VOLUME 36 NUMBER Conservationists, particularly those who are preaching the gospel of reforestation, will delight in studying this illustration—an idea has come to fruition! Here, at Camp Tesomas, a 771-acre track north of Rhinelander, is shown the first Norwegian pine planting project after the trees had been in the ground for seven growing seasons, ON THE COVER: J. A. Schooley, former president of the Rhinelander Chamber of Commerce, and Folke Becker, president of Trees for Tomorrow Inc. {left to right), are inspecting a demonstration plot of 20 acres, in the summer of 1951; the planting shows a survival of about 95 percent. The creation of new forests in Camp Tesomas, under sound forest management practices, is making healthy progress.

The WiscoNsiiN' MAGAZINI; OF HISTORY is published by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 816 State Street, Madison 6, Wisconsin. Distributed to members as part of their dues (Annual Membership, $3.50: Contributing, $10; Business and Professional, J25; Life, $100; Sustaining, $100 or more annually). Yearly subscription, $3.50; single numbers, 90 cents. Communications should he addi(>ssed to the editor. The Society does not assume responsibility for statements niailc by cimtributors. Entered as second-class matter at the post office at Madison, Wisconsin, under act of August 24, 1912. Copyright 1952 by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. Paid for in part by the Maria L. and Simeon Mills Editorial Fund and by the Ceorge R. Burrows Fund. PERMISSION—Wisconsin iicwsjia|icrs may rejirint any article appearing in the IFisconsin Magazine of History provided the story carries the following credit line; Reprinted from the State Historical Society's Wisconsin Magazine of History for [insert the season and year which appears on the Magazine]. PHOTO CREDITS—Cover: C^anip Tesomas Foi-est, supplied by Trees for Tomorrow Inc., Merrill; Supreme Court Justices, Black Photo Service, Madison; Dr. R. K. Richardson, Be- loit College, Beloit; Banta-Everest. editor, Lawrence Alumnus, Appleton; Largest White Pine and White Pines on Menominee Indian Reservation, Wisconsin Conservation De­ partment, Madison: Oscar Gunderson, County Agent's Office, Eagle River; Vilas County's First Fair, .). H. ParfitI, Eagle River; Potato Fields (two). County Agent Herman Smith, Eagle River; Pea Harvesttime, Canner Publishing Company, Chicago; Spooner Chair, Milwaukee County Historical Society and Genack Studio, Milwaukee; Settle, Mrs. Herbert Kohler, Kohler; Site, Horlick's Flour Mill, Patrick Campbell, Horlicks Corporation, Racine; Mechanical Planter (two), Distribution of Seedlings, and Students at Weather Station, Trees for Tomorrow Inc., Merrill; Daniel Hoan Campaigns, Milwaukee County Historical Society, Milwaukee; Tree Atop Gable, Manitowoc Herald-Times and Daryl Cornick, Manitowoc. VOLUME 36 NUMBER 1

PUBLISHED BY THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN AUTUMN, 1952

Editor: CLIFFORD L. LORD Managing Editor: LILLIAN KRUEGER

CONTENTS

The Wisconsin Supreme Court THE HON. TIMOTHY BROWN 3

Dr. Robert K. Richardson; Mrs. Angie Main G.C.S. 6

Wisconsin Votes for President PERRY C. HILL 11

A Reappraisal of the Lumber Barons D. C. EVEREST 17

Lodestar of the Northland EDMUND C. ESPESETH 23

Local History GRANVILLE HICKS 28

Wisconsin's Canning Industry, Past and Present FRED STARE 34

Trees for Tomorrow FOLKE BECKER 43

Daniel W. Hoan and the Milwaukee Socialist Party during the First World War ROBERT C. REINDERS 48

FEATURES: The Collector 39 Meet the Authors 2 Readers' Choice 57 Smoke Rings 7 Sincerely Yours 74 Pandora's Box . .. 33 Accessions 76 After completing the Harvard Law School founders and presently an officer and in 1914, TIMOTHY BROWN was admitted to trustee of the Wisconsin Alumni Research the Wisconsin bar. With the exception of Foundation. For several months he was the years 1917-19, spent in the U.S. Navy, a commissioner of the Public Service Com­ he practiced law in Milwaukee and Madi­ mission which he left when in 1949 Gover­ son. He served as executive counsel to nor Rennebohm appointed him to fill the Governor Goodland in 1945, and again vacancy in the Supreme Court caused by to Governors Goodland and Rennebohm, the death of Justice John D. Wickhem. 1947-49. Justice Brown is also one of the

PERRY C. HILL is a member of the editorial tution" was Mr. Hill's contribution to the board of the Milwaukee Journal. He was Wisconsin Magazine of History, June, 1949. graduated from Wesleyan University, Mid- In his "Wisconsin Votes for President," in dletown, Connecticut, in 1933. During this issue, Mr. Hill makes a concise report World War II he served in the U.S. Navy. of Wisconsin's balloting in each of the with the rank of lieutenant commander presidential elections occurring from the upon his release from service. year 1848 through 1948. His statistics are "Rufus King and the Wisconsin Consti- presented in a table at the end.

"The Reappraisal of the Lumber Barons," was transmitted through many generations a paper in defense of lumbermen, was read long before the lumber industry was a by D. C. EVEREST at the Society's Annual part of the Middle West. Mr. Everest is Meeting at Eagle River in June. The author an energetic and enthusiastic promoter of in marshalling his facts emphasized that the Society; he became its president this "quality of product explains why they were past summer. "Smoke Rings" points out compelled to leave much of the tree in the Mr. Everest's impressive record in his re­ woods," since the idea of quality in timber lations with the Society.

Dane County, Wisconsin, was the childhood and in the Vilas County Red Cross Chapter. home of EDMUND C. ESPESETH from which At present Mr. Espeseth is with the sales he removed to Vilas County. After attend­ department of 0. R. Pieper Company, Mil­ ing the University of Wisconsin for several waukee. His busy schedule allows for pho­ years, he returned to the home farm. For tography and. floriculture. Mr. Espeseth six years he was county treasurer and was read his paper at the Society's Annual active in the Rotary Club at Eagle River Meeting at Eagle River in June.

GRANVILLE HICKS was born in Exeter, New of the Corporation of Yaddo since 1942. ^'^ Hampshire; he received his A.B. degree at Among the books written by Mr. Hicks are Harvard in 1923 and his A.M. in 1929. He the following: / Like America, 1938; The was assistant professor of English at Rens­ First to Awaken, 1940; Only One Storm, selaer Polytechnic Institute, 1929-35; on 1942; Small Town, 1946; and other vol­ the editorial staff of New Masses Magazine, umes. He was co-editor of Proletarian 1934-39; chairman of the radio program, Literature in the U.S., 1935. He resides at "Speaking of Books," 1941-43; and director Grafton, New York.

Long an important figure in the canning presented with an Honorary Recognition industry is FRED STARE of Columbus. He Citation by the University of Wisconsin has been the former president of both the in February, 1952. His voluminous Story National Canners Association and the Wis­ of Wisconsin's Great Canning Industry was consin Canners Association. Now retired published in 1949; his "Story of Coliim- he was for many years the head of the bus," is appearing serially in the Columbus Columbus Foods Corporation. For his con­ newspaper. He has served as a Wisconsin tributions to the canning industry he was District Governor for Rotary.

Born in Sweden and educated in Germany, Rhinelander Paper Company. Since its Dr. FOLKE BECKER is a chemical engineer founding in 1944 he has been the President whose early experience was acquired in of Trees for Tomorrow Inc., a non-profit Finland, Germany, England, and Norway. organization sponsored by eleven paper mills Later he was associated with several paper and four power companies which is vigor­ companies in the United States; since 1935 ously promoting scientific forestry and the he has been the energetic president of the advancement of conservation in Wisconsin. (Continued on page 70) This, the on functions of governmental agencies and branches, is an excellent discussion relating to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Clearly set forth by Justice Brown is the manner of the appoint­ ment or the election of the members of the court and the procedure of their work. Citizens will renew and add to their knowledge as they read from quar- ler to quarter how the people's work is being carried on in the Capitol.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court by Justice Timothy Brown

In the State Capitol at Madison there is a after the passage of five years the Legisla­ handsome chamber paneled in marble and ture might, if it saw fit to do so, create a adorned by mural paintings illustrating sa­ separate supreme court. The Legislature did lient episodes in legal history. At half past that in 1853 so, as a separate entity, the one o'clock in the afternoon of the first Mon­ court is now completing its first century of day in each month (except for Labor Day existence. and during the summer recess) seven gentle­ The court, as the Legislature established it men in black silk gowns file into this room in 1853, was composed of a chief justice and and take their seats behind a long desk or two associate justices, all of whom were to be table while a crier proclaims, "The Supreme chosen by election. As the State has grown Court of the State of Wisconsin is now in and litigation has increased, constitutional Session. Silence is commanded!" Thereupon, amendments have enlarged the court, first to two or more lawyers advance to the bar of five and now to seven justices, and by virtue the court, begin their arguments, and the of an amendment adopted in 1889 the office recently summoned Silence retires, not to re­ of chief justice is determined by seniority and turn until, some five days and twenty to thirty not by popular election. Thus the last person arguments later, the tumult and the shouting to be elected chief justice was the Hon. Or- dies, and the captains and kings of litigation samus Cole, whose term came to an end in depart leaving their causes for the considera­ 1892 and who then retired after thirty-six tion of the black-robed gentlemen. years on the bench. The present justices in The supreme court of the State was not order of seniority are: Chief Justice Oscar always a separate judicial body. The con­ M. Fritz; Associate Justices Edward T. Fair- stitution of 1848 divided the State into five child, John E. Martin, Grover L. Broadfoot, judicial circuits, each having its own circuit Timothy Brown, Edward J. Gehl, and George court and its own circuit judge, and it said, R. Currie. Throughout its history forty-seven "the judges of the several circuit courts shall men have been members of the court and, al­ be judges of the supreme court" who shall though the constitution does not require them meet at least once a year at the seat of gov­ to be lawyers, in fact all of them have been. ernment to transact the supreme court's busi­ Since the constitution had made the ju­ ness. But the constitution also provided that dicial position an elective one, it was inev- WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1952 itable that at first it should be regarded as election of 1879, in which the formal party a proper prize of partisan politics. Candi­ representative was defeated by a sitting judge, dates for seats upon it were customarily se­ the parties themselves ceased to select can­ lected by the conventions or caucuses of the didates for the office. In 1912 the Legisla­ different political parties and they campaigned ture enacted the current law which requires frankly as the party's choice. But while con­ judicial elections to be conducted on a non­ trol of the court was ardently desired by the partisan basis. various parties, it does not appear that the The benefit to the judge, personally, justices in office were influenced by party through being continued in office is obvious, platforms in reaching their decisions nor were but the State and the people also serve them­ they turned out of office if the political com­ selves by such continuation since, if tenure is plexion of the State changed. The record precarious, few lawyers whose prospects in shows an integrity toward the law on the part private practice are reasonably good can be of judges although they were elected as party induced to become judges at the sacrifice of men and it also shows a disposition by the the security of their independent careers. electors to put the honesty and independence Having given up their established busi­ of the judiciary ahead of the temporary ad­ nesses by going on the bench and being un­ vantage of political control of court decisions. derstandably anxious to remain employed, few The one exception occurred in 1855 when Mr. justices retire voluntarily when their ten-year Justice Crawford was punished by the voters terms come to an end. Consequently, most for his opinion in the famous Booth case, in vacancies are caused by deaths or by resigna­ which he stated that the Fugitive Slave Law tions due to illness occurring in mid-term. was a valid enactment of Congress which When there is a vacancy, it is the duty of could not be nullified by the State. His two the governor to fill the seat by appointment. colleagues held that the State COULD prevent The appointee completes the term of his pred­ the enforcement of a federal law. The Booth ecessor only if he is confirmed by the voters case went to the Supreme Court of the United at the first available spring election after he States which reversed the Wisconsin court, accepts the appointment. With rare excep­ but there is a tradition that the stiif-necked tions the voters have approved the guberna­ Wisconsin justices carried their denial of fed­ torial selection, particularly when a sufficient eral authority to the extent of refusing to time has intervened between the appointment receive the reversing opinion and mandate and the election for the appointee to demon­ of the United States court, and to this day strate his fitness for the position, and backed that mandate, like a homeless ghost, drifts by this history of approval it has been pos­ drearily through the vaults and offices of sible for the various governors to induce law­ the capitol seeking but never finding a yers and trial judges of ability and reputa­ clerk who will index and file it. While the tion to accept such temporary appointments decision in the United States court vindicated relying on the popular vote to keep them in Justice Crawford's legal position, he remained office. unpopular with the newly-formed Republican The salaries of the justices are fixed by Party which then took an extreme States' the Legislature, and the pay which was in Rights position. At the next election Orsamus effect when any individual took office can­ Cole ran against him as a Republican can­ not be changed during the term for which didate and Justice Crawford was defeated. he was elected or appointed. In 1927 the On only three other occasions have sitting Legislature established the justices' salaries at judges been defeated and none of these de­ $10,000 per annum. The 1949 Legislature in­ feats can be attributed to punishment for a creased it to $12,000, but there are two decision or to the support of an opponent present justices whose current terms began by a political organization. Popular senti­ before the raise and they must remain on the ment has grown steadily away from a belief $10,000 basis until they enter upon new that the judge on the bench should be re­ terms of office. Aside from the drop in sponsible to a political faction, and after the purchasing power of the dollar the discrep- ancy between their lot and the justices who that the confidence of the Legislature has not received the same compensation in 1929 is been abused by extravagant expenditures. the more marked because at the earlier date The supreme court, so constituted and so judicial salaries were not subject to federal composed, does not conduct trials or hear wit­ income taxes. nesses. It is not a fact-finding body but The State provides each justice with office was created to review the proceedings of the space, equipment, and a secretary. The court trial courts upon application of parties who also has an administrative officer, the clerk, consider themselves aggrieved by trial courts' and a deputy clerk. Very remarkably, in its orders or judgments. If the review or, as hundred-year history there have been only it is usually called, the appeal, reveals er­ three clerks of the supreme court. Lafayette rors of law, the supreme court points them Kellogg served from 1853 till his death in out and either sends the matter back to the 1878. He was succeeded by his son, Clarence lower court for correction or makes the cor­ Kellogg, who died in service in 1915, and rection itself if sufficient facts are at hand was succeeded by his assistant, the present for it to do so without usurping the fact-find­ clerk, Arthur A. McLeod. In addition to the ing functions of the trial court. In the hear­ ing of these appeals the supreme court's work court clerk and his deputy there is a bailiff, cycle begins early in the afternoon of the or marshal, who with two assistants, cares first Monday of the month. The justices take for the quarters occupied by the court in their places, and the chief justice calls up the the capitol and keeps order at public sessions. first appeal upon the monthly calendar for By direction of the Legislature the court also argument. That lawyer argues first who rep­ employs a reporter who, with his staff, edits resents the party disappointed by the result and prepares for publication the opinions of in the trial. He is followed by the attorney the court and writes for each case a head- for the party who seeks to preserve the judg­ note which summarizes the points of law ment of the lower court. Ordinarily one-half which that case has ruled upon. Consistent hour is sufficient for the presentation of each with the unique American principle of the side, and the attorneys are limited to that time, division of authority between three equal and but in cases of greater difficulty or import­ co-ordinate branches of government, the Legis­ ance the time for argument is extended. Sup­ lature has not fixed nor appropriated specific plementing the oral argument, the parties file sums for the operation of the court. The printed briefs in which the facts and the statute merely says that there is appropriated law upon which they rely are set out with from the general fund to the supreme court great particularity, and in which precedent such sum as may be necessary to carry into or other persuasive authority is noted. Argu­ effect its functions. The court decides what ment of one appeal follows another over a is necessary, and the re-enactment of this period, usually, of five or six hours per day statute by successive Legislatures indicates (Continued on page 71) WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1952

Dr Robert K. Richardson (1876-1952) •

The death of Professor Robert Kimball Rich­ ardson of Beloit College and the city of Beloit on the eighth of August, 1952, after a day's illness, has robbed the State Historical Society of Wisconsin of one of its most distinguished curators, and has deprived us, its members, of his rich friendship. His service as curator of the Society for a quarter of a century, as a member of the Executive Committee for the past seven years, and as president 1946-1949, enabled him to play a notable part in broad­ ening the Society's activities for the common good. He joined the faculty of Beloit Col­ lege in 1901 and served it brilliantly until the end of his days. The First Congregational Church of Beloit knew him as a faithful mem­ ber and officeholder for substantially the same period. He wrote the centennial history of his church; and just before he was summoned to his rest he had the good fortune to finish Mrs. Angie Main the manuscript of his history of Beloit Col- (1883-1952) lege^—the labor of his last five years. He was one of the staunch citizens of Beloit. His Mary Angela Kumlien Main (Mrs. Herbert well-doing was rooted in character, which A.), who passed beyond mortal ken on the was compact of sound principles, tolerance, thirtieth of August, 1952, was in herself an humor, and forthrightness. We of the Society, embodiment of the American story. Her pa­ with all his other friends, treasure the memory ternal grandfather, Thure Kumlien of Swed­ of our intercourse with him, and rejoice in en, was a pioneer who settled near Lake his well-rounded career as Christian, teacher Koshkonong; her mother was a Mayflower of history, member of the Society, citizen, and descendant. Two notable strains! Mrs. Main lover of his fellow men. "They may rest from will always be associated in our thought with their labors; and their works do follow them." Fort Atkinson and the beautiful region round about it. Her interest in the history of Wis­ G.C.S. consin was marked by her devotion to the work of the State Historical Society, which she served for over a quarter of a century as a curator. On the conclusion of that notable period of useful activity in 1950, she was awarded the distinction of appointment as honorary curator. Mrs. Main was a lover of birds and flowers and an accomplished genealogist, and her labors in these fields were fruitful. She was gentle, soft-spoken, and firm, and the Board of Curators will miss her friendly presence and her wise counsel. She left a veritable host of friends, for she •was widely known and loved. G.C.S. The Eagle River Convention is now a matter of happy history. The ideal weather, the lovely setting of the Trees for Tomorrow Camp, and the well-integrated program com­ bined to make it one of the most successful College, received an honorary doctorate from of our annual summer meetings. Those who Northland Coflege in 1946. had brought their woolen underwear and Chosen with Mr. Everest in the regular fur coats to the north country for early June triennial election were W. C. McKern, first were disappointed. Those who sought a new vice-president; Ruth De Young Kohler, sec­ knowledge and appreciation of the history ond vice-president; Milo K. Swanton, treas­ of that region were well rewarded. urer. Elected to honorary curatorship was Elected president was Curator D. C. Everest. the dean of the Board, Samuel M. Pedrick A member of the Society since 1911, and the of Ripon. Member of the Board since 1915, Board since 1948, Mr. Everest succeeded the he had asked the nominating committee to late Lucien M. Hanks as treasurer of the relieve him of further service, to which re­ Society. He has served on the Executive quest the committee reluctantly acceded. Committee, chairmanned the Endowment Committee, established the Everest Prize in President Everest succeeds George Wisconsin Economic History, enlisted some Banta, Jr., who surely will rank in the his­ fifty sustaining members, made numerous gifts tory of the Society as one of our outstanding to our library and museum and secured the presidents. Mr. Banta's three-year tenure saw gifts of others. He recently spearheaded the the initiation of the Business Records Survey, movement to organize the Marathon County the Medical Records Survey, the Labor-His­ Historical Society of which he is currently tory Project, the Ethno-History Index, and president. Mr. Everest is well known to our the Dictionary of Wisconsin Biography. It members. He became general manager of the saw the establishment of the Women's Aux­ Marathon Corporation, Rothschild, in 1909, iliary, the American History Research Center, was made president in 1938, currently is the annual Summer Institute, regional con­ chairman of the Board. He served as chief ferences and regional meetings, and the of­ consultant for the pulp and paper branch of fering by the Society staff of special Uni­ the Office of Production Management, 1940- versity courses in the work of historical 41, and as a member of the advisory council agencies. It witnessed important growth of of the State Conservation Commission. He our collections, highlighted by the acquisition, was twice honored with the presidency of with the cooperation of the University, of the American Pulp and Paper Association, the McCormick Collection. It included the 1927-28 and again 1937-38. He has been establishment of five regional depositories, vice-president of the Institute of Paper Chem­ the acquisition of the Vifla Louis, the ap­ istry, which he was instrumental in founding, proval of an agreement with the Conserva­ since 1929. He is a trustee of Lawrence tion Department on the operation of other WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1952 state-owned historic sites, the beginning of be particularly interested in the makeup of the farm and craft museum at Cassville. It the new Executive Committee which under the covered the initiation of the annual photo­ constitution exercises the powers of the full graphic contest and historical flights; the pub­ Board of Curators between meetings of the lication in its new format of the Wisconsin board. Ex-officio members are the president, Magazine of History, and of six books; the Mr. Everest; the new treasurer, Mr. Swanton; completion of the rewriting of our govern­ the chairman of the Women's Auxiliary, Mrs. ing statutes, and the reachievement of ade­ Fladoes; the director, Mr. Lord. Reappointed quate legislative support. It saw a marked by the president are Curators Banta, Sellery, expansion of field services and the first phases and P. C. Hill; named for the first time are of planning for such events as the renova­ the new first vice-president, W. C. McKern, tion of our building and the forthcoming and Curator Hobbs. The two new appointees Draper Centennial. Mr. Banta has guided replace the late Professor Robert K. Rich­ the Board and the Executive Committee with ardson, an appreciation of whose long serv­ rare skill and judgment through the debates ice to the Society appears elsewhere in this on each new program. He has faithfully issue, and Curator Frautschi who was com­ attended all but two or three meetings of all pelled by circumstances to ask to be relieved of our twenty-seven committees and each has of further service on this committee. benefited from his grasp of Society program New members of the Board are: and policy. In addition, he has been invalu­ Dr. R. G. Arveson of Frederic, former able as counsellor to the director and the staff. president of the State Medical Society, coun­ No man could have done a finer job, and cillor of that Society, and member of the much of the credit for these years of growth Board of Regents of the University of Wis­ and development is his. consin, whose active interest in the history President Everest has appointed his com­ of northwestern Wisconsin and whose work mittees for the coming year. The full list as a collector are well known to many of our is too long to publish here, but members will members. He was one of the chief sponsors of the Medical Records Project. George Hall of Oconto, county historian of Oconto County, president of the Oconto County Historical Society, leading figure in the remarkably effective program of that so­ ciety over the past decade or so. Frederic Sammond of Milwaukee, senior partner in the firm of Fairchild, Foley, and Sammond, and long-time active member of our Society. Dr. Walker Wyman, professor of history at River Falls State College, author of a number of historical books and articles, friend of our school service program, disciple of localized history.

Dr. Wilbur H. Glover is the new director of the Buffalo (N.Y.) Historical Society. "Bill" came to us in the late summer of 1947, along with Mary Tuohy Ryan, Jesse Boell, (Lett to Right I George Banta, Jr. and Josephine Harper, and others, to positions D. C. Everest at Lawrence College Commencement, 1952 made possible through the bounty of the 1947 SMOKE RINGS

he was named Chief of Education and In­ terpretation to coordinate the work of the museum, school services, and the division of sites and markers, and to devote once again a larger portion of his time to the field pro­ gram. He has contributed several articles to the Magazine and edited the last two is­ sues of the Proceedings. At Buffalo he faces a challenging oppor­ tunity. Equipped with a fine plant, already involved in an active program of coopera­ tion with the local schools, in an area of very considerable historical appreciation, this Society offers numerous opportunities for worthwhile development. The omens are aus­ picious. We wish him well in his new post, and will watch developments with deep in­ terest. fell Dr. Glover's successor as Chief of Admin­ istrative Services is Herbert Phillips. A na­ I'ud„^„ tive of Stoughton, Mr. Phiflips graduated from the University with a degree in business ad­ Legislature. He had just completed his his­ ministration in 1948. He had some business tory of the College of Agriculture, which was experience prior to World War II, did per­ recently published by the Wisconsin Univer­ sonnel work in the Army during that war, sity Press. His first love and first assignment has served the last three and a half years was the field program, which up to that time as an accountant in the Department of State had consisted largely of such efforts as suc­ Audit. He is married and has a charming cessive superintendents and directors, aided young daughter Andrea. He is no stranger to by occasional volunteers from the Board, the Society, as he has audited our books for could devote to it. The growth of county and the State Auditor in the past. He brings to local societies in recent years, the improved his new job technical training, experience, relationships between the State society and its and a personality that are very welcome. auxiliaries, projects such as the regional con­ ventions of 1950 and the county agricultural In a recent review Professor Samuel Flagg histories now appearing in successive bul­ Bemis, Yale University's well-known histo­ letins of the Crop Reporting Service of the rian, writes "In this year 1952 of mounting State Department of Agriculture, the develop­ global stress, . . . one might think that the ment of the farm and craft museum at Cass­ American people would have little time for lo­ ville, the summer institutes and the third of cal history, regional, state, city or town. Yet the four courses given through the University never has there been such public interest in its in the work of historical agencies, all have support, such scholarly endeavor in its pur­ felt the touch of his ability, all bear witness suit. . . . Local history not too long ago was to the effectiveness of his work for the So­ often mere antiquarianism for the entertain­ ciety. For nearly three years, ending last ment of local historical societies largely social July, he served as Chief of Field and Ad­ in nature, or the commercial offering of hack ministrative Services, supervising in addition writers for local subscribers who bought to to the field work the business office, the main­ see their names in print. This local history tenance staff, and personnel matters. In July is almost bankrupt now. The Ph.D's have WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1952 taken it over. And some regional historical Mr. Plumb proposes, with Mr. Hicks's sugges­ societies have stirred themselves to the pop­ tions in mind. ular appetite for local history. The Vermont Needed, too, is a multi-volume history of Historical Society, for example, subsidized Wisconsin, but many are the monographs with a grant of $10,000 the preparation and which must be done first. Perhaps with afl publication of 'Peacham, A Story of a Ver­ the work now being done on Wisconsin his­ mont Hilltown,' by Ernest L. Bogart. tory at the University, at Marquette, and else­ "Now comes the town of New London, where the day is not too far distant when N.H., whose citizens by themselves, in town such a project too can be undertaken. meetings assembled, voted a total of $11,000 to underwrite a competent history of their The Women's Auxiliary in its first year town during the last half-century. . . . Have of activity compiled a remarkable record, as you ever heard of the people of a town doing we all know. This record has now received such a thing?"^ unusual recognition in the form of a special Dr. Bemis pungently emphasizes the im­ award from Freedoms Foundation, a national portance of such work: "Local history is institution with headquarters at Valley Forge, Everyman's history. By competent studies Pennsylvania. In making the award, the of little American communities like this one, Foundation emphasized the significance of scholars are replowing the base and marking the Auxiliary in tapping in the interest of out the contours of our Republic. The gen­ American history the resources of a state­ eral historian of the future must stand on wide cross-section of feminine leaders; the this revived base and follow these smaller extraordinary foothold gained by the Aux­ contours if he is to feel and portray the real iliary in its initial year; and the service American heritage." rendered to the American heritage in focus­ We heartily subscribe to this statement. It ing public attention both on the values of is the underlying philosophical concept of historic sites through its very successful Green our entire research and publication program. Bay pilgrimage and historic relics through It is basic to our school services and field the Van Dyke exhibit held at Madison. Here programs. It gives form and content to was a group of women of a wide variety of our museum work, to the collecting pro­ political affiliation, economic status, and gram in manuscript and archival records. personal interest, organizing to further the Germane to this whole concept are two items work of Clio in Wisconsin; achieving in its in this issue: the article by Granville Hicks first year of existence a large and effective on "Local History," and the boxed appeal membership; gathering materials for perma­ by former Curator Plumb to the county nent preservation, and bringing extraordinary societies to undertake the writing of new publicity to a field which sees too little such county histories. Nothing could be of great­ appreciation in the public press. We wel­ er interest to many of our readers than come this well-merited recognition for Mrs. the experience of a well-known writer like Herbert Kohler and her colleagues—for our Mr. Hicks who has specialized in recent years Society's distaff side—and congratulate them in localized history. His advice is sound, on this national recognition of their achieve­ his approach challenging. His article is a ments. "must" for anyone interested in the field. Nothing could be more important for the county societies to undertake than the work

Wei(; York Times Book Review Section, Aug. 24, 1952, p. 6.

10 I*p»^ \./'^- ^%^ l^

Here is an accurate political survey, con­ cisely written, showing for whom Wis­ consin voters cast their ballots for United States presidents in the elections from 1848 through 1948. Wisconsin's presidential votes, popular and electoral, are tabulated to aid the reader. cnt Lincoln Shortly before His Death

Wisconsin Votes for President by Perry C. Hill

Wisconsin voters have cast their baflots for was founded. Only in that year and in 1884, president of the United States 26 times prior 1916, and 1944 did the Republicans lose the to 1952, and the majority have been frus­ presidency despite Wisconsin's support. trated in their choice only six times. A complete tabulation of Wisconsin's presi­ Thus, despite Wisconsin's reputation for dential votes, popular and electoral, is pre­ being politically erratic, the views of its vot­ sented herewith. Votes for other than the ing majority over the years have actually major party candidates are shown only where harmonized with the national pattern most of they were significant to the result. the time. This is borne out strikingly by reviewing 1848 the eight occasions on which the State de­ viated from its normal Republicanism to give Wisconsin began life as a state in a burst its electoral votes to Democrats. In all but of Democracy—the term here meaning ad­ one of these elections the nation as a whole herence to that party—and had a Democrat, went Democratic, too, and the exception was Nelson Dewey, as its first governor. But the in the first year of statehood, 1848. Wis­ new State was fervently antislavery, and the consin helped elect Democratic presidents in Democratic nominee for president, Lewis 1852, 1892,1912, 1932,1936, 1940, and 1948. Cass, was straddling that issue. He carried Perhaps 1924 also should be listed as an the State, but with less than 40 percent of unsuccessful deviation. That was when Wis­ the vote in a wide open, three-way split. consin's "favorite son," Robert M. La Follette, Ex-President Martin Van Buren, the Free Soil Sr., after years of futile bidding for the Re­ candidate, attracted many votes from both publican presidential nomination, ran as a major parties on the slavery issue, since Progressive and carried only his home state. Zachary Taylor, the Whig nominee, was side­ Otherwise Wisconsin has regularly sup­ stepping it, too. Nationally however, Taylor ported the Republican nominee, beginning coasted into the White House on his military with the first election—1856—after the party reputation.

11 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN. 1952

1852 Democrat but loyal unionist, Andrew John­ son, on their ticket with Lincoln. The Demo­ The year before, Wisconsin had switched cratic platform wanted to call off the weari­ to a Whig governor, Leonard Farwell, but it some Civil War, and the nominee was the was still voting Democratic in the presi­ general whom Lincoln had found so reluctant dential arena. It was a desultory election; to fight it—George McClellan. War weari­ the slavery uproar had been temporarily ness among the people did bolster the Demo­ quieted by the Compromise of 1850; and the cratic cause, so that Lincoln received a pop­ Whig Party was fast lapsing into desuetude. ular majority of less than half a million. It Democrat Franklin Pierce carried all but four was so evenly spread among the states, how­ states. ever, that he won most of the electoral votes. McClellan ran as strongly in Wisconsin as 1856 Douglas had, and Lincoln's majority here Two events of 1854 set the stage for this was smaller than it was in 1860. election in Wisconsin. The Republican Party, grounded in antislavery, had at least one of 1868 its beginnings in Ripoh; :.and-Carl Schurz came to Watertown. The fast %rowing body In this year the Democrats faltered in con­ of European immigrants, mostly German like fusion. Despite widespread dissatisfaction Schurz, had become the key to Wisconsin with the Republican administration, too. Gen­ politics. The attraction that Jeffersonian prin­ eral Grant scored a personal triumph. Wis­ ciples had for them was soon overcome by consin joined the chorus, giving Grant the the force of their antislavery feeling. Al­ biggest majority a Republican had received though the new party was slightly tainted in here up to then. Wisconsin by "Know Nothing" (anti-foreign) sentiments, Schurz was able to convince thou­ 1872 sands of his countrymen here that this was This was the weird election in which dis­ a mere passing phase and that antislavery sident Republicans formed a splinter party was the predominant issue. Their votes put and put up Editor Horace Greeley against Wisconsin in the Republican column from Grant, and the Democrats, for lack of any bet­ the first, and from 1856 to 1932 it deserted ter ideas, adopted both Greeley and his plat­ that column only twice. The Republican nom­ form as their own. The campaign was some­ inee, John Fremont, was defeated, but the thing of a shambles, as almost nobody really new party was proud of its strong showing. wanted Greeley for president. In Wisconsin, however. Democrats loyally voted for him 1860 and shaved Grant's 1868 majority in the State Slavery had split the Democratic Party, somewhat. and the Northern wing ran Stephen A. Doug­ 1876 las for the presidency. This enabled the Re­ publicans to win with Abraham Lincoln, al­ During Grant's second term economic un­ though his popular vote total nationally was rest—expressed particularly by the Grange nearly a million less than a popular majority. movement among farmers, who were feel­ The split had negligible effect on Wisconsin ing exploited by the unbridled railroads— Democrats, who were solidly with Douglas. had given Wisconsin, briefly, a Democratic Carl Schurz, one of Lincoln's most effective governor, William R. Taylor, under whom was campaigners around the country, helped him enacted the nation's first railroad regulation pile up a substantial majority in Wisconsin. law, the famous Potter Law. By the end of Grant's term the State was Republican again, but just barely. Rutherford Hayes won the 1864 State's 10 electoral votes by a margin of less This was one of the most extraordinary than 7,000 popular votes over Samuel Tilden elections. The Republicans put a southern —and he needed every one of them. For

12 HILL : WISCONSIN VOTES FOR PRESIDENT this was the election in which Hayes won Rusk the nation's first Secretary of Agricul­ the presidency by just one electoral vote; a ture. Cleveland, on a free trade platform, special commission awarded him all of 20 won a plurality of the popular vote, but disputed ones. Harrison, a protective tariff man, won where it counts under the quaint American system— 1880 in the electoral college. The campaign was The excitement in this campaign was mostly warmly waged in Wisconsin, the tariff issue in the Republican National Convention, and was exhaustively debated on the hustings, Wisconsin delegates played a leading role. and the majority of voters endorsed protec­ For the first time in American history a third tion. term was being advocated for General Grant. 1892 James G. Blaine was again a leading con­ tender, as he had been four years before. In this election, after supporting every Again he was thwarted by a stampede to a Republican nominee for forty years, Wiscon­ "dark horse"—this time James A. Garfield. sin voters turned to the Democrat, Cleveland, Leaders of the Wisconsin delegation included whom they had twice voted down. William D. J. B. Cassoday, who was to become the Hoard's unhappy term as governor in 1889- State's chief justice; Philetus Sawyer and 90 provided the background for this reversal. Joseph V. Quarles; who became United States At a time when the majority of the state pop­ senators; and Jeremiah Rusk, a future gover­ ulation had come to be either foreign born or nor. During 33 ballots the 20 Wisconsin votes foreign fathered. Hoard made himself the were scattered innocuously among four can­ stubborn champion of a law requiring English didates. Suddenly then they switched to Gar­ to be taught in all schools, including paro­ field. This looked to the Blaine forces like chial and other private ones. The uproar the handwriting on the wall, and they folded over this notorious "Bennett Law," which up their tents. By a 30,000 majority Wiscon­ so many regarded as both a personal affront sin voters then helped Garfield to the presi­ and a denial of freedom, swept the Democrat dency. George W. Peck in to the governorship in the 1890 election, whereupon the hated 1884 law was promptly repealed. The temporary ascendancy of the Democrats in Wisconsin Blaine of Maine, the "Plumed Knight," continued through the 1892 election. Cleve­ finally captured the Republican nomination, land won a plurality here, and the national and Wisconsin gave him its electoral votes by election. a slim majority over Grover Cleveland. But nationally this was the campaign that ended 1896 twenty-four unbroken years of Republican rule. It was intensively personal and vituper­ Economic depression had reversed the up­ ative on both sides. Despite Tammany Hall's surge of Democracy in Wisconsin, and a enmity toward Cleveland, he edged into the great new political force—Progressivism— White House when the famous anti-Demo­ was waxing inside the Republican Party. Its cratic canard, "Rum, Romanism and Rebel­ rising young star, Robert M. La Follette, Sr., lion," boomeranged and the "Mugwump" worked strenuously for the nomination and Republicans defected. election of William McKinley as president, and the State gave McKinley overwhelming support against William Jennings Bryan. 1888 Wisconsin Republicans sent a "favorite 1900 son" delegation to the national convention, with Governor Rusk as the courtesy nominee. On a platform of open primary elections This left them free to plump for Benjamin and railroad taxation. La Follette won the Harrison when John Sherman's prospects be­ unanimous Republican nomination for gov­ gan to fade. Harrison reciprocated by making ernor. In going on to win that office he

13 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1952 combined advocacy of his own principles to renominate Taft. The Progressives bolted, with valiant defense of his friend President formed their own party and nominated Roose­ McKinley and the protective tariff, and the velt. La Follette sulked, having as little love Wisconsin vote for McKinley's re-election was for Roosevelt as for Taft. Roosevelt and Taft again overwhelming. divided 190,000 votes in Wisconsin, enabling Woodrow Wilson to carry off the State's 1904 electoral votes with only 164,000 popular ones. And that was the national pattern. This was the year in which the Stalwart and This was the campaign in which Roosevelt Progressive wings of the Wisconsin Republi­ was nearly assassinated in front of Milwau­ can Party flew off in opposite directions, kee's Gilpatrick Hotel. Probably the manu­ held rival caucuses, and elected rival dele­ script of the speech he was about to give gations to the national convention. This made in the Auditorium deflected the bullet from no great difference in the convention, since his heart. With his hand over the chest Theodore Roosevelt was the unanimous nom­ wound, he insisted upon going through with inee anyway. La Follette's brilliant campaign­ the speech. The man who shot him, one ing easily won him a third term as governor John Schrank, was committed as criminafly and a favorable Legislature, and • Roosevelt insane. swept the State by more than two to one. 1916 1908 Roosevelt reunited the Republican Party La Follette had gone to the United States by endorsing its national ticket, headed by Senate after enacting into law—the first in Charles Evans Hughes. La Follette was busy the nation—his cherished principle of an open securing his own re-election to the Senate, primary, in which the voters themselves could and did not actively campaign for the na­ choose the convention delegates. This was tional ticket. Hughes obtained only a small a matter of expediency as well as principle, majority in the State. He came within a for it frustrated the Stalwart power in party hair's breadth of unseating Wilson, his fa­ caucuses and prevented repetition of the 1904 mous snub of Senator Hiram Johnson prob­ debacle. At the Republican National Conven­ ably costing him California and the election. tion William Howard Taft was easily nom­ inated on the first baflot. La Follette's own 1920 name appeared on the convention ballot for War weary and determined to turn their the first time, but attracted only the Wisconsin backs on Europe, the American people were votes. In November Taft was an easy victor going to vote Republican no matter who the over Bryan in Wisconsin and the nation. nominees were. Cox and Harding were the two dark horses that emerged. Wisconsin's 1912 Senator Irvine Lenroot almost became the Republican vice-presidential nominee, from The Democrats and Woodrow Wilson were which he would have succeeded to the presi­ handed this election on a platter as the dency upon Harding's death. At the last Progressive movement reached its national moment a delegate started an unscheduled peak and split the Republican Party into but rousing boom for Coolidge, and Lenroot two almost equal parts. Wisconsin Progres­ was forgotten. La Follette disliked the choice sives of course had much to do with this. of Harding but refused to head a third party Although Theodore Roosevelt had sponsored ticket. Wisconsin voters, sharing the national President Taft, the latter had become too mood, gave Harding an enormous majority— conservative for Progressive tastes, and in­ more than four to one. surgency was rife both in and out of Con­ gress. La Follette loomed as Taft's challenger, 1924 and announced his candidacy a year in ad­ vance of the convention. But the conserva­ The Teapot Dome scandal was one of the tives controlled the convention and managed factors causing another Progressive splinter

14 HILL WISCONSIN VOTES FOR PRESIDENT movement, this time at last with La Follette over the governor's chair for the first time as the nominee. Despite an aggressive cam­ in thirty-eight years. In 1936 Governor Phil­ paign he won only Wisconsin, and nationally ip F. La Follette's Wisconsin Progressive Coolidge won a comfortable majority over Party was riding high, and its adherents both La Follette and the Democrat John W. joined the Democrats to give Roosevelt the Davis. highest vote total any presidential candidate has ever received in Wisconsin—803,000. 1928 The majority of Wisconsin voters endorsed Roosevelt's third term in 1940, although they At the peak of "Coolidge prosperity," had resumed their Republican habits in the Herbert Hoover defeated Alfred E. Smith State Capitol under Governor Julius Heil. handily in Wisconsin and overwhelmingly in Four years later Thomas E. Dewey took Wis­ the nation. consin's electoral votes away from Roosevelt by a slim margin, but it was just a consola­ 1932-1948 tion prize. In 1948 Wisconsin reversed its Wisconsin voters turned about to contribute field again and contributed to President Tru­ in full measure to the 1932 Democratic land­ man's upset of the confident Dewey. In hind­ slide for Franklin D. Roosevelt. His popular sight, farm prosperity has been generally vote in the State more than doubled Hoover's. credited with Truman's unexpected victory And a Democrat, Albert G. Schmedeman, took here by more than 56,000.

YEAR POPULAR VOTE IN WISCONSIN* ELECTORAL VOTE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLICAN OTHER WIS. U.S.

1848 Cass Taylor (Whig) Van Buren C 4 T 163 15,001 13,747 (Free Soil) C 127 10,418 1852 Pierce Scott (Whig) P 5 P 254 33,658 22,210 S 42 1856 Buchanan Fremont F 5 B 174 52,843 66,090 F 114 1860 Breckenridge Lincoln Douglas L 5 L 180 888 86,110 (Ind.Dem.) B 72 65,021 D 12 1864 McCleflan Lincoln L 8 L 212 65,884 83,458 M 21 1868 Seymour Grant G 8 G 214 84,707 108,857 S 80 1872 Greeley Grant Grant 10 Grant 286 86,477 104,997 Greeley 66 1876 Tilden Hayes H 10 H 185 123,927 130,668 T 184 1880 Hancock Garfield G 10 G 217 114,644 144,398 H 152 1884 Cleveland Blaine B 11 C 219 146,459 161,157 B 182 1888 Cleveland Harrison H 11 H 233 155,232 176,553 C 168 1892 Cleveland Harrison Various C 12 c 277 177,325 171,101 23,155 H 145

* Sources differ slightly in a few of the older figures, but none of the variations are significant.

15 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1952

YEAR POPULAR VOTE IN WISCONSIN* ELECTORAL VOTE

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLICAN OTHER WIS. U.S.

1896 Bryan McKinley M 12 M 271 165,523 268,135 B 176 1900 Bryan McKinley M 12 M 292 159,163 265,760 B 155 1904 Parker Roosevelt R 13 R 336 124,205 280,315 P 140 1908 Bryan Taft T 13 T 321 166,662 247,747 B 162 1912 Wilson Taft Roosevelt W 13 W 435 164,230 130,596 62,448 R 88 T 8 1916 Wilson Hughes H 13 W 277 191,363 220,822 H 254 1920 Cox Harding H 13 H 404 113,422 498,576 C 127 1924 Davis Coolidge La Follette L 13 C 382 68,096 311,614 453,678 D 136 L 13 1928 Smith Hoover H 13 H 444 450,259 544,205 S 87 1932 Roosevelt Hoover R 12 R 472 707,410 347,741 H 59 1936 Roosevelt Landon R 12 R 523 802,984 380,828 L 8 1940 Roosevelt Willkie R 12 R 449 704,821 679.206 W 82 1944 Roosevelt Dewey D 12 R 432 650,413 674,532 D 99 1948 Truman Dewey T 12 T 304 647,310 590,959 D 189

SOURCES: American Political Almanac; Dic­ 1930) ; Wisconsin Blue Books; Wisconsin tionary of American History; Ralph G. Plumb, Magazine of History—various articles. END Badger Politics, 1836-1930 (Manitowoc. Wis.,

Who's a Yankee? When a reader of the Country Gentle­ Americans are Yankees; in the North, man encountered a story on New Eng­ all New Englanders are Yankees; in land sometime ago, the term "Yankees" New England only Vermonters are confused him. He pleaded for a better Yankees, and in Vermont only those definition of "Yankee." "In the rest of who run a farm are Yankees, and the world," he wrote, "all Americans are among Vermont farmers, only those who Yankees; in South America, all North make maple sugar are true Yankees!" From History News, May, 1952.

16 Here is the other side of a story often told. In reappraising the lumber barons of the State Mr. Everest recites the history of lumbering from the early 1600's to the establishment of the lum­ ber industry in Wisconsin. Criticism to be valid should be done against this early background, not against today's economic situation, believes the writer. Instead of carping, Mr. Everest con­ tends that we should "get on with the business of really maintaining our re­ newable natural resources, which are the very basis of our existence."

A Reappraisal of the Lumber Barons

by D. C Everest

When one attempts to upset a belief which has been present in the minds of people for several generations, one has a real job. The subject, "A Reappraisal of the Lumber Bar­ ons," carries with it the inference that at one time "lumber barons" did exist, that they were evil people, and that all of our present- day difficulties with our timber supply may be charged directly to them. I think it is about time that some of these stories about the timber operators of the past be carefully analyzed and that their actions be measured by the economic situation which existed in this country at the time they were carrying on their operations. To do this, one must go back to the early 1600's, as it was then that many persons became engaged in lumbering as a means of livelihood. Some may have been engaged in the same business in the countries from which they emigrated, so it was only natural they pursued the same line of endeavor in this country. Lumbering, as we know it, originated along the North Atlantic coast line, and the settle­ ments in what is now the State of Maine were the locations of most of the first sawmills. These were crude affairs, and it was not until cities such as Boston, New York, Hartford, New Haven, and others, commenced to grow that there was any but a local market for timber products, except such as the colonists

Largest White Pine in America Found at Newald, Forest County, Wisconsin, in 1946 AUTUMN, 1952

supplied for export to England and particu­ larly for the maintenance of the King's navy and the building of merchant shipping. From the beginning of the settlement of the country, the first thing the settlers had to do was to cut the trees necessary to build a home, and the next thing was to clear land on which to grow their food. These things were essen­ tial to their very existence. In clearing the land much of the timber was burned, but there was nothing else they could do with it. These early settlers learned through bitter experience that they could not afford to use timber of inferior quality in building any­ thing which had to do with their farm build­ ings, their churches, or the fortifications which they were compelled to build for their protection from the Indians. This idea of the necessity for quality in timber became so firmly fixed in the minds of succeeding generations that it had much to do with the practice employed in cutting timber in other sections of the country in later years, particularly in the Lake States. Through sheer force of necessity, the country developed along the waterways. The so-called "roads" were mere trails which were followed on foot or on horseback. As the population increased, the hardy settlers pushed westward across the New England country and into what is now New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. Better farming lands were found there and, as the desire to become independent and self-sustaining landowners became uppermost in the minds of the pioneers, they continued to seek locations farther west. As this movement continued, the sawmiller, with his usual foresight, pre­ ceded the settlers and established small towns, many of which are our prominent cities today. In New York, for instance, there were probably three separate developments as to locations—Eastern, Central, and Western, which covered a period from about 1700 to 1800. A few had gone on into Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan, but it was not until the be­ ginning of the nineteenth century that any large scale development of new territory in the Lake States was undertaken. In each

Straight White Pines as Seen in the Forests on the Staters Menominee Indian Reservation

^:^^^ EVEREST : REAPPRAISAL OF THE LUMBER BARONS

of these new locations the idea of selectivity Lapham's book entitled Lapham^s Wisconsin^ of timber still continued; there being no copyrighted in 1846. He remarks thus: market for inferior timber, except such as The eastern portion of the territory was used for fuel, it was left in the woods abounds in "hardwood" timber, the north­ and in many instances burned. ern in forests of pine, and the central and While the settlement of the Lake States was western portions are comparatively destitute taking place, there were also settlers pushing of trees. Here, however, are found a few westward into the Plains area to establish trees constituting the "oak openings" and affording sufficient wood and timber for farms and they needed lumber. Concurrent the purposes of the first settlers. with this movement and following the com­ pletion of the Erie Canal, which brought Lapham also comments on Portage County about a development of shipping on the which embraced a large area and states that Great Lakes, many towns of importance, such the population is "probably about one thou­ as Milwaukee and Chicago, appeared and all sand." He also states: required lumber. Transportation to these The Upper Wisconsin River lies prin­ towns was the controlling factor in their de­ cipally in this county, with its numerous velopment. This brought about much of the rapids and portages, affording water power of great extent, which is used at many development in the lumbering business in places to manufacture pine lumber. Large Michigan, as sailing vessels were the only quantities of lumber are annually sent down means of reaching these towns and Michigan this river and to the Mississippi as far as mills could utilize the lakes for shipping. St. Louis. The "pineries" commence about Within a five-year period following the 80 miles above Fort Winnebago and here completion of the Erie Canal, the birth of a railroad has been constructed (the first the railroad industry completely changed the in Wisconsin) of two miles in length, to economic picture and many new lumbering convey logs from the forest to the mills. locations were developed. As one thinks of it In another section of his book, Mr. Lapham now, the advent of the steam locomotive and shows the products of Wisconsin for 1839. the building of railroads must have been very "The census further shows that there were disturbing to those who only a few years 178 stores and groceries, 14 lumber yards, before had invested their money in the canal 1 tannery, 3 distilleries, 3 breweries, 6 print­ systems. In Wisconsin, several canal com­ ing offices, 4 flouring mills, 29 grist mills, panies were organized, most of which met and 124 sawmills." The value of product of with financial disaster. the 124 sawmills was $202,239, or an average The growth of Wisconsin as a part of of $1,630 each. Michigan Territory, later as Wisconsin Terri­ Transportation was confined to driving tory, and finally as a state in 1848, was re­ logs down the several streams which flowed markable, as compared with many others into the Mississippi. As an interesting side­ which stemmed from the early New England light on the earliest use of the streams in settlements. Wisconsin for rafting logs, F. K. Weyer­ This growth of a new territory brought haeuser, in a speech on the subject of with it not only those interested in agricul­ "Trees and Men" before a meeting of the ture, but also those who had been engaged Newcomen Society in St. Paul, Minnesota, in lumbering in that part of the country east on May 18, 1951, tells this story which may of Lake Michigan and in Canada. The stands be of interest to historians: of white pine which covered much of the An interesting bit of legend relates the northern part of the State were naturally the naming of Beef Slough. Colonel Zachary ones sought by experienced lumbermen who Taylor sent some troops, including a young had long since learned that clear white pine lieutenant named Jefferson Davis, to Me- was the only species generally accepted by nomonie, Wisconsin, in the Fall of 1829 all who had anything to do with building to cut timber for use at Fort Crawford. materials. White pine and the early lumbering In the Spring of 1830 two rafts were floated down the Chippewa, one of which operations are commented on in Increase A. carried cattle and was mistakenly piloted

19 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN. 1952

into a channel blocked by driftwood. The the ultimate user of these timber products, raft was wrecked, the cattle drowned, and through long indoctrination which came down Beef Slough gained its name. from generation to generation, knew good Beef Slough later became an important spot lumber when he saw it. He usually had but in the assorting of timber driven downstream little money and insisted on getting full value and in the manufacture of lumber. Sawmill for every dollar he spent. No one could afford companies situated along the Mississippi to produce a marginal grade of lumber. With bought these logs and converted them into such discerning customers who would not structural timbers and lumber. buy it if at all defective, and with all the cost Later more sawmills were established of getting it to market with little or no salvage within the State and, instead of driving logs if rejected, it was simply commercial suicide to the down-river mills, lumber in rafts was to cut anything except the best the forest sent down the rivers to market. This was a produced. No lumberman ever missed the hazardous business for the lumberman, both opportunity to use and sell anything from the in getting the rafts to destination and also in forest which would yield a profit. sefling the product. Unless he had been in We hear people rant about what these men business long enough to have established a left in the forest, the wasteful practices they customer relationship with some concern employed and a general criticism of every­ which would take his output of lumber year thing they did, including gouging the lumber­ after year, he took the chance of delivering jacks in the company stores and cutting round his rafts in a glutted and consequently de­ forties. The necessity for quality of product pressed market, thus being forced to sell at explains why they were compelled to leave auction. This meant receiving less than he much of the tree in the woods. had figured on during the time he was cutting We also hear frequent reference to "virgin the logs and manufacturing his lumber. forests." From this one would think that the People in commenting on "lumber barons" forests the early settlers found here were the only think of those who were able to weather first trees which ever grew up from that soil. the hardships incident to doing business at Such reasoning is fallacious, as there were that time and under those conditions, and trees growing on the same lands for hundreds give scant consideration to those who were and perhaps thousands of years before the not so fortunate. The mortality in the busi­ settlers moved into the territory. Many of ness was high, but, like the oil business, one these trees in the so-called virgin forests had never hears much about the dry holes which reached maturity and many had long since are drifled; it is only the gushers which lost their value in making prime lumber. This get the publicity. accounted for much that was left in the woods. All I have said about "quality conscious­ The evils of the old company store or ness," which was pounded into the heads of wanigan business have been aired by critics every American from the early 1600's to the for years but, if the truth were known, the establishment of the lumber industry in Wis­ lumberjacks bought their clothing, tobacco, consin around 1830, is but the build-up of and other necessities at a much lower cost my idea as to why there should be a re­ than they could have bought them in some appraisal of the actions of the early timber store in town. There may have been excep­ operators. tions, as there are in every industry, but People who criticise these early operators lumbermen knew then, as they do now, that do so in the light of today's economic situa­ they must have a following of satisfied men tion. They do not go back to survey what in the woods; otherwise, they could not main­ the conditions were when these fellows were tain a crew and carry on business. Time was doing business. The one point I want to stress when men would drive logs or rafts down to more forcibly than any other is the fact that St. Louis and walk back 500 or 600 miles to

20 EVEREST : REAPPRAISAL OF THE LUMBER BARONS work for the same company and then repeat of all building materials for every type of the same down-river performance the next construction. spring and summer. Many had records of With the great agricultural development of twenty-five or more years with the same com­ the Plains States, the demand for lumber in­ pany, which indicate to me that there were creased tremendously and, shortly after the some good employers who were evidently turn of the century, in 1904 to be exact, the well liked by the men they employed. production of lumber in the Lake States Of course, in the lumbering business as in reached its peak. Concurrent with this, there all other businesses, there were those who, was a movement inaugurated by some fore- being primarily lazy, missed their oppor­ sighted men to get people really interested tunities to duplicate the performance of those in good forestry practice and the renewal of who were willing to work. Anyone engaged our timber resources. Prior to this, a few in business during the eighteenth and nine­ sporadic efforts had been made to impress teenth centuries had to work or he fefl by the people with the idea of reforestation. The wayside. It was a hard life compared to American Forestry Association was organized present-day standards, and was a good ex­ in 1876 by a few people, but it was not until around 1900 that a few militant men really ample of "the survival of the fittest." While went to work on a forestry program. men were created "free and equal," they were Taxation was the factor which deterred not endowed with the same ability to think lumbermen from embarking in reforestation for themselves and the same gumption to work programs. There were relatively few species for the attainment of their goal. The indolent of wood in general use, and all of it took a ones always gossiped about those who went long time to reach maturity, particularly for ahead and made a place for themselves in sawmill purposes. business or profession. As in all industries, As people in the various taxing units saw there were a few operators who did not the trees disappearing, they boosted the taxes measure up to the standards of the vast on cutover land so that, with the time element majority of employers. This condition has involved, it seemed uneconomic to grow always existed and probably always wifl, un­ timber as a crop. Had these men known that less there be a complete change in all human the value of timber would increase to its nature. present level, the situation would have been The cutting of timber on government lands entirely different. Had they known of the or on the lands of other owners did not exist developments which later came about in the except in rare instances. A few instances, utilization of more species of timber in the however, were sufficient for the critics to use pulp and plywood industries, that would also in their criticism of the whole industry. The have affected their thinking. price of land was relatively low and naturally With the enactment of the Forest Crop those who were most alert purchased the best Law which recognized the unbearable taxation of the lands available. Again, this gave the situation which was forcing the return of laggards an opportunity to gripe about their tax delinquent lands to the counties, and competitors. with the results obtained from research in Assuming there were things done which the pulp and paper industry and the develop­ would not be done today, what did these ments in the veneer, plywood, and other wood- lumbermen do for the development of a new using industries, the whole picture changed. country? They risked their accumulated sav­ Taxing units with their shortsighted policy ings to establish an industry which made it as to taxation of cutover lands were the real possible for the building up of towns, cities, culprits in delaying the adoption of a good and the opening up of the vast farming area forestry program and the renewal of our to the west; in fact, they provided the supply timber resources.

21 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1952

I cannot see any sense in continuing to for industrial use and all the multitude of lambaste the lumbermen of previous years for recreational activities so necessary to the what they did or did not do under an entirely well-being of all people. different set of economic factors. We all know I have not attempted to defend individuals that with our present-day knowledge of wood or individual companies in my reappraisal utilization there will be no further cause for of those engaged in the lumber industry, but complaint about the wastage of wood. There have simply tried to give you something to may still be some situations where further think about as to what these people had to utilization of forest products may be effected, cope with when these so-called "depreda­ but the subject is one of such importance tions" occurred. What was actually wasted that we may well trust those in industry to was but the price we had to pay for the de­ pursue to the limit the complete utilization velopment of the greatest nation on earth in through their research departments. Trans­ such a comparatively short time. portation has become such an element in costs I suspect that the term "lumber barons" that industry must grow the major part of its originated about the turn of the century when wood requirements at home. all the muckrakers and magazine publishers It may be interesting to you to know that in the country were capitalizing on their during the past five years the chemical pulp favorite sport of lambasting everyone of any industry has made greater strides in new consequence in industry. Realizing the politi­ processes for the utilization of hitherto un­ cal advantage of stirring up the non-thinking used species of wood than in any previous public through attacks on the people who had twenty-year period. This has helped to bridge vision and courage and who, through their the gap which some of us anticipated in our efforts, developed the highest standard of home-grown wood supply. living known to mankind, it was only a short With all that is going on in forestry at the time ago that the then President of the United present time, it is my firm belief that the States classified all industrialists as "economic Lake States region will again renew its forest royalists," whatever that catch phrase means. resources. While these trees will not be of the At any rate, it is one not supposed to be same size or of the same species that were here 80 to 100 years ago, yet, with the changes helpful in any letter of recommendation. This and developments in building materials and performance is an old trick and dates back the increased use of a variety of species of to the first recorded history, but as the dis­ wood as the basis of supply for cellulose and tinguished Governor of Wisconsin recently lignin products, the amount of cubic feet of said: "There are always two sides to a piece usable wood grown annually on these lands of bread no matter how thin it is sliced." It will exceed that of the forests which were here seems to me that these early lumbermen are when the Lake States were settled. It behooves entitled to much credit for the part they us to back every effort being made to grow played in the development of Wisconsin and more trees, as trees are the foundation of any the country at large. conservation program either for recreation We, in the Lake States, may well discard or industry. the continuous carping about the pioneer The several concerns that are working to­ lumbermen and realize that present-day prac­ gether to spread the gospel of planting trees tice is not comparable with any past per­ for tomorrow will not realize any direct bene­ formance. Let us get on with the business of fit from their efforts for years to come, but really maintaining our renewable natural re­ they realize that trees grown anywhere, by sources, which are the very basis of our ex­ anyone, at any time, add to the overall istence. On soil, water, and trees depends national supply which eventually will provide the future of this country. END

22 Mr. Espeseth writes: "This is the story" not of a detached observer but of one who has cleared the land and held the plow." The writer's parents devel­ oped a farm in picturesque Vilas County, and when he relates the growth of this ^0 section of Wisconsin's northland, he is on familiar ground. Many of these first settlers were among the brave, who logged and grubbed and built pros­ perous communities. It is a fifty-year record of accomplishment.

EspesetKs ^'Harvesttime,'' Exhibited in the Marshall Field International Salon of Photography in June, 1940 Lodestar in the Northland by Edmund C Espeseth

Vilas County is known today principally as general history of the area. So far as we a region of beautiful lakes, modern resorts, know this country was visited only by occa­ good roads, delightful summer climate, and sional fur traders who came to barter with a place to come for a happy vacation. While the Indians in the vicinity of Lake Vieux these factors in its economic and physical Desert prior to 1855. It was in that year make-up afford us the basis for a growing that the firm of Fox and Helm established recreational industry, we should not overlook a logging camp, a trading post, and a wild­ the contribution which our farmers have made cat bank—called "Kee-mi-con"—on the east to the development of the area over the past side of Eagle Lake near what is now the fifty years. Eagle Waters Resort. Soon afterward a trail A solid and substantial agriculture based over which oxen could be driven was cut on the family-size farming unit is a great through the forests from Wausau to this early and important asset to any county. Farm and primitive outpost. In the early seventies, people situated on lands of their own and and soon after the original government sur­ obtaining much of their living from the lands veys had been made, the military road from on which they reside take a deep civic interest Fort Howard at Green Bay to Fort Wilkins— in the affairs of their community, their better known as Copper Harbor—on the shore schools, and in the conservation of the pro­ of Lake Superior, was built. This trail, run­ ductive capacity of the soil upon which the ning north near Anvil Lake and some ten life of this and future generations must de­ miles east of what is now the city of Eagle pend. The thirty-year period of 1900 to 1930 River, gave the area another link with the during which the family farm was the prin­ outside world. Continuing north, the road cipal feature in our rural economy was the passed the site of the old Indian trading post period of our greatest economic growth. on Lake Vieux Desert thence northward to While this discussion is to be principally Lake Superior. Early French traders in the concerned with our agricultural history, we area gave the lake its name—meaning de­ should give some attention also to the early serted "planting ground"—after finding plots

23 '^^?^::

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Fl7a5 County's Fii.^i Counl\ I an IlcUl at ta^lc III epic in in I ii!nmobiles and Women s Attire Are of Ancient Vintag

of ground which had formerly grown food maintained on feed either native to the area for the Indians deserted and unused. Being the or easily grown here. So some of the woods­ source of the Wisconsin River, the lake was men spent part of their summer cutting and frequently visited by early French voyageurs stacking bluejoint marsh* grass and raising and traders and has considerable historic rutabagas in cleared plots near camp. From significance. this they went on to growing potatoes and The first loggers had to take their timber vegetables for the camp tables and thereby down the Wisconsin River to the milling acquainted themselves with the possibilities centers of the Wisconsin River valley. This of farming here. Such were the primitive was a tedious operation requiring two years beginnings of agriculture in our county. and a terrific amount of hardship. After a With the coming of the railroad came also few years of this, most of them quit and left people who had an ambition to locate and the country. It was not until the first railroad, build farms. By 1900 over 2,000 acres had the Milwaukee, Lake Shore and Western, been cleared, mostly in the eastern part of later to become the Chicago and North the county. The products grown were princi­ Western, pushed north in the early eighties pally those that could be marketed locally— that logging became an important industry vegetables, potatoes, oats, and home-churned here. It was in 1893 that Vilas County was butter. The people who came were princi­ set off from Oneida County; in 1897 portions pally Finnish, Croatian, and Swedish immi­ of Forest and Oneida counties were added; in grants who had come first to the mining areas 1905 a part of Vilas was re-annexed to of northern Michigan and to the industrial Oneida, and Forest again lost a portion to areas arourid Chicago. Hearing of the oppor­ Vilas. Thus Vilas County received its present tunities to acquire cheap land in the northern boundaries. It was named for William F. Wisconsin cutover, they came determined to Vilas of Madison, a distinguished officer of succeed. The development centered princi­ the Union Army, Postmaster General, Secre­ pally in four areas of the county. The Arbor tary of the Interior, and United States sena­ Vitae area north of Woodruff was one of the tor (1891-97). first developed, and is today the center of The earliest attempts at farming by white considerable dairy farming. The Conover men were made at the time of the first logging area, settled mainly by people of Swedish operations. Our first loggers were also our origin, the Eagle River area to which came first farmers. Oxen were used as motive many of Croatian and Finnish background, power in the woods because they could be and the Phelps area in which people of Finn-

24 No Potato Famine in the Northland! Field Averaged 600 Bushels per Acre

-- •. > ;-^.>>s

fifg Potatoes for a Potato-Hungry Nation; Perhaps First-Prize Winners at the Fair

A Flame Thrower Burns Off the Vines and Hastens the Potato Harvest in the North

The Arthur Faulkner Farm Is Stocked with a Fine Herd of Brown Swiss Dairy Cattle

^l^M:^h^^j^ i^aa.:.^^^^^.

Early Espeseth Buildings Constructed from % Lumber Cut and Sawed on the Farm 11,^

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mr^'^M^^m^^mi^'^M^AM^^mmMi^bm^ AUTUMN, 1952

used to get to and from town, to transport the children to school, and for such heavy hauling as had to be done. It was not until / after 1925 that snow plowing made the use of automobiles possible during the long, cold winters. Children living beyond the two-mile walking distance from school were trans­ ported in canvas-covered sleighs in which the considerate driver would place a number of heated bricks, warmed in the oven of his kitchen stove, on which the children could place their feet on fiercely cold mornings. But with all the difficulties there was also Hereford Beef Cattle time for fun. There were the Saturday night dances in the rural schools, the community ish descent predominate, have continued to affairs in the town hall, and the custom of be areas of mixed farming practices. visiting the neighbors all of which brought Firms active in colonization work were the people of the neighborhood much closer notably the Blue Grass Land Company and together than in this day of cars and super­ the Sanborn Company—the latter maintain­ highways. The religious life of our rural ing a going farming enterprise near Eagle people centered principally in the churches River known as the "Dairy Dollar Farm." of the nearby villages although during the The Sanborn Company was especially active winter, services were held by village pastors in bringing many Croatian people to the in the farm homes to which people of the Eagle River area. An early leader among these surrounding neighborhood would come. people and a man who helped settle many of them here was Joseph Habrich who re­ mained in the community as a businessman and civic leader long after the period of land colonization had passed. It is noteworthy to mention that our foreign groups have become assimilated into the social pattern of the area Oscar Gunderson, while still maintaining some of the charac­ First County Agent teristics and ways of life brought from their native lands. For many years a favorite en­ tertainment feature at community gatherings was a string band playing the native music and familiar songs of Croatia and adjacent areas of central Europe on a variety of un­ usual instruments. As in many other new and By 1914 we had 150 farms with 5,000 acres developing frontier communities, we find here under cultivation and an energetic county that people of a particular national back­ agricultural agent named Oscar Gunderson. ground would settle in more or less homo­ Dairying and potato growing were the princi* geneous community groups. Being among pal farm practices. Mr. Gunderson found the one's own people helped take the edge off beginning farmers eager to learn about new the hardship. and better methods. He found them more Here as in other new and developing areas open to suggestion and help than men who existed all the problems that went with life through long experience had acquired more in any new land. Among these the greatest self-reliance and conservatism. In the spring were perhaps those growing out of transporta­ of 1916 the Vilas County Agricultural Society tion. Main roads were blocked with the deep was formed, and plans were made for the snows of winter from November to April in first county fair. Local businessmen gave most years. Horses and sleighs had to be much help and encouragement to the growing

26 ESPESETH : LODESTAR IN THE NORTHLAND industry. They served as officers of the new called the "C.S. Club" which meant com­ agricultural society and contributed money munity service and met to consider a variety for prizes. Among them were Amos Radcliffe, of homemaking problems. One of its popular Frank Carter, Finn Lawler, Verne Richards, projects was the making of dress forms over Charles Wiegand, Joseph Habrich, Charles which the farm woman could fashion her own Adams, and Alex Higgins. Among the early clothes with a custom fit. During several of leaders from the rural areas were Hans the county fairs these women sponsored a Hanson and Charles Johnston of Conover, full-fledged barbecue complete with a variety George St. Clair, Land O'Lakes, and Nestor of meats cooked in true barbecue style over Johnson of Phelps. The Farmers and Mer­ an open fire. chants State Bank of Eagle River had its The need for a local market for the products checks engraved with the head of a dairy cow of the dairy farm gave rise to the organiza­ surrounded by the words, "In the Dairy Cow tion of a Cooperative Creamery Association We Trust." There were meetings and demon­ and the opening of a creamery at Eagle River strations for the farm women conducted by in 1915. Some idea of the scope of its opera­ Mrs. Nellie Jamieson and Mrs. Nellie Kedzie tion is gotten from the fact that at times Jones of the University Home Economics De­ during the flush season it churned as much partment. These covered many phases of as 1,000 pounds of excellent, sweet butter a homemaking and were early forerunners of day. This proved to be an excellent market the present-day Homemakers clubs. For the and a vital force in the growth of dairying men there were farm institutes, stump pulling in the area. Still other examples of farmer and blasting demonstrations to better enable cooperative effort are seen in the successful the early farmers to deal with the stubborn operation of stores at Phelps and Eagle River pine stumps. Still other meetings held in by the Phelps Cooperative Society. The grow­ ing demand for fluid milk encouraged many dairymen near the villages to establish milk routes and deliver their products door to door. Problems of livestock health were few. In fact it was not until after 1930 that any animals infected with either tuberculosis or bangs disease were found here. The years 1920 to 1930 were years of real agricultural progress. The purebred Guernsey herds on the Adams and Rasmussen farms were among the best to be found in Wiscon­ sin. Cattle from these farms were gaining national recognition for production and type as well as top prices at Wisconsin Guernsey A Labor-Saving Combine Invades the Fields sales. The Radcliffe farm was becoming well known for its fine seed potatoes. This out­ some of the rural schools dealt with problems standing farm was developed, owned, and of livestock and poultry care, and the use of operated for many years by Arthur and lime and fertilizers. The building of silos— Amos Radcliffe. especially concrete silos—was a project to The depression years and successive droughts which Mr. Gunderson gave much time. The of the thirties checked the forward march of development of varieties of corn which could the industry and inaugurated a period of be depended upon to make satisfactory silage decline. Many dairy farmers went out of in this soil and climate gave added encourage­ business and sought work elsewhere as did ment to the dairymen to improve their winter also their grown children. The developing feeding practices. resort industry as well as the skilled trades An active early leader among the farm wom­ in carpentry, plumbing, and electrical work en was Mrs. C. G. McCullough of "Suits Us attracted many of the ambitious rural people. Farm." She headed a farm women's group (Continued on page 56)

27 Mr. Hicks believes in the writing of local history, but there is nothing hap­ hazard about the qualifications he sets down for such a writer. Could you meet his requirements?

Local History by Granville Hicks

This is a subject on which I speak with some printed volume that contributed directly to temerity, for I am not a historian, and my my needs, a county history.^ The author had own adventures in local history have neces­ been both a newspaperman and a lawyer, sarily been of an amateurish kind. Perhaps, and on being appointed commissioner of indeed, my chief qualification for discussing the United States Circuit Court in 1866, the theme is my firm conviction of the im­ moved to my county from Oswego, 140 miles portance of local history. For more than ten away. Some ten years later he published years I have been deeply involved in the life Historical Sketches of Northern New York, of a small town—in living that life and in and in the next few years he wrote histories understanding it—and, if I had ever had any of three upstate New York counties. He was, doubts on the point, I should have been com­ of course, an amateur, but he was conscien­ pelled by my own interests and needs to tious in his search for facts, and what he says recognize the urgency of coming to terms about Rensselaer County as a whole and about with the town's past in order to deal with the each of its towns is dependable as well as present and have an influence upon the future. informative. The amount of sheer informa­ The problem defined itself most clearly for tion that he packs into his few pages on me, of course, when I came to write Small Grafton, for example, is amazing, and I have Town. This was a literary man's invasion of never discovered a serious error. the sociological field. It was not, however, an Sylvester, I gather, was fairly representa­ attempt to make a contribution to sociology tive of the local historians of the latter nine­ but rather a raid upon sociology to discover teenth century. I am told that Franklin B. what it could tell me, and other people, about Hough, who wrote histories of some of the the problems we were struggling with. I western counties of the State, is equally re­ started where I lived, in a small town, and liable. Later local histories, similarly sold worked out from there. by subscription, are not comparable. The Practical experience, as I have said, had History of Troy and Rensselaer County, pub­ already taught me that I myself could not lished by Rutherford Hayner in 1925, is in understand Grafton's present without under­ every way inferior to Sylvester's book. Syl­ standing its past, and now I had the problem vester was not an exciting writer, and his of interpreting past as well as present to my methods of presentation are largely mechani­ readers. At one time or another I had picked cal, but he gave his subscribers their money's up what seemed to be considerable informa­ worth, and I for one, am deeply grateful to tion but, when I attempted to set down a him, for much that he set down would other­ systematic account of Grafton's development, wise be lost. I realized how meager my resources were. Nevertheless, Sylvester's few pages were by I should like to discuss these resources with no means sufficient for my purposes, and I you, for I suspect that my situation may be ^Nathaniel Bartlett Sylvester's History of Rensse­ typical. To begin with, there was only one laer County (Philadelphia, 1880).

28 HICKS : LOCAL HISTORY had to supplement them as best I could. Again of the State library. It had nothing of im­ I remind you that I am not a historian, and I portance from Grafton or its immediate neigh­ had other kinds of research and reading to bors, but there was a diary kept by a resident do in order to write my book, which had to of Stephentown, some twenty miles distant, be finished within a reasonable period of from 1805 to 1856. George Holcomb, who time. I have no doubt that materials are was thirteen when he began the diary, was a available for a better account of Grafton's farmer's son, and he himself became a farmer, history than I was able to write, but they are though he engaged in other activities on the not easily available, and I had to content my­ side. His diary, one of the barest records I self with what I could readily find. have ever seen, makes one wonder what im­ Our town historian at that time didn't work pelled him to set down, day after day for particularly hard at his job, but over the fifty years, this stark chronicle of an un­ years he had accumulated some documents eventful life. But I am thankful that he did, and some artifacts of interest and value to for here are the bare bones, so to speak, of a me. Most useful at this point was his collec­ way of life that prevailed in much of settled tion of ledgers kept by a local store in the America in the first half of the nineteenth 1840's. Here one could see exactly what the century. Year after year the inexorable rout­ people of a small town a hundred years ago ing is recorded: plowing, planting potatoes, had had to buy—and, consequently, what they planting corn, hoeing corn, weeding onions, didn't have to buy, what they could provide pulling flax, reaping rye, threshing flax, pick­ for themselves. Here, moreover, was a record ing apples, taking apples to the cider mill, of intricate processes of barter: labor ex­ digging potatoes, threshing wheat, cutting changed for potatoes, perhaps, and the pota­ wood, drawing logs, until we come to tapping toes exchanged for molasses, without a penny maple trees, and then he is drawing dung, changing hands. plowing, planting potatoes, and so forth and These ledgers, incidentally, have vanished, so on. Each event that is not part of this along with everything else their owner had routine, whether it is going to church or brought together. He had always promised having a drink at the tavern or marrying a that this material would be given to the wife or attending a funeral, stands out sharply. library at his death. I reminded his heirs In particular, as I said in Small Town, one of the promise, but I am afraid that my in­ becomes conscious of Holcomb's unceasing terest only served to convince them that they and unsuccessful struggle to get a little cash, had a little gold mine. And when they dis­ a little capital. It was not by choice but by covered that there was no money in the dirty necessity that he kept to his routine. old books and papers, they burned them. I The life that George Holcomb led in Ste­ realize how unnecessary it is to speak of the phentown was substantially the life that his importance of preserving documents, but my contemporaries were leading in Grafton—ex­ own sad experience may serve as a warning. cept that conditions were even more rigorous There were other useful documents I ob­ in the hill town than they were in the valley. tained locally. Our nearest neighbor has a The stark monotony of his diary helped me, wonderful collection of letters that his father as nothing else could have, to get the feeling wrote during the Civil War. These, by the of small-town existence a century and more way, I had copied, deciphering the varieties ago. And if I was not foolish enough to con­ of handwriting and preserving the varieties clude that the small-town people of that time of spelling, for he had to get his friends to were to be pitied, I was warned against write for him. The same neighbor has given romantic nostalgia. me the wills of some of his ancestors, who lived There were a few books on the history of in the house that we live in, and from these the region that helped me—notably Dixon one could judge what of value a man could Ryan Fox's Yankees and Yorkers and Henry accumulate and pass on in those days. Christman's Tin Horns and Calico—and there That was afl I could lay my hands on were a few specialized studies from which locally, and so I went to the manuscript room I got some information. On the whole, how-

29 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1952 ever, little has been written about the border history and, even when the materials are the country between the Berkshires and the Hud­ materials of history, their emphasis usually son, and my chief resources were those I falls on the remarkable rather than the have mentioned. representative. They serve a purpose, but as I was able to make something for my pur­ a rule it is not the purpose I have in mind. poses of such materials, but I cannot help Local histories, then, can win publication thinking how much easier my task would only if subsidized in one way or another. have been, and how much better I might have Occasionally, I suppose, the subsidy may done it, if more had been available to me in come from a city or a state that is celebrating the way of local history. How fortunate if some anniversary, but the person who under­ there had been a first-rate history of a town takes such a commemorative history is likely —not necessarily Grafton, though that would to find himself at the mercy of local pride have been ideal, but of any of a hundred and local prejudice. Ordinarily the subsidy comparable towns in the eastern and northern must come from a university or a founda­ part of the State. Or a good, up-to-date tion. Many, I am sure, have had firsthand history of the county or of the Van Rens­ experience with this problem and know more selaer domain. Even a study of the border about it than I do. I do not know whether country, carrying on from the point at which any of the foundations look with friendly Yankees and Yorkers stops, could have been eyes on projects in local history, and if, as of great value. I suspect, they don't, I have no idea how My consciousness of what I could have they can be persuaded to. As for the univer­ used when I wrote Small Town, and could sities, I suppose they can't as a rule give be making use of right now, leads me to think substantial grants, but at least a university of myself as a potential consumer of local can encourage graduate students to write history rather than as a producer, and it is local histories as theses, and it can help to from that point of view that I should noAv arrange for the publication of the best of like to speak. them. Nor is publication between covers the We might look first at the economic prob­ only possibility. Mimeographing and micro­ lem. The solid county histories of the later filming would often serve the purpose if nineteenth century, such as Sylvester's and there were ways in which the nonprofessional Hough's, were largely published on a sub­ readers, like myself, could be informed of scription basis, and this arrangement seems what was available. Existing and projected to have been reasonably satisfactory both for magazines devoted to American history could the author and the subscriber. More recently, help in this respect. however, the subscription history has become My remaining task is to say, as a con­ something like a racket, and no one can sumer, as a layman, what I regard as the lament its disappearance. essential qualities of good local history. First Apparently local histories, from now on, of afl, I expect it to adhere to the principles must either be subsidized or compete in the of all sound historical writing. The author market. The success of Carl Carmer's books, should have mastered the established methods of some of the volumes in the Rivers of of analysis and interpretation. He should America series, and of volumes in other re­ know how to evaluate his sources, and he gional series, indicates that a kind of local should be discriminating in a way that the history can have a generous sale. However, old subscription historian rarely was and the without suggesting that such books have no commemorative historian cannot be. historical value, I must point out that the In the second place, I hope that local his­ process of competition inevitably encourages tory will be readable. The mere compilation tendencies that the serious consumer of local of facts is better than nothing, but it is not history is likely to regret. Since such books good enough. Miss Angie Debo, Joseph are written to entertain the general public, Kinsey Howard, Dixon Ryan Fox, and others they necessarily emphasize the picturesque have shown that local history can avoid sen­ if not the sensational. Frequently they are sationalism and superficiality without being more concerned with folklore than with duff. A local history is, or should be, im-

30 HICKS LOCAL HISTORY portant to a large number of people who are There is one other quality that seems to not professional students, and we ought not to me important, and that is what might be put stumbling blocks in their path. Further­ called saturation. It is one of the great more, I am old-fashioned enough to believe qualities of Miss Debo's books—the evidence that clear writing is a sign of clear thinking. they give of the deep immersion in the life The historian who makes sure that other she is writing about. I am not saying that people can understand what he is saying has a historian must be, as Miss Debo, a lifelong reason to believe that he knows what he is resident of the region being dealt with, though talking about. I am sure that helps, but simply that he Further, I hold that local history cannot should have a feeling for the physical en­ be merely local. A writer may correctly and vironment and especially the people. clearly describe what went on in a particular For the local historian, above all, cannot area, but unless he understands and shows afford to forget that people are his theme. how what happened in this area is related to He cannot be oblivious to movements, forces, what was happening elsewhere and how the tendencies, but his central preoccupation is past is related to the present, he has failed with individual human beings and the way at his job. He may be content to understand they live. Perhaps that is why I, who am the past for its own sake, but his readers primarily a literary critic and a novelist, want to understand it for the sake of the feel entitled to say something about local present and the future, and they have a right history, for the local historian, to be suc­ to expect him to help them. I don't mean cessful, must have some of the qualities that that a local history ought to begin with the are essential in the writer of fiction. Like voyages of Columbus or give a comprehensive the novelist, he finds the general in the par­ account of the industrial revolution, but local ticular, and though he needs all the accepted history without perspective is without real skifls of his profession, he also needs im­ value. agination. END

Northwestern's Pictorial History Geese Go Traveling We've arranged a little serial from The beautifully executed volume, A Pic­ the Wisconsin Conservation Depart­ torial History of Northwestern Univer­ ment's Activities Progress Reports of sity, 1851-1951 (198 pp.), was pub­ July and August that you wifl enjoy. . . . lished by Northwestern University Press "Fifty-one young geese were liberated in cooperation with the 1951 Syllabus, on the Rainbow Flowage in Oneida as a part of the University's centennial County; it was hoped to form a nucleus observance. The book is based on a for a sanctuary flock to be encouraged manuscript prepared by Dean James Al­ by baiting and protection." ton James and resulted from the co­ And then what happened? The goose operative effort of many minds and flock that had been released in June on many hands. the Rainbow Flowage became so tame Professor Franklin D. Scott, the ed­ during the summer that its existence was itor, writes in the Foreword: "This is endangered. As the birds matured, a not a complete history—of that we are third of them took flight and found keenly aware. It is a sampling. . . . What pleasant grazing on the lawns of sum­ the Pictorial History does attempt to mer residents situated along adjacent lakes. Because of their neighborliness, do is to epitomize the history of the the birds were trapped and returned University as a whole, not of the sep­ to the flowage, where islands were arate Schools. The trivial and the mo­ cleared for their use. Of the 51 birds mentous are deliberately blended, for so stocked, 49 were still alive, many of they are in university life everywhere." them showing no fear of man.

31 COUNTY HISTORIES

The importance of good county histories by some outside subscription agent, who cannot be minimized. Since the his­ had little local background, it might tory of a state is largely the sum total be necessary to sift the facts and re­ of county records and that of the na­ write the volumes. Not a few northern tion those of the states, the local story Wisconsin counties are without histories, has its place in the scheme of things. and it is important then that the work Here is a short summary of where we be undertaken soon. stand in the recording of local history. Where can proper persons be found The last few years have produced to undertake the work? In every com­ excellent monographs covering a par­ munity there are individuals who are ticular village, city, church, or society, interested in this field; in fact many but very little has been done in the have done good writing on local sub­ last four decades in bringing county jects of their own free will. With the histories up-to-date. About at the turn burden of financial risk for actual pub­ of the century many volumes were pub­ lication removed who can doubt that lished, largely as business ventures. there would be many who would do Some were good, others merely a con­ this writing for the satisfaction of leav­ glomeration of facts; little attention ing proper records of their communities. was paid to the relation of facts, to The need for the "how" of collecting historical sequence, or to interpretation. materials now is self-evident. What are If in two volumes, the second generally the sources of county histories? (1) Of contained brief biographical sketches of course actual contact and interviews the subscribers or their businesses, for with the early settlers are important. which they paid. Such compilations For the first fifty years of the older were often lopsided since the writers, in counties the founders are gone, and their eagerness for profits, were apt to their descendants perhaps scattered. But be biased. Then, too, some lines had be­ there is still a chance to talk to persons come extinct and the families forgotten, who know of events of fifty years ago, or there was no one to approach the and this chance, too, will soon be gone. families which had removed from the (2) Newspaper files are an excellent communities. source. Fortunately these would be a Would it not seem that county his­ godsend for those who must write a torical societies have here an oppor­ "first" history. In the early days some­ tunity of great service since county times there were two weeklies in the boards may now grant to these societies smallest county seats. In using such any reasonable appropriations? It is newspapers care must be exercised in equally self-evident that a purely his­ analyzing conflicting opinions, partic­ torical work, lacking remunerative ularly in the political field; writers must "commercials," will not pay its way. carefully sift the truth which often lies The writer had this experience in 1902 halfway between the two viewpoints. though twenty or thirty years later The almost complete newspaper collec­ copies of his work resold at twice the tion at the State Historical Society original price. Using county funds as would naturally be the goal of the local appropriated, the expense of issuing up- historians if their own counties had no to-date histories could be met. such files. If the original work in counties— Finally, this idea is not a matter usually dated about 1890 or 1900— of insignificance. It is an integral part had been well done, and copies fairly of the great growing realization of the well distributed, all that would be nec­ importance of proper records of our essary would be to continue the rec­ past, be these county, state, or national. ords down to the present. If the work bore hit-or-miss earmarks or was done Manitowoc RALPH G. PLUMB

32 glossary of items is included as well as a number of names of craftsmen working in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Hundreds of illustrations, many taken from original woodcuts or engravings used to portray or to advertise the antiques when they were "mod­ ern" furniture, have been included. (Double- day and Co., New York, 1946. $3.00.) (3) Wedgwood, written by John M. Gra­ ham and Hensleigh C. Wedgwood, presents a detailed and documented visual history of ten generations of work by the Wedgwood family. The book includes all the known symbols and trademarks of the Wedgwood factories, a list of the names and locations of these factories, and a list of those artists, A "Working Bookshelf-11 designers, modelers, suppliers, and engravers The curators in the Society's Museum have who have made major contributions to the added here further book titles—begun last Wedgwood tradition. Appended is an ex­ quarter—to stimulate the building up of tensive glossary of important terms, types, "working bookshelves," found especially use­ processes, etc., connected with the manufac­ ful to museum personnel and private collec­ ture of ceramics. The book is well illustrated tors. The following publications are recom­ with 95 photographs made in 1948 during mended as excellent purchases for those whose the Brooklyn Museum's comprehensive ex­ "working bookshelves" are in the making: hibition entitled "Wedgwood—A Living Tra­ dition." (Tudor Publishing Co., New York, (1) Marguerite and Raymond Yates's book, 1948. $3.50.) A Guide to Victorian Antiques, is the first book to deal exclusively with early and mid- (4) E. M. Belknap's Milk Glass is the most Victorian Americana. Data relating to the complete book on the subject ever published. pre-Victorian nineteenth century (1800-1837) It is a book for the experienced or beginning has also been included. Unique to this book collector dealing with identification, design, is a discussion of country furniture made in pattern, color, scarcity, and methods of de­ maple, pine, and cherry during the Victorian tecting reproductions from originals. Also period. This is of particular interest to the a comprehensive list of patterns now being collector since such Victorian primitives are reproduced is given. The book is organized often confused with late eighteenth century by classification of articles made of milk work. As well as providing valuable back­ glass, such as plates, covered animals, bowls ground material for this period as a whole, and compotes, etc. The book contains 446 this book discusses, in detail, all the classi­ illustrations, including some in color. (Crown fications of Victorian antiques. The book Publishers, New York, 1949. $5.00.) is well illustrated with over 100 drawings (5) Price Guide to Pattern Glass by Ruth and photographs. (Harper and Brothers, Webb Lee contains 325 pages, and more than New York, 1949. S4.00.) 7,375 items in 280 patterns are priced. The (2) Carl W. Drepperd is the author of prices listed are those which are considered First Reader of American Antiques written "fair" by this expert, and are all proven expressly for the layman. Lamps, pressed values which have weathered depression glass, children's toys, highboys, and conceits effects and stood the test of time. Beside each are but a few of the collectors' items which pattern is a drawing which can be used as a Mr. Drepperd discussed. The "antiques" here reference when buying. This book should be described and illustrated are those which at standard equipment for any collector for use present are available in shops throughout the in appraising and in buying. (M. Barrows country and which were mass produced. A and Co., New York, 1949. $3.50.)

33 The writer, who long has been associated with the canning industry of Wiscon­ sin, narrates its remarkable progress through the years, beginning with tedi­ ous hand-operations and concluding with the newest streamlined mechanism currently in use. ChockfuU of fresh de­ tail, one also learns of the industry's re­ lation to the economy of the State.

Operator Stands beside a Pea Filling Machine

Wisconsin's Canning Industry, Past and Present by Fred Stare

While most Wisconsin people doubtless know, It was not until 1809 that an obscure con­ in a vague sort of way, that we have a vege­ fectioner, Nicolas Appert (pronounced Ap'- table canning industry of considerable im­ pear) was declared the winner, and awarded portance, very few, unless they are in close the prize. He had indeed been successful contact with the industry in an area in which in discovering or evolving a process of pre­ a cannery exists, know much about an in­ serving food by the application of heat and dustry that is really important in the economy placing the food in wide mouthed glass or of our State. earthenware containers, sealed with cork Up until the Civil War there were no com­ and wax. mercial canning operations west of the At­ Little did he think, though, that he had accomplished something that would cause his lantic coastal states, excepting one very small name to go down in history as one of the operator named Duckwall, near Cincinnati, great benefactors of mankind. and another, Gilbert Van Camp at Indian­ In the Encyclopedia Britannica will be apolis, whose operations, like those in New found these words: "The greatest of all in­ England, New York, and the area surround­ ventions in history is food canning, which ing Baltimore, were very similar to Grand­ reduced man's dependence on the annual and mother's canning in her kitchen but on a local harvest." somewhat larger scale. In 1810 an Englishman, one Peter Durand, Practically everything was done by hand patented the idea of an improved container and, if any of you have ever shelled a mess for foods, made of tin coated metal, similar of peas, or husked and cut the kernels of corn to canisters, a metal container fifled with off a dozen cobs, you have some idea of what broken fragments of metal, or bullets, used the pioneers in the industry were up against, in warfare, and discharged from the small even in my own boyhood. cannon of that period, a predecessor of The art of canning had its origin in France present-day schrapnel. during the reign of Napoleon, when the five- From this word canister, through abbre­ man Board of Governors in 1795 offered a viation, came the present day words: cans, prize of 12,000 francs to be paid to the per­ canning, cannery, and canner. son who would discover a sure way of pre­ About 1819, having served an apprentice­ serving food in order to better feed the army. ship with the house of Mackey & Company in

34 STARE WISCONSIN S CANNING INDUSTRY

London, young William Underwood brought of the sons, young Albert Landreth, to Mani­ the "know how" with him to America and towoc in the 1870's to supervise the growing within a year had started the William Under­ of pea seed and other seeds in that relatively wood Company in Boston, where it is still new area of almost virgin soil. The pea seed operating. his company was interested in growing would Statistical information as to production is be shipped back East to be used by pea available for certain items running back only canners in and around Baltimore and in about fifty years, but no records of value New York State, the two principal areas in prior to 1899 have been found. which canning seemed to have taken good root. The early settlements along the lake shore Young Mr. Landreth began to wonder if from Milwaukee to Sturgeon Bay were largely peas for seed could be grown in Wisconsin colonized by people from Germany, Belgium, of better quality and more economically. The Holland, Luxemburg, Bohemia, Poland, and same might not be true of peas for canning, a few other countries who usually came in but he knew nothing whatever about canning groups, bringing with them the customs, processes and therefore hesitated about em­ habits, culture, and religious beliefs of their barking on the new venture. native land. However, about 1883 he began experiment­ Most of these peoples were pea eating ing with the canning of green peas in the people, so it was quite natural that, as they kitchen of the small hotel owned by Mrs. cleared the land and planted crops, peas were Hoes, his mother-in-law, which stood about included. where the plant of the Lakeside Packing Com­ The late Professor E. J. Delwiche, born pany now stands in Manitowoc. and raised in Kewaunee County of Belgian He continued his experiments each summer, parentage, and who was outstanding in de­ increasing the volume as much as possible, veloping various strains of peas, helping in but it must be remembered that everything the development of a stable agriculture in had to be done by hand. Also that there upper Wisconsin, states that: was no place to go for information as each canner carefully guarded his so-called secrets In those years soup peas provided a and would give information to no one. cash crop that in general paid better re­ By 1887 Landreth had made sufficient turns per acre than the usual crop of wheat or rye.—This was at a time when wheat progress that he built and equipped a small sold for about 50c per bushel, sometimes commercial canning plant, with the primitive for less—while dry peas sold for from equipment then available. He first used the 85c to $1.25 per bushel.—^Yields ranged Lakeside label that year, and four years later about the same for the two crops, about had it copyrighted. 20 bu. per acre when crops were good.— Sheboygan was selected in 1890 as the site Chinch bugs often reduced wheat yields to for a branch factory, as it was large enough 5 bu. per acre, and even less but seemed to furnish plenty of help, far enough away not to harm peas much.—For instance, in to open up new growing territory, yet close 1888, peas on the home farm gave a 20 bu. enough to Manitowoc for supervision. yield while spring wheat, on account of It was necessary for the pioneer canners drought and chinch bugs, only yielded to lease or own land in order to exercise some 3 bushels per acre. measure of control in continuity of planting During World War I acreage of dry peas and harvesting, which at that time meant in Door, Kewaunee, and other upper lake picking the pods off the vines by hand. For shore counties, was as much as 100,000 acres, this operation from 2,500 to 3,000 boys, girls, and peas sold for as high as $5.00 per bushel. and women were needed for each plant. It was because of knowledge that dry peas The second pioneer pea canner in Wiscon­ were grown commercially in the upper lake sin was William Larsen of Green Bay. After shore counties, that Eastern seedsmen, par­ teaching school and operating a grocery busi­ ticularly the seed house of Landreth, then ness for a few years, he entered the wholesale over 100 years old, of Philadelphia, sent one produce business. With this background, and

35 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1952

surely with the knowledge of Landreth's suc­ of them equipped only for sweet corn and cessful operations at Manitowoc, Larsen em­ tomatoes, with peas to be added later if they barked in the canning business in 1890. survived. Many were doomed to failure In 1894, when only the two canners thus within a few years, due to lack of working far mentioned were packing peas in Wiscon­ capital, inexperience, wrong locations, or sin, the University of Wisconsin's College of other reasons. Agriculture received an S.O.S., being called Not all of the many plants once operating upon to render assistance in a matter of excess in Wisconsin were the result of promotional spoilage in peas being canned at Manitowoc. activity, and not all promoted plants were Dean Henry sent youthful Dr. Harry L. failures. Russell, then only twenty-eight years of age, As of 1949, the date of publication of my but possessed of much experience and a Ph.D., 630-page book, there were, as shown on a who was an assistant professor of bacteri­ map on page 313, 117 firms operating 159 ology. He was able to locate the trouble, and canneries and 70 "ghosts" or plants that had in short order worked out a table of safe quit for one reason or another. time and temperature of processing, based on Also as of 1949 there were fifteen counties

Transportation of I' inc.s from Fields >cicud Miles Away, in the Early Canning Days; Pictaie Taken in 1900, near li aukeska

a series of experiments made on the site. His that had never had a cannery, half a dozen report covering only a few pages was pub­ more counties with only "ghosts," and forty- lished in the twelfth annual report of the Agri­ three that had 1 or more in operation, several cultural Experiment Station in June 1895. with anywhere from 6 to 12. This without doubt was the first recorded Draw a line from Green Bay to La Crosse application of science to the then young can­ and you will find 40 active factories and 25 ning industry in this country and perhaps "ghosts" north of the line, and 77 active and also in Europe. It put the industry on a firm 45 "ghosts" south of the line. basis, for Russell's work with improvements Putting it another way, it has been esti­ and modifications worked out by others from mated that within a radius of fifty miles of time to time was all that was needed to en­ Juneau, Dodge County, will be found about courage expansion. two-thirds of the production of canned vege­ The success of Landreth and Larsen could tables in Wisconsin, for some ten or twelve not be denied, and soon professional pro­ counties produce, consistently, about 65 to moters, whose activities heretofore in Wiscon­ 70 percent. sin had been the establishment of creameries Wisconsin reached its peak of production and cheese factories, began turning their at­ in 1945 when the requirements for the Armed tention to vegetable canneries. By 1900 there Forces was at its height. The acreage in Wis­ were twenty small plants in Wisconsin, many consin that year was peas 150,000 acres;

36 STARE WISCONSIN S CANNING INDUSTRY sweet corn 97,200; green and wax beans is available to him his proportionate share of 11,000; beets, lima beans, and cabbage for sweet corn ensilage made from the husks and kraut, each about 5,000, which, with a few cobs—a silage rich in protein. If he still minor items like carrots, asparagus, and to­ hand snaps his crop, the stalks plus a lot of matoes, totaled around 275,000 acres har­ small nubbins that develop after the main vested for canning crops. From which area crop is removed, give him high grade silage was packed over 15,000,000 cases or 42 per­ from his own silos. cent of the nation's total of peas; 5,700,000 Ever since Wisconsin came into its own corn or 21 percent; 3,409,000 beets or 38 as a pea canning state, it has led all other percent; and about 2,000,000 green, wax, states. While for about ten years it has been and lima beans, and carrots, or about 121/2 either at the top or next to it in sweet corn, percent of the total. it was not always so. The most highly developed dairy sections In the early days of promiscuous promo­ of the State are likewise the areas where pea tion the varieties of sweet corn commonly used and corn canning is at its best. While the in the corn-belt states for canning did not economy is built around the dairy herds, and do well with our shorter growing season. But

Pea Harvesttime Is Here, Where Up-To-Date Equipment Is Used usually so-called cash crops are not of in­ improved strains of open pollinated, and top terest, still many dairy farmers have found crosses, and still later, through intensive work that peas fit in nicely in their crop rotation. on hybrids at our CoHege of Agriculture, Peas help to build up the fertility of the Wisconsin canners and those in Minnesota land because such legumes gather nitrogen have taken the lead away from any or all of from the air and deposit it in the form of the states usually called the corn-belt states. nodules on the root system which stays in Peas do their best in the Northern tier of the soil. The rotation allows the use of the states—New York, Michigan, Wisconsin, Min­ same fields to grow a second crop of nesota, Washington, and Oregon. Peas thrive forage if desired, or a splendid method of in a cooler, moist climate, and are usually seeding the land to clover, alfalfa, or grass, harvested ahead of the good hot corn weather since peas are seldom cultivated after the that comes later in the year and is so neces­ plants come above ground. To top all these sary to mature a corn crop. advantages there is usually a good return in Why is it then, you may wonder, that there cash, plus about two tons of pea-vine silage are relatively few pea canneries in the more per acre, available to the farmer before he northerly counties of our State? opens his own silos. I wish I could supply the answer. It was Likewise similar advantages, at least in thought, forty years ago, that the northern part, come from growing sweet corn for there or rather the northwestern counties would be

37 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1952 ideal for peas, and many plants, now "ghosts," new method cafled "flash canning," the Martin were built. Some flourished, some died on Aseptic Canning Process, developed by my the vine, so to speak, and some are still friend. Dr. William McKinley Martin of San operating. The business has always been Francisco, embodying short time high tem­ considered somewhat hazardous, and the perature sterilization. mortality rate has been high. What this means is that sterilization is As of May, 1952, only 100 companies with accomplished by pumping the product suc­ 145 plants plan to operate, showing 17 fewer cessively through the heating, holding, and firms and 12 plants that have been suspended cooling sections of a closed heat exchange in the last three years. One hundred and system, or pressure cooker, following which twenty-three plants will pack peas; 83 will the cold sterile product is sealed aseptically pack corn; 29 green or wax beans; 21 beets; in containers which arc pasteurized with 14 kraut; 11 lima beans; and 4 cherries. superheated steam. While canneries, in my own boyhood days, Wisconsin has contributed much to the were small and primitive, practically without canning industry in machinery, improved machinery as we know it now, the majority methods, various types of cooperative re­ are now highly mechanized from field opera­ search, and association leadership; the in­ tions, through all the various steps of prepa­ dustry has been of inestimable value to count­ ration, processing, storing, and shipping. less citizens of Wisconsin in supplying sum­ Among the little known, but great labor saving mer jobs to school-age youth, teachers, house­ nachines to be found anywhere, some can be wives, and others. found in any modern cannery, and some of It has brought credit to Wisconsin as the them are made in Wisconsin. source of supply of at least 20 percent of the A pea viner (sheller) made in only three nation's canned vegetables and red cherries, places in the United States, one of which \? and good earnings to stockholders of plants Kewaunee, Wisconsin, will shell more peas that were well located and blessed with good in an hour than a hundred people could do management. in a day. We have fillers and closing ma­ In strange contrast to the lack of knowl­ chines that will fill and seal as high as 400 edge prevalent among canners sixty years cans in a single minute, and labeling ma­ ago, before Russell's important contribution, chines that put the paper label on cans there are today in addition to the splendid just as fast. courses in our own State University, at least We have automatic pressure systems that twenty other colleges or universities which handle fifled, sealed cans, in a continuous offer a complete four-year professional cur­ flow of cans in at one end of a horizontal riculum in either food technology or food pressure tank and discharged at the other preservation leading to an academic degree. end cooked, sterilized, and cooled ready for Seven other institutions offer instruction in storage or shipment at the rate of 150 cans food preservation or food chemistry. per minute. This may become obsolete within Yes, Wisconsin has made history in can­ a few years because we are on the verge of a ning, too. END

Are You a Folklorist? Badger Folklore, 1952, No. 1, published food, mostly prunes and vinegar." This irregularly, made its appearance during logging nomenclature was collected by the summer. Especially entertaining is Albert E. Buckman; Richard Houghton "Logging Language" which defines such of the Museum staff has illustrated some words as "catface," "crowsnest," "gig- of these words and phrases. Price: trail," "roadmonkey," "widowmaker," single copies, 50 cents. Address: Badger or this warning. "It's a P.V. camp"— State Folklore Society, 816 State Street, which means "a camp serving poor Madison.

38 The designs may have been brought over in cabinetmakers' heads, but the pieces were made in America. One can distinguish an American piece from an English piece by the kind of wood used and by its style. How can one recognize a piece as genuine? Try to sell it back to the dealer. In speaking of early American-made fur­ niture Mr. Sack said: "Now a lot of people by Bertha K. Whyte think the early Pilgrims brought all the furniture from Europe, so I can tell you Notes from Israel Sack's lecture and how false that is because the 'Mayflower' biographical sketches of notable Wis­ was only 82 feet long, she had a 22-foot consin citizens, with information relating beam, was 14 feet deep, and weighed 120 to the chairs they owned, are brought tons; there were 102 Pilgrims with their the antiquing hobbyists. belongings, so you can imagine how much room they had for furniture." So genuine classical antiques have been brought into Wisconsin but were never made Sack Speaks of Furniture here. However, good functional pieces have Israel Sack of New York and Boston, an been made here, such as are found in Wade House, and we have furniture which is of authority on American furniture, spoke before historical interest because of its original own­ the Wisconsin Antiquarian Society in June, ership. Examples of such historic furniture, at which time he gave valuable information accompanied by sketches and pictures of the on several subjects pertinent to collectors.^ owners, are shown with this article. Though A few notes are being passed along to these historic chairs may not be genuine collectors since Mr. Sack's opinions on furni­ antiques, they are collectors' items. ture bear repeating: An antique is an ancient piece of art. (The generally accepted definition of deal­ Furniture Parade ers is "anything over 100 years old"; it is also the definition used by our custom Historic Chairs and Their Owners laws.) John Coit Spooner and his chair The three fundamentals to be observed —Spooner was United States Senator from in evaluating furniture are workmanship, design, and choice of materials. Wisconsin from 1885-91, and again from The periods in American furniture each 1897-1907, when he resigned to enter law extended over roughly thirty years. When practice in New York City. As a lawyer he this era of the great furniture craftsmen achieved pre-eminence in Wisconsin preced­ ended, the factories took over. These sev­ ing his Senate career and in New York after eral periods are dated approximately as his resignation. In the Senate he was re­ follows: garded as its leading constitutional lawyer, Pilgrim Period, corresponding to the enjoying the highest respect of his colleagues English Jacobean Period 1660-1690 and of Presidents McKinley and Theodore William and Mary Period 1690-1720 Roosevelt whom he frequently represented on Queen Anne Period 1720-1750 the floor of the Senate. A man of great per­ Chippendale Period 1750-1780 sonal dignity, of keen mind, and of great Hepplewhite Period 1780-1810 oratorical ability he is frequently cited as the Sheraton Period 1810-1840 type of Senator that would be elected to the ^Mr. Sack has supplied pieces to such museums Senate by a Legislature but the type that as Henry Dupont's "Winterthur," near Wilmington, would never evolve from the hurly-burly of Delaware, the Nelson Museum at Kansas City, the Chicago Art Institute, and the Boston Museum. the popular election of United States sen-

39 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1952

ators which system came into effect shortly "Early History of Ripon Coflege, 1850-1864," after his retirement. has this to say of Bovay: The chair Avhich Senator Spooner used in Alvan E. Bovay took his place in his­ Washington may be seen at the Terrace tory as the one who first suggested to Hor­ Avenue Museum of the Milwaukee County ace Greeley the name "Republican" for Historical Society, Milwaukee. the new party that should rise in 1854 upon the ashes of the Whig party, and who John Muir and his rocker—an article was the moving spirit in that schoolhouse in the Capital Times, Madison, of June 2, meeting, the first held in the United States, 1946, describes Muir and his chair as follows: March 20, 1854, where it was definitely Muir, the great naturalist, had a rigorous determined that so far as this pioneer boyhood on a farm near Portage and lived community could do so, a new party should on practically nothing in order to get be organized, under the name Republican, through the University and rose to great to meet the new issues raised by the fame as a scientist and as a lover of na­ Kansas-Nebraska bill. . . .^ ture. . . . Though Muir died a very well- Bovay's is a variation of that typical Middle to-do man, with income accumulated from Western chair, sometimes called "fireman's ' his California ranch, his personal tastes chair" but also called the Douglas chair, remained simple. From the way he lived which came into vogue in the 1860's and observers would have thought his means has been in continuous use in mills, stores, too limited for comfortable living. and homes throughout Wisconsin. The typical The rocking chair is typical of the things Douglas chair has nine spokes in the back, that satisfied his wants even after he the back piece is one continuous strip of amassed a fortune. This Boston rocker wood, and the seat a solid piece of wood. John Muir bought from an early Portage In the illustration the back brace is spliced. furniture store. It went from his relatives G. N. Bush of Ripon donated the chair to a friend in Cambria from whom Mrs. to the State Historical Society Museum in Daniel Grady of Portage bought it. From 1930. the beginning she intended to give the chair to the state historical museum, but James Duane Doty and his swivel Zona Gale requested its use temporarily chair —Doty, the second territorial governor in her Civic Club. On May 25, 1946, the of Wisconsin (1841-44), was a member of chair was returned and presented to the the Whig Party, served as both a territorial State Historical Society of Wisconsin [by delegate and a state representative in Con­ Mrs. Grady]. gress, and was also governor of Utah Ter­ John Muir used to meet with the Sierra ritory. Club in Yosemite Park, California, on his The frame of what is said to have been outings. He would ask: "Would you like Governor Doty's chair is of dark brown, var­ to see a baby?" and would then uncover a nished wood, with a simple carved line and tiny sequoia tree. He liked to climb high up scroll Victorian decoration. The four legs in a tree and be threshed back and forth in are joined at the center of the bottom of a storm . . . enjoying the excitement. While the chair at the swivel joint. The back, arms, studying glaciers in Alaska he gathered the and seat of the chair are upholstered in facts on which his great dog story "Stickeen," black imitation leather. It is in good con­ was based.^ dition, though worn. The chair was a gift of Dr. Edward Ireland to the State Historical Alvan Bovay and his Douglas chair Society Museum. Ireland, formerly of Madi­ —Bovay who resided at Ripon is often re­ son, now teaches at Loyola University, New ferred to as "The founder of the Republican Orleans. Doty died in 1865. His old home Party." Samuel Pedrick in an article called at Neenah, "The Loggery," is now a Museum.

^A fellow faculty member of the writer at Mills ^Wisconsin Magazine of History, 8:24 (September, College related these stories. 1924).

40 41 LOST and FOUND

Horlick's MilH

Two more pioneer millsites have come to the attention of the writer. Horlick's sawmill was located on Root River, north of Racine. It is said the mifl was built in 1836, coming in possession of Joseph Alexander Horlick, a carpenter and lumber dealer, in the early fifties.^ A quarter of a mile below the saw­ mill, near the dam, was situated a flourmill, also owned by Horlick. The old sawmill is no longer standing, but after an interval, the Settle in Wade House flourmill was converted into a boat livery and was destroyed by fire in about 1924. At Wade House bench—this is one type of present the site is occupied by a gasoline the many benches displayed in Wade House, station and snack bar. END now being restored by the Kohler Founda­ tion in memory of Marie Kohler. Painted ^The writer is indebted for some of her informa­ black, it is typical of the early settles which tion to Mr. Patrick Campbell, executive vice-presi­ were used in the taverns of our State. dent, Horlicks Corporation, Racine. ^William and James Horlick, cousins of Joseph It is becoming apparent in developing this Alexander, began the manufacture of Horlick's in­ series that furniture quite truly reflects the fants' food in 1875; so rapid was the growth of ways of life of our people no matter what the industry that in 1877 the owners purchased a ten-acre tract adjoining the city limits of Racine their status may have been. where its first building was erected.

Site of First Flourmill Trees for Tomorrow is a movement that all conservationists, whether pro­ fessionals or just plain folks, must cheer. As the writer indicates, "Trees for Tomorrow was founded on an idea, and on a belief in the future. This idea and this belief, backed by the plain economics of our time, deal with trees and with people." The idea and the belief are sound, therefore the "long range resource building" program is bound to succeed. Its leadership is dy-

Students at the Weather Station, Rainbow Flowage

Trees for Tomorrow by Eolke Becker

Almost 100 years ago, in the fall and early could help build the forest resources of this winter of 1857, lumberjacks blazed a new State. The initial program was confined to trail from Grandfather Falls near Tomahawk six counties so that checks and balances to Eagle River. In fact these hardy workers could be devised to protect our objectives finished their tote road, at what is now Eagle and to insure their energetic pursuit. River, on New Year's Day, 1858. It was during During these first five years the need for this winter that the first timber was cut and expanded reforestation, the need for technical banked along streams and lakes. In the spring assistance to forest landowners, the need for of that year this first harvest of white pine conservation education was very apparent— rode the crest of the Wisconsin River to mills but the ways and means of carrying out our in the central and southern parts of the State. program had to be developed. Early projects From 1858 until the present time trees have helped to establish our philosophy and our played a major role in the social and eco­ place in the scheme of things. These included nomic life of this community. We cannot a reforestation institute in Rhinelander, the change the history of the colorful past. How­ initiation of a free tree distribution plan, and ever, we can shape the history of the future. the establishment of forestry scholarships for I hope to illustrate this fact by appraising young men in the area. During these first the eight years' growth of Trees for Tomorrow. years we recognized the need for the estab­ This appraisal is important because I be­ lishment of forests which could function as lieve that in the course of eight years we have laboratories as well as commercial tracts of blazed a new trail in forestry and conserva­ timber. This resulted in the establishment of tion, a trail that is well marked for present the 900-acre Merrill Memorial Forest, the and future generations to follow. 12,000-acre Oneida County Memorial Forest, As our name indicates. Trees for Tomor­ and more than thirty school forests. row was founded on an idea, and on a be­ In the field of education, operation of the lief in the future. This idea and this belief, Trees for Tomorrow camp got underway. backed by the plain economics of our times, Two color movies were produced. Coopera­ deal with trees and with people. Established by tion was extended to public agencies, to col­ nine paper mills of the Wisconsin River val­ leges and universities in helping to bring ley in the war year of 1944, our organization conservation knowledge to teachers through devoted the first five years to laying down a field institutes and conservation seminars. pattern by which industry, without duplicating The response to this type of leadership the functions of other agencies in the field. afforded an opportunity for more people to

43 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1952 plant more trees, for landowners to obtain By contrast, a glance at the production more technical assistance, and for citizens, figures of the South shows the obvious ad­ both young and old, to study firsthand facts vantages of a local supply of raw material. pertinent to the full development and wise In 1950, twelve Southern states produced 60 use of our natural resources. percent of the pulpwood of the United States, Following completion of five years in the hitting an afl time high of 12,500,000 cords. original area. Trees for Tomorrow extended In 1950 Georgia alone produced 2,221,000 service and expanded to other counties. Mem­ cords or almost five times as much pulpwood bership was also broadened to include any as that produced in Wisconsin. Mississippi, industry interested in large scale resource in the same year, produced 1,667,000 cords. development. South Carolina 1,183,000 cords, Alabama Three other paper mills joined our unit, 1,321,000 cords, and Florida 1,385,000 cords. and four power companies have become mem­ It is only fair to point out that Wisconsin bers. The membership of power companies ranks high in the quality of paper manu­ in Trees for Tomorrow is based on their in­ factured, that we have power, clear water, terest in watershed protection. Power com­ skilled technicians, but that we do urgently panies are concerned with how trees delay need a nearby supply of raw material to main­ run-off and help prevent floods, how trees tain our position and meet cornpetition. This help prevent erosion and the silting of dams, is a matter of concern not only to the mills how trees add to the stability of the region. themselves, but to the State as a whole, where The four power companies of our organiza­ paper outranks the sale of dairy products, tion own and operate fifty-two hydroelectric where paper ranks third in the number of plants located on eighteen different rivers in production workers employed, and where Wisconsin and Michigan. The importance wages and salaries total more than $110,- of these power companies to the industrial 000,000 per year. economy of the State may be gauged by the To achieve the end of growing and harvest­ fact that they generate one and one-half ing our own wood on a sustained yield basis, billion kilowatt hours annually. They furnish we must consider what our most urgent prob­ light and power to 265 cities and villages, to lem is and where our time and energy should 340,047 urban citizens, and to 83.887 rural be directed. A breakdown of forest land families. ownership will reveal this point. This break­ We believe that protecting the watersheds down shows us the following pattern of land of our rivers and reaching our goal of a sus­ ownership: federal, 2,100,000 acres; state tained flow of forest products to our mills will 480,000 acres; county and municipal, 2,520,- also add materially to the wealth, to the well- 000 acres; private ownership, 10,900,000 being of our State. The power and the paper acres. Of these 10,900,000 acres, about industry in Wisconsin rank high in the serv­ 5,600,000 comprise farm wood lots, while ices and in the work they provide for our another 5,300,000 acres are under other citizens, as well as in the value of products. private ownership including absentee and Perhaps some of you are not acquainted 604,000 acres of industrial forests. with these important economic facts. In 1950 These are well-known economic factors that the paper industry used 1,441,609 cords of were understood when Trees for Tomorrow pulpwood. Of this amount only 31.8 percent came into being in the spring of 1944. The was harvested from Wisconsin's own forest crux of our problem in this State, as it is a lands. Almost 70 percent of our raw material problem nationally, is to project good forestry must be imported. Our 16,000,000 acres of to the small private landowner. It would be forest land have the capacity for growing our difficult and not practical for individual mills entire supply. In fact, of the 16,000,000 to set up duplicate programs of assistance to acres, only 4,000,000 acres would be required private landowners. On the other hand, co­ to supply our needs at a growth rate of one- ordinated effort on the part of industry will half cord per acre per year. achieve definite results.

44 f4 t

The foregoing has dealt with the funda­ mentals, with the wide scope of things as they ImS'' exist today. The following will trace, in more ^fmt:. detail, the eight years' growth of our organi­ zation in dealing with trees and with people. I will take up the various phases of this pro­ gram under the headings of Planting More #"k.J 1U^' Trees for Tomorrow, Managing Trees for Tomorrow, and Conservation Education for Today.

Planting More Trees for Tomorrow FolL^ Uceker and J. A. Schooley (left to right) Planla. The sheer bigness of the reforestation job the First Trees, with the Aid of a Mechanical Planter, Spring of 1944, at Camp Tesomas in Wisconsin can be summarized by the fol­ lowing. There are now 500,000 acres of suc­ cessful plantations in our State. Three million Tree Planting Machine in Operation on Wisconsin Public more acres can be restored to productivity Service Corporation Land, along the Wisconsin River, Northwest of Merrill, 1951 through the planting of trees. These figures do not include submarginal or swampland. The role of private landowners in this tremendous undertaking is revealed by the growth of their interest and progress in re­ forestation over the course of the past eight years. In 1944, the year that Trees for To­ morrow was organized, the State distributed 7,800,000 trees to private landowners. In 1951 private landowners planted 18,000,000 trees, or an increase of 131 percent, an all-time high in the history of reforestation in Wisconsin. Following our first distribution of trees in 1945, three months were spent in the field by foresters in checking sites and making survival counts. The results greatly changed our tree distribution procedure. Since then site checks have been made prior to distribu­ tion and survival counts made following the first year's growth. will be necessary to supply the demand. Some Because of the demand for planting stock, pressure on the nurseries in the north will it is hoped that production at state nurseries be released when the new nursery at Boscobel will be increased as soon as possible. This year will start supplying trees for planters in the the nurseries' planting stock, with the excep­ lower regions of the Wisconsin valley. tion of jack pine, was sold out in six weeks' Behind every great achievement stands a time. The production schedule for 1953 shows mass of anonymous persons. This is certainly that only the same number of trees, or true of reforestation, which recognizes no 25,000,000, wifl be available next spring. boundaries, which appeals to people of afl However, due to expanded seeding, this figure ages in all walks of life, and which confers will be increased to 33,000,000 trees by the many tangible and intangible benefits upon all. spring of 1954. During the past eight years, including our A conservative estimate of our future tree distribution last spring, 4,518,000 seedlings requirements indicates that an annual produc­ have been distributed by Trees for Tomorrow tion of 40,000,000 to 50,000,000 seedlings to 3,565 people. The Trees for Tomorrow

45 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1952 plan has never been predicated on distribu­ mature trees, to initiate improvement cuts, to tion of more than 500,000 trees each year. give young trees a chance to grow, and to Our objective is to interest new landowners plant idle acres. in reforestation and to furnish them with During the past eight years Trees for To­ technical assistance while their programs are morrow foresters have prepared forest man­ getting underway. agement plans for 225 people, or a total of While there will always be landowners who 97,210 acres of woodlands. The intent of this have small areas to reforest through hand service to date is to show the income possi­ planting and who cannot afford large scale bilities of growing timber as a crop. For the machine planting, the most significant trend most part, income possibilities will prove has been the greatly increased use of tree more important ten years from now than for planting machines. Our program with tree the present. planting machines has developed so fast since Emphasis on management grew out of the 1950 that it has outstripped our ability to apparent need for this type of service follow­ furnish sufficient tree planting machine serv­ ing our contact with thousands of landowners ice. Our schedule for 1952 called for 10- and in the distribution of trees. In some cases 12-hour days of tree planting, and the opera­ management of existing cover types was tion of four machines to plant 750,000 trees. found to be more important than the planting In the fall of 1951, because of the un­ of trees. precedented demand for the use of the planter. For the most part the Trees for Tomorrow Trees for Tomorrow in cooperation with management service is carried out in the county agents, the banks in the region, and northern section of our eight county area. Wisconsin Headwaters, Inc., introduced a In other sections the technical services of new plan through which banks in the region farm foresters of the Conservation Depart­ bought four machines. The facilities of ad­ ment are available. The land use pattern in ditional planting machines were made avail­ the northern area is greatly different from able to landowners by the Flambeau Paper that in the farm wood lot areas of Wisconsin. Company, Oneida and Portage counties. This In Lincoln County and north, large tracts plan is now being projected into other sec­ are owned by absentee landowners and by tions of the State. people who live in nearby communities. It is The above is a detailed procedure, but the estimated that 3,500,000 acres or about one- overall results dramatize how, by providing third of the 10,000,000 acres of commercial mechanical and technical assistance, and by forest land in Wisconsin are under this class allocating the responsibility, we can put idle of ownership. acres to work growing tree crops. The sig­ The growth of interest on the part of land­ nificance of working with trees and with owners in forest management is indicated by people on a local level looms up when one the backlog of requests from thirty-six people, realizes that private landowners in the area covering 7,500 acres. planted a total of 2,294,500 trees this spring. Two of our foresters work full time on the free tree distribution plan, the mechanical Managing Trees for Tomorrow- tree planting plan, and in preparing forest Wisconsin is a second growth forest state. management plans. The third forester spends With widespread forest protection during the his time on forest management following the past twenty-two years, we now have thousands close of the camp at Eagle River late in the of acres of forest land approaching merchant­ fall each year. able size. Landowners should understand that these acres represent a potential resource Conservation Education for Today of tremendous value that should be managed Because almost 50 percent of our time and carefully. It is poor business and poor for­ effort is spent in spreading a true concept of estry to cut a tree that will produce only one conservation and the role that our natural stick of wood now, but which will double its resources play in our daily lives, this phase volume and value in another ten years. In of the Trees for Tomorrow program is truly the same way it is good business to harvest an important one.

46 :M'

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Ui^iii LutvlbUiu uj ^ccdlilL^^i Lu I\ i-fc ^iivcLoi ^qiiUlt, IM^IILIL, iMu

I feel that social or economic problems fall the county agents of ten north central identified by large groups of people sooner counties each select five outstanding boys or later become a part of the curriculum of who are awarded a free three-day trip by our school system. Operation of the Trees Trees for Tomorrow to its camp. These are for Tomorrow Camp at Eagle River is our farm boys; the program and leadership at major contribution in the field of education. the camp is arranged by the Extension De­ The camp opened on March 10 this year. partment of the University. The first group arrived on March 19, and our Trees for Tomorrow also functions in a schedule for the current year will run until number of different ways by acting as a October 25. The function of the camp can clearing house for setting up programs at be measured best by the demand for its the camp for various groups, for conserva­ facilities, which has grown year by year. tion seminars, field institutes, and for meet­ Operated on a nonprofit basis and under a ings of conservation education specialists. In permit use-lease from United States Forest February of this year thirty-five men from Service, the Trees for Tomorrow camp has colleges, the University, and agencies met in established itself as a conservation head­ Merrill to accept assignments and to set quarters in a region which abounds with aside time to act as workshop directors and natural resources at work. consultants during the sessions for high-school The workshops for high-school students students at Eagle River. have grown tremendously during the past A monthly publication. Tree Tips, carries three years. This spring, from March 19 to localized information and news to forest land­ June 1, 843 students and their instructors owners, to schools, to conservation clubs, and attended three-day workshops on school time. interested citizens. Splendid cooperation is extended by United We have our goal—a background of green States Forest Service, the College of Agri­ forests for Wisconsin—a sustained flow of culture, the Conservation Department, Soil forest products for Wisconsin's wood using Conservation Service, the Department of Pub­ industries—protection of our watersheds— lic Instruction, and our State Colleges. informed citizens who realize that large scale, Trees for Tomorrow's educational program long range resource building is a complex is one of a continuing nature. To stimulate undertaking and that it cannot be accom­ interest in 4-H Club forestry, a $200 scholar­ plished overnight or by decree. ship is provided annually for a 4-H Club boy Crystallizing this thinking in terms of ac­ under an award system set up by the Uni­ tion is the prime objective to which Trees versity of Wisconsin Extension Service. Each for Tomorrow is dedicated. END

47 Mayor Hoan's decision, early in his of­ ficial life, was to hold a "Preparedness Day Parade" but under the appellation, "A National Civic Demonstration." In this way the trade unionists of 1916 were able to participate. The Socialists' ^cision to oppose the war put the yor in a peculiar position. How he was harassed by the Socialists and met the dilemmas which continually ap­ peared is Mr. Reinders' story.

Daniel W. Hoan and the Milwaukee Socialist Party During the First World War by Robert C Reinders

Nineteen-sixteen saw Daniel W. Hoan elected cialist principle and his own conviction, pre­ mayor of Milwaukee for the first of many paredness programs should include the im­ times as the Socialist Party candidate. Hoan provement of the masses, government owner­ had been Milwaukee city attorney from 1910 ship of munition plants, and the use of an to 1916, weathering the Socialist defeats of armed voluntary citizenry rather than a large 1912 and 1914.^ standing army.^ The issue of war arose quickly. Almost as Hoan, however, was caught in a dilemma; Hoan assumed office the country began a the members of the Milwaukee Socialist Party program of rearmament. To secure support depended on trade union support and were for President Wilson's defense program. Pre­ likely to lose it, as had happened to the So­ paredness Day parades were held throughout cialist mayor of Schenectady, if the party the nation. Hoan was approached in May, sponsored a preparedness parade; conversely, 1916, by local and outside groups about or­ if they did not, they might be attacked as ganizing a Preparedness Day parade in Mil­ un-American and lose much of their inde­ waukee.'- In reply he avoided the subject of pendent support.^ Needing active official and parades, but stated that in keeping with So- trade union support for a successful parade

^See the author's unpublished master's thesis, The ^This idea was best developed in a letter from Early Career of Daniel W. Hoan: A Study of Social­ Hoan to H. D. Johns, July 26, 1916. Writing pri­ ism in the Progressive Era, chap. 4, in the Uni­ vately to a prominent Socialist, Hoan expressed the versity of Notre Dame. fear that munition manufacturers would use the 'Statement prepared by Osmore Smith. D. W. preparedness agitation as a wedge to insure a per­ Hoan Collection, Milwaukee County Historical manent program of militarism. Hoan to Meyer Society, Courthouse, Milwaukee. Unless otherwise London, May 20, 1916. designated, all sources cited are from the Hoan ^George Lunn to Hoan, June 29, 1916; Hoan to Collection. Eugene V. Debs, Aug. 15, 1916.

48 REINDERS HOAN AND MILWAUKEE SOCIALIST PARTY and realizing Hoan's position, M. C. Potter, endorse their nation's war, or would it adhere the chairman of a Milwaukee group organiz­ to the traditional Marx-Engels position and ing a parade, offered Hoan a compromise. condemn the war as capitalist inspired and On July 6, Potter wrote to Hoan, stating oppose its operation ?^^ Hoan favored the that "preparedness" was only a catch word, former stand, writing two months before the so that Hoan's participation in any parade war: "While I personally believe every living would not pledge him to a particular type soul would regret to see our country in­ of preparedness; Potter suggested that the volved in a war, still if war should come, title of the demonstration be changed.^ After then the loyal support and assistance of every receiving the unanimous consent of the So­ citizen will be absolutely necessary."^^ The cialist Party county central committee,^ Hoan party was to favor the traditional Socialist agreed to hold the parade, insisting that it position. In order to determine the American would merely be "a demonstration of single- Socialist stand an emergency convention was hearted national consciousness."^ Hoan held at St. Louis on April 7. A majority called it "A National Civic Demonstration," report, drafted by Morris Hillquit, Algernon reminding the citizens that they ''will not be Lee, and Charles E. Ruthenberg, unequivo­ committing themselves to any specific kind cally proclaimed: "We brand the declaration of preparedness. . . ."^ of war by our government as a crime of our Though all the local newspapers continued capitalist class against the people of the to label the occasion a "Preparedness Pa­ United States and against the nations of the rade," the appellative "National Civic Dem­ world. . . . There has been no war more un­ onstration" was able to secure trade union justified than the war in which we are about support for the parade.^ The event was a suc­ to engage." It pledged: "Continuous active cess with 70,000 participants led by Hoan and public opposition to the war, through and paced by fifty-two bands; it was viewed demonstration, mass petition, and all other by an estimated 100,000 observers.^^ means within our party," and "consistent There was little party criticism of Hoan's propaganda against military training."^^ position in Milwaukee,^^ but Hoan's efforts In the party referendum the majority report to placate the local groups were by no means was adopted and became, thereby, the of­ appreciated outside of the city.^^ The most ficial "party line" to be accepted by all So­ vehement cry came from Theodore Debs, cialist Party members. brother and secretary of the famous Social­ The "line" was not, however, universally ist leader, Eugene V. Debs. The younger followed. On May 18, 1917, President Wilson Debs charged the Milwaukee Socialist Party signed the conscription bill, authorizing the with "opportunism." Apostrophizing his re­ mayors of all cities of over 30,000 popula­ marks, Theodore swore: "I would have been tion to administer the draft registration. On eternally damned before I would have the advice of Victor Berger, Hoan decided marched in it [Preparedness Parade] ."^^ to carry out the provisions of the law.^^ The A more serious crisis for Hoan was soon day after the act was in force the voting forthcoming. By the winter of 1916-17 the booths were set up to be. used for draft outbreak of war was obviously only a ques­ registration. Begun on May 27, the draft tion of time. Would the Socialist Party fol­ low the lead of the European Socialists and "See Morris Hillquit, Loose Leaves from a Busy Life (New York, 1934), chap. 11. 'M. C. Potter to Hoan, July 6, 1916. '^Hoan to Woman's Club of Wisconsin, Feb. 15, 'Hoan to F. A. Tingley, Nov. 22, 1916. 1917. 'Hoan to M. C. Potter, July 8, 1916. '^Alexander Tratchenberg, ed., The American La­ ^Mayor's Proclamation, July 12, 1916. bor Year Book, 1917-1918, pp. 50-53. Hoan de­ ^Milwaukee Leader, July 14, 1916. clined the offer to serve as delegate from Wisconsin ^"Milwaukee Journal, July 15, 1916; Milwaukee at this convention. Social-Democratic Party of Wis­ Daily News, June 13, 1916. consin, State Executive Board, Minutes, March 16, "Leon Marshall to Hoan, July 19, 1916. 1917, p. 141. Milwaukee Socialist Party headquar­ ^^Particularly antagonistic was The People's Bul­ ters, Milwaukee. letin, a Socialist-Labor publication in Cincinnati. 'interview with Hoan, Aug. 19, 1948; affidavit Clipping, n.d. Hoan made out in June, 1919, for Victor Berger's ''Theodore Debs to Hoan, Aug. 17, 1916. sedition trial.

49 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1952 was completed by June 6, Milwaukee being a small state tax and by grants from the the first major city to finish the task.^^ city and county governments.^^ Functioning Meanwhile Hoan was at work on a far through 1,500 voluntary workers, the council more comprehensive wartime project. A few established a food control board to handle days after the war opened, a wealthy Mil- food shortages and emergency relief;^* it set waukeean, Wheeler Bloodgood, visited the up a labor board to adjust employer-employee mayor's office, inviting Hoan to give his differences;^^ and it publicized and secured opinion on organizing the war effort in Mil­ the cooperation of local organizations in waukee before a luncheon that Bloodgood "Hooverizing" Milwaukee.^^ The council also had arranged. The luncheon was attended investigated rent profiteering,^^ endeavored to by several manufacturers and Father Herman secure an adequate supply of coal and rea­ Noonan, president of Marquette University.^^ sonable coal prices through a fuel board,^^ Hoan urged that a local council of defense and participated in all the various programs be organized to cooperate with the recently involving the war effort: staging going-away established State Council of Defense.^^ The parties for soldiers, furnishing four-minute proposed council, Hoan contended, should speakers for Liberty Loan drives, endorsing represent all factions in the community in relief societies, and launching a program of order to convince the people "that this was vacant lot cultivation. not Morgan's war." He suggested that the As a Socialist, Hoan was particularly in­ council of defense deal with three types terested in the bureau of food control whose of problems: (1) industrial, involving prob­ functions involved extensive public interfer­ lems of employment and distribution of labor ence with the marketing system.^^ Hoan was in industry; (2) financial, raising funds for appointed chairman and Osmore Smith, a wartime emergencies; and (3) welfare, look­ fellow Socialist, was appointed secretary. The ing after those in want due to the war. Agree­ board hired an administrator who had two ing with Hoan, the men attending the lunch­ principal assistants, the city health commis­ eon appointed Hoan and Bloodgood to secure sioner and the city sealer of weights and from the State Council of Defense author­ measures. The food administrator and his ization to form a local branch. Magnus staff engaged in food contracting with the aid Swenson, the chairman of the State Council, of fifteen advisory committees, representing preferred, however, that local bodies organize all phases of food production, storage, and on a county-wide basis. Hoan, Bloodgood, distribution. The board intended to insure and Alderman Corcoran, therefore, invited "an adequate supply of food to maintain our the appropriate county groups to an organ­ population in a condition of health and effi­ ization meeting and designated an executive ciency"; to prevent "speculation," to supply committee of fifteen members.^^ At the fol­ food "at reasonable prices," and to evolve lowing meeting Hoan and Bloodgood were "an adequate distribution and control of made cochairmen.^^ available supplies, including the initiation of The Council of Defense was financed by public food conservation."^^ ^^Hoan, "Historical Statement of the Administra­ '^"Milwaukee Council of Defense," 1-page, listed tion of the First Draft in Milwaukee County," mimeo­ as "Memo," n.d. graph copy, n.d.; more objective is Herman C. ''Ibid. Schultz, "The Military Registration in the City of ^^County Council of Defense, Minutes, Aug. 19, Milwaukee," mimeograph copy, n.d. All was not 1918. a picture of efficiency, however. Governor Philipp, '^E. Hawkins to Hoan, Nov. 10, 1917; Herbert fearing that Hoan would appoint antiwar Social­ Hoover to Hoan, July 25, 1917. ists, contested Hoan's authority to make draft board ^^Report 405, Rent Profiteering in America, pre­ appointments. Hoan appealed to Washington where pared for the New York Conference of Mayors. his powers of appointment were confirmed. ^^"Milwaukee County Council of Defense: Organ­ ^^"History of the Milwaukee County Council of ization of Fuel Board," listed as "Memo," n.d. Defense," mimeograph copy, n.d., but probably ^^The Socialists had formed a Food Cost Commis­ March, 1918. sion in 1916 which was largely concerned with food ^^Wisconsin Session Laws, 1917, chap. 83. price investigations. Milwaukee Leader. Dec. 11, ^^"History of the Milwaukee County Council of 1916. Defense," n.d. ^"Plan and Method for Organization of the Bu­ "Milwaukee Leader, April 31, 1917; County Coun­ reau of Food Control," listed as "Memo," n.d. The cil of Defense, Minutes, April 30, 1917, mimeograph bureau secured its funds by public subscription and copy. acted as a private corporation.

50 REINDERS : HOAN AND MILWAUKEE SOCIALIST PARTY

The first action of the food board was to platform. The inevitable conflict arose during purchase and sell fish at the Second Ward one of the most turbulent periods in Wiscon­ Market. While the more fastidious might be sin's political history, the winter and spring dubious of the remark of the secretary of the elections of 1918. Hoan was the first to feel State Council of Defense that "Carp is a the lash of the party whip. good healthful food," the opening supply of Upon the death of the eighth district state 2,000 pounds was sold out in an hour.^^ senator in late 1917, Governor Philipp called Hoan then arranged with the State Conserva­ an election for January 7, 1918, to fill out tion Department to purchase 15,000 pounds the unexpired term. In the primary, Louis of carp and sucker each week.^^ In addition Eons, the Republican candidate, and Edmund to fish, in 1917 over thirty carloads of pota­ T. Melms, the Socialist, won the nominations. toes, several carloads of apples, a carload of Hoan, always a capable campaign speaker, cherries, 25,000 pounds of cheese, and 4,000 was invited to appear with Melms on the pounds of split peas were purchased and sold platform in a debate with Winefried Gaylord, by the bureau at the Second Ward and Algy Simons, and Charles Edward Russell, several temporary markets.^^ Socialists who had left the party over the To the orthodox Socialist, Hoan's attitude war issue and had organized the prowar toward the St. Louis platform, judged by his Social Democratic Federation.^^ In the course war work, was all but scandalous. On the of the debate Hoan was asked by Gaylord other hand his relations with the Socialist for his stand on the St. Louis platform. He Party were correct and, at times, invaluable. replied that he was not a candidate: "When He had protested to President Wilson the I am, I will tell you."^° Gaylord then put the Post-Office Department's cancellation of the same question to Melms, who dodged. On the Socialist Leaders mailing privileges ;^^ he following day the Socialist daily printed an had protested the imprisonment of Kate editorial entitled: "The Party Will Stand No Richards O'Hare;^^ he had invited the much Wobbling." Written by Victor Berger, it was maligned anti-war Peoples Council to find a directed plainly to all members of the party haven in Milwaukee ;^^ he had acted as an in­ "especially to those seeking office." termediary between outside Socialists and the Of all times this is the poorest time to Leader staff ;^^ and he had undergone two hedge, to wobble or to try "a seat on the personal investigations, one by the Chicago fence" when a question of vital principle district attorney, and the other by federal is asked—as for instance, a question about authorities.^^ This policy appeased neither the St. Louis platform. . . . Any man who the war enthusiasts nor the followers of the can not stand on that platform—any man "party line" as dictated by the St. Louis who can not accept our international posi­ tion—be that man mayor or constable— ^^Magnus Swenson to Hoan, Sept. 14, 1917. must get out of the party in justice to ''Milwaukee Leader, May 20, 1917. himself and the party.^^ ^Hbid., Dec. 31, 1917. After the war, Hoan oper­ Hoan was infuriated, as were many other ated a system of public marketing as a private in­ dividual, purchasing and selling surplus army and members of the party who felt that Berger navy goods. Ibid., Oct. 20, 27, Dec. 1, 25, 1919, had overstepped himself.*^ March 31, 1920. The Milwaukee common council The "Socialist Pontiff"*^ was not the only refused to support Hoan's proposal for a permanent marketing program for the city. Common Council, person interested in Hoan's stand on the St. Proceedings, 1917-1918, p. 411; 1919-1920, pp. 174, Louis platform. A few days after Hoan's 523-24, 711, Municipal Reference Library, Milwau­ speech and the Berger editorial, the mayor's kee. ''Open letter to Woodrow Wilson, Oct. 5, 1917. '^Hoan to the editor of Social Revolution, Dec. 20, '^Milwaukee Leader, Dec. 26, 1917. 1917. ^76/fi?., Dec. 28, 1917; interview with Hoan, Aug. '^Written by Louis Lochner to Hoan, Sept. 7, 1917. 19, 1948. '^As the mail going to the Leader was held up, ''Milwaukee Leader, Dec. 28, 1918. Socialists sent letters to the mayor's office and from '^Interview with Hoan, Aug. 19, 1948; interview there these were transferred to the Leader staff. with John Work, Aug. 7, 1948. '^Interview with Hoan, Aug. 19, 1948. ''New York Times, Jan. 7, 1918.

51 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1952 advisory board^^ met in secret and trans­ pediency. Originally, Hoan refused to run, mitted a petition to Hoan. It declared that the but at the personal request of many party Socialist candidate for the eighth senatorial members he changed his mind and con­ district was running in adherence to the sented.^^ Hoan, along with Berger, Frederic St. Louis platform, a policy which the ad­ Heath, Emil Seidel, and John Doerfler, Jr. visory committee considered "grossly un­ were appointed by the county central com­ patriotic and un-American." As Hoan had mittee to draft the party platform for the appeared in support of the candidate, the April municipal elections.^^ The platform, committee wished to have him declare his written by Berger, reaffirmed the St. Louis position relative to the St. Louis proclama­ proclamation, and blatantly declared: tion and whether he intended "to give whole­ The American people did not want and do hearted support to the national government not want this war. They were plagued into in support of the war."^^ Hoan prepared an this abyss by the treachery of the ruling answer to this petition which he submitted class of the country—its demagogic agita­ to the press and to his advisory committee. tors, its bought press, its sensational photo­ He declared that he had hoped that he would plays, its lying advertisements, and other not have to answer the question until he had purchasable instruments of public expres­ had an opportunity to discuss the matter with sion. the Socialist Party platform committee. Cir­ In addition, the platform advocated the merit cumstances, however, made it his duty to system, better pay for teachers, control of clarify his position. He had voted against the profiteering, protection of free speech, and majority report in the party referendum on "plan six" for the common council reorgani­ the St. Louis platform. Early in the war he zation.^^ had approached the county central committee If the Socialist Party had previously shown and told them that there were only two courses any signs of division, they were apparently of action open to him: either to obey the lost in the subsequent platform "love fest.^' St. Louis platform and resign, or to remain The Leader referred to the complete unity of as mayor and comply with the laws of the purpose shown by the platform committee,^^ nation. The central committee had "unani­ and Hoan told a newspaper reporter that he was "perfectly satisfied" with the municipal mously voted" that Hoan "execute and carry platform.^^ Later the Milwaukee Sentinel out the laws of the United States "^^ The editorialized kindly: "Mayor Hoan was plain­ advisory committee, expressing its "entire ly bulldozed by Mr. Berger into endorsing confidence in his personal loyalty and patri­ the St. Louis platform in this revised otism," accepted Hoan's answer by a vote of edition."^^ twelve to one.^" Necessarily, the major campaign issue of Meanwhile, the time for party nominations the 1918 election would be the war. In had arrived. It was obvious that Hoan would Berger's words it was "whether the elector be the party's choice, if only because of ex- wants to register his vote in favor of an im­ mediate, general, and democratic peace for "An unofficial board established by Hoan to ad­ vise him on city-wide problems. which the Socialists stand—or whether the ''Leo Tiefenthaler to Hoan, Dec. 31, 1917. electors prefer the vote for a bloody, long 'Tress statement, Jan. 4, 1918. drawn-out plutocratic war."^* The "big and '^Meeting Notes of the mayor's advisory commit­ vital issue of unswerving loyalty," as the tee, Jan. 11, 1918: Milwaukee Leader, Jan. 12, 1918. Berger commented after the release of Hoan's state­ other Milwaukee papers, with one pro-German ment that it was "a lawyer's way of making state­ ments." Milwaukee Journal, Jan. 5, 1918. Other '^Interview with Hoan, Aug. 19, 1949. Socialists were not so critical of Hoan's answer, "Milwaukee Leader, Jan. 10, 1918. several writing to Hoan in praise of his position. ''Ibid., Feb. 28, 1918; interview with Hoan, Aug. The local newspapers were divided on the import­ 19, 1948. ance of Hoan's reply. The Journal felt that it ''Ibid., Jan. 10, 1918. was the first break in the Berger machine; the ''Milwaukee Journal, March 10, 1918. Thirty years Daily News contended that Hoan was straddling later in the interview cited above Hoan labeled the the issue and it had no immediate importance. Mil­ platform a "son of a B !" waukee Journal, Jan. 4-5, 1918; Milwaukee Daily ''Milwaukee Sentinel. March 16, 1918. News, Jan. 4-5, 1918. "Milwaukee Leader, Jan. 12, 1918.

52 REINDERS : HOAN AND MILWAUKEE SOCIALIST PARTY exception, defined the campaign, was ac­ a statement by Bloodgood that the council of cepted.^^ defense executive committee had accepted Opposing Hoan were Theodore Dammann, Hoan's stand until the adoption of the So­ William Park, and Percy Braman, all assert­ cialist municipal platform, which had ren­ ing their loyalty to the war effort.^^ On dered his position on the council of defense March 1, at Bahn Frei Hall, Hoan began what untenable.^^ Hoan then read a prepared state­ he expected to be his most difficult campaign.^^ ment to the council. He recounted that when In his opening speech, Hoan stressed the the executive committee had asked him to central arguments which he used constantly resign he had inquired of that body a single throughout the campaign, varying only as instance in which he had not supported the subsequent events necessitated. He empha­ war effort and that the committee could offer sized the need of peace, he condemned the none. "I then informed the committee that it "paytriots" hiding behind the loyalty issue, was clear that the issue they presented was endorsed Berger's candidacy, and reviewed this. . . . They have no objection to either his program as mayor.^^ On March 5, Hoan's myself personally or my conduct, nor did principal opponent, Braman, started his cam­ they claim that I had not supported the pro­ paign, preaching loyalty and promising to gram of work outlined by the government. foster a law against seditious talk in Milwau­ ... In short. . . the committee . .. does not like kee; "The true blue Americanism of Mr. my politics." Hoan then took the offensive by Braman is unquestionable," the Journal edi­ challenging the moral and legal right of the torialized approvingly the following day.^^ council to depose him; morally, because he The campaign had not quite begun in earnest, had organized the group and had preserved when the executive committee of the council of defense asked Hoan to resign on the ground its unity; legally, because the group was using of his disloyalty to the country. taxpayers' funds and should, thereby, repre­ sent all the people and not a faction. "I say This was the last group that Hoan had you cannot get rid of Dan Hoan so easily," reason to believe would question his loyalty. he warned them.^^ The vote to depose Hoan As recently as January 5, 1918, when the advisory committee was doubting Hoan's de­ was sixteen in favor to five opposed—to de­ votion to the propagation of the war, Wheeler pose the four Socialists, thirteen to seven. Bloodgood, speaking for the council of de­ After an acrimonious debate further action fense, had affirmed Hoan's cooperation with was delayed by a successful move to recon­ the council in carrying out its war work.^" sider the measure on April 2.^^ However, on March 8, Bloodgood was more With the matter deferred until after the critical, declaring that: "Mr. Hoan can neither election, Hoan began campaigning again, stand upon nor straddle the St. Louis plat­ speaking at from three to five meetings a form and at the same time head an organiza­ day. Nor was the opposition quiescent, con­ tion which has for its object doing its part stantly berating Hoan and the Socialists for in the winning of this war. . . ."^^ On their lack of patriotism. The press viewed March 11, the executive council of the defense the election as a noble crusade to vindicate agency met in Hoan's office and asked Hoan Milwaukee in the eyes of the nation. The to resign.^^ Hoan refused, and two days later March 20 primaries did little to justify their was asked to resign before the full member­ faith. Hoan received 28,493 votes to Braman's ship of the council. The meeting began with 22,374, Dammann's 6,211, and Park's 1,567. The rest of the Socialist ticket was nominated ''Milwaukee Sentinel, March 29, 1918; Milwaukee Journal, March 21, 1918. with totals from four to five thousand below 'Hbid., March 7, 9, 21, 1918. "Hoan to Edward Winston, Jan. 28, 1918. ^'Meeting Notes of the Milwaukee County Coun­ "Milwaukee Leader, March 2, 1918. Berger was cil of Defense, March 13, 1918. Bloodgood's actual running for the United States Senate to fill the words vary in the account recorded by the Journal unexpired term of the late Paul Husting. and the Daily News, March 14, 1918. "Milwaukee Journal, March 6-7, 1918. *"Copy of the speech in the Hoan Collection. ""Ibid., Jan. 5, 1918. 'Hbid., March 19, 1918. ^'Meeting Notes of the Milwaukee County Council 'Hbid., March 11, 1918. of Defense, March 13, 1918.

53 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1952

Hoan's.^^ Bloodgood, in particular, was not seriously, attributing it to the "pro-German" enthusiastic over Hoan's primary vote. Writ­ protest vote; "the vote against me," he de­ ing to the Free Press, he announced fatally: clared, "was a vote against the war."^^ Blood­ "If the people of this country are ready—as good called Hoan's victory "a most unfor­ the primary votes would indicate—to . . . tunate thing for Milwaukee."^^ The Free abandon the honor of the nation, and stab Press, while ignoring the very great impor­ in the back the boys in France, then we should tance of Hoan's personal following, gave an be treated as an enemy stronghold ... a otherwise accurate analysis of Hoan's victory. province of the German Imperial Govern­ It contended that the election was a "con­ ment."^^ scious and determined protest on the part of The last week of the campaign saw Hoan Milwaukee voters against the policy of sup­ speaking almost incessantly. Aided by out­ pression, persecution, or coercion practiced siders Thomas Van Lear, mayor of Minne­ by certain elements of the community."^^ apolis, and Bross Lloyd, son of Henry A shortened calm followed the turbulent Demerest Lloyd, Hoan reiterated his charges political race of 1918. The council of defense against the "paytriots" and against the blind abandoned the effort to depose Hoan for, appeal to loyalty mustered by his oppo­ although Hoan was removed as chairman, nents.^^ On the eve of the election Braman he remained on the bureau of food control, insisted that the "drift is away from Mayor and the Socialists were kept on the council Hoan";^^ the Daily News affirmed that Bra- of defense.^^ For the duration of the war man's victory "seems assured" ;^^ and the Hoan concerned himself with public market­ Sentinel pointed to Braman's "crushing in­ ing, sponsoring relief drives, and other in­ roads upon the Socialist support."^^ But the cidental work associated with the prosecution professional gamblers, it was reported, were of the war. unable to get takers at two to one odds on On November 11, 1918, Hoan announced Hoan's election by a 3,000 or more ma­ that now (shades of Woodrow Wilson!) the jority.^^ Hoan himself had lost his earlier world was "a safe place for free people to doubts of success.^^ Hoan and the gamblers live. . . . "^^ But the tribulations of the So­ proved the more perspicuous observers. The cialist Party were to continue much longer, April election gave Hoan a comfortable ma­ for the period after the war was dominated jority, carrying eighteen of the city's twenty- by, in the words of Morris Hillquit, "a five wards.^^ The party increased its repre­ morbid psychology of hysteria and intoler- sentation in the common council, but most ence."^^ Hoan was to learn soon and cruelly of its candidates were defeated. that wartime hatreds were not easily dissi- The nonpartisan candidate took his defeat "Milwaukee Daily News, April 13, 1918. "Milwaukee Journal, April 13, 1918. ^^'Board of Election Commissioners. Fifth Annual "Milwaukee Free Press, April 4, 1918. Among Report, 1917-1918, p. 90, ^Municipal Reference Li­ these measures was an ordinance Hoan vetoed to brary. provide a $250 fine for seditious talk. Common ''Milwaukee Free Press, March 22, 1918. Even Council, Proceedings, 1917-1918, pp. 1161-162. Braman opposed this implied suggestion of martial Another was the successful effort by a segment law in Milwaukee. Milwaukee Journal, March 24, of the press to remove German instruction in the 1918. elementary schools. Bayard Still, Milwaukee, The ""Milwaukee Leader, March 25, 29, April 1, 21, History of a City. Even actual physical violence 1918. against "slackers" was not unknown though more ''Milwaukee Journal March 30, 1918. common outside the city. See Charles D. Stewart, '"Milwaukee Daily News, April 2, 1918. "Prussianizing Wisconsin," Atlantic Monthly, 123: '^Milwaukee Sentinel, April 1, 1918. An Associ­ 99-105 (January, 1919) ; Oscar Ameringer, // You ated Press release noted a movement away from Don't Weaken, 333-34; a series of articles in Com­ Hoan and the Socialists. Boston Evening Transcript, monwealth in 1919, entitled "In Darkest Wisconsin." April 2, 1918. Washington (D.C.) Evening Star, '^The Action which Deposed the Mayor as Chair­ April 2, 1918. man of the Council of Defense, typewritten; Mil­ "Milwaukee Leader, April 1, 1918. waukee Leader, June 1, 1918. "Hoan to Jack Schafle. March 28, 1918. '^Mayor's Proclamation, Nov. 11, 1918. '^Election Commissioners . . . , Fifth Annual ^"Morris Hillquit, Loose Leaves from a Busy Life, Report, 184. 248.

54 REINDERS : HOAN AND MILWAUKEE SOCIALIST PARTY pated in the wondrous world "made safe for that try men's souls. We must take our democracy." places with kings ... or line up with the One of the first demonstrations of these rights of common man. I should go to my grave in everlasting wartime after-effects grew out of a series of shame were I to boost one iota the stock ceremonies arranged by a representative com­ of any king. Mr. Van Scoy, remind your mittee of 600 for Milwaukee's returning associates, i STAND FOR THE MAN WHO veterans. Hoan and Governor Philipp were WORKS, TO HELL WITH KINGS.^* to be the guest-speakers at the first of these Papers throughout the country printed the homecoming celebrations, January 18, 1919.^^ letter in whole or in part. The local Journal A few days before the meeting, the Journal called it "good campaign stuff," the Sentinel, began printing protests against Mayor Hoan's an indication of Hoan's "genius for doing appearing before the soldiers. These protests the wrong thing at the wrong time." An were from individual citizens, anti-Socialist editor in dry Kansas moralized: "Only a man aldermen, trade associations, and even from capable of so coarse a remark could in the the weighty little minds of the Junior Naval first place have been elected mayor of Mil­ and Marine Scouts. They felt that Hoan's waukee." The Chicago Her aid-Examiner head­ appearance on the previous Sunday before a lined: "Milwaukee No Place for Kings." A group of Socialists opposing the treason trial Southern paper reported that Hoan: "Pro­ of Victor Berger and four other Socialists fanely Scores Gallant Belgium in Letter." disqualified him from speaking before the The New York Times expressed its state of veterans. A group of army officers approached outraged propriety.^^ Hoan and asked him to resign from the re­ As a result of this unsuspected publicity, ception committee. He refused. letters of praise and protest were sent to The Journal's agitation was successful; Hoan, amounting to as many as fifty letters Hoan was greeted as he started to speak by daily. The hundreds of letters Hoan received a crowd that "hissed and howled, shouted present a fascinating picture of the over- and whistled, stamped and sang,"^^ making exaggerated patriotism of the time, and of it impossible for him to be heard. the anti-monarchial (a more accurate term A less serious incident associated with the would be anti-British) feeling which charac­ war and one which catapulted Hoan for a terized the age. Most of the letters were time into unsought national prominence was laudatory, a few comparing Hoan's statement his reaction toward a proposed invitation to to the famous remarks of Patrick Henry, King Albert of Belgium to visit Milwaukee on Thomas Pinckney, and General Grant, some his proposed postwar tour about the United even suggesting that Hoan run for President States. On September 16, 1919, A. T. Van on the strength of his patriotism. There were Scoy of the Milwaukee Association of Com­ critical letters as well, ranging in vituperation merce requested Hoan to submit the associa­ from describing Hoan as a "sow-pig" to tion's invitation to the State Department "misguided." which was arranging the King's tour.^^ Hoan in his answer to Van Scoy agreed to serve as By 1920 the wartime issues had largely the medium by which organizations might disappeared. The municipal election of 1920 send invitations, then indiscreetly, if not non­ represented the end of wartime appeals to sensically, added: loyalty and the beginning—in a sense, a re­ turn—of the municipal progressivism that Please do not ask me to invite any king, was to win the plaudits of the nation in the kaiser, or czar. While I mean no disre­ decades that followed. END spect to the Belgium people whom I love, nor discourtesy to you, yet these are days ''Hoan to A. T. Van Scoy, Sept. 20, 1919. ^'Milwaukee Journal, Sept. 22, 1919; Milwaukee ^^County Reception Committee for Milwaukee Sentinel, Sept. 22, 1919; clipping from the Wichita County Boys in the Service, Report, Jan. to Aug. Eagle, n.d., sent to Hoan by S. M. Aronson, Oct. 1919. 10, 1919; Chicago Herald Examiner, Sept. 23, 1919; ^^Milwaukee Journal, Jan. 15-20, 1919. New Orleans Times-Picayune, Sept. 21, 1919; New '=^A. T. Van Scoy to Hoan, Sept. 18, 1919. York Times, Sept. 24, 1919.

55 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1952

LODESTAR IN THE NORTHLAND consolidated school until only two remain, (Continued from page 27) and a network of electric power lines reaching Fields left untilled grew up in weeds, and out into all our rural districts have brought buildings were allowed to deteriorate. to the country home all the comforts of During the years of World War II and modern living. immediately following, the potato industry As we look ahead we see in the rural pic­ assisted by a generous price support program ture of the future a need for a workable plan and other inducements began taking up much of rural zoning and a firm public policy with of the idle acreage. Here under modern, respect to the propagation and preservation mechanized tillage, irrigation, and proper of our forest resources. We see, too, a need crop rotation, the quack-infested lands were for giving help and encouragement to those made to yield well and profitably. With this of our rural youth in whose hands lie our development we have seen a gradual decline agricultural future. The notable success and achievements of our 4-H Clubs are a living in importance of the family-size farm and in tribute to their leadership as well as to the its place the increasingly important large- cliildren themselves. scale operation worked partly by transient This has been a brief review of events laborers. The history of the potato industry and developments in our agricultural past. in Wisconsin has been one of continual north­ Changes that have come to the industry over ward movement. Centered first around Wau­ the past twenty years may well lead us to paca, it moved north to the Antigo area and ask: "To what may we look as a future now into this region. As potato lands grew foundation of a stable rural economy?" It is less productive with the years, growers moved heartening to note here in recent years a gradually northward in quest of new and growing interest in grassland farming. Here disease-free soils. are relatively cheap lands, usually ample With the j)assing years have come great annual rainfall, and a soil well-suited to the improvements in education, communication, growing of grasses and legumes. This type and rural living. Black-top roads kept open of farming operation as the basis for the for motor travel the year around have made production of meat and milk appears to offer ])ossible the use of the modern, heated school us a promising prospect of an agricultural bus and a new era in rural education. Little revival. With its widespread adoption may one-room schools which once dotted our well come a rewarding, secure, and happy countryside have given way to the modern life for many of our rural people. END

Middle West's Proud Moments

You say you have visited lovely Colonial of esthetic souls from in and out of Williamsburg? Magnificent "Winter- the State the summer long. Presently thur" Museum near Wilmington? ranking Wisconsin's historic restora­ Washington's fascinating Mount Vern­ tions, "The Mansion on the Mound" was on? Sturbridge's popular Colonial Vil­ entrusted to the State Historical Society lage? Granted that the East has restora­ of Wisconsin less than twelve months tions that can be defined only in su­ ago. Since then the beauty and luxury perlatives, we in the Middle West have of its rooms and its expansive surround­ our proud moments too. Yes, it's mil­ ings have been shared with some 25,000 lionaire Dousman's historic Villa Louis visitors. When this is read, the quiet in Prairie du Chien that has enveloped of the season's end will have settled over us in its charm! Like a mecca of the the beautiful Villa; with the spring will Faithful, it has been attracting streams come the Mansion's reopening.

56 readers' choice

Tyrant from Illinois, Uncle Joe Cannon s Ex­ pledged to Taft, but Cannon's candidate for periment with Personal Power. By BLAIR vice-president, James Schoolcraft Sherman, BoLLES. (W. W. Norton and Company, was nominated, and no resolution was adopt­ New York, 1951. Pp. 248. $4.50.) ed against the use of the injunction in labor Congressman from Illinois for nearly a disputes. When the convention closed, says half century Joseph Gurney Cannon, as the author, "the Presidency was to be Taft's, Speaker of the House of Representatives, but the Republican Party was Cannon's." ruled the Congress from 1901 to 1910. Ty­ The Presidency that was Taft's soon came rant he was, absolute in his dictates on com­ under Cannon's control and the latter found mittee memberships, and bills which he op­ little difference between being President and posed through control of the Rules Commit­ telling the President what to do. tee never reached the floor of the House. Revolt against Cannonism found strong Quaint in appearance, lovable and shrewd, leadership in Robert M. La Follette of Wis­ he opposed all bills that would enlarge the consin. La Follette's Weekly called for Taft's powers of the Federal government. He went support in March, 1909, to help the liberals to his grave unconscious of any wrong he take control of the House from Cannon, but had done and without any understanding of Taft implacably refused to help them. issues and problems unsolvable on the state Taft assured the country that the tariff level. would be revised downward at the very mo­ Seeing himself as the great defender of the ment that higher rates were being written into past, he never thought that he might be the the new Payne-Aldrich bill. This action bore perpetuator of abuses inherited from the past. out Senator Underwood's remark: "I say to Cannon believed that the tariff had made you that there is more real power in one five- "America a hell of a success." Why tinker cent cigar between the iron lips of Joseph G. with it? If tariff rates had to be "revised" Cannon than in the big sticks of a whole then let them be "revised upward." regiment of Roosevelts and Tafts." The new Cannon was honest, his wealth came tariff bill demonstrated that, where hitherto through the business ability of his brother, Cannon had dictated what could not be done, a banker and real estate operator, at Danville, now he determined what would be done. The Illinois. President Theodore Roosevelt's "defender of the nineteenth century" was "malefactors of great wealth" received un­ carrying his tyranny too far. He was giving swerving support from Cannon. conservatism a bad name by bludgeoning the Uncle Joe, said his enemies, was "the tariff hopes of millions of Americans. most unimaginative man that ever rose to so Public conception of Cannon as a likable high a public position in this country." He frontiersman altered to that of a harsh tyrant not only opposed reduction of tariff rates, united many Americans who became anti- but Federal conservation, regulation of rail­ conservative. Taft would not repudiate Can­ roads, labor unions, and anti-trust laws. non; he simultaneously called for reform and Despite unpopularity with the press, re­ placated him, the great enemy of reform. sulting from his successful opposition to free Representative George W. Norris of trade in pulp and newsprint. Cannon went to Nebraska carried in his pocket for two years the Republican National Convention in Chi­ a resolution to amend the rules of the House cago in 1908, with high hopes of the presi­ to end the tyranny "conducted by due dential nomination. Too many delegates were process." Then came the day when Cannon

57 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1952

ruled that a certain resolution was privileged Gibbs's earliest interests were oriented by the Constitution; Norris moved in with towards the analytical geometrical and en­ his resolution to enlarge the rules committee gineering aspects of mechanics, to wit: his and make the Speaker ineligible to member­ intimate familiarity with mechanical details, ship on said committee. Two days later, "the his papers on the form of the teeth of wheels Old Man, deserted by friends on whom he in spur gearing and his paper on improved had counted, repudiated by party colleagues," railway car brakes. A second phase in his the resolution slightly amended, was adopted. life began with a three-year study period at Cannonism was over. Paris, Berlin, and Heidelberg (1866-69), and Blair Bolles, the author, was a newspaper his return to New Haven as professor of reporter, mostly on the Washington Star, mathematical physics in 1871, without salary. from 1933 to 1944, when he became director His major contributions were in the field of of the Washington Bureau of the Foreign thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, dy­ Policy Association. namics, vector analysis, multiple algebra and Springfield, Illinois HARRY E. PRATT optics. The mature Gibbs proceeded from available facts to their utmost implications by Josiah Willard Gibbs, the History of a Great such rigorous logic that not one of his con­ Mind. By LYNDE PHELPS WHEELER. clusions has ever been found in error. The (Yale University Press, New Haven, finest example of this logic occurs in his 1951. Pp.264. $4.00.) statistical and thermodynamical works. His Josiah Willard Gibbs, professor of mathe­ activities were almost completely theo­ matical physics at Yale from 1871 to 1903, retical and abstract, but it would be difficult is considered by many physicists and chemists to find any modern industrial process which to have been the greatest scientist the United has not somewhere profited by his work. His States has ever produced. His contributions treatment of non-homogeneous chemical equi­ are rather obscure for the layman as well as libria and the phase rule forms the founda­ for many scientists, but the fact that he has tion for the modern metallurgical industry. been honored in 1951 by election to the Hall Modern colloid science pure and applied, of Fame and that one of his former students based on his adsorption equation, has found has published this interesting biography in widespread use in all problems involving the same year is evidence of a continuing in­ surface phenomena—flotation and detergency, terest in his creativity. catalysis, dyeing, biophysics and biochemistry. This biography is by far the most authori­ It was over thirty years before this equation was tested experimentally. tative and competent life of Gibbs in existence. In thirty-two years as a teacher he had less The only other book-length biography of than one hundred students, all of them mature. Gibbs, written by Muriel Rukeyser in 1942, He was considered in the classroom to be was hardly more than a fictionalized account flexible, and completely free of fixed shib­ built around anecdotes taken from the life of boleths of presentation. Gibbs in and about New Haven, padded with Wheeler stresses the tremendous range of much material which seems irrelevant to the European contacts which Gibbs maintained. historian of science. Wheeler was a Ph.D. Reproduced in an appendix is a catalogue of candidate under Gibbs in the late 1890's and scientific correspondence and Gibbs's mailing had the advantage of knowing Gibbs not as list for reprints. This disproves the usually a recluse or as a disembodied formula but alleged notion that Gibbs was unknown to the as a mature person. scientific world because of the inaccessibility Wheeler has brought together hitherto un­ of the Transactions of the Connecticut Acad­ known facts which reveal Gibbs not as an emy of Science, in which he published all of unconditioned mathematical genius living in his major papers. isolation from society, or a cold mental giant A background of physico-chemical science an idol among his contemporaries, but a and considerable mathematics are essential to warmly human man, somewhat modest, even the understanding of Gibbs's work, but Mr. diffident, exchanging ideas and letters with Wheeler's scientific interpretations are author­ other scientists all over the world, but still itative and his use of much unpublished mate­ enjoying simple pastimes with friends and rial from the Yale archives makes this book a associates around New Haven. valuable source for historians who want first-

58 READERS CHOICE hand information. For scientists this biog­ one-third had been lawyers. Next, in descend­ raphy will supplement and illuminate the ing numerical order, came officers of the previously published collected works of Gibbs United States Army and Navy, planters and (2 volumes), and the two-volume commentary farmers (only some 134 in this combined edited by Donnan and Haas. category), educators, merchants, editors, civil ERWIN N. HIEBERT engineers, railroad promoters, ministers of University of Wisconsin the gospel (14), and bankers (13). In the disturbed years after the war many of these Confederate Leaders in the New South. By individuals started anew in different pro­ WILLIAM B. HESSELTINE. (Louisiana fessions and rose to pre-eminence. Some State University Press, Baton Rouge, clung to the "Old South" as Jefferson Davis 1950. Pp. xi,147. $2.50.) continually advocated, and others adopted the In the cemetery at Pulaski, Tennessee, a postwar philosophy of Robert E. Lee who marble statue, life size, marks the grave of emphasized the duty of building a new South. John Calvin Brown. Clad in Confederate But almost without exception the writer, uniform, with his hand upon his sword and minister, industrialist, or jurist lies buried his gaze toward the South, the stylized figure beneath a monument that pays primary portrays only the general. His military ca­ homage to the soldier of the Confederacy. reer occupied less than four of the sixty-two Those who thoughtfully have read inscrip­ years of his life. Even though he rose from tions in cemeteries in Northern states know private to major general, certainly those were that it is not only the soldiers of a lost cause not his most important years, nor did they who are honored in epitaphs. But it is in­ signify the period of his greatest contribu­ deed startling that eighty-five years after the tions to the South. Yet at his death, twenty- war deep research by a diligent and inspired five years after he had laid aside his uniform, historian is necessary in order to reveal the his people recalled and honored primarily significance of the postwar careers of the the Confederate soldier. They well knew, but leaders of the Confederacy. It is here proved less commemorated, the subsequent quarter and statistically demonstrated that these lead­ century during which he had served in turn ers did not come wholly or even predomi­ as governor of his state, president of two nantly from the planter class, nor did they railroads, builder and general counsel of sink into idleness after 1865. The very numerous other southern routes, industrialist, uniqueness of this volume, the absence of and honored solicitor of both capital and im­ previous similar studies, testifies to the basic migration at a time when each was needed inspiration that led Professor Hesseltine to and much desired in the South. choose this field for development. He origi­ Dr. Hesseltine has traced the postwar ca­ nally did this research and first presented his reers of the leaders of the Confederacy. He conclusions for the Walter Lynwood Fleming has analyzed their impact upon the new Lectures, a series at Louisiana State Univer­ South and has surveyed their reputations. sity that has gained well-merited pre-eminence The above example is typical, not exceptional. during the past two decades because of the Only 71 surviving Confederate leaders are consistently high quality of these annual con­ later lost from historical records because they tributions to the history of the South. Both failed to recover a substantial portion of the the student of history and the layman can position and prestige they had enjoyed at the enjoy this well-written and easily readable Confederacy's peak. Death during or shortly volume. But perhaps only the student can after the war cut to 656 the total of some appreciate fully the difficulties met and solved 1,000 men who had held the higher positions in research in a field wherein most historical both military and civil in the central and materials, even personal biographies, tend to state governments of the Confederacy. Only end with Appomattox. The absence of an in­ thirteen surviving leaders made permanent dex in a volume of this type is inexcusable. homes outside of the United States. This Neither publisher nor author should have volume analyzes the careers of the 585 men consented to the publication of so valuable who survived and left records. In the years a work without an index. before the war these men had followed a CHARLES M. THOMAS variety of trades and professions. More than Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama

59 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1952

The Man of Independence. By JONATHAN a "contrary cuss"; Truman said Pendergast DANIELS. (J. B. Lippincott Company, never asked him to do a dishonest act. New York, 1950. Pp. 384. $3.75.) Daniels passes few judgments on Truman Jonathan Daniels' Man of Independence as though he agrees that Truman clung too long Daniels calls his biography of Harry S. to some associates. Truman, is a timely antidote to the beratings Noting reckless spending in Missouri army his foes have bestowed on our retiring Presi­ camps in World War II, Truman promoted dent. the investigation known by his name. His Daniels holds Truman to be the spokesman committee was credited with saving $15,- of the American philosophy—not the average 000,000,000. His concern for civil rights in man, though he came up the average way. his presidency was not the sudden espousal He plodded a bumpy road. In his youth of a cause, Daniels points out. Speaking in diphtheria left him paralyzed for a time; his Missouri in his 1940 campaign, Truman weak eyes, which required thick lenses, dif­ declared that if any race can be thrust below ferentiated him from other boys. He played the rest in political or civil rights, so may the piano and read everything in the In­ any other class or race when it incurs the dis­ dependence library. He liked to know about pleasure of more powerful groups—"and we men of action, especially military men. His may say farewell to the principles on which education ended with high school. His father we count for safety." went broke on the grain market and got a Roosevelt's death dropped an unfinished watchman's job. war and an hypothetical peace into Truman's Harry became a bank clerk, later a farmer. lap. His ascent to the presidency when His eyes barred him from West Point, but Russia was scrapping the Yalta pact, his he joined the Missouri Guard and, when break with Harold Ickes, his troubles with World War I broke out, he hustled to the James Byrnes whom he thought appeased armory to recruit his artillery unit. The war Russia, his "naked blunder" in permitting cost him more than most of us. His de­ Henry A. Wallace to make his "soft policy" parture brought the dissolution and sale of speech toward Russia are among episodes an oil company in which he had an interest. which color the Truman story. The new owners brought in a rich oil field, Madison CRAIG RALSTON and Harry, pumping shells from his guns in France, escaped a millionaire's fate. Simon Cameron s Adventure in Iron, 1837- Truman's political technique comprised 1846. By JAMES B. MCNAIR. (Privately short, punchy speeches, and meeting people. published, 818 South Ardmore Avenue, He had his own personal and political codes. Los Angeles 5, California, 1949. Pp. When creditors closed his "gents furnishings" xi,160. $3.85.) store in the Harding depression, he refused to take bankruptcy and paid his debts, though Simon Cameron is one of the more ques­ it took years to do so. He believed in party tionable figures in American history, and the government. In Washington he supported full truth about his character and varied Roosevelt's policies; in Missouri, he followed operations and manipulations probably never Pendergast's patronage lines. wifl be known. The noted economist and Daniels narrates circumstances which publicist, Henry C. Carey, of Philadelphia joined Truman's "creative honesty" to the wrote President Lincoln on January 7, 1861, Pendergast machine. Tom Pendergast was regarding Cameron that "most of our well- the "boss." His brother Mike, and Mike's disposed fellow citizens . . . look upon him as son, Lieutenant James Pendergast, Truman's the very incarnation of corruption." Mr. war buddy, were Truman's friends. Tom McNair's brief and rambling treatment of turned Truman down for a $25,000 county episodes in Cameron's business affairs does job Truman wanted to pay his defunct haber­ little to alter this judgment. dashery debts and backed him for county Simon Cameron s Adventure in Iron is judge, a job that meant work and responsi­ mainly the story of Cameron's partnership in bility. In this post Truman supervised con­ a venture in manufacturing iron between struction of a new courthouse and a new high­ 1837 and 1846 in which Thomas McNair way system for Jackson County without was one of the partners. As was the case graft or scandal. Pendergast called Truman with most persons who tried to do business

60 READERS CHOICE with Mr. Cameron, McNair literally "lost his James Harrod of Kentucky. By KATHRYN shirt." Since James B. McNair is the direct HARROD MASON. (Louisiana State Uni­ descendant of Thomas McNair, he may be versity Press, Baton Rouge, 1951. Pp. excused for not exactly liking Simon xxii, 266. $4.00.) Cameron. Dime novelists, reminiscing sons of pio­ The story as detailed in this privately neers, and romantic historians of the nine­ printed volume is based for the most part teenth century created Kentucky frontiersmen on a group of over fifty letters and docu­ whose real qualities are hard to uncover. ments written or signed by Cameron and in Certainly this is the case with James Harrod, the possession of the author. They were parts of whose career have been as shadowy never before used. There are other McNair as the woods he roamed. Materials on his life family papers which entered into preparation are fragmentary, widely scattered, and often of the book and all are deposited, perhaps loaded with legend. Consequently, Kathryn not very logically since they are essentially Harrod Mason had a difficult task, and she Pennsylvania historical materials, in the deserves commendation for presenting in this Huntington Library at San Marino, Cali­ volume of the Southern Biography Series a fornia. The letters are of obvious value to clear picture of Harrod and the Western any student of Cameron and the politics and country. economics of his time. Harrod and his brothers ranged broadly The book itself consists of only 110 pages over the frontier between the Alleghenies and of text, with many added notes. It is a the Mississippi. In 1774 he led a band of highly rambling piece of writing and difficult about fifty men, most of them from south­ to follow. Its value consists in the many de­ western Virginia, to Kentucky and founded tails which appear as to the history of the its first settlement. Dunmore's War caused central Pennsylvania iron industry, railroad temporary abandonment of Harrodstown, but building, and Cameron's varied activities. the pioneers returned to fight for their home­ Many of the asides are most interesting. steads, both against the Indians and against Cameron, for example, wrote McNair in the Judge Richard Henderson's Transylvania winter of 1843 that he was trying to get him Company. Virginia soon ended Henderson's a government contract to manufacture cast empire building, but the Indians continued iron cannon balls at a good profit. "So far I to menace the small islands of settlement. By am not able to say what can be done at describing the role of the Harrods (William Washington though I have a friend on the as well as James), the author tells the story look out who will give me information as of Indian forays and sieges, Kentuckians' soon as he can get his eye on anything of campaigns across the Ohio, and the develop­ advantage," confided Cameron. Shades of ment of a rural society in a region of over­ "influence peddlers" and investigations of our lapping land claims. Colonel James Harrod time. We wonder whether there is anything became a civic leader, but he remained a new under the political sun. hunter and trapper. On a hunt in 1792 he vanished. Legend makers have had a field McNair concludes his book by pointing out day with his disappearance, but it seems that Cameron "lived on and on, accumulated likely that he was murdered by a rival for a more and more money and died wealthy, a disputed piece of land. millionaire, aged ninety years. His sons James Harrod's story needed telling and, graduated from Princeton University." The despite the familiar elements, much of it here author of this brief and very wandering seems fresh. The author shows more creative study of the Cameron-McNair relationship is imagination than mine-run historians can a retired Army officer and author of many muster, and thereby she conveys a feeling of scientific works, mainly in the field of natural backwoods life. On the other hand, she makes history and science. He has added some rich more errors than are pardonable. Most of and interesting notes on the career of Simon the mistakes are trivial, though some of those Cameron and his shrewd business and politi­ in chronology, in geography, and in misread­ cal manipulations which otherwise would ing of sources are not, and some of her ap­ hardly have come to light. For this, we are plications of general Western conditions to in his debt. the specific story of James Harrod are cer­ Harrisburg, Pennsylvania S. K. STEVENS tainly questionable. Her air of confidence

61 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1952 and easy familiarity makes for pleasant the ferns all day, cast shade on rock in lines reading, but it is sometimes deceptive. The that never sway," which are unforgettable. historian will miss the dull but honest qualifi­ Pride in the historic achievement of Osage cations and expressions of doubt that show Dam and the Lake of the Ozarks came to there are hidden places in Harrod's life which some in time though and wounds healed. As the sources do not reveal and which will re­ "Doc" Barr told Clem after the birth of main as mysterious as his final disappearance his baby: in the forest. "You take this big flood. Here we are. J. MERTON ENGLAND Your child University of Kentucky 'LI have no cause to think its life's been spoiled Waters Over Linn Creek Town. By RALPH By what w's mighty bad business, once, ALAN MCCANSE with an introductory es­ for some . . . say by ROBERT L. RAMSAY. (Bookman I expect he'll like it here, in days Associates, New York, 1951. Pp. 120. to come . . ." $2.50.) The value of this verse chronicle is con­ Day foflowed day gently in Linn Creek siderably enhanced by an introduction written town, Missouri, as it had for generations. by Robert L. Ramsay, professor-emeritus of Old "Doc" Barr tended to the ills of the English at the University of Missouri, in countryside without regard to mud, snow, or which he draws attention to the poetry of pay; Preacher Bright baptized his flock's sins Missouri place names as emphasized by the away in Zion Creek to the shouts of "The author. Ramsay also defends the poem Old Time Religion"; Clem Waflace fell in against the cry of regionalism and sees it love with Nan Boyd; and blind Jasper Boyd merely as the "music of simple human felt his way along old familiar paths around nature." Sycamore mill or "lingered in the sun, or FLOYD SHOEMAKER listened, bowed, where slow creek waters Missouri State Historical Society rippled and grew loud." Rumors of an epic transformation of the Reunion and Reaction. The Compromise of land were afloat though—rumors that a dam 1877 and the End of Reconstruction. was to be built which would create a gigantic By C. VANN WOODWARD. (Little, Brown lake whose waters would flood Linn Creek and Company, Boston, 1951. Pp. 263. town, carrying with it all that the inhabitants $4.00.) held dear and making them homeless. This One of the deep mysteries of American threat came to pass in 1931 when the Lake history has been the background and char­ of the Ozarks was created and electric power acter of the compromise which resulted in the generated to push the wheels of progress in choice of Hayes over Tilden in the disputed St. Louis. Portions of five Ozark counties election of 1876. It wiH be recalled that Til­ were partially submerged beneath its waters, den needed only one of nineteen contested and disaster faced those who could not be up­ electoral votes to put him in the White House. rooted easily from cherished homesteads, old But foflowing the lead of a few stubborn friends, and traditions. managers, the Republicans claimed all of the The Madison, Wisconsin, author of this disputed baflots and in the end, through a narrative poem has dealt with his story with bargain with certain prominent Southerners, admirable restraint, using it merely as a they made their claim good and inaugurated vehicle to carry the reader along the trail of their candidate. the life and death of a little town and the The commonly accepted version of the spiritual upheaval of those who loved it. He affair has been that in a series of last-minute uses no propaganda, he creates no exciting conferences in Washington intimate friends climaxes, but he does touch your heartstrings of Hayes made a deal with a group of South­ with telling effect and he creates word pic­ ern Democrats by which the Republicans tures of the Ozark countryside, its quiet agreed to restoration of home rule in Dixie glens, its rippling streams, a "bluff-side where in return for Southern support of Hayes's

62 READERS CHOICE inauguration. Parties to the agreement justi­ Doctors Under Three Flags. By FANNIE fied it as being a necessary and desirable ANDERSON. (Wayne University Press, means of restoring normalcy and intersec- Detroit, 1951. Pp. 185. $3.50.) tional harmony. The need for intensive and analytical stud­ Historians who specialize in the period ies of the social as well as the scientific as­ have long suspected that there was much more pects of the medical profession is generally to the bargain than appeared on the surface. acknowledged by medical historians. Any But the background manipulations were so such study, though local in scope, will have involved and the veil of secrecy seemed so significance if the author relates the local impenetrable as to cause Allan Nevins, one medical story to the development of medicine eminent investigator, to conclude that "the and to the general history of the locality. full truth will never be known." From the mass of local data available a But the mystery remained a challenge, and writer should select those facts which throw several years ago when C. Vann Woodward light on the status of the doctor in the com­ began research for his post-Reconstruction munity, his social philosophy, and his efforts volume in the History of the South series, he to improve his position and knowledge became intrigued by the question: Why would through organizations. Southern Democrats give up what seemed a In the light of such criteria. Miss Ander­ sure victory in the presidential contest for a son's detailed account of the medical profes­ home rule that was already assured? sion in the city of Detroit between the years His interest was quickened from time to 1701 and 1837 fails to meet the requirements time as incidentally he came across bits of of good writing and critical scholarship. information throwing light on the mystery. The three flags in the narrative are, of Eventually he found enough material to sup­ course, the French, British, and American. port a hypothesis and what had been an aside Each of these governments influenced the became a major concern. Further research development of medicine as well as other phases of local life. But the author uses sustained tentative conclusions and rounded the dates of governmental change in 1763 out the picture. and 1783 merely as convenient chronological The result is a story that has all the thrill stopping places for chapters. of a detective yarn. Adventurers, confidence Almost every available piece of evidence men, and villains move through smoke-filled concerning the medical practices and status rooms to sefl their sordid schemes to hungry of doctors under the three regimes has been politicians. Lobbyists invade the halls of examined, yet the finished product is a con­ Congress to browbeat faltering representa­ glomeration of facts rather than an interpreta­ tives. The pistol of a would-be-assassin flashes tive analysis. from the darkness. Unimportant events, exact dates, and un­ The story is full of drama and suspense, identified names clutter the story. Three ex­ yet- it is told with a dignity and grace be­ amples of the precise trivia that may be fitting the serious and accomplished historian. found on almost every page will illustrate the Professor Woodward. The narrative is amply author's apparent anxiety to incorporate every documented and the conclusions are con­ note taken in her ten years of research: Gen­ vincing. evieve Jadot, an orphaned ward of Dr. George To summarize Mr. Woodward's findings Anthon, played with dolls up to the time would be to spoil a good story. Suffice to say of her marriage (p. 46) ; Dr. William Holmes, that the real bargain was made long before surgeon to the U.S. Fifth Regiment stationed the last minute compromise that got into the in Detroit, "bought a cow for £10 on August history books; that the Southerners who 6, 1790, and rented a house from Captain traded out with the Republicans (and who Henry Bird of the Eighth Regiment from might appropriately be called the "Dixiecrats August 10, 1790, to June 10, 1792, paying of '76") were motivated largely if not primar­ sixty shillings per month" (p. 81) ; and the ily by self-interest; and, to use the author's Detroit Gazette "was founded on July 25, own words, "the road to reunion was a rail­ 1817, as a weekly, consisted of four pages, road." and measured 91/^ by 161/^ inches" (p. 126). BELL IRVIN WILEY The author seems to regard one fact as Emory University important as another. The result is a lack of

63 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1952 perspective and proportion which vitiates principles and objectives under widely differ­ her commendable research. If she had as­ ent circumstances, effectively reiterated to sessed the importance of her facts, evaluated form an unbroken thread throughout the the changing status of the frontier doctor in book. The rule of reason, freedom versus Detroit, and integrated the development of repression, scientific knowledge for man's ad­ medicine into the general history of the area, vancement, commerce as the handmaid of ag­ the book would have been a contribution to riculture, constitutions as shields against tyr­ our knowledge of the medical profession. anny—such phrases regain significance as Medical history, like other types of history, they appear in the context of Jefferson's must be more than a collection of unrelated thinking, challenged by specific events and facts—it must have meaning. problems facing him as diplomat in France, DONALD R. MCNEIL Secretary of State in America, or farmer in State Historical Society of Wisconsin Virginia. Reference to "the course he steered" in the above quotation suggests the Jefferson and the Rights of Man. Volume II author's recognition of occasional conflict of Jefferson and His Time. By DUMAS between Jefferson's principles and practice. MALONE. (Little, Brown, and Company, Dr. Malone is well aware of inconsistencies Boston, 1951. Pp. xxix, 523. Iflustra- which Jefferson's adversaries capitalized up­ tions. $6.00.) on, and makes no denial of them; but he The second volume of Dr. Malone's notable points out, for example, in Jefferson's in­ biography of Jefferson begins with his de­ terpretation of the Constitution or in his parture to France in July 1784, and ends diplomatic relations with the British, that a with the election of 1792. The motif is the mixture of idealism and common sense often revolutionary spirit of the period, suggested enabled him to modify and strengthen his in the title, and the author has interwoven position in order to contend for ultimate ob­ skiflfully the ideals and aftermath of the jectives with a new approach. American Revolution with the inception and As Jefferson reaches middle age in this early course of the French Revolution as volume, his character and personality emerge Jefferson experienced both. Dr. Malone has more distinctly, of course, than in Volume I, achieved his objective of relating the man but the author holds to his purpose of keep­ to his times in comprehensive fashion, though ing the study of Jefferson "true to his own with overmuch detail in some chapters. Yet chronology" so that we can see him at each the man is never lost sight of or obscured period of his career without distortions that by the setting. On such a large canvas he the sources of later years are likely to pro­ might well be at the hands of a scholar duce. Thus the completed portrait must wait equally learned but less accomplished as a until the final volume. However, Dr. Malone writer than the present biographer. Even if has performed an important duty of the we grant that such an outstanding figure as historian in correcting false impressions per­ Jefferson is not easily overshadowed, the petrated by Jefferson's contemporary critics reader has the satisfying feeling that the who lifted remarks of his out of their context story is moving forward in the descriptive or attributed them to other times and cir­ chapters, like "The Jefferson Circle" or "New cumstances for political purposes. His years York and the Court of George Washington," in France are portrayed as essentially happy as well as in the majority where narration ones, when the burdens of official duties were predominates. not onerous for long periods and there was To the diverse interests and activities of ample time for philosophical pursuits in true Jefferson in many fields the author has given eighteenth-century fashion. It is through this a unified treatment that attests his reflective milieu that the author brings us closest to thinking projected beyond the basic research. Jefferson among companions of his own kind This unity is suggested in his generalization or in quest of knowledge to satisfy his eager that "the glory of his [Jefferson's] career curiosity and to benefit his country. His rela­ owes less to the course he steered than to tions with Mrs. Maria Cosway, as a pursuit his guiding principles and ultimate objec­ only partially philosophical, are deftly re­ tives" (p. 234). While no one would contend counted with human understanding. In view­ that Jefferson's high principles are a new ing him as a diplomat advancing the interests discovery, amid the multiplicity of detail of the United States, we are impressed with in this biography the reader encounters these his realistic point of view; he was first of all

64 READERS CHOICE pro-American, not anti-British or pro-French. a comprehensive, orderly and detailed fashion. When he became Secretary of State the happy Professor Hunter regards the steamboat as a days were over, and he was inevitably drawn primary factor in the early rapid growth of into politics against his will. If his dread of the West. "In the development of the greater controversy was "little short of an obsession," part of the vast Mississippi basin from a raw if "what he most wanted was to be left alone" frontier society to economic and social ma­ (p. 358), these feelings may be tantamount turity the steamboat was the principal tech­ to confirming that he was a poor politician, nological agent." Its impact was accordingly although Dr. Malone does not draw that con­ enormous. "The growth of the West and the clusion in the present volume. He does em­ rise of steamboat transportation were in­ phasize as a weakness Jefferson's amiability separable: they were geared together and each in instinctively adjusting himself to the atti­ was dependent upon the other. The record tudes of other people because he hated to hurt of the steamboat's development reflected the anybody's feelings. This trait sharpens the horizontal extension of territorial settlement focus on his bitter feud with Hamilton, which and the upward climb from a plane of relative provides the dramatic climax of this volume. self-sufficiency to one of economic interde­ With keen perspective the author sketches pendence." The author also presents, perhaps Hamilton's financial program against the back­ with a touch of sadness, the story of the de­ ground of the Constitution which Jefferson cline of the steamboat business in the face of had accepted with reservations, and traces railroad competition. Although he recognizes the evolution of the latter's conviction that and deals with the unfair railroad competition the Hamiltonian system "flowed from princi­ to which the steamboat owners were subjected, ples adverse to liberty." In the ensuing rough he concludes, after a full examination of the and tumble of politics in which Jefferson was various elements involved: "The much con­ no match for his opponent, principles were demned policies and methods of the railroads, obscured by Hamilton's cries of "subversion." however, were not responsible for the decline In this historical account of the feud the of steamboating in any fundamental sense. Secretary of the Treasury fares badly—"worse . . . While railroads supplied frequent, fast, than I had expected," the author is "sorry to regularly scheduled, and reliable service, say." Thus another biographer of Jefferson steamboat operations were slow, uncertain has damned Hamilton, and with some pointed and unreliable." Fundamentally the steam­ evidence. The introduction to this volume is boat owners suffered from limitations and well worth re-reading after finishing the last rigidity inherent in a system of internal waterways. chapter. The book is divided into three parts, each LESTER J. CAPPON a substantial work. The first considers the ' Institute of Early American steamboat as an economic instrument and History and Culture, Williamsburg contains chapters on the development and spread of steamboating, structural and me­ Steamboats on the Western Rivers. An Eco­ chanical advance of steamboats, the work of nomic and Technological History. By river improvement, the techniques of steam­ LOUIS C. HUNTER with the assistance of boat operations, and steamboat accidents—a BEATRICE JONES HUNTER. (Harvard Uni­ chapter which in a sense measures the effec­ versity Press, Cambridge, 1949. Pp. xiii, tiveness and safety of this new contrivance. 684, with tables, illustrations, appendix, The second part is devoted to the story of index. $10.) steamboating as a business with chapters on A certain deliberateness in assigning this the business organization and operations, the book for review has prevented it from re­ passenger service, and steamboat labor. The ceiving an earlier notice in this Magazine. last part, entitled Peak and Decline, carries This study contains a full treatment of the the chronological account forward to the twentieth century. The book also contains a rise and decline of steamboating on the Ohio valuable appendix providing various data on and Mississippi Rivers—to the extent that steamboats and river shipping. the title suggests a wider coverage, it is mis­ leading—based upon painstaking and me­ This book wifl not soon be superseded. thodical research. The account is presented VERNON CARSTENSEN in clear prose and deals with its subject in University of Wisconsin

65 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN. 1952

Handbook of Wisconsin Indians. By the Indian Forest and Range: A History of the GOVERNOR'S COMMISSION ON HUMAN Administration and Conservation of the RIGHTS. (State Capitol, Madison. 1952. Redman s Heritage. By JAY P. KINNEY. pp. 80.) (Forestry Enterprises, Washington, D.C, It is well that the Governor's Commission 1950. Pp. 357. $4.50.) on Human Rights has compiled its present The author modestly refers to this work Handbook on Wisconsin Indians in order that as a compilation, which it plainly is. He has citizens of the State may understand more carefully searched the files of the Federal fully the "Indian problem." The major por­ Department of the Interior and his own mem­ tion of the book discusses Indian Reserva­ ory of a long experience in forestry for the tions—the home environment of the six In­ materials he sets forth; and he puts it all dian tribes, composed of some 12,000 in­ down at length with great care and without dividuals; their General Welfare under the the slightest touch of bitterness or malice. sub-heads: education, housing, public wel­ His carefulness leads him to treat each epi­ fare, health, economic status, reservation sys­ sode of his story separately and with full tem, and church missions; and the Services consideration of all factors involved; this re­ Provided by the Federal Government and sults in repetitious approaches to a single the Relationship of the State Departments. action, destroys continuity, and gives the It appears that the welfare of the Indians whole the character of an official report, has not received sufficient attention. Unfor­ a compilation indeed. It is easy to over­ tunately the federal government's withdrawal emphasize the unfortunate literary conse­ of special services to the Indians has been quences of his course. Mr. Kinney aimed at more rapid in recent years, with the result the production of a source document, and that many state departments have come into the person trying to form a judgment on his the picture to supply special and routine serv­ subjects: federal Indian policy, the lumber in­ ices to make up for some of the deficiencies. dustry, scientific management of forest and But apparently the crux of the matter lies range, and the conditions of Indian reserva­ in the fact that the State has little clearcut tions will find great help in what he has jurisdiction. The Commission states: "What accomplished in this volume. jurisdiction exists is inadequate. If the In­ Although the book is not for the picture dians are citizens of the state, to be accorded magazine addict or even for the general read­ the rights of all other citizens, then the state er, nevertheless the story in it has many in­ must have the authority to carry out the teresting aspects. For Wisconsin and Minne­ responsibilities for them. State civil jurisdic­ sota readers the development of lumbering tion over the Indians in Wisconsin is felt enterprises on the Indian reservations is a by most state officials to be an immediate subject well worth attention. Mr. Kinney par­ answer to the confusion and inadequacies of ticipated in them as a forester for the Federal authority." Some would like to see state crim­ Indian Service from 1910 to 1942 and relates inal jurisdiction as well. the events as an eyewitness as well as a The concluding pages contain an excellent careful administrator well acquainted with the summary of the problems as seen by the In­ history of his projects. The triumph of for­ dians themselves, by the ordinary citizens, estry conservation is revealed to be a truly and by the federal and state governments. remarkable feat of our recent history, The Commission believes that joint fed­ achieved as it was in the face of apparently eral and state planning is needed to better insuperable obstacles. The men who brought the conditions of the Indians though the permanent productive order to the reservation "evaluation of the reservation system as such forests had to oppose the might of the pow­ should receive priority." A long-range policy erful and occasionally unscrupulous lumber­ is needed urgently to meet this complex situ­ men of the late nineteenth century; they con­ ation. fronted the demand of conscientious but The Handbook is available in the libraries impractical and tendentious Indian agents of the State. Those who are especially in­ who wanted to use lumber operations to ac- terested in the subject should write to the Gov­ culturate the Indians as well as to get them ernor's Commission on Human Rights, State a little money; they struggled in the coils of Capitol, Madison, Wisconsin. the federal bureaucracy and pleaded for con­ LILLIAN KRUEGER sideration in Congress; they absorbed lacer­ State Historical Society of Wisconsin ating criticism from Indians and their parti-

66 READERS CHOICE

sans; and they fought among themselves. In states under the supervision of designers and Mr. Kinney's candid and fair-minded analysis museum workers who were familiar with the one gains sympathy for afl parties concerned. materials to be recorded. Data was obtained It is plain, for example, that it was hope­ and recorded on each object, and the objects less to struggle for scientific forest manage­ were selected from the collections of in­ ment on the reservations until scarcity dividuals as well as from museums. The brought timber prices up. The insistence of artists were then set to work making the the Indians on a chance to work and a few careful drawings and water-color renderings dollars a year from stumpage could not be which now comprise the Index. After six resisted by a humane person. Careful utiliza­ years the various projects were discontinued tion of wood waited on the development of because of World War II. Whether or not industrial chemistry, and the historical evolu­ additional work will ever be added to the tion of forest conservation culminated in se­ Index is now questionable, although a few lective cutting only after the development of proposals have been made toward that end. modern trucks and road building machinery. It is unfortunate that the renderings are so While this sequence unfolded on the reserva­ costly to produce and that color photography tions, as elsewhere, the Indian Service largely is not yet able to promise us the permanence succeeded in their objective of creating a we would like to have. However, it will un­ forest products industry to serve the dual doubtedly pay to wait for the development purpose of creating income and encouraging of more permanent color films before at­ the Indians to participate in normal eco­ tempting to continue the Index project. nomic activities. How this was done at Neo- Holger Cahill, national director of the Fed­ pit will particularly interest Wisconsin read­ eral Art Projects, has written an extensive in­ ers, as will the references to the leadership in troduction for the book which describes the the industry of such Wisconsin figures as Index and much that was to have been R. B. Goodman. achieved through it. He also expresses a de­ W. H. GLOVER sire which has been in the minds of many Historical Society, Buffalo who have been familiar with the Index: the desirability of making the renderings in the The Index of American Design. By ERWIN 0. Index readily available for use, and the hope that this book will partially satisfy that de­ CHRISTENSEN. (The Macmiflan Company, sire. It does. New York, and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C, 1950. Pp. xviii, The author, who is curator of the collection, 229, 378 illus. [115 in color]. $15.) has selected 378 fine examples which are This book presents an account and a well described in five major sections of text sampling of one of the art projects of the and illustrations. The selections are grouped WPA era. At that time it was, in a sense, into smaller units of materials related one one of the relatively less important projects, to another in such a way that Mr. Christensen has skillfully woven descriptions of the use but a present-day assessment of it must give or the making of the objects. He states in it greater importance as this book clearly his preface that objects known to have been shows. It should be of interest to the social imported were omitted from the Index, yet historian as well as the designer and anti­ a reading of the text and a glance at the quarian, and it is an excellent visualization illustrations show that many of the skills of many of the all but forgotten bits of our were merely transplanted by the early im­ heritage. migrants, and that it took some time to de­ The Index of American Design, which is velop an American tradition. now on file at the National Gallery of Art, There is a selected bibliography composed is composed of some 15,000 hand renderings chiefly of a large number of articles in such of articles of daily use and adornment in periodicals as Antiques, bulletins, and cat­ America from the early colonial period to alogues of exhibitions at various museums the close of the nineteenth century. It is and historical societies. Unfortunately the chiefly concerned with the objects produced citations of many interesting titles are in­ as handicraft in this country during the complete enough to require effort to locate first 200 years of the country's existence. The them for the reader with access to libraries Index was conceived as a means for faithfully with limited facilities. One other minor fault recording many of the remaining objects. is the lack of information as to the size of The projects were established in thirty-five the objects. If this information could have

67 W^ISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1952 been included in the List of Illustrations it ing story of an eccentric man. Although never would have added much to the valuable data ordained, Fridrichsen had served as pastor included in that list. to Lutheran congregations in Texas, Minne­ The distribution of examples is adequate sota, and Michigan before moving to Port­ when the predominance of materials up to land where, in 1871, he organized the Scandi­ 1850 is taken into consideration. There are navian Lutheran Congregation and built a ten examples from Wisconsin plus renderings church mostly at his own expense. Like of two Wisconsin carvings from old circus Hvistendahl, Pastor Fridrichsen devoted much wagons which ended their usefulness in Flor­ of his time and energy to advising his country­ ida. Wisconsin provided only 150 drawings men, particularly those located in the Middle to the Index so that it fared well in the final West, on the economic and other opportuni­ selection. Color slides of most of the Wis­ ties of the West Coast. consin drawings are available for study at The third contribution consists of the the Museum of the State Historical Society reminiscences of 0. B. Iverson reprinted, with of Wisconsin, and color slides of items re­ useful notes by Sverre Arestad, from the produced in the book are available commer­ Stanwood News (Washington). In these cially. Thus the hope that the materials in reminiscences Iverson tells the story of his the Index will be used is now possible through trip from South Dakota to the Puget Sound the book and slides. However, there is rel­ country by way of California in 1875 and atively little teaching at any level in our his early experiences as a traveler, surveyor, schools which concerns itself with these ma­ and land seeker in the Puget Sound area when terials, but we can hope that the appearance it was still a sparsely settled region of logging of books such as this will help to eliminate camps, sawmill towns, and scattered farms. some of this neglect. In the meantime the The account fully deserves the wider audience value of this book is in the presentation of it will now have. The remaining two chapters materials for our informal study and enjoy­ offer additional material on the Alaska gold ment, and the cost of the book is not un­ rush. The first of these consists of a group reasonable for all that is contained in it. of interesting letters written by participants. JOHN W. JENKINS Most of the letters were printed in the Wash­ State Historical Society of Wisconsin ington Posten (Seattle) and have been trans­ lated and edited by C. A. Clausen. The last is an engaging essay by Carl L. Lokke on Norwegian-American Studies and Records, the Scandinavian miners who moved from Vol. 16. Edited by THEODORE C BLEGEN. the Klondike to Nome and to the Kougarok. (Norwegian-American Historical Associ­ ation, Northfield, Minnesota. 1950. Pp. vi, Although these documents and studies pro­ vide only glimpses, at it were, of the activities 218. $2.50.) of Norwegian-Americans on the Pacific Coast, This volume, except for Jacob Hodnefield's this volume is a pleasant and welcome addi­ expected and useful list of recent publications tion to the literature of that region. relating to Norwegian-American history, con­ sists of studies and documents dealing with VERNON CARSTENSEN aspects of the life of the Scandinavian element University of Wisconsin on the Pacific Coast. Each contribution has something to recommend it. Kenneth Bjork's The Captive Island (198 pp.) and The study of the Rev. Christian Hvistendahl's Country of the Hawk (192 pp.) were written by August Derleth and came off the Aladdin mission gives a clear and detailed picture of Books press. New York, in the late summer. the work of this pioneer missionary who Both of these stories emerge from the Prairie sought to bring the Scandinavian element to­ of the Sac country—later the Wisconsin area gether to form a Lutheran congregation in —in the early 1800's. The reading level is San Francisco between 1870 and 1875. Be­ that of fifth and sixth grade pupils; the sides attending to his many duties as a minis­ stories relating to the siege and capture of ter, Hvistendahl found time to help improve Mackinac Island and to the Prairie settlers the difficult lot of Scandinavian sailors in and their encounters with Wisconsin Indians San Francisco and to give information and in the country of the Hawk will be read by advice to his countrymen who were interested the youngsters with avidity. The end papers in migrating to California. The Oregon are colorful maps of the regions to which the career of Norwegian-born Pastor Anders Emil stories relate. The books may be purchased Fridrichsen by Nora 0. Solum is an interest­ for $1.75 each.

68 READERS CHOICE

Our Storehouse of Missouri Place Names. By The format is attractively carried out, and Robert L. Ramsay. [Art and Science the unusual collection of pictures to illustrate Series, no. 7.] University of Missouri the pioneer day includes facsimiles of news­ Bulletin, vol. 53, no. 34. (University of paper pages, gas bills, menus, as well as a Missouri, Columbia, 1952. Pp. 160. 50 fine series of buildings occupied by the firm cents. Address: University Book Store, throughout the century. Interestingly written Columbia, Missouri.) is the company's story of progress; its presi­ Professor Ramsay has directed a series of dent is Dudley B. W. Brown. eighteen masters' theses on the subject of place names; with the help of these students' The West Bend Aluminum Company ob­ research he has compiled a master file of served forty years of progress, 1911-1951, Missouri place names. Scientific place-name by compiling a history of the firm (48 pp.)- study, says Professor Ramsay, has barely be­ It is dedicated to the members of the gun in our country. Scandinavia has done "Twenty-Five Year Club," and contains a more than any other place in the world; much picture and biographical sketch of each mem­ work has been done in Germany, Italy, and ber. In addition to the Club section there is France. Great credit is given the English a well-illustrated general history of the Alumi­ Place-Name Society for its single-volume num Company with a part devoted to World shire or county place-names studies, with War II production, showing amazing results considerably more than half of the coun­ when 300 different items were produced in try covered. Compared to what these foreign quantity. One of the industry's proudest slo­ countries have accomplished, "We have done gans is "When we make a new item, it must little more than set foot upon the fringe of be equal to or better than anything that is our own field," writes Professor Ramsay. already on the market." The company head The author discusses the place names of is A. C Kieckhafer. Missouri under the following heads: bor­ rowed names, historical names, personal Kenneth R. Hopkins, until recently curator names (local), topographical names, and cul­ of exhibits at the State Historical Society tural names. Unsolved names receive some Museum, has made known through the spring, attention and his concluding observations and 1952, issue of Art in America the almost com­ future place-name work close the volume. plete omission of Wisconsin's primitive paint­ ers in Jean Lipman's recently published and All publications noted hereafter may be authoritative Primitive Painters in America used at the Society's Library: 1750-1950. The lack of thorough investiga­ tion of the primitive artists' work in the "out­ The following books have been added to er regions" resulted in the inclusion of only the Genealogical collection: one artist, Paul Seifert. Mr. Hopkins writes Ethel C (Mrs. Charles) Cady, The De­ in his "Three Wisconsin Primitives" that scendants of John Mills Smith as of January "Wisconsin, at least among the mid-western 22, 1952. Mimeographed, 33 pp. Presented states, has had its own fair share of primitive by E. J. Tower, Milwaukee. Mrs. Cady's ad­ painters within a fine tradition of folk art." dress, 503 Porlier St., Green Bay, Wisconsin. The State Historical Society recently pre­ A. E. Montgomery, Descendants of Henry sented an exhibit of early Wisconsin painters and Maria (Tracy) Montgomery. Mimeo­ from its own Museum collection as a means graphed 12 pp. 1952. The gift of author, to bring to the attention of the public these 329 Sturges Parkway, Elmhurst, Illinois. early artists. Hopkins writes at length of George P. Nevitt, Descendants of Moses the trio which he considers "probably the Wheeler, New Haven, Vermont. Ill pp., n.d. most outstanding": Charles Dahlquist, Abra­ Mr. Nevitt's address, 73 West Algoma St., ham Ross Stanley, and John Gaddis. Some Oshkosh, Wisconsin. of their works are illustrated. Mrs. Freelove Pope, Elmina Pelton Briggs, Isabella A. Gas News (52 pp.) was issued by the Mil­ Dengel, and several anonymous Wisconsin waukee Gas Company, March, 1952, to com­ painters are included in the writer's list. In memorate the 100th anniversary of its found­ this State both amateur and professional art­ ing. The outside cover contains a facsimile ists are making the residents increasingly art of the original hand-written charter granted conscious. The Hopkins article is recom­ to the company—white script on light gray. mended as worthwhile reading in the field.

69 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1952

Some entertaining history is recorded in the Grafton Lions Club. In connection with the Belleville Centennial, 1851-1951, pam­ the celebration there was issued a neat pam­ phlet (32 pp.). The pictures of buildings, phlet entitled, Grafton, Wisconsin, a Story pioneers, and street scenes are excellent re­ of Industrial Progress (24 pp.). A short productions and add much to the appearance history introduces the booklet; eighteen in­ of the booklet. An item of 1901, a reminder dustrial plants are described and enhanced of "the good old days," was a chicken-pie by excellent pictures of the buildings in supper served by the Presbyterian Church which they are housed. From a letter written women at 16 cents a plate. The souvenir by Viflage President Richard C Bonner one brochure was compiled for the local Centen­ learns that "the bonded indebtedness of the nial observance in September, 1951. village has been entirely retired and a school building fund is already established which is An unusually attractive picture-story (70 substantially increased each year." The book­ pp.) was issued by Nash Motors, Kenosha, let is a gift from Ralph Zaun. revealing its progress over a fifty-year period. Contained in the attractive booklet are 158 The following church publications, marking pictures of Nash vehicles, with a brief de­ the anniversary dates of the founding of the scription of each, arranged in chronological churches, have come to the attention of the order. A study of these photographs reveals Society: the strides made by Nash Motors and the automobile industry. Beloit, Centennial, Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Willis H. Miller of Hudson has compiled 1852-1952 (10 pp.). and edited for the St. Croix County Historical Society its second publication. Marriages for Green Bay, Dedication, Congregation Cnesses St. Croix County, Wisconsin, 1852-1867 Israel, September 21-23, 1951 (113 pp.). (48 pp.). Unused funds from the county's Hudson, History of the First Baptist Church, Wisconsin Centennial appropriation were 1852-1952 (25 pp.). used to carry out the Society's publications project. Kenosha, Centennial of St. George's Parish [Catholic], 1851-1951 (63 pp.). The Milton Junction Fortnightly Club and Lodi, First Presbyterian Church, 1852-1952 the Courier have donated to the Society a copy of The Story of Milton Junction (51 (25 pp.). pp.) which they compiled recently. The nar­ Milwaukee, Golden Anniversary of St. Eliza­ rative begins with early settlement, log cabin beth's Parish [Catholic], 1902-1952 (47 construction, blacksmith shop operation, pp.). downtown development, a section on church history, railroads, hotels, lodges, and an ex­ Sister Bay, Seventy-five Year History of the tensive discussion of the Fortnightly Club. It Baptist Church, 1877-1952 (68 pp.). is profusely illustrated, and is an excellent Stone Bank, The First 100 Years of the Pres­ record of the community's growth. byterian Church, 1852-1952 (24 pp.). An Industrial Exposition in mid-May at Weyauwega, Centennial, First Presbyterian Grafton, Ozaukee County, was sponsored by Church, 1852-1952 (18 pp.). END

MEET THE AUTHORS (Continued from page 2)

A native of Milwaukee, ROBERT C. REIN­ sity in Austin, Texas, a position which he DERS obtained the A.B. degree at Notre still holds. "James G. Carson's Canebrake: Dame in 1947, and two years later the A view of an Ante-bellum Louisiana Plan­ M.A. at the same institution. He is a tation" is his contribution to the autumn member of Alpha Kappa Delta, honorary issue of the Louisiana Historical Quarterly. sociology fraternity. In 1949 Mr. Reinders Mr. Reinders is at present working tow^ard accepted an assistant professorship of his Ph.D. in American History at Texas American history at St. Edward's Univer­ University.

70 BROWN : WISCONSIN SUPREME COURT

THE WISCONSIN SUPREME COURT the different views and the outvoted justice (Continued from page 5) may agree to do so but, if he has become for five days. By then the appeals scheduled firmly convinced that his view was clearly for that month will have been heard, and right, he will decline to put his name to a the court will adjourn. The following ten contrary opinion which he believes to be days are devoted by the justices to a study bad law. The writing of the opinion will of the facts and the law applicable to the vari­ then be assigned to a member of the majority. ous appeals. In this study the record made When all the cases have been decided, the in the trial court is checked and the argu­ justices have approximately ten days in which ments made by the attorneys orally and in to prepare their opinions. These are care­ their briefs are reviewed, the authorities which fully written papers expressing the reason or they have cited are studied and much in­ reasons for the result reached by the court dependent research in the law is conducted. in the given case. After the opinions have In the appellate courts of many states the been written, they are circulated so that each chief justice assigns each case to an individual member of the court may read how his col­ member of the court who becomes primarily leagues have spoken for the court in their responsible for a report and recommendation several cases. Comment and criticism is ex­ upon it. In the Wisconsin court this responsi­ changed with a view to improving the state­ bility comes by rotation, the justices pairing ment of the controlling facts or law and in off with the cases in turn until each case has this period, too, an irreconcilable member, fallen to some justice for an initial report. after reading the majority opinion, has an A justice will ordinarily draw three or four opportunity to prepare a dissent if he cares such appeals per month for his special at­ to do so. A formal conference is held after tention but he is, of course, required to study the opinions have been circulated and studied, the whole list in order to debate each case in which a vote is taken on each opinion in conference with his associates and to to determine whether it shall be adopted as carry his share of the responsibility of de­ the voice of the court in that particular case. cision. Occasionally a case is held over for further When the study period has ended, the chief study or for a revision of the writing but justice calls a conference which lasts one or ordinarily, after so much preliminary atten­ two days, depending on how quickly decisions tion, the opinions are satisfactory to all as in the individual cases are reached. The con­ written and are accepted by the court as a ference is held around a large table in the body and handed to the clerk to file and court's conference room and is attended only to release to the press. This routine completes by the justices. The chief calls up the first a month, the first Monday of the succeeding appeal on the calendar, and the justice to month is at hand, and at half past one whom it has fallen recites its material facts o'clock in the afternoon the marshal of the and states the law which he deems applicable court again invokes silence and the court to such facts, and he recommends a decision enters upon the process of determining a new and the principle on which it should be based. series of appeals. The chief calls for a discussion of the re­ In addition to the hearing of appeals which port and acts as moderator when necessary. have come up from the lower courts there is When the case has been thoroughly debated, a considerable flow of motions and petitions a vote is taken and, if the majority agree presented to the court at odd times through­ with the reporting justice, he has the duty out the month on subjects which may or must of writing the opinion which will be printed be dealt with promptly. Besides being numer­ in the official reports for the information of ous, such matters are endless in the variety lawyers and the trial courts. If the vote goes of their circumstances. An election year is against that justice, he is asked whether he particularly prolific in matters which are is willing and able to write the opinion in alleged to be purely questions of law upon accordance with the prevailing view. In some undisputed facts and which the petitioners in­ close cases there is little to choose between sist are of so great urgency and importance

71 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1952 to the whole State that they should not pro­ and to his wages, regardless of whether the gress slowly through the lower courts before employer or even the injured person, himself, the point of law in question reaches the su­ was at fault. This law took a great load of preme court for determination. Under such personal injury trials away from the courts circumstances applications are made for the though that load was quickly replaced by an supreme court to "take original jurisdiction," increasing number of claims arising out of which is permissible when the question is automobile accidents. To comply with con­ one of law alone, the need for prompt de­ stitutional requirements, appeals from the in­ cision is great, and the question is one dustrial commission to the courts were au­ which affects the interest or welfare of thorized, and thus the courts commenced a the public as a whole. There may also be new task of dealing with law as it applies to applications for writs of habeas corpus, made the jurisdiction and practices of the admin­ by persons who allege that they are illegally istrative agencies of the State. The public imprisoned or otherwise restrained and de­ satisfaction with the workings of the com­ prived of liberty; and applications for writs pensation act and the supervision of work­ to compel a lower court to do one thing or ing conditions by the industrial commis­ forbid it from doing something else. All must sion was influential in extending public be dealt with as quickly as possible but all regulation of industry and commerce. Com­ require time and study outside that which missions which antedated the industrial is required by the regularly scheduled appeals. commission were given increased powers In 1912 Chief Justice John B. Winslow and responsibility, with rights of appeal published a book^ in which he characterized provided, and new commissions were cre­ the period from 1853 to 1880, when Chief ated, so that much of the work of the Justice Ryan died, as one in which the basic modern supreme court is concerned with ap­ principles of Wisconsin jurisprudence were peals by private individuals or corporations established, with later work to consist largely from the decisions of these regulatory bodies. of working out the details and adapting those Moreover, both state and national govern­ principles to changing conditions. Even as ments through legislative and administrative the chief justice was writing these words, a action are constantly testing the legal limits sweeping change occurred. With the growth of public control over the independence of of large corporations and of extensive in­ the individual, thus continually producing dustries employing large numbers of men and many new controversies for judicial deter­ women who had little personal association mination. Much has happened, not only since with each other, there came a great increase Ryan's death but even since Justice Winslow in the number of damage suits growing out wrote his book, to make premature Winslow's of injuries sustained by employees in the statement that the work of the courts in es­ course of their work. Not only were the tablishing the fundamental propositions of courts choked with the number of such suits, the law had been largely completed, and but the public became dissatisfied with the that little more than the smoothing out of existing law itself as it applied to industrial details remained for the court's attention. accidents. The Legislature responded to the In declaring the principles applicable to such public demand by enacting the Workmen's new developments Justice Winslow, himself, Compensation Law, whereby the facts con­ took a leading part, and his own opinions in cerning an industrial accident are determined this field take rank with the best of those not by a court but by the industrial com­ which he praised in his Story of a Great mission. If it appears that the injury was re­ Court. ceived while the party was performing serv­ While this article has touched upon the ice for his employer and was due to the appointment or election of members of the employment, the commission awards compen­ supreme court and on the nature of their sation geared to the extent of his disability work, and has shown that the citizens have the power, rarely used, to discontinue a ^John B. Winslow, Story of a Great Court (Chi­ cago, 1912). justice's services at the end of his term by

72 BROWN : WISCONSIN SUPREME COURT refusing to elect him to another, there re­ appointment, from all sections of the State mains the question of the removal of a justice and with preliminary environment and train- midway in his term if he is corrupt or in­ ing of every sort; they have served the pub­ competent. The constitution provides that lic in turbulent times of war and peace when this may be done by address of both houses popular feeling has run high, but the oc­ of the Legislature or by impeachment. The casion for such removal of a justice of the court has existed for nearly 100 years, its Supreme Court of the State of Wisconsin has jurists have come to it by election and by not yet arisen. END

SOUTHPORT'S TERRITORIAL CHURCHES There is a certain fascination in reading wish that "it be handed down to poster­ frontier history be it church, industrial, ity as a proof of the good feeling which political, or other. When diaries, remi­ now exists between citizens of all reli­ niscences, letters, and newspapers are gious denominations in the village. . . ." used in preparation, one may expect to The Episcopalian parish was created find that another generation is truly in 1840. Helping with labor and funds, brought to life. So it is with this brief their chapel was ready in late 1842. history. Miss Carrie Cropley has worked Finances were troublesome, not only painstakingly through such sources and when considering building sites but in has tried to portray the piety of the the completion of edifices. A halt in period (1835-1845) as it really was; construction was not uncommon. Pews her account brings the feeling that, on were sold in the new $5,000 Methodist the whole, "all was right" with the Chapel in 1843, deeds given to the frontier church. purchasers. This supplementary income The beginning services in Southport was welcome, but the pews were re­ (now Kenosha) were community af­ linquished when it was felt that the fairs; with increase in settlement de­ building was really owned by a stock nominational groups began to function, company. A similar incident took place their phenomenal cooperation transcend­ among the Congregationalists but ended ing creeds. peaceably. In the spring of 1840 the Baptists, The ministers, priests, and lay leaders Congregationalists, and Methodists spon­ adapted themselves to the rugged era sored a community revival; at its close and, with few exceptions, their faith the converts selected the denominations was equal to their tasks. which they wished to join. Among the Puritanical church discipline was forty that affiliated with the Congrega­ enforced; suspensions and expulsions tional Church were Colonel and Mrs. occurred. Louis P. Harvey, prominent Michael Frank. During this decade Congregationalist, later governor, was members could visit the Quarterly Con­ censured for journeying from Southport ferences of other denominations; it is to Madison on the Sabbath. Violations recorded that Colonel Frank was found by the Baptists were not condoned in the camp of the Methodists. whether these related to the use of pro­ The Catholics were saying Mass in fane language, family broils, or visiting the basement of St. Mark's (now St. on Sunday. .lames) Church while the edifice was Curator Cropley's 34-page mimeo­ being constructed. The cooperation graphed history of Southport's terri­ which they enjoyed is noted in an old torial Baptist, Catholic, Congregational, record book of St. Mark's. The trustees Episcopal, and Methodist churches is were most grateful to the Protestants worth-while reading. Copies may be for liberally subscribing toward the had for 50 cents plus postage. Address: building. The donors' list contained 67 Kenosha County Historical Society Mu­ names, and the trustees expressed the seum, Kenosha.

73 that log trains of such size were typical. They certainly were not; the typical logging car of the nineties carried no more than five thousand board feet at most. The passage in question was intended to say that, although the railroad was fairly typical in its layout and operations, its reputed achievement was quite unusual. In my original manuscript the sentence ended with the words, "each [car] carrying, according to a newspaper ac­ count, the almost incredible amount of twenty-five thousand board feet of logs." Through an oversight which was entirely my fault the words here italicized were dropped CaUing Author Fries from the sentence during the process of In Empire in Pine ... on page 88 men­ preparing the manuscript for the printer. I tion is made of the Chippewa River and am glad to have this opportunity to correct Menomonie Logging RR hauling trains made the erroneous impression thus created. up of from 40 to 60 cars each carrying about Chicago, Illinois ROBERT FRIES 25,000 board feet of logs. This would mean a minimum of one million feet of logs per Restoration of ViUa Louis trip and a daily haul of five million feet. It is with deep appreciation I acknowledge I can say for your information that a load the beautiful tribute of the State Historical of from 2,500 to 3,000 feet on a single-bunk Society of Wisconsin in recognition of my skeleton type car is a good average load and restoration of Villa Louis. that the locomotive of that day would find it This was indeed a big undertaking, cover­ a difficult matter to handle more than 20 ing over fifteen years of intensive effort— cars loaded to capacity. practically unaided but persisted in as a Detroit^ Michigan O. G. ERICKSON labor of love. The old house was dismantled and in a Fries Replies sad state of disintegration when I took hold The statistics to which Mr. Erickson takes of it, and through the backing of my hus­ exception were published in 1890 by the Eau band Mr. F. R. Bigelow I was enabled to Claire Free Press, a newspaper which was accomplish its restoration. This had been my edited by a man well acquainted with the mother's dream as well as mine. lumber industry and which was read by hun­ I rejoice that this is completed—not only dreds of people active in all phases of lum­ for the sake of the family, and my own per­ bering. Although the Free Press occasionally sonal association and love of the old home— printed corrections of errors that had been but for the honor of the State of Wisconsin. called to its attention by readers, it did not Above all I rejoice that the State Historical publicly admit any error in the figures Mr. Society will supervise and preserve it all. Erickson questions. I believe it is reasonably Thanking you again for your fine award, safe to conclude that contemporaries who that I will cherish always. were in a position to know considered the published account to be accurate. For this VIRGINIA DOUSMAN BIGELOW (MRS. F. R.) reason I judged the data to be valid enough La Jolla, California to include in the book. Editor's Note: Mrs. Bigelow was voted an However, in its context the sentence men­ Award of Merit, the Society's highest award, tioned by Mr. Erickson gives the impression at the Eagle River Convention.

74 SINCERELY YOURS

Henry D. Lloyd Papers Paul Revere's Horse Again My mother wishes me to express to you One day the reference assistant got a tele­ her appreciation and that of our family of phone request for the name of Paul Revere's the fine work which you have done in gather­ horse. She realized the answer would be ing and preserving the Henry D. Lloyd pa­ difficult to find and took the caller's tele­ pers. It has always given her and us a phone number. Then she turned the library great sense of satisfaction that his papers upside down and inside out to find the an­ are collected in one place where they will swer. The nearest she came to it was that be preserved and made available to scholars. Paul Revere didn't own a horse but borrowed New York LLOYD GOODRICH one from a friend whose name was Larkin. When she called back to report that she Aerial Field Trip was unable to find the horse's name, the Just a note in appreciation of the fine trip inquirer told her it really wasn't so impor­ we had two weeks ago in your aerial field tant. One of his friends had just bought a flight. It was well planned and efficiently "jalopy" and, since they expected to do con­ managed. siderable night riding around the countryside, Waterloo, Iowa HOWARD B. HOLMES they thought the name of Paul Revere's horse would be an appropriate name for the car. Carpenters' Custom Washington, D.C. HILDA STEINWEG During the summer the house shown in the picture was under construction in Man­ itowoc. It illustrates the Old World custom of attaching a small tree to the gable end Library Presented With a Globe of the building, indicating the completion of The University of Wisconsin Class of the frame. Literally ''raising the roof" was 1927 marked its twenty-fifth reunion last done at this time by the workmen while June by presenting to its Alma Mater a making merry over a barrel of beer supplied by the builder. mammoth fifty-inch globe which will be placed in a special room in the new Some time ago one of your correspondents Memorial Library now under construc­ asked about the custom which he thought tion. An accurately drawn map, its defunct of placing on the frame of a newly scale 157.8 to the inch, printed in 74 erected barn a small tree or bush. To show sections, was carefully hand-mounted. that the custom is still alive I enclose a More than 17,000 place names appear picture from our daily. on this great sphere, which will become Manitowoc R. G. PLUMB a special feature in the library, symbol­ izing the global aspects of the service given by Wisconsin men and women in World War 11. Early in the war the globe was con­ ceived by the Office of Strategic Serv­ ices, and models were presented to Presi­ dent Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and to the joint chiefs of staff. Later copies became available commercially. Some 200 individual contributions to the gift fund of approximately $2,600 made possible the purchase of this hand­ some globe.

Tree Atop Gable WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN. 1952

Models of Gates, Patented by Joseph G. Barber, Brodhead, Green County, July 15, 1890, No. 432,354

ACCESSIONS

Museum the above name, but it was estimated that the The Society is fortunate in having among its cabinet was between fifty and seventy-five membership a number of collectors who take years old. If any of our readers know about pleasure in finding materials for the Mu­ the origin and history of these cabinets, we seum's coflections. Outstanding examples of would appreciate receiving the information. such people are Colonel Howard Greene of Another gift of the Middletons serves to Christiana, Delaware, and the F. C. Middle- demonstrate the luck of collectors at auctions. tons of Madison. The former has, through Recently they attended an auction at Brodhead the years, contributed many fine and interest­ where fence gate models were purchased by ing examples of early rural implements and Mr. Middleton on the off chance that they utensils. The Middletons have, over a period might have some interest for us. The patent of years, given us the major portion of our date "July 15, 1890" was lettered on one of the collection of Pauline Pottery made at Edger- models and with this it was determined from ton in the late 1880's. More recently they the U.S. patent records that these were models have donated or purchased a variety of items of gates invented by Joseph G. Barber of for us. Among these have been ice and roller Brodhead, Green County, "to provide a gate skates, a sausage grinder from the 1870's, a of simple and comparatively inexpensive con­ sewing machine, a sheet-metal kitchen cabinet struction, adapted to be readily opened with­ complete with bins and compartments for out the necessity of dismounting from a horse flour, meal, sugar, rice, coffee and grinder, or leaving a vehicle and capable of being tea, spices, and household accounts records. securely held in its open and closed positions The cabinet has enameled decorations, a mir­ and of being automaticafly released there­ ror, and the name "Mound City Safe" on from when operated to return it from the front. The overaH size is 3U' wide, 351/^" one position to the other." We have not high, 19'' deep at the base and 13" deep lit yet determined whether or not Mr. Barber's the top. There is no identification other than gate was manufactured and sold, and again

76 ACCESSIONS

we would appreciate receiving more informa­ way and Transport Company. This concern tion if such is known to our readers. has made arrangements to turn over to the Society's collection copies of a substantial Of more current interest in this an election portion of their photo file and, when this year are a number of political campaign and transaction is completed shortly, it will make convention materials received from Raymond available one of the finest groups of local J. Shroble of Milwaukee and from Assembly­ transportation photographs (1888-1952) any­ woman Ruth B. Doyle of Madison. In recent where in the country. years, with the exception of Mrs. Doyle, few politicians have contributed such materials, Another .project has involved the acquisi­ so that our collections lack the buttons, tion of photographs of curators of the State badges, posters, handbills, cards, and the Historical Society. We are happy to report other colorful illustrative ballyhoo of political that almost all members of the board have campaigns. Consequently many examples of complied with the request for photos. In such material are lost to us unless the mem­ addition to supplying us with their likenesses, bers of the Society interest themselves in col­ the curators have enabled the Society to pre­ lecting these materials for us. serve the techniques of various portrait pho­ tographers, such as Fabian Bachrach, who Other accessions include a New Model are represented in the pictures submitted. Crandall portable typewriter, manufactured at Through Mrs. Seymour Stedman of Chicago Groton, New York, a gift from Duane J. we have added 66 photographs of some of Marshall of Wauwatosa. A great variety of the most prominent Socialists in the move­ costume items have been received from ment. Gladys Bowman, Kenosha; Mrs. Nels Hokan- The Historical and Philosophical Society son, Madison; J. E. Swift Teal, Wilmette, of Ohio at Cincinnati sent 11 photos of Illinois; Mrs. Melvin Laird, Marshfield; the Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, area of eighty Frank Welch, Janesville; Helen Kellogg, Mad­ years ago. ison; and Hazel Russell, Oregon, Wisconsin. Dr. Herbert Kuhm of Milwaukee has pre­ A beautiful India shawl was donated by Mar­ sented 45 colored slides of cemeteries and garet Easton through Mrs. Burr Jones; a tombstones throughout Wisconsin. Paisley shawl and a handmade quilt, both dating from the 1860's, were given by Mar­ Otto Kowalke of Madison donated 25 neg­ garet Shelton of Madison. atives of Mineral Point houses and of statues of Lincoln and Black Hawk. Mary and Margaret Elizabeth Morse of C. S. Brigham, director of the American Viroqua gave a number of household items. Antiquarian Society at Worcester, Massa­ Ed Lund of Shell Lake donated two bayonets chusetts, sent three photos of a pioneer and a range finder, Mrs. John Kingston of Ripon family, the Joseph Agers. Madison gave a baby's cradle. A fine Senator Alexander Wiley was kind enough physician's bag of alligator skin filled with to supply us with three photos of himself. equipment was received from Dr. William D. C. Everest donated a photograph of the Fitzgibbon of Milwaukee. Doty "Loggery" at Neenah taken over sixty years ago which he had received from John An oil on canvas portrait of Robert Laird Stevens of Appleton. Mr. Stevens has a large McCormick, a former president of the Society collection of photos of the Fox River valley (1901-04) was received from his son, W. L. area. McCormick of Tacoma, Washington. Manuscripts A number of noteworthy photographs have also been added to the collections. In con­ Recently acquired by the Society is a col­ nection with a record of Wisconsin men who lection of manuscripts of national significance have won the Congressional Medal of Honor, and interest, the papers of Morris Hillquit, the Society has collected photographs of most New York attorney, author, and Socialist. of the more than fifty winners of that dis­ Born in Latvia in 1869, Hillquit as a youth tinguished award. came with his family to the United States, where he became a clerk in the national office Six photographs of streetcars and busses of the Socialist Labor Party. By 1899 he were donated by the Milwaukee Electric Rail­ was one of the leaders of an insurgent group

77 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1952 who left the Socialist Labor Party and joined a small group of papers, 1913-1947, of the new Social Democratic Party. After two Seymour Stedman. A Chicago lawyer, Sted­ years of conflict among rival factions, unity man was active in the Socialist Party after and reorganization resulted in the establish­ 1900, and in 1913 was one of five Socialists ment of the Socialist Party in July, 1901. elected to serve in the Illinois Legislature. Thereafter, Hillquit retained a position of Among the papers presented by his wife, Mrs. leadership within the Socialist movement un­ Seymour Stedman of Chicago, Illinois, are til his death in 1933. Unsuccessfully he letters from Theodore Debs, Morris H. Wolf, sought political offices on the Socialist ticket, Daniel W. Hoan, and John L. Lewis. with five campaigns for congressman and two The papers of Edward Daniels, one of for mayor of New York. He attended several Wisconsin's early but little known men of of the International Socialist Congresses in science, are a recent gift from the Nebraska Europe. As a lawyer he was concerned with Historical Society. Appointed by Governor the defense of party members in numerous Leonard Farwell in 1853 as the first State legal cases. geologist of Wisconsin, Daniels, a young man The eleven boxes of his correspondence, of twenty-five years of age, had hardly begun 1899-1933, contain informative material on his survey before Governor William A. Bar- the factional disputes among the founders of stow replaced him with James G. Percival. the Socialist Party in the early years of the In 1857, however, Daniels was again ap­ twentieth century, the establishment of the pointed as one of the commissioners of the Rand School of Social Science in 1905, the expanded Geological Survey. This position friendship of Hillquit and Maxim Gorky in he resigned in 1861 in order to organize 1906, the International Socialist Congresses, the First Wisconsin Cavalry, in which he political campaigns, and several of the served as colonel until 1863. After the Civil court cases in which Hillquit participated. War he became associated with Horace White A roster of his correspondents would read in coal mining investments in Illinois. By almost like a "Who's Who in American So­ the 1870's Daniels began to turn his at­ cialism," for the collection contains numerous tention to social and political reform move­ letters from Job Harriman, William Mailly, ments in the United States and Mexico. In Benjamin Hanford, Eugene V. Debs, Victor Virginia he attempted to establish a co­ Berger, George D. Herron, Norman Thomas, operative farm and a cooperative industrial Upton Sinclair, and Gustavus Myers. Hillquit school, projects which proved unsuccessful was also widely acquainted with Socialist and impoverished him. Sporadically he still leaders abroad, and among his regular cor­ engaged in scientific work, and in 1883 went respondents were Camille Huysman, Emile to Minnesota for brief service as curator and Vandervelde, August Babel, Karl Kautsky, corresponding secretary of the St. Paul Acad­ Frederick Adler, Arthur Henderson, and Ram­ emy of Science. His papers are completely sey MacDonald. Until World War I Hillquit lacking in material on the last sixteen years apparently made or saved few copies of his of his life, but the collection does include outgoing letters, but in later years he more his notes for the Geological Survey of Wiscon­ frequently kept carbons of his replies to in­ sin in the 1850's, correspondence concerning coming mail. his varied activities in the Middle West and In addition to the correspondence, the col­ in Virginia, several of his speeches on behalf lection includes a number of Hillquit's of the cooperative movement, sixteen diaries speeches, seventeen scrapbooks of clippings in the period from 1862 to 1894, and seven relating both to his own career and to the miscellaneous notebooks. Among his cor­ Socialist movement, and one volume of con­ respondents were Horace White, J. A. Noonan, gratulatory messages to him on his sixtieth Eleazer Root, S. V. Shipman, Jeremiah Rusk. birthday which was prepared and bound for T. 0. Howe, Simeon Mills, Increase A. Lap­ him by the Socialist Party. A fine addition ham, James HaU, Byron Kilbourn, Silas Chap­ to the Society's manuscripts, the Morris Hill­ man, Lucius Fairchild, Edward H. Rogers, quit Papers are the gift of his daughter. Miss and Booker T. Washington. Nina Hiflquit, of New York City. A slender but highly interesting volume Another complement to the Society's manu­ recently acquired is a diary from October 17. scripts pertaining to Socialism and labor is 1838 to July 5, 1839 kept by John Plumbe,

78 ACCESSIONS

Jr., a native of Wales who had arrived in Elizabeth Comstock of Arcadia; typewritten Dubuque, Iowa, in 1836 at the age of twenty- copies of a letter of Joseph McCloud to Lewis seven. Ambitious, energetic, and imaginative, McCloud, dated at Bayfield, March 6, 1859, Plumbe was an enthusiastic booster of the and a letter written by H. N. Ross to Mrs. West. His diary gives information on sev­ Agatha McCloud concerning the history of eral of his promotional ventures: his owner­ Bayfield, both presented by Mrs. McCloud ship and management of the boom town of through courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Sinipee located near present Potosi, the writ­ Society; a book containing records of lands ing and publication of his Sketches of Iowa held in Wisconsin, 1857-60, by Asa Porter and Wisconsin, and his ceaseless efforts not of New York, presented by the Connecticut only in behalf of wagon roads and railroads State Library; a diary from 1860 to 1863 from Milwaukee and Racine to Sinipee but kept by William A. Herron, and two diaries also in favor of a railroad from Chicago to from 1874 to 1880 and an account book kept the Pacific coast. Sinipee, however, failed by George E. Morse, presented by Miss Eliza­ to prosper and within a few years disap­ beth Mary Morse; a typewritten paper on peared. Embittered by this and other later the strike of miners in Cripple Creek, Colo­ disappointments, Plumbe committed suicide rado, in 1902, written and presented by in 1857 without seeing the fulfillment of his Joseph Reed of Columbia, Missouri, through dream of a transcontinental railroad. In his courtesy of the University of Wisconsin Li­ diary of 1838-39, however, he recorded with brary; a certificate of the appointment of optimism the details of his life in Dubuque Myron H. Orton as notary public, signed by and Sinipee—the platting of the town; the Governor Coles Bashford on February 18, erection of buildings; the arrival of settlers, lumber raftsmen, and steamboats; his ship­ 1857, and a receipt dated December 19, 1853 ments of lead; the railroad meetings; and his to Simeon Mills for his purchase of a lot search for material to include in his Sketches. in Madison, presented by Dr. Joseph G. Of particular Wisconsin interest were his re­ Charlier of Los Angeles, California; a typed lations with Byron Kilbourn, James D. Doty, paper on Wisconsin's first county agricultural and W. R. Smith, and his mention of numer­ representatives, written and presented by K. ous other early inhabitants in the southwest­ L. Hatch of Madison; a letter of Lucius ern part of the State, but it may be noted Fairchild to Clinton H. Meneely, March 14, that he wrote almost as frequently of men 1894, presented for addition to the Fairchild and events on the Iowa side of the Mississippi Papers by Mrs. Warner Taylor of Madison; as of those in Wisconsin. a statement of reasons for being a Uni- versalist written by Benjamin Piper in 1862, Other manuscript accessions include: a presented by Mrs. Charles E. Piper of Madi­ typewritten manuscript biography of Emanuel son; a letter written by H. W. Glasier, prin­ L. Philipp, written by John G. Gregory, pre­ cipal of Sextonville School in Richland sented for addition to the Philipp Papers by County, and dated May 8, 1866, presented Cyrus Philipp of Milwaukee; an undated let­ by Gilson Glasier of Madison; a typed paper ter by Major Alvah Philbrook during his Civil concerning the Houghton family, pioneer set­ War service in the Twenty-fourth Regiment tlers near Whitewater, and their associations of Wisconsin Volunteers and four letters with John F. Appleby, written by Mrs. Cecile pertaining to him presented for addition to Houghton Stury of Milwaukee, and a typed the Philbrook Papers by his granddaughter, paper on railroad land grants prepared by Mrs. Olive C. Cadbury, Glen Moore, Pennsyl­ John M. Bernd, both presented by Wilbur H. vania; microfilm of the journal of Samuel Glover of Madison; a mimeographed bio­ J. Thompson of the Tenth Regiment of In­ graphical sketch of Gilbert Zalmon Simmons, diana Volunteers, dated August 26, 1861 to Kenosha pioneer and businessman, presented July 20, 1864, made from the original loaned by his granddaughter, Mrs. James R. Ander­ to the Society by Mrs. Noel Thompson of son; photostats of five letters written by Madison; a typed paper entitled "The Story Leonard Farwell in 1873 and 1874 concern­ of Sheboygan County," written and presented ing land in Worth County, Missouri, made by Gustave W. Buchen; an account book for from originals in the Western Historical 1865 kept by Noah D. Comstock and a diary Manuscripts Collection of the University of for 1869 kept by his wife, Eflen Comstock, in Missouri; typewritten autobiography of Alexis Arcadia, presented by their daughter. Dr. Crane Hart, written in 1925-26, covering the

79 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN. 1952 years of his childhood and youth in Jefferson Warren for the Republican nomination for and Trempealeau counties until 1863, pre­ President, written and presented by Philip F. sented by his grandson, Evan A. Hart of Mil­ La Follette of Madison; a mimeographed waukee; a letter written by Willis Chase, paper on the third trial of General Fitz John October 28, 1863, concerning service in the Porter, presented by Evalina Porter Doggett First Wisconsin Cavalry, presented by Mrs. of Montclair, New Jersey; a brief postal Clinton B. Clevenger of Raleigh, North Caro­ history of Milwaukee, compiled and presented lina; typed autobiography of Hannibal Lugg by Arthur Hecht of Washington, D.C; a who emigrated from England to Racine in photostat of an ordinance dated August 8. 1842, presented by Mrs. Olive Turnbull of 1727 and signed by Claude Thomas Dupuy, Racine; a mimeographed letter, dated August intendant of Canada, prohibiting the shooting 30, 1950, by William E. Sanderson soliciting of wild pigeons within the city of Quebec, support for his candidacy as Democratic presented by A. W. Schorger of Madison; and nominee for United States senator; a volume two third grade teachers' certificates issued of records, 1869-81, of the Congregational in Sauk County in 1868, presented by Mrs. Church at Osborn, presented by the Wiscon­ Morse H. Markley of Newburg, Missouri. sin Congregational Conference; a volume of Through the courtesy of Dr. Edgar L. records, 1876-1907, of the Frankville Congre­ gational Church, presented by Mrs. Frederick Erickson of the University of Iflinois. the E. Volk of Madison; an unfinished autobi­ McCormick Collection of the Society has re­ ography of Annie Fryar Hutchinson, friend cently acquired, from G. M. Wilcox, of of Jane Addams and nurse at Hull House, and Park Forest, Illinois, the Civil War Collec­ a biographical sketch of Mrs. Hutchinson by tion of Major Joseph H. Spencer of the her daughter, Aileen Fryar Hutchinson, of United States Signal Corps. This material Hollywood, California, the donor of both includes 196 letters and documents (compris­ papers; a group of three letters written by ing 405 manuscript sheets) originating with Clara Barton and miscellaneous papers per­ Major Spencer; the old leather trunk and taining to her, presented by Mrs. Olga H. army field desk, inkwell stand, and camp Dana of Kewaunee; a collection of typewrit­ chair that went with Spencer through his ten poems dedicated to the University of campaigns; the honorary flag given to his Wisconsin, written and presented by Marie regiment at the Battle of Winchester; and the Pomeroy Grove of Boulder, Colorado; micro­ Army-Navy Journal, volume 1, August 29. film of selected manuscripts from the Fred­ 1863-August 20, 1864. The collection con­ erick Jackson Turner Papers in the Hunting­ tains important information concerning the ton Library, presented by Fulmer Mood of history and development of the United States Austin, Texas; a statement, dated March 11. Signal Corps, with whose activities Spencer 1952, in support of the candidacy of Earl was closely identified. END

Restoration of Old Salem, N.C. Old Salem, now in the heart of Win­ the reconstruction. Several grants from ston-Salem, North Carolina, was found­ national organizations and local busi­ ed by Pennsylvania Moravians in 1753. ness concerns have been made. One Buildings here date from as early as house has been purchased and restored; 1767; the Home Moravian Church, be­ another constructed in 1819 has been gun in 1798, is the center of Moravian given to the group. A scale model, as activities in the South. of 1830, has been made of the town Known as one of the best preserved and is being used as a guide in the proj­ sections of its type in this country, its ect. The restoration cost is estimated restoration is being promoted by "Old at $2,500,000; its completion hoped for Salem, Inc.," composed of local citizens in 1966. who are raising funds and supervising From History News, March, 1952.

80 BOOKS ABOUT WISCONSIN

EMPIRE IN PINE: lYxe Story of Lumbering Dr. Current has sought to present a true portrait in Wisconsin, 1830-1900, by Robert Fries. of this man who was a product of that age.

This is the first comprehensive history of lum­ 330 pages; 31 illustrations . . Priced at $4.00 bering in Wisconsin. It tells the story of lum­ bermen, timber speculators, lumberjacks, river- A MERRY BRITON IN PIONEER WISCON­ men, steamship and railroad companies, and SIN: Reprint from an anonymous narrative, conservationists of the period. now rare, entitled Life in the Wesf. The author 285 pages; 44 illustrations . . Priced at $4.00 of this little travel narrative, whose identity is unknown, was an Englishman who visited the United States in 1841. He set down, in a IT HAPPENED HERE: Stories of Wisconsin, delightfully colloquial style, a wealth of detail by Margaret Henderson, Ethel Speerschneider, about the settled portion of Wisconsin. and Helen Ferslev. This is a collection of stories for children of age nine and older. It gives 108 pages Priced at $2.00 them a rounded picture of the state's develop­ ment since the white man's arrival. Many of THREE HUNDRED YEARS AMERICAN, by the stories, such as those about the fur trade Alice and Betinna Jackson. This is a new kind and the Indians, will appeal to the children of of genealogy—the narrative of a family told any American community. against its historical background of place and time. It traces the history of the Jackson, 266 pages Priced at $2.00 Hobbins, Badger, Hurd, and Russell families from Tudor England to Massachusetts, and the PINE LOGS AND POLITICS: A Life of migration of the Joseph Hobbins family to Philetus Sawyer, 1816-1900, by Richard Wisconsin in the Mid-nineteenth century. The Current. The era spanned by the career of Misses Jackson spent twenty-five years in re­ Philetus Sawyer was an era of vast natural search and gathering material, part of it from resources awaiting exploitation; of self-made a remarkable collection of family diaries, let­ men to whom wealth was the just reward of ters, and notebooks. vision and enterprise; of political techniques 368 pages; 21 illustrations; 6 genealogical often based on dubious uses of that wealth. charts Priced at $4.00

Order from THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN 816 STATE STREET • MADISON 6, WISCONSIN THE PURPOSE OF THIS SOCIETY SHALL BE To promote a wider appreciation of the Amer­ ican heritage with particular emphasis on the collection, advancement, and dissemination of knowledge of the history of Wisconsin and of the Middle West.