv­ starkly clear the heart-chilling nature of ings, fear, and doubt from every manly that morning's work, each affording a breast like mists before the whirlwind."'-'' slightly different angle of vision. Compar­ At that moment, all along the Union ative study of the various accounts makes it line, there rang out from the officers the possible to reconstruct something of the electrifying command to "Charge! special role filled in the action by the Charge!" As the watching Herald reporter young corporal from Clarno. wrote, "Up and away the noble fellows In the darkness of early morning on the went over breastworks, rifle pits, and che- second of April, led by Major Robert N. vaux-de-frise, up the parapet of the fort, into Roberts, the men of the Thirty-eighth, Billy the main works, and the deed is accom­ Hawkins and his brother among them, si­ plished. For one moment the thunder­ lently filed out in front of their own forti­ struck rebels looked, and then took flight." fications. Spreading across the fields, care­ This swift victory, explained the paper, with ful to make no unnecessary noise, they the simultaneous operations by units on formed the first assault line. Behind them, the left, "cut the rebel line in two, took making up the second line, came the One from them commanding positions, and a Hundred Ninth New York and the Eighth large amount of valuable artillery. "'•* Michigan. To the rear, in reserve with sev­ Less restrained is the account of a cor­ eral other units, was the Thirty-seventh Wis­ respondent from the Wisconsin State Jour­ consin. At four o'clock, just as the first weak nal. Apparently, he was standing closer to light of day was tihting the horizon, came the field of battle, may even have accom­ the signal to move forward, a single gun panied the troops part of the way. When fired at the Union rear. there rang out the command to charge, he "A small detachment was thrown out in wrote, advance as skirmishers, while the rest fol­ the stalwart hosts of freedom's own lowed close after in line of battle with fixed sons swept across the goiy plain like bayonets," reported the New York Herald. an avalanche. Down across the grassy "They passed out into the darkness and all field we charged with a yell that shook was still. . . . Presently a musket is heard, the earth, while musketry flamed and then another, and soon a volley. They have sent death at us, and cannon sent reached the rebel picket line. Now a heart)' grapeshot into our faces. Over the cheer is heard followed by a roar of mus­ outworks, across the flat, over their ketry. The cheering and the musketry fir­ first line, up the slope of death—and ing is taken up and runs along the line to here bristled a line of abatis and two the left until it is lost in the distance. In­ strong lines of chevaux-de-frise, while stantly the artillery on both sides is at work over them frowned the walls of Fort Mahone. Here the pioneers sprang to and 200 big guns belch forth their thun­ the work, and like Winkelreid, 'made ders."'^ way for libert)'.' The column dashed One of those advancing soldiers later ex­ in and made short work of 320 pris­ plained the exhilarating effect generated oners and five cannon. . . . by the "mighty- cheer" that went up from Lt. Charles W^ood, Co. G, 38th Wis., those hundreds of throats. As Lt. Hazard Stevens remembered it, "Defiance, force, fury, determination and unbounded con­ fidence were expressed and hurled forth in " Stevens, Storming of the Lines, 24, '-' New Yorii Herald, April 5, 1865, Cheaveaux-de-frise were spiked wooden barricades. The abatis mentioned in the next excerpt was a similar barricade of fallen trees with '' New York HeraM, April 5, 1865, sharpened limbs.

240 WALSH: A STATUE FOR BILLY

was first upon the parapet, hat in By this time grey dawn appeared hand, while with his flashing sword he and gave a chance to look around. dealt death to the enemy. He fell se­ Many brave men had fallen—83 men verely wounded. But Capt. Beckwith, from the 38th Wisconsin alone, many Co. G, was by his side and avenged of them within the fort—which is an him.'"^ evidence of the terrific hand-to-hand conflict which there took place."" Also watching that wild advance from a vantage point in the Union lines was one Capt. Rood's estimate of casualties is sur­ of the Thirty-eighth's staff officers, Capt. prisingly accurate for so early a report. Anson Rood. His graphic letter describing Available records indicate that in the attack the stirring sight found its way two weeks on Fort Mahone the Thirty-eighth Wiscon­ later into the pages of the Wisconsin State sin lost ten men killed outright. The Journal. Though standing at a distance wounded, many of them hurt severely, from the action, he was so deeply struck by numbered seventy-three, and at least eight the bloody ordeal unfolding before him or nine of these died subsequently." that at first he felt himself unable to write Among the ten who were killed in action of it. "Words fail," he says. "Language can­ was Corporal Billy Hawkins, though exactly not describe it." Still, he makes an effort: how he met his death is not officially re­ corded. It can be stated with certainty, how­ The terrific iron and leaden storm ever, just xvhere his gallant end came: ac­ showered upon the devoted lines of cording to an official notation in the brave men advancing to the rescue of our glorious country from the hands regiment's handwritten muster role, he was of traitors; the shrieking of shot; the struck down "on the parapet of Ft. Ma­ bursting of shell; the whizzing of the hone." WTiat that fact may reveal about his fatal rifle ball; the terrible thunder of personal part in the day's fighting, we shall the artillery, shaking the very ground see.'** upon which they tread. . . . Yet amidst all rang out, clear and clarion-like, without a perceptible tremor, the voice of Col. Bintliff com- ^WO men who were in the thick manding, 'Forward men! Double of the day's action also left de­ quick!' and away went the three lines, T over our picket line—over the rebel scriptions of it: one of them Col. Bintliff, works—tearing away two lines of che­ who served as brigade commander in the vaux-de-frise, one formidable line of abatis, into the ditch, up the embank­ ment—into the fort, and the deed was "-' Wisconsin State Journal, May 2, 1865. Capt. Rood, age done. But ah! many a gallant fellow lay thirty-eight, of Dell Prairie, Wisconsin, was serving as the Thirty-eighth's regimental quartermaster, weltering in his blood, having given '" Casualty totals given here are derived from a study of for his country all that is in the power several sources named in note 4 above: Quiner, 851; De of a human being to give—his life. . . . Loss Love, 1001-1013; and Bingham, 290-293, See also the following: Charles Estabrook, Wisconsin Losses in the Civil War (Milwaukee, 1866); the original muster roles of the 38th; and S, W, Pierce, Battle Fiehls and Campfires of the Thirty- '•'• Wisconsin State Journal, April 16, 1865. Arnold von Win­ Eighth, 250-254. Of the ten soldiers killed outright at Ft, kelreid was a Swiss patriot who died in 1836. This reference Mahone, one other was from Billy's company; Nelson Dunn to him reflects the predominant Swiss clement in the pop­ of Monroe, Badly wounded were at least five men of Billy's ulation in and around the Monroe-New Glarus area. On company, two of them amputees: Corp. John Ford of Mon­ the following day the State Journal printed the list of dead roe who lost his right leg, and Corp, Oliver Lindley of Syl­ and wounded at Petersburg, which included Billy's name. vester who lost his left hand, It may have been his family's first definite news as to his "* The phrase, "on the parapet of Fort Mahone" occurs fate. On April 19 the list was reprinted in the Monroe Senti­ twice in the Hawkins pension records, written on standard nel forms supplied by the War Department to the Pension Of-

241 I'iikniite

WHi(X3).M230

Captain James Bintliff, September, 1862, from a cane-de-viste.

attack; the other, a young lieutenant of K Col. Bintliff took his place along with Major Company, Solon W. Pierce, Col. Bintliff s Roberts at the head of the anxiously wait­ report, set down five days later in a letter ing Thirty-eighth: to Governor James T. Lewis in W^isconsin, though it supplies only the necessary infor­ At the signal I ordered the column mation, pro-vides several significant details forward, and as soon as it was fairly in not found elsewhere. On that fateful dawn. motion and the command moving steadily, I moved it on the double quick, and away we went over our picket line, and over the enemy's fice. It may simply derive from the original inked notation picket line, driving them before us. By against Billy's name in the original muster roll of the Thirty- eighth, or it may reflect an independent source not now to this time we could see the fort, and I be found. Billy's father stated on an 1880 pension form that never saw intrepid officers or men be­ his son died by "a gun shot," but gave no further details. have more gallantly.

242 WALSH: A STAfUE FOR BILLY

The enemy opened up on us with musketry and grape and canister from the guns of the fort, but fortunately the ground over which we were pass­ ing was so low that most of the grape and canister passed over our heads. The enemy had a double row of che­ vaux-de-frise and one of abatis in front of the fort, but we soon made passage way through it, and in little more than five minutes from the time we started the charge, we had possession of the fort.'''

Five minutes may seem too short a time for all the Thirty-eighth Wisconsin accom­ plished on that pivotal April morning, but to the men who endured the bloody inter­ val it would have seemed an eternity. A cru­ cial factor in their success, certainly, was that sudden dip in the terrain, mentioned by no other: at least for part of their charge, the low ground effectively shielded the Un­ ion troops from the full blast of the Con­ federate guns. Lieutenant Pierce of K Company, thirty- four years old, before joining the service had run a newspaper. The Press, in his home \VIIuX:i)4.S.-)28 town of Friendship, Wisconsin. Even as the war progressed, in addition to his military Solon W. Pierce, who wrote an account of the attack on Fort duties he was also acting as regimental his­ Mahone, served many terms in the Wisconsin Assembly. Photo by E. R. Curtiss. torian, so it is not surprising that his ac­ count of the attack tends to be the most detailed and graphic of all. Unmistakable in it is his searing personal memory of hav­ the danger that is coming. Every gun ing passed through the fiery hell of the he could bring to bear is trained upon rebel cannonade: our column, and rains upon it a storm of death. The gallant fellows .sprang over the Above and all around the air is lurid works and on toward the enemy. The with bursting shells. Solid shot tear rebel pickets fired one wild, aimless wide, great gaps of death. Grape and volley, and fled like frightened deer canister shriek through the air as toward their main line. . . . But the en­ though all the demons of destruction emy is awake now and fully realizes gathered together were holding high carnival. But above the roar of the cannon and the bursting of shells . . . above the wail of the wounded, and the groans of the dying, rang out the '•' Wisconsin State journal. May 5, 1865, For his part in per­ determined, exultant shout of the sonally leading the Union assault on Fort Mahone, Qo\. Bin­ tliff was commissioned brigadier general. He suivivcd the Thirty-Eighth. war vininjurcd, later became a newspaper publisher in The strong chevaux-de-frise oi ihe en­ Janesville and Darlington, and died in Chicago in 1901, emy is reached, rent apart as though

243 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HKSTORY SUMMER, 1993

it were a rope of sand, and cast aside. kins. If he was not the first, however, he was The gallant Kelly sprang fonvard and certainly among the leaders, those few men fell with a terrible gaping wound in whose inspiring example in boldly mount­ the side. Forgetful of ever)'thing but ing the parapet brought shouting after the mighty issue at stake, the noble fel­ them the whole victorious Union horde. low raised his head, waved his sword and shouted, 'Forward! For God and For that assertion, Capt. Frees, Billy's com­ our countr)', now!' pany commander, is again the leading wit­ Nothing could withstand that im­ ness.'^' petuous onset. The abatis that sur­ Analysis of the record shows conclusively rounded the fort was reached, and the that the attack on Fort Mahone was H Com­ long, sharpened stakes were literally pany's—and therefore Billy's—initial ex­ wrenched off or from the ground. perience of actual combat. WTiatever Billy The intrepid Wood sprang to the did to so impress his commander must front shouting, 'Follow me!' but just have occurred during this one morning's as he reached the outer base of the action, which on Col. Bintliff s word lasted fort a ball crashed through his left for no more than five minutes. When the hand and thigh, and he fell to the earth. All the way the ground was interval of time marked by the advance of strewn with the dead and the the troops over the intervening ground is wounded; but ijnmindful of the loss deducted, the relevant period shrinks still and unappalled by any danger, the he­ further, for close-in fighting at the fort roic Thirty-Eighth pressed for­ could have occupied scarcely a minute. It ward. . . . was during this fleeting but bloody clash Nobly emulous of the honor, each that Capt. Frees obsen-ed in Billy Hawkins' strove to be first in the fort. All else conduct something that went well beyond seemed forgotten. Officers and pri­ the ordinary. Because of it, the memory of vates alike vied with each other in the "as brave a boy as ever carried a musket" effort. On, on, with resistless sweep, stayed with him for half a centur)'. What was the line rushed, up the steep slope, it he saw? over the parapet blazing with fire, down into the works, a short hand-to- The rebels inside Fort Mahone, it is hand conflict, and Fort Mahone, the known, turned and fled almost as soon as rebel stronghold, was won.-" the charging Union troops arrived. Thus the furious encounter atop the parapet it­ The mention of Lt. Wood as having self could have lastedonly amatter of avery fallen wounded at the base of the wall, in­ few seconds. Since Corporal Hawkins by of­ stead of on the blazing parapet, conflicts ficial reckoning met his death while fight­ with the report of the State Journal which ing "on the parapet" he must have been clearly names him as first to gain the cov­ among the first—the very few—to have eted honor of scaling the wall. WTiich of the gained that position before the rebels gave two may be the accurate version is now im­ up and retreated. If he had not—if he had possible to say. Judging by the admittedly come up only moments later—the enemy sparse evidence, it seems at least possible would have been gone and he would not that the honor actually fell not to Lt. Wood have died on the parapet. or some other officer, but to Corporal Haw­ Adding weight to that conclusion is a claim made vears later bv Billv's father

-" Pierce, Battle Fiehls and Campfires of the Thirty-Eighth, 116-117, Capt, Andrew ,A, Kelly of Hudson, F Company, -' In fairness to the brave Lt, Wood, it should be noted recovered from his wound and survived the war, as did Lt, that both references to him could be correct. Though hit in Charles Wood, G Company, who had been wounded twice hand and leg while at the base of the wall, he might still before in previous battles. have managed to clamber atop the parapet.

244 WALSH: A STATUE FOR BILLY

Close-up photographs of the Civil War statue give a glimpse of what William R. Hawkins looked like. Photos couHesy the author.

which, if true, actually puts Billy in the van­ ny's charge as First Lieutenant." It was guard of the charging troops. His young Capt. Frees who led the charge of H Com­ son, insisted the elder Hawkins, died at pany that fateful day, but Billy may well Fort Mahone while "leading the compa­ have been given a temporary promotion

245 Captain Benjamin M. Frees, 1865.

just before the batfle to fill some suddenly desdned to lead the way in breaking the vacated spot.-- Confederate defenses at Petersburg. As it proved, this was the final large-scale battle

LUE-EYED, dark-haired, eight­ B'een-year-ol d Billy Hawkins, in " The father's statement was made in a pension adjust­ ment application of 1880, The available military records do his first experience under fire, became one not reflect an official promotion for Bil!\, so it was probably of the small band of Union infantrymen an emergency upgrading.

246 WAI.Sn: A STATUE FOR BILLY of the war. Two days' fighting pushed Lee figure on the granite pedestal rises almost and his dispirited army out into the open thirty feet in the air, much too high for an­ and sent them trailing hopelessly across yone on the ground to gain a satisfactory country, heading for their date with destiny view of the face. Still, I was determined to at Appomattox. A week after the fall of Pe­ gaze at close quarters into the true features tersburg, Lee surrendered. of Billy Hawkins, even if they were frozen Captain Frees was fortunate enough to in bronze, and eventually I was able to ar­ emerge unharmed from the deadly hail of range for a boom truck to lift me up. fire at Fort Mahone. From the field that day With the bright sun streaming from be­ he carried with him an indelible mental hind me full on the statue, and my own face picture of a "model soldier and an excel­ only three feet away, I saw beneath the lent young man" whose photograph he was peak of the military cap an obviously young to preserve throughout his life. Then, after and strong, if rather long and angular face, decades of pondering, he at last achieved a little more than life-size. It was a pleasant the goal he had cherished, a monument face, nearly handsome despite the pro­ honoring "the patriotism and valor" of his nounced angles of nose and jaw, and show­ comrades in the war. From all that is now ing a certain sensitivity around the mouth. known, perhaps this much in addition may Concerning the eyes I wasn't sure, for I may be ventured: without Frees's vivid memory have seen only what I wanted to see. Shad­ of Corporal Hawkins leaping bravely into owed by the smooth brow, they appeared the fray on the em'battled parapet of Fort to possess a curiously lifelike, remembering Mahone, one of the first to reach the po­ gaze. The sight left me, I confess, feeling a sition, no monument would stand today in bit startled and wondering how the sculp­ Monroe's old-fashioned public square. tor had managed to capture what must Frees apparently never said it in so many have been the look of the photograph. words. Yet it is clear that the statue was put Then I realized it was probably a trick of up to honor Billy Hawkins not merely as a the light. As the truck lowered me to the symbol, but primarily for the heroic and ground I sheepishly decided that the self-sacrificing part he took in the battle brooding look in those unseeing eyes arose that ended the Civil War. Perhaps it is time from my own imagination, nothing more. that the name of (Corporal W'illiam Reese Hawkins, too, was cut into that pink granite base.2'^

--^ The site of Billy's grave is presently unknown. Judging by the careful survey of county cemeteries made by Mrs. 'N tracking Billy's story I did en­ Virginia Irvin in her Tombstone Inscriptions of Cemeteries in I counter one severe disappoint­ Green County (Wisconsin Genealogical Society, [Milwau­ ment. While eventually there turned up an kee?] , 1969), his body was not brought home for burial. --' A tradition to be met among Monroe's older residents old photograph of Ben Frees, resplendent has Billy's elderly mother coming secretly to Monroe after in his Union regimentals, I could locate no the statue's dedication to view her long-dead son's likeness. picture of Billy. Some time after the war his It makes a touching addition to the legend, but the truth family had scattered, Frank moving to Min­ is that by 1913 Billy's parents were both long dead, his mother in 1894 and his father four years later (see pension nesota, his parents also settling there after records). The tradifion may simply reflect a memory of his a stay in Iowa, and 1 could trace neither brother Frank's presence at the dedication of the statue. branch.^^ Only one way remained to find An obituary of Mrs, Hawkins, whose name was Irena (North- what the youthful farmer-soldier had field News, November 17, 1894) notes that for thirty years before her death she was an invalid. Her illness is not given, looked like—the statue itself—but that biu that thirty years places its start at just about the time loomed far out of reach. The head of the her son Billv was killed.

247 Changes and Choices: Two and a Half Generations of La Follette Women

By Bernard A. Weisberger

^HE La Follette era is fast fading "dynasty," There is little ambiguity as to T into remote history. It is sixty- why. As governor from 1901 through 1905, eight years since Robert M. La Follette, Sr., "Old Bob" wrestled with a recalcitrant leg­ died; fifty-four since his younger son Philip islature to enact the reforms he had cried lost his last election while trying for a for during the 1890's: open primaries, se­ fourth term as Wisconsin's governor; forty- cret ballots, lobbying curbs, higher taxes six since Robert, Jr., was ousted (byJoseph and tougher regulations for corporations, R. McCarthy) from the U.S. Senate .seat and various state interventions on behalf of into which he had followed his father. Yet the public's health and welfare, charted among some of those who remember, the and led by nonpartisan experts from the name still stirs passion. At a social gather­ university. The whole program, popularly ing in 1991 on the University of Wisconsin known as "the Wisconsin idea," was nei­ campus, when I was introduced as the au­ ther the exclusive property nor the inven­ thor of a forthcoming biography of the tion of La Follette, but no one argued for clan, a senior citizen buttonholed me to it with more ardor or clearer implications say: "La Follette was a dangerous dema­ that those who disagreed were naturally gogue." He did not specify which one. It corrupt or bought off by special interests. was possible that any one would do. In the Senate from 1905 onward La Fol­ A brief refresher course may be in order lette was just as strenuous and articulate in for those who cannot understand such re­ contending against the pro-business influ­ sidual rancor. The uncompromising pro­ ence of insider cliques, whose members he gressivism of two generations of La Follette took pleasure in denouncing by name, re­ men kept them at the storm center of Wis­ gardless of the impact on his own political consin politics from the 1890's until the prospects. His most spectacular insurgency 1940's. To their supporters they were al­ came in 1917 and 1918 when he stood vir­ ways more than mere candidates; they were tually alone and despised in the chamber heroes. To those who battled them, it was because of his opposition to American en­ perennially open season on the alleged try- into the World War. But his rare cour­ age on this issue was rewarded in the post- 1919 disillusionment. He was easily re-elected to the Senate in 1922, and two EDITORS'NOTE: A slightly different \ersion of this essay was years later, running as an independent for delivered before the annual meeting of the State Historical Societ)'of Wisconsin ni Eau Claire, June 22, 1991, the presidency, he won 6 million loyal but

248 Copyngllt © 1993 l/y ffic State Historicat .Society of Wisconsin Alt rights of reproduction in ans fomi reserved. WHi(X3)46203

Unveiling the .statue of .Senator Robert M. La Follette, Sr, in Statuary Hall, U.S. Capitol, April 25, 1929. From the left. Senator John J. Blaine, Fola La Follette Middleton, Marion Montana Wheeler, and Robert La Follette Sucker, Mary La Folktte Sucher, Philip F. La Follette, and Robert M. La Follette, Jr. 249 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1993 unavailing anti-establishment votes. Seven Mary; and her daughters-in-law Isabel and months after that he died. Rachel. Belle, Fola, and Isabel in particular Robert M. La Follette, Jr., emulated his had independent public lives, well docu­ beloved "Dad" in substance if not in style. mented in letters and other writings of He was consistent in his support of the New- their own that constitute a spirited record. Deal though in fact he stood somewhat to The neglect in which these female La Fol- the left of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Mean­ lettes have languished until recently is par­ while Phil, elected governor in 1930, was ticularly sad because it has deprived gen­ also committed to carrying on his father's eral readers of the pleasure of their agenda (suitably updated for the Depres­ acquaintance, and of some possible exem­ sion era) against hea\y fire from the Wis­ plary lessons in women's history.'-^ consin conservatives who had never been The two "nonpolitical" women were not completely vanquished. Both brothers outsiders. But although Mary, born in were nominally Republicans, which cost 1899, shared the family's progressive en­ Phil the state house in 1932 when he lost thusiasms, her somewhat private and artis­ the primary. They shed that encumbrance tic temperament kept her in the wings. in 1934 when they bolted to form the Pro­ And Rachel Young, who married Robert La gressive party of Wisconsin and won the Follette, Jr., in 1930, disliked the engulfing statewide elections. rigors and rituals of campaigning (in spite Emboldened by that, and by another vic­ of having been part of Young Bob's office tory in 1936, Phil stepped up the pressure on the legislature, the courts, the civil serv­ ice and the press, and piled local enemies deep around him. Heedless of the cost, he pushed on with plans to nationalize the ' Theie is no single biography of the senior La Follette Progressives and challenge both major par­ and both his sons. Relatively brief summaries of Old Bob's ties for the presidency in 1940. But his am­ career may be found either in David P, Thelen, Robert M. bitious dream ended brutally. Phil was La Follette and the Insurgent Spirit (Boston, 1976) or Fred Greenbaum, Robert Marion La Follette (Boston, 1975), There trounced at the polls in 1938 and never ran is a life of the older son, Patrick J, Maney's 'Young Bob" La for office again. The National Progressives Folh-tte: A Biography of Robert M. La Follette, Jr., 1895-1953 of America perished virtually stillborn. (Columbia, Mi,ssouri, 1976). Philip La Follette wrote an au­ World War II also killed off the Wisconsin tobiography which was edited by Donald Young and pub­ lished as Adventure in Politics: The Memoirs of Philip La Follette Progressive party through massive defec­ (New York, 1970), The first two books contain bibliogra­ tions (mostly to the Democrats). It folded phies for those interested in further investigation. in the spring of 1946. That same Septem­ - The principal sources for this article are two manuscript ber "Young Bob," running once again in collections. These are the La Follette Family Papers (cited hereinafter as LFP) in the Librarv' of Congress, a huge as­ the Republican primary, also ended his ca­ semblage including separate subcollections of the papers of reer in defeat. Six and a half years later he Belle, Fola, and Mary La Follette; and the Philip Fox La committed suicide in Washington.' Follette Papers at the State Historical Societ)' of Wisconsin (hereinafter PFLP) which contain Isabel's papers, includ­ ing her unpublished autobiography in manuscript. There is material on Belle that may be considered autobiograph­ ical in the earliest part of the life of Old Bob that she began REPEAT this once-familiar and Fola finished: Robert M. La Follette, June 14, 1855—June 18, 1925 (2 vols,, New York, 1953), hereinafter cited as I chronicle of the fierce lion and FtML. She is also the subject of a full study by Lucy Freeman, his male cubs, however, only as back­ Sherry La Follette (Belle's granddaughter), and George A, ground to another story which it has Zabriskie, Belle: 'The Biography of Belle Case La Follette (New York, 1986), ,A good deal is said and written about Fola in tended to obscure. There were La Follette the memoir written by her husband, George Middleton, women, too, five in all: Belle La Follette, 1'he.se Things Are Mine: The .Autobiography of a Journeyman Play­ "Old Bob's" wife; her daughters Fola and wright (New York, 1947),

250 WEISBERGER: LA FOLLETTE WOMEN

Staff), and she avoided them as much as possible.^ It was otherwise with Belle and with Isa­ bel, who became Phil's wife in 1923. Each of them took a deliberate role as counselor, advocate, and organizer in their husbands' battles, and each advocated liberal and pro­ gressive causes in magazine columns over their own signatures. Fola sailed on a dif­ ferent tack. She did not share in the grunt work of campaigning for her father or brothers. Yet she went straight from college \. into an acting career with the expressed in­ tention of helping, through theater, to pro-

•' Such is the tesumony of her son, Bronson La Follette (an attorney general of Wisconsin), in an inteiview with the \ author in Madison, November, 1989.

Right, Mary La Follette; below, Rachel and Robert M. La Follette, Jr, about 1928. V,Hi(X3)48492

WHi(X3)48487 251 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUM.MFR, 1993

mote a revolution in public sentiment that LL the same, there are some would nourish and support her father's .instructive distinctions. Belle, lifework. though her domestic life was not entirely All three could be described as "new" or conventional, was a circumspect rebel. She "emancipated" women, but the similari­ never wavered in the belief that her first ties are less significant than the variations duties were those of a wife and mother as among them. Each crossed the threshold those terms were traditionally defined of maturity at a different historical mo­ when she married in 1881. The causes she ment, and each found the gateway of op­ first espoused in midlife—sensible dress, portunity barbed with special challenges. personal and household hygiene, child- Belle and Fola, mother and daughter, were centered educational methods—were separated by twenty-three years. Isabel was aimed simply at modernizing the tasks of Fola's junior by sixteen years—not quite a the homemaker. "Woman's sphere" was generation but enough of a gap, given the not so much to be abandoned as harmo­ rush of events, to make a huge difference nized with the age of electricity and bacte­ in her sense of the world's priorities. riology. Later, she moved on to espouse To be specific, Belle, born in 1859, was a broader issues such as votes for women little girl in the Civil War era, and reached (the bedrock), slum clearance, humane middle age just as the twentieth century working conditions, desegregation, and— dawned in radiant optimism. Fola was grad­ finally and most urgently—disarmament. uated froiu college in 1904 and spent just But these were always addressed in terms over a dozen developing years in progres- of their benefits to society as a whole. Eve­ sivism's period of sunshine. Then came the ryone, male and female, would benefit catastrophe of World War I and the Jazz when -women voted, for then both sexes Age's upheaval in values. These coincided would contribute their intelligence to solv­ almost exactly with Fola's forties. Isabel ing democracy's problems. Well-educated, sen-ed her political apprenticeship in the politically alert and participating mothers reactionary gloom of the Harding and would pass along the best of civilization to Coolidge eras, and was thirty-one at the both the little girl and little boy infants time of the Great Crash. Her years with Phil whose cradles they rocked. The injection of in the governor's mansion were dominated specifically domestic, nurturing qualities by the Depression. into public life would arouse the gentler These differences prove to be an advan­ instincts of society as a whole against bru­ tage for historians. By comparing the trio's tality. In short. Belle was incontrovertibly contrasting lives they can refine a few in­ part of the well-documented Progressive- sights about the surges and retreats of fem­ era "women's movement" that hoped to inism (here used ver)- loosely) in relatively better the great globe itself For want of a recent times. But caution is in order before better term, she and her co-workers might making any bold brush strokes. Each be called "improvers." woman was a decided individualist. What is With Fola it was not quite so. Graduated more, they were all La Follettes, completely trusting only each other, and sharing a sense of being collectively distinct from the rest of humankind not lucky enough to be born to what Ralph Sucher, Mar)''s hus­ band, called "the blood royal."^ Generali­ ' Isabel Bacon La Follette, -'If You Can Take It," page 21. zations based on the behavior of any single This is the title Isen gave to the unpublished autobiography La Follette, therefore, rest on sandy foun­ she wrote. Three typed drafts arc in PFLP, boxes 164 and 165, The cme ii.sed here bears the penciled note, "written dations. 1947-48,"

252 \Vlli(X3'll801

Belle Case La Follette, 1881.

253 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1993 like her mother from the University of W^is- And then there was Isabel Bacon La Fol­ consin with a superior academic record, lette, known within the family by the nick­ she avoided both early marriage and the name Isen. She, too, earned her bachelor's then-common career choices of the edu­ degree from the University of W^isconsin in cated woman in the "service professions" 1921. It was there that she first saw Senator such as teaching and social work. Instead La Follette's handsome younger son, of she elected to become an actress. It is hard whom she confided to a friend: "I'd surely work still, and was even harder in those pre- like to vamp him." -' She and Phil were mar­ unionized days. Fola spent years in a de­ ried in 1923, a pair well-matched in book­ manding, insecure, and underpaid grind ish earnestness. Though from Salt Lake of bit parts, provincial tours in forgettable City, her background was upliftingly Bos- shows, and discouraging waits in produc­ tonian, and she was the granddaughter of ers' offices. Why such un-La Follette-like ef­ one of the founders of the educational fort to break into a field around which lin­ publishing house of Allyn and Bacon. Be­ gered a faint aura of frivolity and even tween her graduation and wedding days disrespectability? Because for Fola the she held a social-work job at a settlement stage was more than mere entertainment— house in Bayonne, New Jersey—much as it was Art, and Art with social value and Belle had become a schoolteacher thirty power. Her "theater" was the vibrant the­ years earlier, while waiting for La Follette, ater of the new century—of Ibsen, Shaw, Senior, to establish himself in his new job Strindberg, Schnitzler, Galsworthy, Chek­ as districtattorney of Dane County. In 1924 hov—a theater whose dramas raised ques­ Phil exactly followed the paternal pattern tions about the meaning of life and the na­ by running for and winning the same job. ture of society, a theater whose audiences, Isabel then and there became and re­ confronted with the contradictions and di­ mained his political consort. lemmas of existence, could not fail to be­ Essentially her visible job was to organize come deeply engaged in struggling to the progressive women of the state for change and enhance their lives. To that de­ Phil's benefit She kept in touch with and gree Fola, like Belle, believed in better­ made speeches to their various organiza­ ment. tions, arranged the candidates' social But with a difference! Fola's new theater events during campaigns, and did the tra­ struck closer to sensitive subjects like class, ditional entertaining-with-a-political-pur- convention, and family—topics that Belle pose expected of the governor's wife. avoided. Moreover it appealed strongly to Meanwhile she was raising three young individuals to break the bonds of custom children, the last of them born during and cliche, to think for themselves as they Phil's second term. stretched to their fullest potential. So while She did have one position in her own Belle's contemporaries thought in terms of right. Belle spotted her talent for writing obligation, Fola and her friends were like­ and put her to work on the editorial staff lier to speak of personal freedom as the in­ of the family house organ, La Follette's Mag­ dispensable ingredient of democracy. Fola azine, founded in 1909 (ultimately to evolve was in no way indifferent to political causes. into The Progressive, still alive under other After her marriage in 1911 she gave up the ownership). In time Isen began to write dramatic stacre and dedicated her talents to regular, signed columns of commentary on suffrage and to helping lay the foundations topics of the day. But though she spoke in for Actors Equity. But it would not be wrong to say that she was a "liberator" more than an "improver," and something of a "bohemian" as well. ' Young, cd,. Adventure in Politics, 78,

254 WHi (X3) 48493

Flora Dodge La Follette, about 1910. Fola is Ihe name she used for herself when she was a baby.

255 -WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1993 a clearly identifiable woman's voice, the in the vanguard always seemed to end in subjects she addressed were rarely gender- fire or ice. How did each of these three La specific. By the 1930's there was a general Follettes experience her generation's od- assumption that "woman's" political yssey in her personal passage from youth to equality had been established by the Nine­ middle age and beyond? A slightly closer teenth Amendment. Nor were tips on "sci­ look tells, at the least, an interesting story. entific homemaking" any longer news from a women's frontier. The domestic ad­ vice most appreciated by readers after 1930 'ONSIDER Belle firsL She is a dealt with how to make do on scanty sala­ c woman who resists classifica­ ries, for poverty' dogged both sexes. Isabel's tion, a strange mixture of conformist and concerns were inexorably squeezed into rebel, never completely comfortable in the pigeonholes of Phil's agenda for eco­ either role. Her marriage ceremony was nomic regeneration; sooner or later she al­ conventionally performed by a Unitarian ways got back to what women needed to minister, but the -word "obey" was uncon­ know and do about pocketbook issues. ventionally dropped from the service. The Belle and Fola had the luxur)- of seeing the almost immediate arrival of a first child "woman question" as part of an overall made her, she testified, "profoundly drive to free society from corruption, injus­ happy." Yet when the infant was less than tice, or mere stuffiness. Isabel's contem­ a year old Belle enrolled in the University poraries, by contrast, agonized about war of Wisconsin's School of Law. She com­ and fascism abroad, and a stalled produc­ pleted the course in the next two years— tion system at home. Circumstances and then never practiced. Obviously one of seemed to dictate that their most useful her motives was to be useful and close to role would be to support the men who the young attorney she had married. She were, by custom and prerogative, leading had an anonymous share in preparing the progressive fight. some of his cases, and in later years would It is hard to find a label for such women praise the "coeducated" woman who, "in that does not sound dismissive, but "facil­ perfect sympathy and full understanding," itators," or perhaps "cooperators" might helped her man in his life work, "not from do. For them, as for the welfare-state lib­ the outside but from within."'' erals who, under the New Deal, replaced The pattern continued during Old Bob's the progressives as exemplars of reform in three terms in the House of Representa­ America, clean politics and personal eman­ tives which began in 1885. She accompa­ cipation had to take second place to activist nied him to W^ashington during sessions, government and social planning. tutored little Fola on her own, did the re­ These suggested labels for Belle, Fola, quired entertaining (she called it "the so­ and Isen La Follette are oversimplified but cial stunt") and found time as well to be useful keys to fitting them into a larger clerk and secretary (neither of which were scene. The First W'orld War murderously then provided for members, nor offices ei­ unraveled the assumptions of improvers ther). W^orking together at home, they like Belle. The Depression put a cruel pe­ mailed thousands of free documents to riod to the expectations of the liberators Wisconsin voters on a growing list toil­ who endorsed, as did Fola, the cultural in­ somely hand-compiled from census and surgencies of the 1920's. And the antici­ election returns. Although she called pations of those later cooperators in build­ ing a good society, like Isabel, also ended in war, followed b)- a long flight into do- ''' RAIL, 1:54—55; to Theodore Dreiser (then editing the mesticitv. The noble visions of the women Delineator), Mav, n.d,, 1911, series D, box 24, LFP,

256 VVHi(X3)485S0

Isabel Lyman Bacon (Isen La Follette), 1920.

257 WHi(X3).3998

Belle with her sons, Robert, fr., and Pliilip, about 1905.

motherhood "the supreme experience in ters—she was incapable of hypocrisy. "I. . . life,"' she did not renew it—almost cer­ value more and more the precious hours tainly by choice—for nearly thirteen years. we spend together," she told him. Only when La Follette was turned out by [T] here is nothing I would rather be than the voters in 1890 and they settled fuU-time your wife and the mother of your children in Madison did she have the last three chif and I have no ambition except to contrib­ dren within the span of four and a half ute to your happiness and theirs and to years. your success and theirs."** She was unstinting in their care and even But if she did not burn with personal am­ more so in his. In their forty-four-year mar­ bition, she was nonetheless driven by a de­ riage, he came first. She nursed him vouring conscience and by educational ex­ through his frequent illnesses, and during periences that together commanded her to his constant travels to spread the gospel develop herself into something more than and earn money on the lecture platform a wife and mother. She was the first girl of she wrote him touching, sincere love let­

" Belle to RML, Sr,, July 3 and August 16, 1905, series A, ' RML, 1:66. The entire first-year,s-in-Washington expe­ box 3, LFP, (Hereafter, series and box citations to LFP will rience is covered on pages 58-89, consist simply of letter and number, e,g,, A3,)

258 WEISBERGER: LA FOLLETTE WOMEN her Baraboo family to go to college, thanks classes in flexibility exercises developed by to her parents' sacrifices; and like her fe­ a lifelong friend, Emily Bishop. It was nec­ male classmates she was under heavy pres­ essary groundwork for progress. Before sure to prove that the new and grudgingly they could seriously encounter the world, accepted idea of coeducation was not a non-working women had to be freed, by waste. As if that were not enough, the pres­ their own perspiration, from the notion ident of the university, John Bascom, that they were fragile and ethereal crea­ preached without surcease to the rural boys tures. Belle hammered away at the point and girls in his charge that the taxpayers of year after year. In early columns in La Fol­ Wisconsin were their benefactors, and de­ lette's Magazine she touted the anti-depres­ served a full return in the form of public sive blessings of yawning, catlike stretching, service. brisk walking. And in 1909, long before jog­ So Belle could not help but struggle to ging became fashionable, she told women reconcile her generous nature and private that there was "no such good all-round ex­ obligations with her wider duties as she saw ercise as running." It quickened the pulse, them. She found it hard to balance be­ brought the sweat, stimulated digestion, tween "developing her talents" and "con­ eliminated "poisons that. . . destroy vital­ tinuing to work along lines adapted to ity."" Moreover Belle took her own pre­ motherhood and homemaking," especially scription, running and walking as faithfully "in the midst of so many distractions,"^ as her impossible schedule allowed, fight­ The distractions, for most of her midlife, ing a generally losing battle against extra consisted of raising the three youngest chil­ pounds that plumped out her five-foot-four dren, running homes in Washington and frame. Wisconsin, and acting as Senator La Follet­ Her health-consciousness was part of a te's editor, researcher, finance manager (a larger design for a human race that oper­ hopeless enterprise), and political intelli­ ated by what she would have called scien­ gence coordinator. Her own performance tific wisdom. Inexorably, her comments as a homemaker never satisfied her. Once, broadened to take in the social surround­ after giving eight-year-old Phil and six-year- ings of the individual. She found herself old Mary a special treat, she decided that criticizing Washington's slum property she had bribed them. "Bad education owners or utility monopolists, for example, again," she lamented to Bob. "I wish I were not simply because they were unjust but be­ not troubled with ideals."'" cause they made it harder for families to rear children expertly. The common thread of her arguments was always that ^HE ideals kept her on the tight­ proper education in a sound home pro­ T' rope. In the 1880's she proved duced men and women with the character to herself by her own example that a to be responsible citizens under a free gov­ woman could become a lawyer and a ernment—a government that would then knowledgeable student of Wisconsin poli­ necessarily devote itself to maintaining the tics—but did so in part to be a better wife. conditions that allowed for development In the 1890's she temporarily became a and freedom. The process would be contin­ physical education instructor—in part to uously self-renewing. be a healthier person with more to give to There is a wonderful example of how she society and her family. She taught women's linked public and private concerns in an article she wrote in 1912 praising the work

» RML, 1:54-55; Belle to RML, Sr„ October 8, 1905, A3, LFP, '" Ibid., October 5, 1905, LaEollette's Weekly,\dn\.\ary 9 and 16, 1909,

259 IW4. '^-^ :r

^ .^ •" J«,v

WHi(X3),36969

Belle Case La Follette speaking during the woman's suffrage campaign., about 1915.

of biology professor Clifton Hodge of Clark their communities. Even better, they could University, who was promoting a war help their parents to apply sanitary princi­ against houseflies in Worcester, Massachu­ ples at home. Triumphantly, she con­ setts, The professor wanted children in­ cluded: "If every home is made ideal, the volved in "civic fly campaigns" with prizes whole country will be, and the only way to and honors for those most successful in bring this about is to start the children cleaning up garbage dumps, installing right."'2 screens, and placing flytraps. Belle approv­ But women could not passively wait for ingly noted, first of all, the economic good men to create the circumstances in which sense of the program. Flyborne diseases homes could be made ideal, so Belle caused billions in losses—comparable to pushed onward to the advocacy of suffrage. those incurred when excessive timber-cut­ On the stump, in her magazine columns, ting despoiled forests. Pubhc health cru­ and in testimony before a Senate commit­ sades, like conser\'ation laws, prevented so­ tee in 1913, she said: "My basic reason for cial waste. But even better than these believing in equal suffrage is that it will after-the-fact measures would be attacks at make better homes. . . . Home, society, the source. "All this flood of loss and government are best when men and wreckage," she argued, "[could] be women . . . share with each other the solu­ stopped by adequate education." Children tion of their common problems." Mothers in "nature study" classes could be taught excluded from the polls were unable to which organisms were and were not harm­ meet their obligations to their children. ful. They would thereby become aware of the need for "intelligent cleanliness" in '- American Mng-azme, June, 1911,

260 WEISBERGER: LA FOLLETTE WOMEN

"How," she asked, "[could] mothers teach Though she never retreated into privacy them to be good citizens when they have no and silence, personal health problems plus knowledge themselves of public affairs?" the family matters that had always held pri­ Was it "not in the interest of the home, of ority encroached steadily on her attention. society, of government that the people as a After Old Bob La Fohette died in 1925 she whole shall participate in making the laws gave most of her time and remaining en­ that govern them as a whole?" '•'' ergy to writing his biography, which be­ Arguments like these tried to reconcile came almost the only personal record of old and new ways of being a woman. Belle's her own role in their early years together. passion for economic and social justice was She had gotten the story only as far as 1909 unquestioned, but it burned in her espe­ when she herself died in 1931. cially as a mother. Nowhere was this clearer than in her allegiance to the Women's Peace Party, formed in 1915. Its founding resolution declared: "As women, we are es­ OR many of Belle's contempo­ pecially the custodians of the life of all ages. F raries, the notion that reform We will no longer consent to its reckless work was compatible with womanhood as destruction." Belle agreed vigorously in they knew it gave them the necessary nerve her column, saying: "We rejoice that the to push off into uncharted seas of activism. voice of women is to be heard against the But Fola and her peers needed no such 'greatest scourge of mankind,' for all wars bridges to the past. Fola's independence are primarily waged on women and chil­ came to her almost as a birthright. She dren."''* grew up as virtually an only child, hand- It was a brave but futile stand to take in raised by attentive parents. Her infant play­ the midst of the greatest war that human­ grounds were Washington's parks and kind had seen up to then. Eventually the squares. Belle tutored her privately rather wave of violence engulfed the confident than send her to schools that she herself world of the progressives. Most of their cru­ considered deadening. Old Bob read aloud sades survived beyond 1918, but in a nar­ to her, with eloquence and pleasure, rower mold of expectation. Belle contin­ choice morsels from the classics of litera­ ued to argue for all of them, most ture and drama. Lively thinkers, especially particularly disarmament, but with the on public issues, were commonplace knowledge that she was now swimming around the family dinner table. She was against the tide. "The forces let loose seem bred for self-assertion. so beyond control," she wrote to her hus­ Her choice of an acting career after grad­ band in 1919. "All we can say or do seems uation (Phi Beta Kappa) in 1904 is not so like the chatter of birds against a hurri­ puzzling in the light of such an upbringing. cane."'"^ Her general mood was summed As Fola knew, her father had himself up in a letter of earlier date to a friend: thought of the stage as a profession when "Bob never loses faith in the people. ... I he was a young man, and she and the whole wish I didn't. Like you, my faith in A few is family saw political life as a theater in which what sustains me in these crises, which are he took the starring part of the lone, brave such a strain on one's faith in humanity.""' warrior fighting the minions of evil. What could be more natural than to follow his early inclination towards the footlights? "Somewhere in me," she wrote him, "cry- •' Freeman, La Follette, and Zabriskie, Belle, 122, 127, 128, '- Ibid., 143-145. "' Belle to Gwyneth K. Roe, August 23, 1913, cited in Free­ 15 Belle to RML, Sr., February 6, 1919, A24, LFP. man, La Follette, and Zabriskie, Belle, 131.

261 WHi(X3) 18.3,34

Belle flanked by her family at the funeral services for Senator Robert M. La Follette, Sr., April 22, 1925.

ing for expression, isjust what you express movies and TV sitcoms still hidden in the and what you would have expressed had future. But it could be a vehicle for social you chosen to make that your career."''' criticism, as the best modern playwrights She adored Belle, too, telling her: "The were showing the young twentieth century, knowledge that I'm jiowr daughter is always and Fola absorbed their work and its mean­ an inspiration to me."'** That strong bond ing by a vigorous program of reading crit­ made Fola comfortable with her own fem­ icism (in German as well as English) and ininity. But Belle's particular example of attending performances of new works enlightened wifehood was not one she whenever possible. This was in addition to meant to follo-w. The theater would let her the usual young actor's grind of odd jobs, reenact the idealism of both parents in her auditions, and lessons. As she promised own distinctive style. Of course drama had Belle and Old Bob, "I won't let myself its frivolous "pop" side, its vaudevillian slump."^'' She spent much of her time be­ fluff that was the oldtime equivalent of B tween 1905 and 1910 in New York, protec­ tively supervised by friends of her parents

Fola to RML, Sr., March 16, 1905, .A4, LFP, • Fola to Belle, Julv 22, 1904, .A3, LFP, '•' Fola to familv, December 7, 1905, A4, LFP,

262 WEISBERGER: LA FOLLETTE WOMEN who kept her in touch with the reform uni­ the parts, scored a great success with it in verse. New York and then took it on the road to She needed no prompting for that. She classroom and club audiences. This gen­ always kept track of "Dad's" current polit­ erated a new project close to her heart's ical doings, rummaged the newspapers for desire. She prepared and got lecture-cir­ election coverage wherever she traveled, cuit bookings for a one-woman show enti­ promised him that "[y]ou have my heart tled Social Forces in Modern Drama. It con­ and would have my head and hand if I were sisted of readings from Ibsen, Galsworthy, a man.'"^*^ She visited night courts and Israel Zangwill, and Lincoln Steffens, var­ picket lines, and yearned to bring together ied occasionally with scenes from Shake­ her art and her activism. "Just at present," speare, plus lighter fare: folk and fairy tales, ran one of her letters home, and bits from comedies like The School for Scandal."^^ I feel as if I'd like to start a stock On the surface the show seemed to company down on the East Side— good plays—plays that deal with life— be a perfect vehicle for an actress with with the problems men and women a progressive conscience, especially one have to meet in their struggle for ex­ whose prospects were dimming as she istence. Those plays and the classics at approached her thirtieth birthday. (She popular prices—for real genuine peo­ did get a Broadway part in 1911 in Percy ple—that's what the East Siders are. Mackaye's The Scarecrow, but it closed after Not lovely but real—no painted Fifth a few performances.) Yet there were un­ Avenue pet puppets and social para- foreseen pitfalls. Fola thought that once sites.'-^' the power of drama plucked the blindfold of custom from the eyes of audiences, in­ dividualist, revolutionary thinking would HE never managed that, but in come as naturally to them as had their pre­ S 1910 a chance came to use her vious conventionality. Her limited personal talents for a specific political purpose. It experience in the suffrage cause had not goes without saying that Fola was a suffra­ given her a full taste of how hard it is to gist. By then, the battle for the vote was change minds such as she might have got­ uniting thinking women of every religious ten in the trenches of other reform fights. and political stripe, every regional back­ She was therefore vulnerable to disappoint­ ground, every class, every viewpoint on ment. A new and happy circumstance in­ home and family. (Like the desegregation creased that vulnerablity in 1911. She mar­ and black voting-rights movement of the ried George Middleton, a playwright with 1960's, it was a clear, direct, defensible re­ views like her own. form whose cultural moment for enact­ Fola La Follette was still very much her ment had come and whose momentum own woman. She dictated the conditions could not long be resisted.) Fola was asked and wording of the private marriage cere­ by some movement leaders if she would do mony; she kept, with George's full consent, a reading of a little one-act play of English her own name; what was more, she inte­ origin called How The Vote Was Won. In it a grated him into the family rather than for­ stuffy English bachelor is converted to the saking it for him. But she loved him very cause by a clutch of sprightly female rela­ much and was a deliciously happy bride. tives who move in with him. Fola, taking all Soon after the wedding they moved to Greenwich Village where they led an essen-

' Fola to "Dearest Papa," July 7, 1904, A3, LFP. '^'- A copy of the program is filed with Fola's 1911 corrc- Fola to family, October 26, 1906, A4, LFP. spt)ndenee in the LFP,

263 COMMENT

DR. ANNA H. SHAW: PrtBkient of lhe Nalimal H^aman Sufmg*

New York City. February 2. 1910, MY DEAR MISS L\ FOLLETTE: I had the pleasure of being present at the theatre on the afternoon of the benefit performance of "How the Vote Was Won," for the Girls' Athletic Club, and I have wanted ever since to express to you. and the others who took part with you, my appreciation of the splendid help that play was to our cause. I approve of the play, and think it would be of excellent service to any suffrage club, or in any community where suffragists would desire to make propaganda. Sincerely yours, ANNA H. SHAW.

BERTHA KUNZ BAKER; " There's a lot of good sense and good fun in the comedy, 'How the Vote Was Won.' Miss La Follette's clear cut, vivacious presentation gives an hour's very refreshing, sug gestive entertainment"

THE LONDON TIMES : The audience was delighted. How could they help it?

THE LONDON STAR: Genuinely funny. , . . The desolating effects of a general strike of women workers as observed in operation are as significant as they are truly comic. Miss Fola La Follette THE STAGE: Beneath its fun there is a deal of pro paganda. ISS FOLA. LA FOLLETTE. .Uughter oi DAILY GRAPHIC: It is an ingenious idea, and the Senator Robert M. La Follette of Wi5Con.sin, play IS full of clever lines. A crowded house was provoked M lo cheering and counter-demonstration by the vigorous argu aitdr graauatmj* trojn the Umv-r.-.iiy ui roents. W isconsin, chose the sta^e as the field ior her prufc-i- sional career. Sbe rs one of the irst of the younyi^'" THE NEW AGE: It is the most rippling piece of fun which has been on the boards for a long time. Why not an American actresses to follow the example of some of invitation ()erformance to cabinet ministers? Cannot you the I'rench uii,i Cerinan artists of her prt.>K- = :.'iijn anJ imagine a nudge and whisper creeping along their row in give readings of play-! •• ihe has appeared. Tku fhe stalk; "I say, you fellows—we've been making fools of ourselves. Let's brins; in a Bill," winter she has h.ren • • • m and around New York City and has no •- . ily engaged to preser.! PALL MALL GAZETTE: It is clever and witty, and ?.5 a re.ul'.i-J the English comedy, " Mow '••.'.:• \ u'.e V\'a« it kept yesterday's audience brimming with excitement and in roars of laughter. . . It is in fact a long lime since Won. m wLuh she played the part of Mrs, Cule in we have seen nearly so amusing a one-act play. the first reriorr.iance in this country at ths- Cr.:eri..ii. Theatre, New I ork City.

WHi(X.S)48484 WHi (X.

Advertising for Fola's appearance in blow the Vote Was Won, about 1910.

264 WEISBERGER: LA FOLLETTE WOMEN tially private existence among good friends "hopeless when it comes to sex or econom­ in what was possibly the most culturally ex­ ics." "Wow!" she exclaimed to George. citing setting in the whole country. It was "Conservative isn't a word for it."-' from the shelter of such a nest that she "What's the use of striving for the dear took her show on the road in 1912 and people and sticking to principle," she 1914—and began to lose that faith in the asked him, "if all that can be discussed out common clay that so well sustained her fa­ of it... is a desire to get office or gain per­ ther. He at least could appeal to them to sonal advancement?"-** Her illusion had defend their own interests, though even been that personal liberation through Art that was not always ea.sy. Getting them to would shake up the political order. But ex­ reconsider their social behavior was even perience stripped away her "faith ... in tougher, as a stream of Fola's letters to the people when it comes to art." '^•' Cul­ George from the heartland soon showed. tural upgrading was an impossibility; polit­ "It takes the heart out of me," she wrote ical renewal was severely limited when after addressing the Culture Club in Ge­ driven by pocketbook motives alone; and neva, Illinois, "to have them like the broad Fola, puffing secretly on the cigarettes sent farce so much and get nothing from the to her in plain brown wrappers by George, high comedy and beauty of the other. Well, for whom she ached physically, became set­ I suppose building dreams is hard work."^'' tled in an earlier-expressed conviction: From Nebraska she lamented: "I don't feel "I'll be glad to get where I don't have to as if I get my audiences much; it's an awful be a reformer no more but can just be an heavy lift all the time ... as if I were carry­ actress."^" ing a thousand pound load over a sandy One of George's answering letters ex­ road." In Fremont, a few miles west of plains a good deal about Fola's later life. Omaha, she tried to deal with listeners who "[T]he great courage for the artist as well were "bored by a simple reading of a play as for the worker is when he learns to live where they have to think all the way and work without faith. . . . Only another through,"-* and in her hotel room in Lin­ week after you get this you will be coming coln found a remedy for the soreness and back to me and I shall love you so that there cramps of travel that had to be kept strictly is nothing left in the world but you and private—to wit, "the bed, my bottle of gin me."'^' Fola's world did not shrink quite and hot water bag."-'' The gin also helped that much, but it narrowed considerably. her to forget how "frantic" she was driven Whereas Belle, dismayed though she was by by people "so good and so Christian and so the war, kept enough of her activism to afraid of joy and mirth and laughter."^'' busy herself in post-Versailles disarmament That summer tour of 1914, depressing organizations, Fola expressed her despair enough when the daily headlines shouted mainly in privatized free-thinking behavior news of European war, became even more as the twenties defined it. The problems of a torment as Fola discovered the width were so "overwhelming and colossal" that and depth of the cultural chasm between they drove her "back into a yearning for her new life and the world of her upbring­ the foolish little things of personal life . . . ing. In "desolately Puritan and self-right­ far removed from the 'great social ques- eous Kansas," it seemed, even the people who were "progressive politically" were

-" Fola to George Middleton, July 27, 1914, A14, LFP, •" Fola to George Middleton, March 27, 1912, A12, LFP, •'" Fola to George Middleton, August 13, 1914, Mb, LFP, ••'•' Ibid, March .SO, 1914, -»/fed,, August 20, 1914. •« Ibid, March 31, 1914, «' Fola to George Middleton, March 30, 1912, A12, LFP, "<' IHd., April 5, 1912, " Middleton lo Fola, .August 22, 1914, A17, LFP.

265 WHi(X3)48496

La Follette sisters, Fola and Mary, about 1929.

tions.' "^- She did fill some speaking en­ in "the Village," in Paris, and in Holly­ gagements for Belle during Old Bob's 1924 wood. She taught in a progressive school campaign, but otherwise she made no fur­ and watched the polidcs of "normalcy" ther appearance on any kind of stage. She with wry distaste from the sidelines. After and George, childless, lived at various times the Great Depression wiped out George's livelihood and savings, and after Belle died in 1931, Fola devoted most of the rest of her talented woman's life—twenty-two '- Fola to "Bobs" [RML, Jr,], June 2.5, 1919, ,A25, LFP. years—to finishing her father's biography.

266 WEISBERGER: LA FOLLETTE WOMEN

'SABEL comes into the picture in "Sometimes," she said, "I get so anxious r 1920, the year of brightness to get out and to work that I don't know shed by the final passage of the amend­ what to do." But she likewise admitted to ment that gave women the vote. To many an occasional thought of "how nice it women on the threshold of life it seemed would be to get married as soon as I leave that the battle was already won, and what school."'^'' remained was a mopping-up campaign. In the end that idea prevailed, after she Young Miss Bacon, who gave the com­ met Phil in November of 1920. "[H]e is mencement address at her 1917 high about as fas-kinating as you could wish school graduation, appeared to think so. for," she wrote home.* By the following Herself one of five daughters, she rattled spring they were engaged, and dreams of off a list of improvements in "women's work took second place. Isabel's post-grad­ conditions" in the "advanced" nations of uation job was clearly seen by both as a tem­ the world, and asked: "If such changes porary pattern rather than a career choice. have taken place in the past half century, She was waiting in the time-approved way have we not a great deal to hope from the for Phil to be able to support a family. He Future?" With all the confidence of her seemed hesitant to declare himself ready eighteen years she declared that the day of for that, and Belle may have put Isabel on the spinning wheel was over, and therefore the staff of La Follette's Magazine early in that an abstract being whom she referred 1923 in order to remind him more force­ to as "the woman" now had "more time fully than love letters could of his young for outside interests," more "surplus en­ fiancee's presence. The two were married in ergy" to expend for the public welfare, and April of that year. new power to "clear away the parasitic Isen La Follette presumably shared the forms that. . . drag her down."^-' family's excitement and preoccupation Her letters home from college bubbled with her father-in-law's valiant but doomed deliciously with the same kind of assurance. 1924 presidential race—she later recalled "I am taking political ethics," she told her that they all felt like soldiers in a cause— family. "I'm crazy about it. It deals with the but there is no record of her taking any causes of the war, its results and problems, active part. Her first child, Robert La Fol­ and how to deal with them. ..." '^^ Surely, lette III, was born in 1926; daughter Judith dealing with them would be possible for a arrived two years later. These commanded generation of men and women trained in her full attention, given without inner con­ such courses as Economics, and Leader­ flict according to Isen herself. In her un­ ship in a Democracy. She was also enthused published autobiography she wrote: "Real about an undergraduate course in law, in home-making is an expression of the crea­ which she was "learning stuff that abso­ tive urge and gives genuine satisfaction, lutely everybody should know. . . . It's a even with the inevitable drudgery involved, men's class, supposedly, with about a dozen as in all work."" Her initiation into cam­ girls and two hundred men [,] and the men paigning does not seem to have begun un­ expect the girls to flunk out in three weeks. til 1930, and then at Belle's behest. Belle For that if for no other reason I'll show wanted Isen's opinion of a draft platform 'em." She expected to go "to New York or some big city to work" after graduation. ''• Ilcid., Isabel to "Dearest Family," April 11, 1919, "' Young, cd,. Adventure in Politics, 78, •" Isabel La Follette, May 11, 1916, scries 3, box 160, " Quoted in Adventure in Politics, 174, The comment on PFLP, feeling like a soldier in the cause during the 1924 election '^'^ Ibid., Isabel La Follette to "Dearest Family," undated, is in the draft of "If You Can Take It," cited above in note "Sunday night," 1918, 4,

267 \VHi(D482)12,').56

Isen in the kitchen of the governor's mansion, 1935. that Phil had drawn up at the start of his ernor's mansion, Isen rallied support for run for the governorship. Isen protested Phil's programs. These included measures that she knew nothing of politics—in fact, to restore and modernize Wisconsin's had a "natural distaste for it." Belle ig­ economy and administrative machinery, to nored the claim of ignoiance. "You are an win it a share of federal assistance, to open intelligent woman," she said. "If what Phil its gates to main currents of New Deal writes doesn't appeal to you, rest assured it thought. Phil talked of public power, bank will not appeal to others." "'" Then and regulation, protection for dairy farmers, thereafter Isen was present at the creation unemployment relief, conservation, finan­ of speeches and documents, and in subse­ cial aid to strapped local governments, ru­ quent election years was sent out to speak ral road improvement, an end to the use of to and cultivate gatherings of women on injunctions in labor disputes, curbs on cor­ her husband's behalf rupt election practices, better conditions in On the platform, iir the pages of the Pro­ the state's asylums and jails. Some of his gressive, and in whatever subtle ways were propo.sals were based on his father's blue­ available as the official hostess at the gov- prints for a vital democracy. More of them, however, were designed to fight economic stagnation and to provide jobs as the needed precursors of freedom. And none ss Freeman, La Follette, and Zabriskie, Belle, 235. of them dealt with "women's issues."

268 Vrai(X3)48531

Isen with members of the Ladies Garment Workers Union, Milwaukee, mid-1930's.

Isen La Follette spoke about them, of Nonetheless, it was always as a clearly la­ course, from a woman's viewpoint—that is, beled junior partner that she operated, like she tried to show how they would improve most of her women contemporaries in pol­ women's capacities to function in their cus­ itics. And as a partner with very sharply de­ tomary family settings and jobs. This is not fined and limited standing. A story in her said in condemnation. She could hardly be private memoir tells it all. Some time expected to anticipate by thirty years or around 1940 a number of Madison women more the concerns of present-day femi­ organized an "entertainment" for the Pro­ nism with professional, political, and social gressive party members of the state legis­ empowerment of women. Nor had she re­ lature—all men—at which they might "talk ally abandoned Belle's insistence that ed­ informally on the problems facing them, so ucated women shared with men the duty to that the group could better understand change the world. As a political consort to and back them up in their fight." Proudly, Phil she shared in the reading, the travels, Isen noted that the women planned and the conferences and interviews by which he ran the entire affair. "They prepared and kept himself informed on every possible served a delicious meal furnished by them­ domestic and international issue. Her ho­ selves, and rushed through the dishes to rizons were not bounded by the kitchen, participate in the evening's program."'^^ the nursery, or even the borders of Wiscon­ During World War II she sank deeper sin. into domesticity. Despite having been an

269 \\Hi(X91)l,-,,')47 A gathering of the La F'ollette family, about 1930. Left to right on the steps, Robert, fr., and his wife Rachel, George Middleton, Mrs. Robert Siebecker (RML Sr. 's sister), Fola Middleton, Mary Sucher, Philip, Robert Sucher; on the grass, Robert III (Isen and Phil's son), Robert L. Sucher, Isen, and fudy (Isen and Phil's daughter). isolationist, Phil volunteered for the Army did indeed fade from prominence in the and spent two and a half years in the Pacific flaming 1920's, the agonized 1930's and Theater as a member of General Douglas 1940's, and the complacent 1950's, carry­ MacArthur's staff. Isen, doubly wounded by ing Fola and Isabel's youthful idealisms the war both as an isolationist and a pacifist, with it. spent the time like millions of other lonely But the delights as well as the deeper les­ women, raising her children. She lived in sons of history are often to be found in the semi-isolation on a farm outside Madison individual departures, the local variations that Phil had bought over her misgivings. on the main script written by road compa­ After his return, they remained private cit­ nies, so to speak—if in fact a main script izens for the rest of their lives. Towards the exists outside the historical imagination. end of hers, she organized a Women's Ser­ Be that as it may, the La Follette women, vice Exchange in Madison, matching up re­ however they may match scholarly "pro­ tired women with employers who needed files," were intriguing separate personali­ their particular skills. ties—literate, warm, and humorous in their private letters as often as they were opin­ ionated and insular. Like their men, they 'N a general way, the threefold espoused political rebellion; but when it r story of Belle, Fola, and Isen fits came to family portraits they struck quite without too much tugging or stretching conventional attitudes as devoted spouses. into the current generalizations about Yet within each was a kind of innate con­ "women's history" in the twentieth-cen­ trariness—a generic La Follette trait that tury United States. There was indeed a pre- made them so irritating to their enemies, 1914 reformist feminism, typified by Belle, and keeps them so fascinating to a biogra­ that did not challenge the stereotypes of all pher. women as being inexorably maternal and domestic, and therefore especially fit to "clean up" society. And that movement ' Isabel La Follette, "If You Can Take It," 371.

270 BOOK REVIEWS

Rads: The 1970 Bombing of the Army Mathe­ efforts of the FBI and city police to identify matics Research Center of the University of Wis­ and apprehend them. Bates, who earned a consin and Its Aftermath. By TOM BATES. Ph.D. in history during the 1960's but later (Harper Collins Publishers, New York, turned to journalism, tells an interesting 1992. Pp. xviii, 465. Illustrations, map, in­ story; but his account of the context of the dex. ISBN 0-060016754-8, $25.00.) Sterling Hall bombing is flawed and lacks meaningful political analysis. In the early morning hours of August 29, Rads suffers from cliches, tedious re­ 1970, a massive explosion demolished a siz­ counting of minutiae, and numerous fac­ able portion of Sterling Hall, the building tual errors. As a journalist fashioning a sen­ that housed the physics department of the sational bestseller. Bates chose to approach University of Wisconsin in Madison. The his subject as if he were chronicling the ex­ explosion killed Robert Fassnacht, a post­ ploits of Charles Manson. This is regretta­ doctoral student working in the field of ble. He obviously did considerable re­ low-temperature physics, and injured sev­ search for this book, yet it contains no eral other occupants of the building, some footnotes, no bibliography, not even a brief seriously. The demolition was the work of mention of sources, most of which appear the "New Year's Gang," four young Madi- to be interviews with retired cops, FBI sonians opposed to the war in Vietnam who agents, undercover agents, and the like. had concluded that the failure of the anti­ One might have expected something more war movement to end the war required from a trained historian. them to take more decisive action. (Their Yet these are minor matters compared to target was actually an adjacent building what makes this a problematical book. Ba­ which housed the Army Mathematics Re­ tes's two major faults are his lack of under­ search Center, a U.S. Army-supported standing of the anti-war movement itself, "think tank" involved in "abstract" re­ and his completely uncritical posture to­ search with practical applications used in ward the FBI, the police department's the war in Vietnam.) Eventually three of "Red Squad," and the host of other police the four were captured by the police, con­ agencies that infiltrated, spied upon, ha­ victed, and sentenced to prison terms. The rassed, and otherwise disrupted the anti­ fourth eluded capture and disappeared. war movement in Madison. No doubt Ba­ Tom Bates's Rads is the story of the ori­ tes's relationships with retired cops, gins and evolution of the "New Year's developed during the course of his re­ Gang," their flight from Madison, and the search, colored his views; but one might

271 WISCONSIN .MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1993 have hoped that he would articulate some was never the movement in Madison is a fact criticism of the systematic violation of the that seems to have entirely eluded Bates. In civil liberties of participants in the Madison fact, despite its media-enhanced profile, anti-war movement by the police agencies the ultra-left component contributed little whose activities he agnostically recounts. toward building opposition to the war in More serious, however, is Bates's mis­ Madison compared to the sustained, tire­ casting of a relatively small component of less efforts of such broad-based anti-war or­ Madison's anti-war movement—the ultra- ganizations as the Madison Committee to left component—as the movement itself. End the War, the Madison Area Peace Ac­ To be sure, as the war dragged on, frustra­ tion Coalition, the University of Wisconsin tion increased among a sector of student Student Mobilization Committee, the anti-war activists who were attracted to the Women's International League for Peace romanticized Maoism that came to the fore and Freedom, Madison Citizens for a Vote with the breakup of Students for a Demo­ on Vietnam, and Madison Citizens for Im­ cratic Society. In Madison these activists en­ mediate Withdrawal. gaged in the "trashing" of local stores Bates tells us that the Sterling Hall bomb­ ("prime imperialist targets") and other ing destroyed the anti-war movement in forms of ultra-left adventuring. Their frus­ Madison. It is true that the bombing tration led such activists to substitute small, proved to be a major setback for the move­ personal "exemplary actions" for building ment. But the movement did not die in the the anti-war movement and persuading in­ explosion. In a citywide referendum on creasingly larger numbers of working peo­ April 6, 1971, after a three-month organ­ ple to oppose the war. Indeed, it was the izing campaign, 66 per cent of Madison's politics of frustration that caused the four electorate voted for the immediate with­ members of the "New Year's Gang" to en­ drawal of all U.S. troops from Vietnam. gage in the colossal ultra-left venture of Three weeks later, on April 24, 1971, more blowing up Sterling Hall. people from Madison than ever before par­ In a lamentable excursion into pop psy­ ticipated in the massive anti-war demon­ chology. Bates attempts to locate the polit­ stration in Washington that drew over a ical motivation of the leader of the "New million activists. Year's Gang" in his abuse as a child by his The anti-war movement in Madison not father, rather than in the tactical and stra­ only survived the Sterling Hall bombing, tegic vacuit}' of ultra-left substitutionism. but ultimately prevailed. It's a shame Bates Another thematic curiosity of Rads is Ba­ missed that part of the stor)'. tes's counterposition of the views and influ­ ence of two Universit)' of Wisconsin schol­ PATRICK M. QUINN ars: the liberal historian George Mosse and Northivestern University the socialist historian Harvey Goldberg. Bates tells us that it was the inflamed rhet­ oric that punctuated Goldberg's famed lec­ tures on European social history that some­ how was a cau.sal factor in the Sterling Hall The 60's Experience: Hard Lessons about Mod­ bombing. Bates's assignment of culpability ern America. By EDWARD P. MORGAN. (Phil­ to Goldberg is sheer nonsense and an in­ adelphia, Temple University Press, 1991. sult to Goldberg's memory. WTiat Harvey Pp. xxiv, 357. Illustrations, notes, index. Goldberg offered in his filled-to-capacit\' ISBN 0-87722-805-1, $34.95.) lecture hall was a vision of a new, egalitar­ ian social order that would countenance That the span of years from roughly 1960 no more Vietnam wars; George Mosse to 1972 will be the most important post- spoke only of despair. World War II decade is becoming increas­ That the ultra-left wing of the movement ingly clear. During the last ten years, and

272 WHi(X.

A meeting of the United Campus Action Committee in the Memorial Union, University of Wisconsin-Madison, December 5, 1966. especially in the last five, an explosion of the new student left, anti-war groups, and essays, articles, memoirs, books, and mov­ the counterculture. He also devotes limited ies analyze the 1960's and what the decade attention to the women's movement and meant for the United States and the rest of the radical ecology movement. Morgan's the world. Edward Morgan's The 60's Expe- greatest success comes in his first two ob­ rienceis the most recent entry into this field. jectives. He does a splendid job of captur­ His reasons for writing this book are essen­ ing the democratic ideals, especially of the tially threefold: first, to demonstrate how early civil rights and new student left move­ the major social action movements of the ments, as he provides a well-written ac­ 1960's contributed to a distinctly critical count of their accomplishments and their democratic vision; second, to present a sys­ failures. He effectively demonstrates the tematic review of the 1960's from a per­ way in which each of these movements spective that emphasizes the connections built upon the experiences of each other between the major movements; and finally, and particularly how the ideals of the early to provide a synthesis of the recent works civil rights movements affected the later on the 1960's in a fashion that attracts 60's movements. In these sections the reader veterans and educates younger people of can develop an appreciation for the posi­ today so that lessons can be drawn for the tive aspects of the movements and learn future. about their very significant accomplish­ To accomplish these tasks, Morgan ana­ ments. Morgan also successfully brings in lyzes four major movements: civil rights. the rise of the New Right and documents

273 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1993 how this group profited from the upheavals tion to a critical era that will encourage of the decade. them to learn more. This book is less successful in its attempts to provide a synthesis of recent literature R. DAVID MYERS on the 1960's. Several points of contention State Historical Society of Wisconsin arise here. First, the overall effect of this book is limited by Morgan's over-reliance on a few key works from which he fre­ quently copies long verbatim quotes. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that sev­ To Form a More Perfect Union: The Critical eral recent important studies are not men­ Ideas of the Constitution. By HERMAN BELZ, tioned, so that important new interpreta­ RONALD HOFFMAN, AND PETER J. ALBERT, tions are not included. Only a few of the editors. (University Press of Virginia for the most important omissions are cited here. United States Capitol Historical Society, The section on the student movement Charlottesville, 1992. Pp. xvi, 371. Notes, rightly focuses heavily on the University of index. ISBN 0-81.39-1343-8, $35.00.) California at Berkeley and to a lesser de­ gree on the University of Wisconsin at Mad­ This volume is the product of a sympo­ ison but does not use W. J. Rorabaugh's sium held in 1987 under the au.spices of the Berkeley at War: The 1960's or the collection United States Capitol Historical Society to of essays edited by Paul Buhle in History and commemorate the bicentennial of the the New Left: Madison, Wisconsin, 1950-1970. Constitution of the United States. Consist­ The presentation of the anti-war move­ ing of ten essays, it is the ninth in a fine ment would have profited greatly from series entitled "Perspectives on the Amer­ Charles DeBenedetti's An American Ordeal: ican Revolution," edited by Ronald Hoff­ The Anti-War Movement of the Viet Nam Era. man and Peter J. Albert. To be guest editor, The section on the early women's move­ they chose Herman Belz whose introduc­ ment ignores the very important work of tory statement deftly captures the essence Alice Echol's Daring to be Bad: Radical Fem­ of the essays and places them in historio- inism in America, 1967-1975. In his attempts graphic context. Six contributors are pro­ to refute those movement leaders who have fessors of political science or law—Edward become conservative, Morgan does not Erler, Calvin Jillson, Isaac Kramnick, Ralph consider the collection of essays edited by Lerner, Jennifer Nedelsky, and Jean Yar- David Horowitz and Peter Collier entitled brough; the rest are professors of history— Second Thoughts, which includes essays by John P. Diggins, John M. Murrin, J. R. Pole, such former activists as Ronald Radosh, Jef­ and Peter S. Onuf. These ten individuals frey Herf, and Michael Novak. focus on "the political theories and philos­ Other shortcomings further impair the ophies of governance that informed the effectiveness of Morgan's work. The sec­ minds of the men who created" the Con­ tions on the radical ecology and especially stitution. on the women's movement are far too cur­ For the last several decades scholars of sory. A deeper and more critical analysis of the "Revolutionary Generation," and "the the movements in the late 1960's would Founding" in particular, have been ob­ have provided a much needed balance to sessed with demonstrating that the Foun­ the idealism of the early New Left As a re­ ders were primarily influenced either by sult, the impact of this book will be limited. Lockean liberalism or classical republican­ Historians of modern America will learn lit­ ism. Students of the period have been ex­ tle new from this book. Neither will move­ pected to subscribe to one or the other ment veterans, but they enjoy the positive school of thought. For a time it appeared portrait presented by Morgan. Students of that the advocates of classical republican­ today will find this book a good introduc­ ism had swept the field, but the proponents

274 BOOK REVIEWS of Lockean liberalism refused to be routed. original intent of the Founders in inter­ This volume, in which there occurs a happy preting the Constitution, a topic that has blending of ideas, seemingly relieves stu­ recently spawned a substantial literature dents of the necessity of making a choice. not adequately addressed by the contribu­ "The critical ideas of the Constitution," tors. These criticisms aside. To Form a More states Herman Belz, "were . . . liberal re­ Perfect Union is a well-researched, thought­ publican in nature." The federalism em­ ful anthology which compares favorably to bodied in the Constitution enabled the any of the host of anthologies published to central government to establish the liberal celebrate the bicentennial of the Consti­ "commercial republic" through the regu­ tution. lation of commerce, while the state govern­ ments assumed the responsibility for incul­ GASPARE J. SALADINO cating republican virtues through religion, The Documentary History of the education, and laws. Recognizing the com­ Ratification of the Constitution plex nature of human motivations, some authors introduce other "isms," such as radical Protestantism, artisanal radicalism, and Anglican moralism, into the mix of ideas. Clearly, the Founders listened to and absorbed several complementary, contra­ Lincoln's Loyalists: Union Soldiers from the dictory, and clashing "voices" or "idi­ Confederacy. By RICHARD N. CURRENT. oms." (Northeastern University Press, Boston, The essays, ranging in length from about 1992. Pp. ix, 246. Endnotes, bibliography, twenty to fifty-five pages, are good to ex­ index. ISBN 1-55553-124-5, $21.95 cloth.) cellent. As illustrated by the substantial footnotes, the authors have a solid com­ The question of why the Union won the mand of the primary and secondary mate­ Civil War is a historical perennial. Not only rials, especially the writings on republican­ have scholars discussed the subject, but ism and liberalism. However, since some of motion pictures have even delved into it. the articles were obviously completed and Recently, Glory advanced the view that it submitted long before publication, their was black troops, such as the Massachusetts authors did not utilize the recent explosion 54th, that played the decisive role in de­ of books and articles on the Founding. A feating the South by adding more than disturbing aspect of some of the otherwise 200,000 recruits at the crucial moment to fine articles is the agenda that drives the the depleted Northern forces. Glory closes interpretations of their authors, thereby with a quotation from Lincoln, saying that arousing skepticism in this reviewer. One the North could not have won without contributor castigates today's Evangelical black soldiers. Right for misunderstanding the original in­ Richard N. Current has long been inter­ tent of the Founders, and he praises today's ested in the reasons for the Northern vic­ secular humanists as the true heirs of the tory. In his new book he has contributed Founders. To explain the ideas of the sup­ an original chapter to the discussion. This porters of the Constitution, a second uses is the first book to treat in a systematic fash­ The Federalist as if it were Biblical text, ig­ ion those whites from the Confederate noring that it was also a consummate piece states who fought for the Union Army; the of propaganda. A third implores us to re­ study does not deal with the border states. turn the state governments to their former A handful of historians have touched on eminence because the Founders would the question, especially as related to East have wanted it that way. Some essayists take Tennessee, but this book is not a compila­ sides in the William Brennan and Edwin tion of vignettes unearthed by others. On Meese-Robert Bork dispute over the role of the contrary, it is based on primary sources.

275 WISCONSIN MACiAZlNE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1993 especially the 128-volume Official Records of federacy and the preservation of the Un­ the war. ion." Extending his argument. Current The story is both original and significant, asks: Were not the number of Southerners starting with detailed studies of the enlist­ in the Union Army offset by the number of ment of Southerners state by state. Cur­ Northerners in the Confederate Army? rent's research shows that 75 per cent of There were comparatively few. Current Lincoln's Loyalists came from Appalachia notes, and those Northerners who did en­ and the Ozarks, but it also demonstrates list in the rebel cause were prisoners of war that Southern Federals hailed from everv' who did so to escape the horrors of Ander- state of the Confederacy. Every Confeder­ sonville and other prisons. ate state except South Carolina furnished Even with the evidence that Current has at least a battalion of men to the Union painstakingly amassed, however, it seems Army. Some rallied to Lincoln's call for vol­ appropriate to wonder whether Southern unteers; others were "Galvanized Yan­ Federals were as important as Lincoln's Loy­ kees," rebel prisoners of war. Their num­ alists suggests. Searching for great loyalist ber totaled, he suggests, 100,000. generals and decisive battles, he notes the After analyzing numbers and origins. bravery of some regiments, including the Current attempts to plumb the minds of First Tennessee Cavaliy and the Seventh Southern Federals. Noting that the Con­ Virginia Infantry, but seems rather disap­ federate Secretaiy of War Judah P. Benja­ pointed by their overall performance, con­ min ordered traitors to the Confederacy cluding that they "left a mixed record of "executed on the spot by hanging" if service in the Civil War." By 1863, further­ found guilty by a drum-head court-martial, more, Lincoln seemed to believe that he weighs a host of possible motives, in­ Southern Federals as a potential pool of cluding, as did Lincoln himself, patriotism, manpower was exhausted. It was partly for political bias, ambition, personal courage, this reason that he turned to black troops love of adventure, want of employment, in the Southern states, signing an act of and convenience, or the opposites of some Congress that allowed the states to recruit of these. Attempting a profile of the loyalist black soldiers in the areas occupied by Un­ minds, he argues that they did not differ ion troops. greatly from the rebel majority (they were In all, this piece of social history is not proslavery and anti-abolitionist), but he one of triumph, however; it is one of trag­ adds that the loyalists differed from the re­ edy. Following the stor\' into Reconstruc­ bels in that they held less wealth in slaves, tion, Current shows that during the strug­ and he concludes that they shared a strong gles of that period, Lincoln's Loyalists faced sense of old-fashioned patriotism, courage, a hostile environment in the Southern and independence. "Loyalists shared with states. Neglected by the government in rebels the memoiy of past wars and he­ Washington, in effect, they became fair roes," Current writes, "but viewed them as game for vengeful former Confederates; symbols of the nation, not of the South." they faced hostile neighbors, local and What is significant about this long- state governments and courts. One U.S. forgotten story? If total Confederate troops quartermaster, for example, found himself numbered 900,000, then the loss of hauled into an East Tennessee court and 100,000 soldiers to the Union Army is not forced to sell 320 acres of land to compen­ a minor question. And if one counts the sate for bacon confiscated by Union forces. number of Southern Federals as not only a Fearing reprisals, they concealed their per­ loss to the South, but also a gain for the sonal histories, so much so that later his­ North, then this stor)' is doubly significant. torians have denied that they were of any "Surely that loss in manpower is," Current great import. This is a main reason for the suggests, "an important, though over­ lack of a significant historiography on the looked, reason for the defeat of the Con­ subject.

276 BOOK REVIEWS

Laboriously, Current has mined the Of­ tween the Civil War and World War I, the ficial Records, but it should also be kept in economic, social, and political structure mind that the 128 volumes are only part of and contest of the West, the impact of fed­ what remains to be examined at the Na­ eral bureaucracy on the West at its multiple tional Archives. It should also be remem­ centers and on its peripheries, the effects bered that the work needs to be put in the of the Great Depression and World War II broader context of the entire war and a full on the West, the emergence of the metro­ scale re-evaluation of the Southern defeat, politan West in the second half of the twen­ including the role of black troops. Still, tieth century, and the role of the West in Current has provided an original and val­ the nation. The final chapter reviews sev­ uable service, one which leaves opportuni­ eral myths and stereotypes about the Amer­ ties that others can pursue. It would be in­ ican West. White is to be commended for appropriate to ask for more. carrying his history well into the twentieth century, although some might argue that TIMOTHY M. MATTHEWSON too little time has elapsed for historians to National Endowment for the Humanities judge the significance of some of the events and trends chronicled adequately, partic­ ularly those of the mid-1980's. Viewed as a whole, this volume is not well integrated. However, the West chronicled by White is a diverse region, poorly bounded in culture, space, or time. White "It's Your Misfortune and None of My Own": is to be commended for his integrative ap­ A New History: of the American West. By RI­ proach, which focuses especially on recent CHARD WHITE. (University of Oklahoma contributions to social, political, and eco­ Press, Norman, 1991. Pp. 664. Illustrations, nomic history, and makes good use of stud­ maps, index. ISBN 0-8061-2366-4, $39.95.) ies by researchers in allied disciplines, most notably historical geography. On the other In this refreshingly untraditional book, hand, students of more traditional histories Richard White provides the latest contri­ may be concerned that this volume fails to bution to a genre almost as old as the reference a large, rich, and varied litera­ American West itself. Historians have been ture on the American West (compare, for writing histories of the West, at least as de­ example, the bibliography in the most re­ fined from the perspective of the Atlantic cent edition of Ray Allen Billington's West- seaboard, since the seventeenth century. ward Expansion to the generally fewer than The title of the book is taken from a line one page of sources per chapter of non- in the old cowboy song "Whoopee Ti Yi Yo, footnoted text). Themes and intellectual Git Along, Little Dogies." What sets this controversies to which historians have de­ contribution apart from its predecessors is voted academic careers and thousands of the absence of a Turnerian framework pages of debate are mentioned scarcely at within which events and processes which all. On the other hand. White incorporates shaped the American West are interpreted. the theme of human-environment interac­ Beginning with a brief discussion of the tion, borrowed from the fields of geogra­ settlement patterns and economies of In­ phy and environmental studies, into his in- dian tribes in the American West around terpretation of numerous topics the year 1600, White examines in turn the throughout the book. However, just as the Spanish and Mexican eras, the federal pres­ traditional historian irtisses references to ence in the West during the nineteenth Frederick Jackson Turner, Walter Prescott century, migration and ethnic patterns in Webb, Herbert Bolton, and Paul Gates, so the West, agriculture and environment, the the student of the Annates tradition will role of the West in the world economy be­ miss references to Fernand Braudel and his

277 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1993 recent North American followers. This is ing severely diluted, if not totally obliter­ somewhat unfortunate, for students receiv­ ated. In his effort to help others appreciate ing their first in-depth exposure to the hfs- and more fully comprehend the North tory of the American west with this volume American cultural landscape. Noble has as their textbook may come away from the compiled twenty-two essays. Each furnishes experience lacking in historiographic per­ a profile of an immigrant group that spective. helped shape the cultures of the United From an editorial vantage point, the States and Canada. The essays focus upon book has several weaknesses. The maps are landscapes created by Europeans as well as not original, in some cases are quite poor, Black and Native American groups. The and rely especially heavily on atlas offerings chapters are written by an impressive col­ from the publisher's backlist. There are lection of scholars, many of whom are con­ several misspellings and mis-citations, and sidered to be leading authorities on the the same map is reproduced on pages 80 subject matter. As one would expect in a and 83, with differing captions. A bibliog­ volume written primarily by cultural geog­ raphy would be a most helpful addition. raphers, the essays are organized into a re­ When all is said and done, White's offer­ gional framework. When examined in the ing is an ambitious book that doesn't quite presented sequence, the essays allow the hold together. However, it may spark the reader to experience a transcontinental interest of undergraduates through its survey of landscapes, beginning with that broader focus on the effects of political ac­ of the Acadians in Eastern Canada and con­ tions, cultural conflict, and interaction be­ cluding with the Basques in the American tween humans and the varied environ­ West. A significant number of contributors ments of the trans-Mississippi West. convincingly argue that ethnic architec­ tural forms were primary elements of the cultural baggage transferred to these rural RUSSELL S. &RBY landscapes. As such, they serve as reliable University of Arkansas-Little Rock indices of immigrant settlement patterns and the nature of a group's adaptation pro­ cess. In an informative introductory chapter, Noble succinctly defines the patterns of mi­ gration to North America. Besides charting the chronological waves of nineteenth-cen­ tury immigration, he discusses the basic motivational forces and identifies the par­ To Build in a New Land: Ethnic Landscapes in ticipants with special attention given to Norih America. Edited by ALLEN G. NOBLE. Germans, Irish, and Scandinavians. Al­ (Johns Hopkins University Press, Balti­ though the subsequent essays consider the more, 1992. Pp. X, 455. Illustrations, maps, landscapes created primarily in rural envi­ photographs, glossary, notes, bibliography, ronments, the impact of immigrants, such index.' ISBN 0-8018-4188-7, $65.00"; cloth; as the Poles and Italians, upon urban pop­ ISBN 0-8018-4189-5, $29.95, paper.) ulation centers does not go unnoticed. Be­ cause most urban immigrants did not ini­ With the disturbing transformation of tially homestead or even own their land, North America's unique rural landscapes, they accepted whatever housing forms ex­ Allen G. Noble's To Build in a New Land isted when they arrived. Noble indicates serves as a timely reminder of the rich and that while housing forms cannot always be varied ethnic settlement islands that per­ a reliable cultural indicator in urban set­ vade the continent. As endangered species, tings that other conspicuous expressions, many of these cultural landscapes are be­ such as language, religion, or social cen-

278 BOOK REVIEWS

ters, are frequently clues to the ethnicity of is a product of various movement factors a neighborhood. combining with a group's response to ac­ Noble has organized an especially strong culturation barriers. Push and pull forces collection of chapters focusing upon Eur­ proved to be powerful movement factors opean immigration to Central North propelling immigrants to the New World. America. The region's nineteenth-century However, they were countered by other fac­ settlement coincided with a considerable tors, such as return migration and eco­ amount of European social, political, and nomic and cultural inertia, that challenged economic unrest which strongly encour­ the movement. Once immigrant settle­ aged migration. The authors describe how ment occurred in North America, physical the Belgians, Norwegians, Finns, Czechs, and cultural isolation became primary bar­ and German-Russian Mennonites created riers to acculturation. The extent to which expressive cultural statements when estab­ a group physically separated itself from oth­ lishing their identity in North America. ers coupled with its ability to retain its lan­ Bakeovens, roadside chapels, saunas, hou- guage and religion usually determined the sebarns, and various folk housing forms are degree of cultural adjustment it experi­ identified as common elements making the enced. Graduated levels of adjustment are ethnic landscapes of the region distinctive defined as withdrawal, accommodation, and unique. However, the cultural imprint and assimilation. The editor concludes that upon the North American landscape was regardless of its degree of adjustment, each not limited to architectural forms. In other group has enriched the mosaic of Ameri­ chapters authors cite patterns of land divi­ can and Canadian life by contributing var­ sion, farmstead configuration, and fence ious elements of its own material culture. types as being among the prominent fea­ As in his previous work, Wood, Brick, and tures upon the landscapes of groups such Stone: Studies of the North American Settlement as the Gulf Coast's French Creoles and Landscape, Noble has again broken new Louisiana's Cajun population. ground. The text is lavishly illustrated with All did not fashion an extensive cultural historical photographs, maps, and architec­ landscape, however. The varying persist­ tural drawings that add immeasurably to ency found among rural settlement islands the message. Essays discussing the often-ne­ is especially evident when comparing a glected landscapes of the American Indi­ group like New Mexico's Spanish-Ameri­ ans in the Eastern United States, Navajos in cans with the Basques of the American the American Southwest, and African- West. Over several centuries the former de­ Americans in the American South add posited a recognizable cultural imprint depth and meaning to the volume. Al­ upon the Rio Arriba. This included distinc­ though some may be disappointed by the tive settlement and field patterns as well as absence of a particular ethnic group, those a pronounced vernacular material culture. represented comprise a comprehensive Conversely, the Basques, who were largely cross-section of the immigrant groups who nomadic sheepherders, left only a faintly chose to make North America their home. visible signature on the American West. As the first book-length work to draw spe­ Noble's concluding chapter examines cific attention to North America's cultural this question of varying persistency among landscapes, this exceptional publication North America's ethnic islands. In doing will undoubtedly encourage and inspire so, he presents a model of the migration others to pursue further study and docu­ and settlement process. The model organ­ mentation of the continent's rapidly van­ izes the human continuum of the process ishing ethnic material culture. into three categories: movement factors, acculturation barriers, and immigrant community adjustments. Noble suggests MARTIN C. PERKINS that the final degree of cultural adjustment State Historical Society of Wisconsin

279 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1993

Homes in the Heartland: Balloon Frame Farm­ and behavior of the occupants and build­ houses of the Upper Midwest, 1850-1920. By ers. The artifact together with its furnish­ FRED W. PETERSON. (University Press of ings and the written records of its builders Kansas, Lawrence, 1992. Pp. xvi, 328. Illus­ and occupants provide the documentation. trations, maps, floor plans, notes, bibliog­ Peterson concludes that balloon frame raphy, index. ISBN 0-7006-0498-7, $35.00.) construction met the demand for houses because balloon framing was an economi­ Homes in the Heartland studies balloon cal and efficient way to build, convenient frame farmhouses in the rural areas of the and flexible to use, and was strong and du­ Upper Midwest from the 1840's to the rable. Moreover, the ready availability of 1920's. The book analyzes and interprets milled lumber and mas.s-produced nails, an the revolution in building that paralleled improved means of transporting materials, the transformation of the wilderness of the and cheap labor ensured the popularity of region into a specialized, technological ag­ balloon frame construction. ricultural garden. Fred W. Peterson exam­ Using specific examples, the author ines both the technical aspects of farm­ maintains that builders of balloon frame house construction and this phenomenon houses perpetuated the past by erecting as the manifestation of a culture that de­ traditional houses modified and adapted veloped during a period of rapid growth. from house patterns books. Peterson illus­ Peterson traces the development and us­ trates how successful farmers of various eth­ age of balloon frame farmhouses in Wis­ nic groups expressed with their houses consin, Minnesota, and Iowa and across their social and economic accomplish­ South Dakota and North Dakota after the ments at different times and places. introduction of this construction tech­ The book is timely in its subject matter, nique in Chicago in 1833. Literature in systematically researched, well-organized, journals, newspapers, and architectural and beautifully written. The footnotes are pattern books hastened the acceptance of meticulous and the bibliography compre­ balloon frame farmhouses by 1870. Mail­ hensive. The illustrations, however, are of­ order catalogs standardized them in the ten grayed—though some of this is attrib­ early 1900's. utable to the use of historic photographs. Treating the balloon frame farmhouse as The plans, unfortunately, are absent any a building type, the author, an art histo­ measurements or scale. Captured in these rian, employs the methodology used by houses is a wealth of information on life in scholars of material culture and vernacular the farmlands and rural communities of architecture. That is, he conducted a geo­ the Upper Midwest as agriculture changed graphic survey in on-site research trips be­ from subsistence labor to commercial en­ tween 1977 and 1986, developed a typolog)' terprise. for farmhouses, photodocumented 1,500 farmhouses, and prepared floor plans and KATHRYN BISHOP ECKERT structural analyses. He also examines their Michigan Historical Center esthetic, social, and economic aspects. Peterson sets forth a typology for balloon frame farmhouses based on the basic shape and floor plan. Ten types are presented in a logical progression from simple subsis­ tence shelters to the ubiquitous ell- or T- plan farmhouse (many the result of addi­ tions) , to the two-story modern foursquare, Gender, Class, Race & Reform in the Progressive to the complex manorial houses that pro­ Era. Edited by NORALEE FRANKEL and claimed success. Each house type is inter­ NANCY S. DYE. (The University Press of preted in the light of the beliefs, values, Kentucky, Lexington, 1991. Pp. 202. Notes,

280 BOOK REVIEWS

bibhography, index. ISBN 0-8131-1763-1, notes the group received inconsequential $24.00.) assistance from Atlanta's white women. Nancy Hewitt's analysis of Tampa's Anglo, My task here is difficult for two reasons. Latino, and African-American women First, 1 cannot claim expertise on gender, shows broad agreement on community class, and race history, despite the fact that goals, but differences on ways to achieve my research interests in Progressive Era them. Middle-class white women wanted to American library history (since the late quietly inject their own domestic values nineteenth century a feminized WASP mid­ into the public sphere; lower-class Latin dle-class profession) have been informed and African-American women were more by all three. Second, anthologies are diffi­ interested in an adequate standard of living cult to review. Often they are qualitatively and economic and racial justice. Sharon uneven; always they contain multiple view­ Harley's analysis of the development of a points difficult to cover in 700 words. working-class consciousness among Afri­ But then again, sometimes variety can be can-American women demonstrates that a strength. The diversity inherent in the the latter looked for status not in the jobs multiple viewpoints of historical antholo­ they had to take because of their poverty, gies can serve to demonstrate the complex­ but in their families, neighborhoods, and ities and uniqueness of life which tend to churches. Similarly, Ardis Cameron's anal­ get buried in histories "proving" general­ ysis of Lawrence, Massachusetts, female ized theories like "social control." Gender, textile workers shows a different set of pri­ Class, Race & Reform in the Progressive Era, orities from white, middle-class reformers. which originated as the proceedings of a Because they were forced to juggle respon­ "Conference on Women in the Progressive sibilities for home, neighborhood, and Era" held March 10-12,1988, at the Smith­ community, working-class women often sonian's National Museum of American took different positions on issues like the History in Washington, D.C, fits this cate­ prohibition of child labor. gory nicely. Ten solid papers made it into Eileen Boris tackles "social control," a the anthology, ably edited by Noralee Fran­ thorny theoretical construct often applied kel and Nancy S. Dye. The latter contrib­ to Progressive Era history. She demon­ utes an introduction that acknowledges the strates that the Progressive Era effort to re­ conventional wisdom (white, female, mid­ construct the "family" forged a coalition dle-class Progressive Era reformers were es­ of judges, social workers, and feminists, but pecially concerned with defining a rela­ argues that each group approached the is­ tionship between home and community sue with a different set of values. For ex­ responsibilities), but disputes its universal ample, many female reformers who fought applications. What if. Dye asks, one adds for mothers' pensions and child-labor laws class, race, and ethnicity to the social equa­ actually wanted to end workplace exploi­ tion? How did these "others" contribute to tation of working-class mothers so the latter and/or were influenced by these reforms? could "properly" nurture their children at And what legacy did they bequeath to pos­ home. In an essay previously published in terity? Conference presenters attempt to A Woman's Wage: Historical Meanings and So­ answer her questions. cial Consequences (1990), Alice Kessler-Har- In an analysis of Atlanta's Progressive Era ris similarly concludes that the struggle for African-American women (taken largely a minimum wage for women and minors from her Eugenia Bums Hope: Black Southern which united several reforming groups Reformer [1989]), Jacqueline Rouse re­ evolved from different systems of thought counts that group's efforts to combat seg­ reflecting gendered ideas. Molly Ladd-Tay- regation by forcefully requesting a larger lor's analysis of the Children's Bureau in share of the city's resources for African- Washington, D.C, demonstrates that in­ American schools and neighborhoods. She stead of forging an alliance among women

281 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1993 of different classes concerned with work­ Wisconsin: An Architectural Touring Guide By place exploitation of children, child-labor KRISTIN VISSER. (The Prairie Oak Press, legislation actually pitted them against Madison, 1992. Pp. 264. Illustrations, maps, each other. Working-class families desper­ bibliography, index. ISBN 1-879483-07-6, ately needed the small amounts of income $24.95, cloth; ISBN 1-879483-08-4, $16.95, their children generated to avoid disaster. paper.) Barbara Sicherman's analysis of the ca­ reer of Alice Hamilton, who spent most of Wisconsin now has "an architectural her adult life in a male professional world, touring guide" to the work of Frank Lloyd demonstrates that she nonetheless had to Wright and the Prairie School written by adopt a gender-appropriate "feminine" Kristin Visser, "a travel writer . . . [and] strategy of using personal persuasion and long a student and fan of architecture . . . emphasizing "the human side of science" especially Frank Lloyd Wright and the in order to be heard and taken seriously. other architects of the prairie school," ac­ In a fascinating article, Rosalyn Terborg- cording to the jacket. That she is a travel Penn outlines African-American women's writer and that the book is intended to be contribution to the anti-lynching cru­ a guidebook brings up the interesting co­ sade—"the backbone of the movement" nundrum of just exactly what is an archi­ she calls it—heretofore ignored and over­ tectural guidebook? Surely every author looked by historians and male NAACP who proposes to write one must grapple leaders. In her analysis of Harriet Stanton with that problem. Because most persons Blatch's career, Ellen DuBois documents will surely agree that such a book ought not the existence of two separate generations to be a scholarly catalog of the buildings of female reformers in the Progressive Era. selected for inclusion, this writer's back­ The first was influenced by cultural con­ ground, which evidently does not include ceptions of maternity, the second by a new formal preparation in architectural history, perception of the changing role of women need not be considered a significant draw­ workers. Susan Tank Lesser concludes the back. In fact, scholars and dedicated ama­ volume with a bibliographic essay on the teurs have already produced significant literature documenting the history of studies on many of these buildings in women in the Progressive Era. books, theses, national register forms, and By harnessing class, race, and ethnic the like. So the compiler of such a book lenses, contributors have uncovered layer- need not be an expert in order to produce by-layer some interesting complexities in a satisfactory result. And I believe in this women's participation in Progressive Era case Kristin Visser has succeeded in doing reforms. In the process they have done Pro­ just that. gressive Era historians like me a favor. Gen­ While I do not claim to have read every der, Class, Race & Reform deserves wide read­ word in the book, my impression is that ing and should not be segregated in course what she presents is accurate, at least to the bibliographies focusing primarily on gen­ extent that her sources are reliable, sources der, class, or race. The subjects discussed which unfortunately she does not acknowl­ here are too important to be marginalized edge except by inference in her bibliogra­ by that practice. phy. The few errors I noticed, such as cap­ tioning Wright's birthday in 1956 as his WAYNE A. WIEGAND 87th even after noting correctly his true University of Wiscon.sin-Madison birth year of 1867, are of no great signifi­ cance. That she would date the Jones house on Lake Delavan 1903 is understandable since no scholarly study of the commis.sion exists as yet. Of course, were she an archi­ Frank Lloyd Wright and the Prairie School in tectural historian she might had sensed the

282 BOOK REVIEWS

Stylistic inconsistency, indeed impossibility, be arranged? In the case of this book, the of the various buildings there having been cities are not listed alphabetically, but ge­ designed in 1903. But then WiUiam Allin ographically, beginning with Racine and Storrer in his The Architecture of Frank Lloyd ending with Rhinelander, which I suppose Wright: A Complete Catalogue, is satisfied with is all right so long as the book contains an the date of 1903, so we can hardly regard outline map of Wisconsin keyed to the cit­ her error as damaging. ies, but it does not. Again, that is a decision The book opens with an introduction by the author may not have made. But if a James Dennis, the UW professor of Amer­ field book—I persist—and most of the ican art who lives in and has exquisitely re­ buildings are not open to the public, then stored the first Jacobs house in Madison. why describe their interiors? And why dis­ Then follows a foreword; acknowledg­ cuss much more than can be seen from the ments; a short biography of Wright; an es­ street? Why should the reader have to lug say on the Prairie School; biographies of around considerable text about the Jones Louis Sullivan; Purcell, Feick and Elm.slie; house on Lake Delavan, when all that can George Maher; Robert Spencer, Jr.; Claude be seen from the street is the gatehouse? and Starck; Percy Bentley; and Russell Barr For that matter, how much history should Williamson. Then—and a bit abruptly in the tourist be expected to carry with him my judgment—the guide begins with the and read in the field? There is probably Johnson Wax Administration Building and more here than will be read in front of Research Tower. At the end there is a list many of the buildings. My own opinion is of buildings open to the public; a chrono­ that a field guide is perhaps best restricted logical listing of buildings by architect; to stating the basic facts about a building, glossary; bibliography and—hooray!—an in terms of owner, function, dates, etc., index. The entries generally consist of a with the text short and focused on what can photograph; biographical data on the be seen from the public way, or if open to owner (if a house); a history of the com­ the public, when touring the building. mission; a description; and a report on Conversely, if the aim is to present the present conditions. For the Milwaukee and reader with a document to read at home Madison section, there are maps keyed to while preparing the trip, and perhaps in the buildings. the motel during the trip, then it could and If the book has defects, these reside should go into greater depth, and even more in the author's analysis of the ques­ might be scholarly with sources cited. In­ tion asked earlier, about just what a guide­ deed, in the Visser book there are occa­ book should be. I have puzzled over this sional revelations which might well be true, myself on a number of occasions, and even but lacking notes I cannot judge their ve­ wrote a guidebook, so I can sympathize racity. Some of these may have resulted with the author in large degree. Should from her interviews with owners, and if so, such a book be designed to be used in the they could benefit the study of the Prairie field, or for use at home while preparing architects and their work, but only if sub­ for a trip? In either case, the next questions stantiated. might be: what size should it be and exactly The final result is that Visser's book is what kind of information should be in it? something of a guidebook and something For example, if this book were intended for of a catalog, without quite being the one field use, its size of about nine inches or the other. By contrast, Wilson and Rob­ square will make it difficult to lug around, inson, in their The Prairie School in lotua as opposed to guidebooks of say 4!4 by 9 (1977), seem to have thought the problem inches. Of course, the author may have had through more carefully and decided that very little to say about size, that often being they preferred to write more of a scholarly decided by the publisher. Nonetheless, if it catalog, complete with footnotes, than a is intended for field use, how ought it best guidebook, and so do not pretend that it is

28.3 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1993 a guide, even though it might with some hind the German-American labor press in effort be used for tour planning. My own the second-half of the nineteenth century. Guide to Frank Lloyd Wright Csf Prairie School The second section of this volume, Architecture in Oak Park (1976) was intended "From 48er Radicalism to a Working-Class primarily as a field guide and therefore Press," offers case studies from St. Louis lacks notes or descriptions that go much (by Steven Rowan), Chicago (by John B. beyond what can be seen from the street, Jentz), and Philadelphia (by Ken Fones- though it suffers from a non-pocketable Wolf and Elliott Shore). Even though the format which was not my doing. But this approaches of the various authors do vary does not mean that Visser's book is unu.s- on individual points, all demonstrate quite able—far from it—only that the reader clearly that the propagation and prolifera­ must work a little harder to make use of it tion of the German-American labor press while carrying around more bulk than is were part of a much larger and intricately really necessary'. complex movement in which ethnicity was defined by a range of perspectives on spir­ PAUL E. SPRAGUE itual, social, and political issues. WTiile the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee essays of this section are of considerable in­ herent interest, they also merit attention as models for dealing with the multi-faceted complexity of ethnic groups, and of their attempts at self-expression in the new American homeland. The following section, "A Press and a Culture," offers three thought-provoking The German-American Radical Press: The Shap­ essays for social historians. Bruce C. Nelson ing of a Left Political Culture, 1850-1940. Ed­ provides the reader with an excellent array ited by ELLIOTT SHORE, KEN FONES-WOLF, of statistics on the socialist and anarchist JAMES P. DANKY. (University of Illinois press in Chicago during the last three dec­ Press, Champaign, 1992. Pp. xii, 247. Ta­ ades of the nineteenth century. Nelson's bles, notes, bibliography, index. ISBN 0- information deals with newspapers pub­ 252-01830-3, $36.95.) lished in a number of European languages, and as such expands our horizon beyond This volume of collected essays offers a that of the German-American labor move­ useful and informative overview of the ment. As one might expect. Nelson's work press associated with the social radicalism with the socialist and anarchist press pro­ of the labor movement most frequently vides him with still another vantage point identified with the German "Forty-eigh- from which to assess the significance of the ters" who came to this country in the mid- Haymarket Affair. Carol Poore's study of nineteenth century, and who attracted in the Pionier Calendar of New York City sug­ their wake an unprecedented wave of work­ gests how a close reading of the press can ing-class ethnic immigrants. offer a series of selective "readings" of the An introductoiy essay by Hartmut Keil tenor of opinion in the working-class eth­ offers "A Profile of Editors of the German- nic community. Finally, Ruth Seifert's American Radical Press, 1850-1910." For "Women's Pages in the German-American readers with a primar)' interest in the more Radical Press,'190f)-1914: The Debate on general aspects of German-American eth­ Socialism, Emancipation, and the Suf­ nicity, Keil's essay offers a much-needed in- frage" suggests how different cultural views troduction to the backgrounds, career pat­ will shape an understanding of how best to terns, cultural traditions, and adaptive implement social change. strategies of the individuals whose vision The fourth section, "Radical Visions," and energ)' provided the driving force be­ consists of a series of case studies of indi-

284 WTii(x,'i)i.r);«,o

A portrait of Victor L. Berger by Robert f. Miller, Milwaukee. vidtial editors and their publications. Ri­ New Yorker Volkszeitung: The Twilight of chard Oestreicher considers the career of the German-American Socialist Press," also Robert Reitzel and his Detroit-based weekly considers the fate of an individual and a Der Arme Teufel. Oestreicher shared a cap­ publication that have outlived their "com­ tivating array of information on the occu­ munist phase." Dirk Hoerder offers a case pation of subscribers to this newspaper. He study of the Austrian Josef Jodlbauer and also suggests the difficulties encountered his vision of labor in the American political by an editor such as Robert Reitzel, who arena. The section and the volume con­ attempted to maintain his radical vision clude with a series of critical responses to even after his potential readership had en­ the essays by Moses Rischin. tered an essentially non-radical era. Paul Anyone wishing to do serious research in Buhle, in his study "Ludwig Lore and the this field will be delighted to find that Hart-

285 WTSCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1993

mut Keil has compiled a "List of Editors/ causes and results of a 1979 strike at the Journalists of German-American Radical Wisconsin Education Association Insur­ Papers, 1865-1914." The footnotes to the ance Trust (the Trust). These clerical work­ individual papers, the selected bibliogra­ ers were employed by the insurance com­ phy, and the index are more than ample to pany owned and controlled by the facilitate the work of other investigators. Wisconsin Education Association Council Although this collection of papers has a (WTAC), a union for Wisconsin teachers. strong thematic focus, it is reasonably ac­ Low wages, discriminatory work rules cessible to the general reader. Wliile there (workers had to reach their work area in is no question that its main contribution union headquarters through the rear door will be to specialists, the work also merits and take a freight elevator to their desks), the attention of scholars with more general and declining worker control led to mili­ interests in German-American ethnicity tant activism and organizing. The second and social history. case involved clerical workers at Wisconsin Physicians' Service Insurance Corporation PHILIP E. WEBBER (WTS). The situation at WTS was almost Central College identical. Close supervision and monitor­ Pella, Iowa ing combined with repressive working con­ ditions and low pay made for an intolerable situation. Unlike the Trust, WTS did not have a union for a parent organization. When workers finally won a contract in 1979, WPS management countered by us­ We're Worth It! Women and Collective Action in ing even closer supervision. The company the Insurance Workplace By CYNTHIA B. COS­ also limited union growth by hiring part- TELLO. (University of Illinois Press, Ur- time and home workers. It is these home bana, 1991. Pp. xi, 154. Notes, bibliogra­ workers who form the focus of Costello's phy, index. ISBN 0-252-01803-6, $22.50.) third case study. WTS used this strategy to undermine the union and develop a pool Of all the 1960's movements, the wom­ of even cheaper labor. In this case, Costello en's moveirrent remains the most active. Its does a wonderful job describing the frus­ activists have influenced almost every as­ tration of home work, trying to raise chil­ pect of American life. This book focuses on dren, taking care of household chores, and an area that has not attracted a great deal dealing with the constant pressure from of attention. In We're Worth It! Women and WPS supervisors for more productivity. Collective Action in the Insurance Workplace, Unlike the Trust, WPS workers never estab­ Cynthia Costello analyzes how the feminist lished a strong network of solidarity. In­ movement has reshaped the experience of stead WPS workers quit in droves, some­ clerical workers. Clerical work provides a times at a rate as high as 40 per cent. The superb model for such an understanding final case deals with the more humane because it remains one of the most heavily management style of the Credit Union of female-dominated professions. It is also North American (CUNA). Here the author one of the most poorly paid and least or­ describes the family-life management style ganized occupations. The search for re­ of CUNA, and how the family atmosphere spect and equity by clerical workers forms of the 1940's and 1950's gradually evolved the central aspect of this book. as the company grew. Quality circles and small levels of participation were adopted, Costello's method is to present four case but workers gradually realized that the studies of attempts to gain equity and re­ company was not providing the same level spect by clerical workers located in Madi­ of interest. A dormant union became in­ son, Wisconsin, during the late 1970's and creasingly activist, and a women's associa- early 1980's. The first investigates the

286 BOOK REVIEWS tion emerged which encompassed women organized labor. Clerical occupations pro­ at professional levels. vide a wonderful opportunity for contin­ In her central theme, Costello does an ued feminist activism and for a labor move­ excellent job of showing how these expe­ ment very much in need of new recruits. riences had a liberating effect on the cler­ ical workers. These women built militant R. DAVID MYERS networks and, in most cases, effectively State Historical Society of Wisconsin challenged management. She is similarly successful in showing how work-place mili­ tancy converted into more assertiveness at home. These aspects provide for good Minnesota Collects. Text by JACK EL-HAI; reading; the activism, the resiliency, and photography by ERIC MORTENSON. (Min­ the creativeness of these women provides nesota Historical Society Press, St. Paul, strong evidence of the continuing impact 1992. Pp. X, 118. Illustrations. ISBN 0- of the feminist movement. Costello has 87351-280-4, $14.95.) written a clear, jargon-free introduction to an important aspect of women's, labor, and Concurrent with its recent move to the social history. brand-new Minnesota History Center in St. For all its many merits. We're Worth It is Paul, the Minnesota Historical Society has limited by its narrow focus. The author pro­ pubUshed this brief survey of its vast collec­ vides almost no context for overall analysis. tions. Richly illustrated with 136 color and Although she does explain why Madison 62 black-and-white photographs, Minnesota can be used for the case studies, there is no Collects is a veritable feast for the eye and a explanation of its place in the national in­ treasure for anyone who enjoys looking at surance industry. In addition to interview­ the "stuff" of history. Included in its pages ing workers, Costello also interviewed man­ are glimpses of books, maps, photographs, agers, but neither their case nor their artworks, newspapers, manuscripts, govern­ explanations are presented. Her descrip­ ment records, museum objects, and ar­ tion of the working conditions and man­ chaeological artifacts. agement style of the companies, except The book is organized thematically into CUNA, reads like a novel about nine­ chapters covering small-town life, recrea­ teenth-century sweat shops. These manag­ tion, Minnesota's Indians, agriculture, ers would earn appreciative respect from transportation, work, ethnicity, arts and such anti-union giants as Henry Clay Frick crafts, politics, war, childhood, and sports. and Henry Ford. How did this neanderthal Each section contains an introductory nar­ approach to labor relations develop? Was rative, captioned illustrations, and excerpts there pressure from their boards or is this from manuscripts, books, and oral histo­ pattern typical of the insurance industry? A ries. context for the role of the unions is also A casual perusal of the book suggests missing. The author makes only a few pass­ that it is meant to be nothing more than ing references to local and national union an exploratory experience for a general au­ leadership. Clearly, they were not suppor­ dience. Taken at face value, the book does tive, but this lack of support is not ex­ an effective job of engaging the reader and plained. A broader approach to these is­ stimulating interest, but this is primarily a sues would have made for a much more function of the book's design, not its text, enlightening book. which was written by Jack El-Hai, a Minne­ The role of the women's movement and apolis writer. its influence on working-class women is an The major problem with this book is that important aspect of modern history. Cos­ it could have been so much more than a tello presents a good introduction to this curious "coffee table" book. In fact, the important subject and offers a challenge to preface by MHS Director Nina Archabal in-

287 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1993 flates the reader's expectations of the because the book is primarily descriptive book. Archabal suggests that the book of­ and lacks analytical commentary. Many of fers a "creative way to uncover the past and the captions to the illustrations merely to look at the present," but the book is identify the collections that are shown and nothing more than a pastiche of anecdotes, do not offer contextual information. As a a hodgepodge of random thoughts and ar­ result, the reader is left wondering why a bitrary selections of treasures. This is actu­ given object was chosen and what it says ally a very old way of looking at the past, about the past. In the section called "On called the "grandma's attic" approach by the Streets of Small Towns" a film projec­ some museum professionals. tor is illustrated and described, but its re­ Archabal states that, taken as a whole, lationship to small-town life is unexplored. the words and pictures in this book "bring In like fashion, the author provides no the larger aspect's of the state's historv' into clues about what a cream separator and a view." Unfortunately the view is unfocused state fair dress made of butter cartons say because the book is devoid of meaningful about the history of agriculture and farm synthesis. The introductory narratives for life. most of the chapters do not provide such Ironically, in the preface Archabal makes synthesis; they focus narrowly on one spe­ a point of recognizing the importance of cific aspect of the chapter's subject matter, "reading" objects of the past to gain in­ thereby providing more grist for the mill of sights about their purposes and their times. snippets that characterize this book. The It is unfortunate that this book does not introduction to "The Great Outdoors," for practice what is preached. example, deals almost exclusively with early Despite its failure to provide insightful explorers in Minnesota and fails to sum­ and meaningful commentary on both Min­ marize the state's recreational history; the nesota history and the value of material cul­ main narrative for the chapter on trans­ ture in understanding history, Minnesota portation discusses a railroad engineer and Collects is an enjoyable picture book. El- ignores boat, auto, and air travel, which are Hai's narrative is readable, Eric Morten- represented only by captions to illustra­ son's photography is very appealing, and tions; and the chapter called "Labor Days" highlighted collections are both interest­ features an introduction that deals solely ing and eye-catching. with logging. Any book of this nature must involve cru­ PAUL BOURCIER cial decisions about what to include and State Historical Society of Wisconsin what to exclude, what to emphasize and what to downplay. Unfortunately, selec­ tions of material are improperly balanced at various points in the book. The chapter The Creationists: The Evolution of Scientific called "War Front, Home Front" gives an Creationism. By RONALD L. NUMBERS. (Al­ inordinate amount of emphasis to the Civil fred A. Knopf, Inc., New York, 1992. Pp. War and pays only lip service to both World xvii, 460. Notes, index. ISBN 0-679-40104- Wars and the Vietnam conflict. In the 0. $27.50.) chapter on making a living the author de­ votes as much space (one page) to lock Much of experienced history is an ac­ picking as he does to office work; is the count of the unexpected, and none more reader to believe they have equal weight in so than that of scientific creationism. It Minnesota's historv'? would certainly have been unexpected by In the book's preface Archabal discusses the liberal generation that cut its teeth on the power of historical collections to "ex­ Harry Elmer Barnes's The Twilight of Chris­ pand our understanding" of the past. Un­ tianity and Sigmund Freud's The Future of fortunately the understanding lacks depth an Illusion and fondly imagined that the

288 BOOK REVIEWS

Scopes Trial and William Jennings Bryan's ology also (and, by implication, much of death were a signal that Fundamentalism astronomy); the world is no more than ten was dying or dead. Thanks to the national thousand years old, and the sequence of politics of the past two decades it is no fossiliferous strata in sedimentary rocks can longer necessary to belabor the point that be accounted for as a byproduct of Noah's Fundamentalism in America is alive and flood. well; however, some are still startled to It took a rare combination of scholarly learn that it is intellectually alive. Recogni­ skills to bring off a convincing monograph tion of that reality is evident in Professor on this subject. Professor Numbers is a his­ Numbers' detailed, documented mono­ torian of science who has "been there"; he graph on the rise of "creation science," started as a creationist himself, but became which is what its advocates usually call it convinced of the incontrovertibility of the when trying to insert it into a public high fossil record. He has the comprehensive school curriculum, to share equal time with knowledge of movements and individuals Darwinism. that a complete outsider to this style of In the perennial warfare of science and American religion would have been hard theology. Fundamentalists who posit sci­ put to acquire. As the same time he has not entific creationism have dramatically raised rebounded to the opposite pole, of de­ the ante. The author reminds us that many bunking in the manner of H. L. Mencken; anti-evolution crusaders of the 1920's, in he respects the creationists' seriousness their zeal to refute Charles Darwin, were and treats them with compassion. willing to concede to Sir Charles Lyell; that As a historian of science. Numbers also is, to accept the long time span described knows Thomas Kuhn's historiographic rev­ by historical geology and reserve their fire olution in that discipline—and so, it turns for the biology of natural selection. Some out, do some creationists. The world view achieved this compromise by arguing that of Lyell and Darwin, they contend, was just the six "days" of creation in the Genesis one more Kuhnian paradigm, and its day account were long periods of geological is over! They benefit also from the paralyz­ time—Bryan himself allowed as much—or, ing relativism that of late has beset histori­ more daringly, by leaving a gap between cal writing in general, complicating the his­ verses 1 and 2 in the first chapter of Gen­ torian's task of evaluating this or any other esis, into which the entire geological fossil ideology. record could be inserted. Not enough, say scientific creationists; one must combat not PAUL A. CARTER only evolutionary biology but historical ge­ Tucson

Book Review Index Bates, Rads: The 1970 Bombing of the Army Mathematics Research Noble, editor, To Build in a New Land: Ethnic Landscapes in Center of the University of Wisconsin and Its Aftermath, North America, reviewed by Marty C. Perkins 278 reviewed by Patrick M, Quinn 271 Numbers, The Creationists: The Evolution of Scientific Belz et al., editors, To Form a More Perfect Union: The Critical Creationism, reviewed by Paul A, Carter 288 Ideas of the Constitution, reviewed by Gaspare J, Peterson, Homes in the Heartland: Balloon Frame Farmhouses of Saladino 274 the Upper Midwest, 1850-1920, reviewed by Kathryn Bishop Eckert 280 Costello, We're Worth It! Women and Collective Action in the .Shore et al., editors. The German-American Radical Press: The Insurance Worliplace, reviewed by R, Da\'id Myers 286 Shaping of a Left Political Culture, 1850-1940, reviewed by Current, Lincoln's Loyalists: Union Soldiers from the Confederacy, Philip E, Webber 284 reviewed by Timothy M, Matthewson 275 Visser, Franii Lloyd Wright and the Prairie School in Wisconsin: An El-Hai, Minnesota Collects, re\'iewed by Paul Bourcier 287 Architectural Touring Guide, reviewed by Paul E, Frankel and Dye, editors. Gender, Class, Race C^ Reform in the Sprague 282 Progressive Era, reviewed by Wayne A, Wiegand 280 White, "It's Your Misfortune and None of My CJion ": A Nau Morgan, The 60's Experience: Hard lessons about Modem History of the American West, re\iewed bv Russell S, America, reviewed by R, David Myers 272 Kirby 277

289 Accessions A collection of various historical source materials dating ca. 1847-1964 assembled by the Grant County Historical Society, includ­ Services for microfilming, xeroxing, and photostat­ ing minutes of the society, various com­ ing all but certain items in its manuscript collections are provided by the Societv', munity histories, family histories, and re­ cords of the Bloomington Blake's Prairie Congregational Church (Bloomington) and of the Holy Mary Help of Christians Church (Glen Haven); originals loaned for copying by the Grant County Historical So­ Microfilm ciety, Lancaster. (Literary rights are re­ stricted.) Addidons to the papers, 1941-1986, of the Diaries, 1918-1921, kept by Elizabeth Pal­ famed World War II pilot from Poplar, Wis­ mer Holman, a farm woman in the Town of consin, Richard I. Bong (1920-194:5), known Dayton, Waupaca County, describing farm as America's "Ace of Aces," including cor­ chores, housework, church attendance, so­ respondence with his family; official re­ cial activities, finances, family health, and cords such as combat reports, award noti­ activities relating to World War I; originals fications, flight records, and other items; loaned for copying by William F, Holman, clipping scrapbooks compiled by various Las Cruces, New Mexico. family members; and videotape compila­ Scrapbook, 1949-1980, concerning the tions of newsreel and home movie clips. Hoover Boat Line, a boat livery and cruise Additions loaned for copying by Joyce Er­ line operated at 628 East Gorham Street, ickson, Poplar. Madison, by Harry Hoover from 1942- Journal, 1889-1890, of Irvin Chase, a 1968. Included are photographs, advertis­ Dane County farmer, detailing his daily ing material, and clippings, some of which work, crops planted, weather, income and refer to the company's predecessor which expenditures, and social activities. Also in­ began operating at the same location dur­ cluded are photographic portraits of Chase ing the 1850's. Originals presented by Ann and his wife Dustine. Loaned for copying Hoover, Madison. by Ruth Chase Armbrecht, Madison. Research files, 1971-1974, of Scott Mere­ Records, 1845-1972, of the First Congre­ dith (1923—), a literary agent and author gational United Church of Christ, Janesville, concerning his book George S. Kaufman and consisting of minutes, reports, member­ His Friends (1974), including clippings, re­ ship records, weekly bulletins, church views, notes, photographs, and correspon­ publications, photographs, records of dence with Kaufman family members and women's, men's, youth, and other organi­ with associates such as Marc Connelly, Max zations within the congregation, financial Gordon, Harold Rome, and Morrie Rys- and property records, files on the state con­ kind; presented by Scott Meredith, New ference and the Beloit Association, and York, N.Y. other records; loaned for copying by the Papers, 1976-1989, of Milwaukee Dem­ church and the Rock County Historical So­ ocratic legislator Mordecai Lee (1948—), in­ ciety. cluding biographical clippings, newsletters Minutes, 1854-1929, of meetings of and questionnaires, press releases, stockholders and the board of directors to­ speeches and writings, campaign files, and gether with incidental printed reports and miscellany concerning 1985-1986 legisla­ correspondence of the First National Bank tion on utility holding companies; loaned of Madison (founded 1863) and its prede­ for copying by Mr. Lee, Milwaukee. cessor, the Dane County Bank (founded Records, 1958-1988, of the Madison 1854); loaned for copying by the bank via Catholic Woman's Club, a charitable organi­ Richard Hansen, Madison. zation formed in 1914; including minutes.

290 '>"'£|*- '^•^^^PVW

Waii(X3)344,o7

Mrs. Thorns Walek at her Friday morning baking. Independence, Wisconsin, fune, 1947. The outdoor oven or "wielok" holds fifteen to sixteen two-pound loaves of rye bread, ordered in advance by individuals on Fridays and Saturdays. From the Zawacki Collection.

financial statements, rosters of members, the effects on each other of the Polish and and a 1966 history by Allene M. Rohan; the American culture found there, includ­ loaned for copying by the club. ing correspondence, field research notes Papers, 1983-1991, of Larry Peterson, a and family case histories, recorded folk founder of Protect Americans' Rights and songs, hymns, and discussions of folkways, Resources, an organization opposed to a and summaries prepared for a final report; liberal interpretation of Chippewa Indian presented by Mr. Zawacki. treaty rights to the use of natural resources, Records, 1856-1958, of the Zion United including correspondence, press relea.ses, Church of Christ (Town of Dale, Outagamie speech notes and drafts, reference materi­ County), a congregation founded as a als, and clippings, plus records on his ear­ German Reformed church, including lier involvement in Equal Rights for Eve­ minutes, financial records, membership ryone; loaned for copying by Mr. Peterson, and sacramental records, minutes of the Park Falls. Ladies Aid, and minutes of the Reformed Additional papers, 1942-1948, oi Ed­ and Lutheran Cemetery Association, estab- mund I. Zawacki, a University of Wisconsin lishers of the Dale Union Cemetery. Most professor, from a study he conducted on records are in German. Loaned for copy­ Polish immigrants to Independence, and ing by Marion Wallenfang, New London.

291 Wisconsin History Available from author, 428 15th Street, Checklist Baraboo, Wisconsin 53913.) A compila­ tion of articles that were published in the Baraboo News-Republic giving the history Recently published and currently available W^iscon- of Baraboo National Bank. siana added to the Society's Library are listed below. The compilers, Gerald R. Eggleston, Acquisitions Li­ Dewel, Robert C The People Called Method­ brarian, and Susan Dorst, Assistant Acquistions Li­ brarian, are interested in obtaining information ists, Baraboo, Wisconsin, 1840-1902. (Bar­ about (or copies of) items that are not widely adver- aboo, Wisconsin, 1992. 1 vol. Illus. No dsed, such as publications of local historical socie­ price listed. Available from author, 428 ties, family histories and genealogies, privately Fifteenth Street, Baraboo, Wisconsin printed works, and histories of churches, institu­ 53913.) tions, or organizations. Authors and publishers wish­ ing to reach a wider audience and also to perform a valuable bibliographic ser\ace are urged to inform Friedlander, Ted; Geilfuss, John C; and the compilers of their publications, including the Van Housen, Edward. Founding Industries following information: author, title, location and of Wisconsin. (Milwaukee, Wisconsin, name of publisher, date of publication, price, pagi­ 1992. 117 leaves. No price listed. Availa­ nation and address of supplier. Write Susan Dorst, Acquisitions Section, ble from Founding Industries of Wiscon­ sin, 111 East Wisconsin Avenue, Suite 1359, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53202.) A computer printout listing over 4,300 Wis­ consin companies.

Friess, Caroline. The Letters of Mother Caro­ Atlas of Lafayette County, Wisconsin. (Minne­ line Friess, School Sisters of Notre Dame, ed­ apolis, Minnesota, cl992. 1 vol., various ited by Barbara Brumleve. (St. Louis, pagings. Illus. $75.00. Available from Ti­ Missouri, cl991. Pp. xi, 542. No price tle Atlas Company, Box 24687, Edina, listed. Available from School Sisters of Minnesota 55424.) Notre Dame, 320 East Ripa Avenue, St. Louis, Missouri 63125-2897.) Much of Bookstaff, Manning M. Milwaukee Area Ne­ the correspondence originated in Mil­ crology, 1992. (Milwaukee, Wisconsin, waukee. cl993. 137 leaves. $125.00. Available from author, 7811 North Port Washing­ Gauer, Harold. The Fifties and Beyond in Mil­ ton Road, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53217.) waukee. (Glendale, Wisconsin, cl993. Pp. A listing of deaths that appeared in four 270. Illus. $19.95. Available from Preci­ Milwaukee newspapers. sion Process Books, 6040 North Apple Blossom Lane, Glendale, Wisconsin Cassell, Frank A.; Klotsche, J. Martin; and 53217.) This is the third volume of Olson, Frederick I. The University of Wis­ Gauer's reminiscences. consin-Milwaukee, a Historical Profile, 1885-1992. (Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Gnacinski, Janneyne. lola Fire Department 1992. Pp. 144. Illus. $35.00 plus $1.50 Centennial: a History of the lola Volunteer postage and handling. Available from Fire Department, lola, Waupaca County, Wis­ UWM'Foundadon, 3230 East Kenwood consin, (lola, Wisconsin, cl992. Pp. iv, 48. Boulevard, Milwaukee, Wisconsin Illus. No price listed. Available from lola 53211.) Historical Society, c/o Stella Strand, P. O. Box 111, lola, Wisconsin 54945.) Dewel, Robert C A City, a County and a Bank. (Baraboo, Wisconsin, 1992. 1 vol., Grand Crossings: Railroading and People in La various pagings. Illus. No price listed. Crosse, Wisconsin, edited by Joseph Foll-

292 WISCONSIN HISTORY CHECKLIST

mar. (La Crosse, Wisconsin, 1992. Pp. 95. from author, S9008B U.S. Highway 12, Illus. $15.00 plus $2.00 postage and han­ Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin 53578.) A Mad­ dling. Available from The 400 Founda­ ison company that manufactured gaso­ tion Limited, P. O. Box 3411, La Crosse, line engines. Wisconsin 54602-3411.) Langill, Ellen D. Foley & Lardner, Attorneys Greene, Helen Mary S. Lugerville, Town of at Law, 1842-1992. (Madison, Wiscon­ Flambeau, 1904-1954. (Fifield?, Wiscon­ sin, 1992. Pp. xi, 245. Illus. $35.00. Avail­ sin, cl992. Pp. 24. Illus. $4.50 plus $1.25 able from Publications Orders, State postage and handling. Available from Historical Society of Wisconsin, 816 State Price County Historical Society, Old Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706.) A Town Hall Museum, Fifield, Wisconsin Milwaukee firm. 54524.) Manitowoc County Declarations of Intent, Hanson, Allen S. Indians of Wisconsin and 1848-1929, edited by Robert A. Bjerke. the Surrounding Area. (St. Croix Falls?, (Manitowoc, Wisconsin, 1992. 1 vol. Wisconsin, cl992. Pp. 178. Illus. $22.00. $10.00 plus $1.50 postage and handling. Available from author, 2336 160th Ave­ Available from Manitowoc County Ge­ nue, St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin 54024.) nealogical Society, P. O. Box 1745, Man­ itowoc, Wisconsin 54221-1745.) The Heart of Sheboygan County: Sheboygan Falls, Plymouth, Lima and Lyndon Town­ Mannen, Richard. A History of the Eagle ships. (Dallas, Texas, Curtis Media Cor- Manufacturing Company. (Lancaster, poradon, 1992. Pp. iii, 298. Illus. $49.95 Pennsylvania, Stemgas Publishing Com­ plus $4.50 postage and handling. Avail­ pany, cl991. Pp. 40. Illus. No price listed. able from Sheboygan County Historical Available from author. Box 62, Lynden, Research Center, Inc., 518 Water Street, Ontario LOR ITO Canada.) The com­ Sheboygan, Wisconsin 53085.) pany, located in Appleton, manufac­ tured farm implements. Heggland, Timothy. The Greenbush-Vilas Neighborhood: a Walking Tour, edited by Names, Larry D. Green Bay Packers Facts & Katherine Rankin. (Madison, Wisconsin, Trivia. (Wautoma, Wisconsin, 1992. Pp. 1991. Pp. 36. Illus. No price Hsted. AvaiL 72. Illus. $4.99. Available from E. B. able from Katherine Rankin, Preserva­ Houchin Company, P.O. Box 673, Wau­ tion Planner, City of Madison Planning toma, Wisconsin 54982.) and Development Department, 215 Mar­ tin Luther King Boulevard, Madison, A Pictorial History Book of Barron County, Wis­ Wisconsin 53703.) consin. (Dallas, Texas, 1993. Pp. iv, 130. Illus. No price listed. Available from Cur­ Jackson County, Wisconsin Cemeteries, Volume tis Media Corporation, 1931 Market Cen­ V: Townships of Albion, Bear Bluff, Brock- ter Boulevard, Suite 105, Dallas, Texas way, City Point, Knapp, Manchester, Mills- 75207.) Cover title is Reflections of Barron ton. (Black River Falls, Wisconsin, 1992. County, Wisconsin. Pp. [10], 101. Illus. $15.00 plus $2.50 postage and handling. Available from Potter, John M. The Tangled Web. (Oregon, Jackson County, WI Footprints, W11770 Wisconsin, cl993. Pp.' 274. Illus. $21.95 County Road P, Black Rjver Falls, Wis­ (hardcover), $12.95 (softcover). Availa­ consin 54615-5926.) ble from Waubesa Press, P. O. Box 192, Oregon, Wisconsin 53575.) Potter, then Kindschi, Verne W. The Fuller &" Johnson the Wood County District Attorney, re­ Story. (Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin, 1993? counts the 1952 murder trial of Ed Kan- Pp. V, 141. Illus. No price listed. Available ieski.

293 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1993

Roush, James. 32nd Division "Les Terribles." sin, 1992? Pp. 67. Illus. No price listed. (Paducah, Kentucky, cl992. Pp. 160. Il­ Available from Saint Matthew's Church, lus. $48.00 plus $5.00 postage and han­ 9303 South Chicago Road, Oak Creek, dling. Available from 32nd Division His­ Wisconsin 53154.) tory Book, Turner Publishing Company, Box 3101, Paducah, Kentucky 42002- Seventy-Five Years of History, 1917-1992, ed­ 3101.) History of the famous Red Arrow ited by William C Robbins. (Madison, Division from World War I through Op­ Wisconsin, 1992. 1 vol. Illus. $19.90. eration Desert Storm with biographical Available from The Capital Times, 1901 sketches of members. Fish Hatchery Road, P. O. Box 8060, Madison, Wisconsin 53708.) Some Ruff, Allen. Black Earth, a History. (Madison, events of the last seventy-five years as they Wisconsin, Wisconsin Power and Light appeared on the front pages of The Cap­ Co., cl992. Pp. 47, Illus. No price listed. ital Times. Available from Village of Black Earth, 1210 Mills Avenue, Black Earth, Wiscon­ Striving for Excellence: the First 25 Years of the sin 53515.) Manitowc Maritime Museum. (Manito­ woc?, Wisconsin, 1993. Pp. [20]. Illus. No Saint Matthew's Church, 1841-1991, 150th price listed. Available from Manitowoc Anniversary, edited by Juanita Hartung Maritime Museum, 75 Maritime Drive, and Betty Maier. (Oak Creek?, Wiscon­ Manitowoc, Wisconsin 54220.)

Contributors

JOHN EVANGELIST WALSH has written BERNARD A. W^EISBERGER came from New some dozen scholarly books of history York to the University of Chicago in 1946, and biography covering a wide range of and completed work for the doctorate in topics, from the Wright Brothers and St. U.S. history in 1950. His full-time teach­ Peter to John Paul Jones, Robert Frost, ing career took him, among other places, and Emily Dickinson. Formerly a senior to Antioch College, Wayne State Univer­ editor with several New York City book sity, back to the University of Chicago, publishers, Walsh now writes full time and finally to the University of Rochester. and is at work on a second Lincoln book, From 1970 to 1972 he was associate edi­ as well as a Bible commentary. The father tor of American Heritage. After that he be­ of four grown children, he lives with his came what he called a "freelance his­ wife, Dorothy, in Monroe, Wisconsin. torian" and is now known as an "independent scholar."

294 Corporate Sponsors

AAL MADISON NEWSPAPERS, INC, Appleton Madison ADMANCO, INC. MARQUETTE ELECTRONICS FOUNDATION Ripon Milwaukee THE ALEXANDER COMPANIES MARSHALL ERDMAN AND ASSOCIATES, INC, Madison Madison AMERICAN FAMILY INSURANCE GROUP MENASHA CORPORATION FOUNDATION Madison Neenah APPLETON MILLS FOUNDATION MILLER BREWING COMPANY Appleton Milwaukee ARTHUR ANDERSEN AND CO, NELSON 1NDU,STRIES, INC, Milwaukee Stoughton BANTA CORPORATION FOUNDATION, INC, NORTHWESTERN MUTUAL LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY Menasha Milwaukee THE busiNESs FORUM, INC. PARKER PEN USA LIMITED Madison Janesville J, 1, CASE PLEASANT COMPANY Racine Middleton THE CHIPSTONE FOUNDATION RACINE FEDERATED, INC, Fox Point Racine C^ONSOLIDATED PAPERS FOUNDATION, INC, RAYOVAC CORPORATION Wisconsin Rapids Madison CREATIVE FORMING, INC, RED ARROW SALES CORPORATION Ripon Madison J, P, CULLEN AND SONS, INC, RIPON FOODS, INC Janesville Ripon CuNA MUTUAL INSUR.ANCE GROUP FOUNDATION RURAL INSURANCE COMPANIES Madison Madison CARL AND ELISABETH EBERBACH FOUNDATION RYAN BROTHERS COMPANY Milwaukee Janesville FIRSTAR BANK OE MADISON C, G, SCHMIDT, INC. Madison Milwaukee FIRSTAR BANK OF MILWAUKEE SYCOM, INC. Milwaukee Madison GIDDINGS & LEWIS TRAPPERS TURN GOLF COURSE Fond du Lac Wisconsin Dells GRUNAU COMPANY, INC, TWIN DISC, INCORPORATED Milwaukee Racine GOODMAN'S, INC, VALLEY BANK Madison Madison HARLEY-DAVIDSON, I.NC. WALGREENS Milwaukee Madison THE HOUSE ON THE ROCK WEBCR.'VETERS-FRAUTSCHI FOUNDATION , INC Spring Green Madtson INTREPID CORPOICATION THE WEST BEND COMPANY Milwaukee West Bend S, C, JOHNSON WAX WESTERN PUBLISHING COMPANY, INC Racine Racine JOHNSON CONTROLS FOUNDATION WINDWAY FOUNDATION, INC, Milwaukee Sheboygan JUPITER TRANSPORTATION COMPANY WISCONSIN BELL Kenosha Milwaukee KOHLER CO. WISCONSIN ENERGY CORPORATION FOUNDATION, INC Kohler Milwaukee LANDS' ENDS, INC, WISCONSIN NATUR.AL GAS COMPANY Dodgeville Racine LAB SAFETY SUPPLY WISCONSIN PHYSICIANS SERVICE Janesville Madison MADISON GAS AND ELECTRIC COMPANY WISCONSIN POWER & LIGHT COMPANY Madison Madison

295 Patrons

JANET BALDING MRS, K, W.JACOBS, JR, Mequon Hartford OSCAR AND PATRICIA BOLDT THOMAS MOU.ATJEEERIS 11 Appleton Janesville GERALDINE DRISCOLL RUTH DE YOUNG KOHLER Winneconne Kohler TERRY HALLER GERALD AND MARION VISTE Madison Wausau ROBERT H, IRRMANN JOHN AND BARBARA WINN Madison Madison

Curators Emeritus

JANET H.ARTZELL HOWARD W', MEAD Grantsburg Madison NATHAN S, HEFFERNAN ROBERT B, L, MURPHY Madison Madison ROBERT H, IRR.MANN LOUIS C, SMITH Madison Cassville HELEN JONES PHYLLIS SMYTHE Fort .Atkinson Milwaukee

Life Members

EDWARD P, ALEXANDER F. M, KILGORE J. R. .AJUACKER MRS, HARVEY B, KREBS EMMELINE ANDRUSKEVICZ PETER LAMAL HELEN C, ANDRUSKEVICZ JOHN I. LAUN MR. AND MRS, T. FRED BAKER ALFRED A. LAUN III DR. ,'\ND MRS, IRA L, BALDWIN C, LUKE LEITERMANN LUCYANN GRIEM BESS M, FRED LOCHEMES MR. AND MRS, ROBERT E, BILLINGS C, L, .MARQUETTE E. N. BLONIEN ANNABEL DOUGLAS MCARTHUR PAUL L. BRENNER MARTHA B, MERRELL LOUIS H. BURBEY F, O, MINTZLAFF THOMAS E. CAESTECKER MRS. JOHN H. MURPHY C^HARLOTTE D, CHAPMAN JOHN T, MURPHY MRS, FICANCISJ, CONWAY MR, AND MRS, Rt3BERT B, L, MURPHY JOHN H, C^OOK MR. AND MRS, G. P, NEVITT LOUISE H, ELSER DR, AND MRS. E, J. NORDBY MRS, JOHN E, FORESTER MRS, .V, J, PEEKE MR. AND MRS, W.<\LTER .\. FRAUTSCHI MR, AND MRS, LLOYD H, PETTIT PAUL W, GATES JOHN J, PHILIPPSEN ANITA J, GLIENKE MRS. JOHN W. POLLOCK WILLIAM K, HARDING MARY TUOHY RYAN THOMAS E, HAYES MR, AND MRS. LEWIS A, SIBERZ JOSEPH F, HEIL, SR, MRS, CLAUS SPORCK A.NDREW HERTEL JOHN STEINER CARLJ, HOLCOMB FRED J, STRONG EARLE HOLMAN MRS, MILO K, SWANTON GER.ALD E. HOLZMAN MRS. WILLIAM D. VOGEL MRS. PETER D. HUMLEKER, JR, WALTER L, VOGL LEON E, ISAKSEN WALTERJ, VOLLR.ATH VIRGIL GEOR(;E JACKSON MR, AND MRS. FRANCIS H, WENDT RICHARD L, JONES THEODORE WIESEMAN DR, JOHN P. KAMINSKI JOHN WYNGAARD

296 THE BOARD OF CURATORS

THOMAS H, BARLAND DAVID JANKOSKI Eau Claire Stanley JANE BERNHARDT THOMAS MOUATJEFFRIS II Cassville Janesville PATRICIA BOGE RASMUS B, A, KALNES La Crosse Eagle ELBERT S, BOHLIN ERROL R, KINDSCHY Mineral Point West Salem DAVID E. CLARENBACH RUTH DE YOUNG KOHLER Madison Kohler GLENN R. COATES VIRGINIA MACNEIL Racine Bayside JOHN M. COOPER GEORGE H. MILLER Madison Ripon HARRY F. FRANKE JAMES A. OGILVIE Milwaukee Washburn PAUL C, GARTZKE JERRY PHILLIPS Madison Bayfield LYNNE GOLDSTEIN MARY CONNOR PIERCE Whitefish Bay Wisconsin Rapids GREGG GUTHRIE FRED A, RISSER Lac du Flambeau Madison VIVIAN GUZNICZAK PEGGY A. ROSENZWEIG Franklin Wauwatosa BETTE HAYES BRIAN D. RUDE De Pere Coon Valley FANNIE E. HICKLIN GERALD D. VISTE Madison Wausau RICHARD H, HOLSCHER LYNNE WEBSTER Milwaukee Oshkosh MRS, PETER D, HUMLEKER, JR, Fond du Lac

STEPHEN R. PORTCH, Senior 'Vice-President for Academic Affairs, ROBERT S. ZK;MAN, President of the Wisconsin History Fcmn- University of Wisconsin dation NANCY ALLEN, President, Friends of the State Historical Society ROLF ETHUN, President of the Wisconsin Council for Local of Wisconsin History

Board of the Friends of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin

NANCY ALLEN, West Bend ANITA BAERG, Waukesha Fi'esident Secretary JENNIFER EAGER EHLE, Evansville LINDA NELSON, Madison President-Elect Treasurer THEODORE E, C>RABB, Madison THEODORE E, CRABB, Madison Vice-President Past President

Fellows

RICHARD N, CURRENT ROBERT C, NESBIT Massachusetts Washington MERLE CURTI WILLIAM F, THOMPSON Madison Madison THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY SHALL promote a wider appreciation of the American heritage with particular emphasis on the collection, advancement and dissemination of knowledge of the history of Wisconsin and of the West. —Wisconsin Statutes, Chapter 44

Going for close-up pictures of the Civil War statue in Monroe. The story of why this luas necessary begins on page 235. Photo courtesy the author.

^^^TE HiSTo^ £sbsS

^. 1H46 ^ ^ OF WIS*-'