Magazine ^/History

WISCONSIN MAGAZINE ^/HISTORY r.: ut I! Jl Published Quarterly by the STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN September 1949 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE of HISTORY CLIFFORD L. LORD, Editor LILLIAN KRUEGER, Managing Editor CONTENTS Chats with the Editor Clifford L. Lord 1 The Okauchee House The Rev. Lincoln F. Whelan 7 The Origins of Public Education in Wisconsin Lloyd P. Jorgenson 15 The Milwaukee Cement Company Howard Greene William T. Berthelet 28 The Manitowoc County Historical Society Ralph G. Plumb 40 Enactment of the Potter Law Robert T. Daland 45 Unique Elements in State History Richard P. McCormick 55 St. Louis Church of Fond du Lac W. A. Titus 62 LETTERS: Charles McCarthy to J. Frank- Elizabeth Donnan lin Jameson L. F. Stock 64 William Paddock Letters—-1848. Editors 87 COMMUNICATION The Rev. Joseph Carlton Short 92 BOOK NOTES 96 WISCONSIANA—HERE AND THERE • 120 ACCESSIONS 123 OF WIDER INTEREST 127 The WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY is published quarterly by the STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN, 816 State Street, Madison, 6. Distributed to members as part of their dues (Annual Membership, $3.00; Life, $50). Yearly subscription, $3.00; single number, 75 cents. Communications should be addressed to the editor. The Society does not assume responsibility for statements made by contributors. Entered as second-class matter at the post office at Madison, Wis- consin, under the act of August 24, 1912. Copyright 1949 by the STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN. Paid for by the Maria L. and Simeon Mills Editorial Fund and by the George B. Burrows Fund. THE COVER OCCASIONALLY the cover illustration carries one back to an early day tavern, or inn, set in spacious shaded surroundings. As the reader may have surmised, this is the OKAUCHEE HOUSE that has stood sturdily through storm and fair weather for one hundred years. Again Father Whelan, of Okauchee, has contributed a well-told tale of one of Wis- consin's charming landmarks—the first story in this issue. WISCONSIN MAGAZINE of HISTORY *P2>» Volume 33 September 1949 Number 1 Chats with the Editor HE SOCIETY, focusing with two months* perspective on the work of the 1949 Legislature, can regard the record with Treal satisfaction. The Executive Budget recommended by the Governor transferred the purchase of all supplies from our private funds to the State appropriation. This is Progress on , , T . , . ° , 7T the second maior step in clearing our revolving Capitol Hill , , r j- • j i budget or ordinary operating expenses, and leaves only the salaries of our student assistants, occasional emergency help, and travel expenses to be paid from this source. The result is a major increase in the funds available for the research and publication program. The Executive budget fell far short of our needs in four categories. The first of these, funds for the completion of the renovation of our ventilating system, was added to the budget by the Joint Finance Committee and passed as part of the regular appropriation act. Two others were later approved by the same committee and passed as separate appropriations. The first of these gives us a $15,000 annual fund to finance our microfilming program. As nearly half of our book fund in recent years has been spent for this purpose, the effect is to double the funds available for book purchase and to more than double the funds available for microfilm accessions. Our book fund has long been inadequate. In fact for some years we actually have been spending less on books than we did in 1910, despite the fact that the price of books has approximately trebled in the interim. Our microfilm funds, on the other hand, were adequate only to keep abreast of incoming Wisconsin newspapers. There were no funds to purchase the im- 1 2 CHATS WITH THE EDITOR [September portant manuscript collections such as the Abraham Lincoln papers, Theodore Roosevelt letter press books, Andrew Jackson papers, or Thomas Jefferson papers which other manuscript depositories are making available in increasing quantities for research centers such as ours. Nor were there funds to microfilm some of the important collections of Wisconsin materials located elsewhere in the country, or to microfilm our deteriorating files of old newspapers. On both scores, this appropriation halts the decline in the status of our library which has been in progress ever since the Great Depression. The second supplemental appropriation restored the fund for Museum operations which was also a casualty of the depression. Until its passage, we faced another biennium with a Museum staff which had in effect no funds with which to work. This fund will enable us to hire additional temporary help to complete the renovation of our galleries in the present fiscal year and to overhaul and make more usable our photographic collections in the next fiscal year. It will furnish funds for the materials which go into the creation of any and every exhibit and leaves a small but increasing balance for the purchase of those few important pieces which cannot be secured by gift. It will enable us to carry on the type of program including circulating exhibits for the schools so successfully launched last year with centennial funds and to offer the State a modest but continuing program of educational exhibits. Our fourth need alone was not granted. This was an increase in the funds allocated for salaries. Failure to secure this forced us to drop one staff position and leave one vacancy unfilled. At the same time it left almost nothing for merit increases for a thor- oughly deserving staff. Another act confirmed the arrangement approved by the Gov- ernor last June whereby the Society became the State's public documents depository and exchange agent, taking over a function relinquished some time earlier by the State Library. This involves little change in either our collecting policies or the size of our already very extensive collection of public documents, but it does add further to our obvious usefulness to the State government. 1949] CHATS WITH THE EDITOR 3 Still another act made possible the establishment of local or regional depositories for the preservation of important county and local public records. It gave the Society certain responsibilities for determining the types of records which were of sufficient im- portance to warrant preservation and for aiding and advising in the establishment of the depositories. In another act, the Legis- lature established a procedure for the microfilming of State records which would put their legal status as substitutes for the originals beyond dispute in any legal or administrative court. This will make possible the destruction of the originals of some series of microfilmed records without danger of subsequent embarrassment and so will augment the space-saving features of the public records act of 1947. Our right to participate with other museums in the State in a state-wide extension service of circulating exhibits was spelled out, as was our right to participate with other university and reference libraries in the establishment of a central regional depository library in this area. Our auxiliary county and local societies were aided in two ways. The first permitted them to become the local or regional records depositories referred to above. The second removed the existing $500 limitation on appropriations for their support by county boards. While our own building addition was defeated in the final hour of the session, we were given some space relief by the approval of the appropriation for the long-sought new library building for the University. Removal of the University's collections from our building will release an additional 40 percent of the building for our use. While it is mathematically provable that we can more than fill that space today, and that we will be as badly off as we are today by the time the University moves out if no additional space relief is granted, there is no denying the fact that we are getting some relief—even if it comes twenty-five years late—and that it is a definite step in the right direction. On all counts, therefore, the 1949 Legislature showed an effective appreciation of our work. The unanimous votes by which the 4 CHATS WITH THE EDITOR [September senate passed all our bills with the sole and important exception of our building addition, and the all but unanimous support of the assembly for our whole program including the building addition were in and of themselves encouraging. The state-wide support of our members, the press, women's groups, patriotic societies, and organized labor indicates a firm and growing support for our program, evidenced too in another sector by the rapidly lengthen- ing list of sustaining members Curator Everest is enlisting. The new biennium offers prospects of work of growing effective- ness. The 1949 Legislature has improved our position and given us the tools with which to go to work. THE RECENT SESSION developed widespread misconceptions about the relation between the University Library and the proposed addition to our building. For the record, a brief historical review of the evolution of these two projects over the past few years is in order. In the autumn of 1946, the officers of the Society decided that the solution to our space problem was to seek a new building to house the Society's museum. Two alternatives presented them- ^j . selves: a drive for private donations, or a legis- The T7University . ^ , r , T., , lative appropriation. On the request or the Library and .1 r , • • T» 1 -n ~ , ,,. president of th e TUniversitT y Board orf Regents, Our Addition , f , . , . J the former alternative was rejected to avoid any conflict with the University's own drive for funds, and we launched a crusade for a public appropriation.

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