June 1938 Volume

JUNE 1938 VOLUME XXI NUMBER 4 PUBLISHED QUARTERLY BYTHE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN i»MUM*ltllllMMIinil*l*MMIIMUMHUMIUtMIIIIIII»»(ltlllMIMI»MIIIIMtllll»MllllUllltlMIHIM»IUHIIMMMMMMM THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OP WISCONSIN is a state- aided corporation whose function is the cultivation and en- couragement of the historical interests of the State. To this end it invites your cooperation; membership is open to all, whether residents of Wisconsin or elsewhere. The dues of annual members are three dollars, payable in advance; of life members, thirty dollars, payable once only. Subject to certain exceptions, members receive the publications of the Society, the cost of producing which far exceeds the membership fee. This is rendered possible by reason of the aid accorded the Society by the State. Of the work and ideals of the Society this magazine affords, it is be- lieved, a fair example. With limited means, much has already been accomplished; with ampler funds more might be achieved. So far as is known, not a peuny entrusted to the Society has ever been lost or misapplied. Property may be willed to the Society in entire confidence that any trust it assumes will be scrupulously executed. • MlimiMIMIMIIIIIHHllMtMllltlllllimtlll IMltllllltlllllllllllltllllllllllllllllf ••••••IIIIIIIHIIIIIHMIMItfltlll t«l(tt THE WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OP HISTORY is published quarterly by the Society, at 116 E. Main St., Evansville, Wisconsin, in September, Decem- ber, March, and June, and is distributed to its members and exchanges; others who so desire may receive it for the annual subscription of three dollars, payable in advance; single numbers may be had for seventy-five cents. All correspondence concerning the magazine should be addressed to the office of the State Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin. Entered as second-class matter, January 1, 1927, at the post office at Evans- ville, Wisconsin, under the act of August 24, 1912. VOL. XXI 1987-1938 THE WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY PUBLICATIONS OF THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCON- SIN. JOSEPH SCHAFER, Superintendent and Editor CONTENTS OF VOLUME XXI ARTICLES: PAGE D. O. KINSMAN (INTERVIEW)—Genesis of Wis- consin's Income Tax Law . 3 THOMAS PEDERSON—Some Recollections of .... 16, 175, 301, 405 LOUISE PHELPS KELLOGG—'On Wisconsin'—The Football Song 35 Burnt W. JONES—Reminiscences of Nine Decades 39 EDWARD A. BIRGE—Burr W. Jones .... 63 ALBERT O. BARTON—Muskego: The Most His- toric Norwegian Colony 129 ISABEL BACON LA FOLLETTE—Early History of the Wisconsin Executive Residence 139 JOSEPH SCHAFER—Civil War Historiography— Carl Russell Fish 151 LILLIAN KRUEGER—Madame Mathilda Fran- ziska Anneke: An Early Wisconsin Jour- nalist . 160 H. E. ROETHE—Pierre Calame 168 EMIL BAENSCH—J. H. A. Lacher, 1856-1936 . 251 MRS. H. E. COLE—In Memory of Alfred C. Kingsford 256 BAYRD.STILL—The Growth of Milwaukee as Re- corded by Contemporaries 262 W. A. TITUS—Historic Spots in Wisconsin: Brothertown 293 GRANT FOREMAN—Settlement of English Pot- ters in Wisconsin . 375 LOUISE PHELPS KELLOGG—Wisconsin's Eminence 397 DOCUMENTS: Immigrant Letter 68 A 'Native's' Return 191 Diary of George W. Stoner—1862 194, 322, 420 EDITORIAL COMMENT: Peopling the Middle West 85 Beginnings of Civilization in the Old Northwest . 213 State Boundaries in the Old Northwest 337 Ferries and Ferryboats 432 BOOK NOTES . 107, 237, 356, 457 THE SOCIETY AND THE STATE 114, 241, 363, 463 VOL. XXI, No. 4 June, 1938 THE WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY PUBLICATIONS OF THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCON- SIN. JOSEPH SCHAFER, Superintendent and Editor COPTEIGHT, 1938, BY THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OP WISCONSIN CONTENTS SETTLEMENT OF ENGLISH POTTERS IN WISCONSIN Gi*ant Foreman 375 WISCONSIN'S EMINENCE Louise Phelps Kellogg 397 SOME RECOLLECTIONS OF THOMAS PEDERSON 405 DOCUMENTS: Diary of George W, Stoner—1862 420 EDITORIAL COMMENT: Ferries and Ferryboats 432 BOOK NOTES . 457 THE SOCIETY AND THE STATE . .Louise Phelps Kellogg 463 The Society as a body is not responsible for statements or opinions advanced in the following pages by contributors. Paid for out of the Maria L. and Simeon Mills Editorial Fund Income Previous numbers of the Wisconsin Magazine of History are indexed in the International Index to Periodical Literature to be found in many public libraries. SETTLEMENT OF ENGLISH POTTERS WISCONSIN GRANT FOREMAN CENTURY ago in the days of acute labor troubles in Eng- A land, the potters, in common with other classes, suf- fered from low wages and oppression by their employers. Their situation produced an altruist named William Evans, who conceived an organ to represent them. This made its appearance on December 2, 1843, under the name of The Votters3 Examiner and Workman's Advocate. It was published weekly, first circulated in the pottery towns of Staf- fordshire, and sold for Id. a copy.1 Volume i, no. i, was prefaced by a salutatory addressed *To the Working Classes of the Staffordshire Potteries.5 It contained sage counsel on the relative rights of labor and capital, an announcement of the policy of the paper, and sub- jects of articles planned for future issues. Following Mr. Evans' two-page introduction was a long contribution by Aaron Wedgewood, of Burslem, a sympa- thetic appeal for the down-trodden colliers of England. Mr. Wedgewood contributed other well written articles that appeared frequently in issues of the Potters' Examiner for several months, and while his name is associated with that of the great pottery employers of England, his appeals were uniformly in the interest of labor. After a few issues when the magazine had become known to the workmen, Evans wrote an article suggesting that the potters consider the subject of emigrating to America where 1 It contained eight pages each about 8 x 10 inches, of two columns. The Urst nine issues were printed at Hanley, and later publication was at Burslem. 376 Grant Foreman [June they might improve their condition. There was a surplus of labor in their industry, and the potters had effected an or- ganization which contributed to a fund out of which pay- ments were made to idle workers in order to prevent com- petition with their fellows at reduced wages. Emigration was already a live subject; Englishmen had migrated to Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States, and letters from them to their relatives and friends in Eng- land were widely published and read. Later Evans became more specific about his project. He quoted alluring descriptions of the abundance of food and the cheapness of land in America.2 He said: Now, it is iny suggestion that as there are Seven Thousand operative Potters in these districts and not more than Six Hundred out of employment a joint Stock emigration Company of 5,000 shares at £l per share be established to be paid by installments of 1 s. per week for 20 weeks, which would realize the sum of Five Thousand Pounds Ster- ling. This sum would purchase the one-half of a township or 12,000 acres of land; and clear the migration expenses of one hundred families, of five in each family, 3 adults and 2 under age. This, it will be per- ceived, will take up, at the very least, one half of the unemployed labor in the Potteries and leave those who remain in a better position to demand a reasonable price for their labor. To each of these 100 families the company might give 20 acres, making in the whole two thousand acres and yet have remaining the enormous quantity of ten thousand acres. He called their attention to the fact that they had to work 12, 14 or 16 hours a day in a heated and confined atmosphere, amid whirling dust and rattling engines; so long as they feel them- selves wasting away from excessive toil and poisonous workshops; so long as they see infancy in rags, youth in decrepitude, manhood in graves, with the ever present prospect haunting the imagination like some frightful dream of blighted hopes, broken hearts and parish shells, they will fly—fly to the beautiful prairies of the fair west and the freedom of nature, to the most liberal institutions of present man, to the un- taxed plains, rivers and lakes of a free country; they will abandon the loom for the spade; the factory for the farm; they will leave, with 2 Potters' Examiner and Workman's Advocate, i, 73-75. 1938] English Potters in Wisconsin 377 bounding hearts, this great 'unwieldy Workshop of the world';—this slaughter house of human lives; with its steam, smoke, cinders and wheels; to pursue an unfettered life of happiness and content amid the varied scenes of nature and the handiworks of God. Within a few weeks the Examiner announced the launch- ing of the United Branches of Operative Potters' association, comprising all the various branches of the craft theretofore organized separately, namely: slip-makers, throwers, look- ers-to-ware, turners, handlers, hollow-ware pressers, flat pressers, printers, oven-men, sagger-makers, kiln-men, pack- ers, ware-house men, china potters, painters and gilders. The principles, regulations, rules, and government of the pro- posed union embraced also a proposition that a Joint Stock emigration company be formed along the lines of Evans' proposal 'f or the purpose of placing on the land in easy and comfortable circumstances numbers of our unfortunate fel- low-operatives.'3 In the March 2, 1844, issue of the Examiner began an- other stirring appeal by the editor to the potters, calling their attention to the subject of emigration. These oppressed laborers who had never owned and who never could own a foot of land in England, he thrilled with the headline 'The Land! The Land!! The Land!! !'4 He stirred their emotions with the picture of liberty and plenty that awaited them in America as compared with their hopeless situation in Eng- land.

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