VOLUME 41 NUMBER 3

SPRING, 1958 These are the hands of drudgery.

They guide no brush, they wield no pen.

ON THE COVER They are their own annals, their own record of survival.

These are the hands of the historyless.

These are the hands of history.

The WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY is published by the State Historical Society of Wis­ consin, 816 State Street, Madison 6, Wisconsin. Distributed to members as part of their dues (Annual Membership, $5.00; Contributing, $10; Business and Professional, S25; Life, $100; Sustaining, $100 or more annually; Patron, $1,000 or more annually). Yearly subscription, $5.00; single numbers. $1.25. As of July 1, 1955, introductory offer for NEW members: annual dues $1.00; such new members may subscribe to the Magazine for an additional $4.00. Com­ munications should be addressed to the editor. The Society does not assume responsibility for statements made by contributors. Entered as second-class matter at the post office at Madison, Wisconsin, under the act of August 24, 1912. Copyright 1958 by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. Paid for in part by the Maria L. and Simeon Mills Editorial Fund and by the George B. Burrows Fund.

PERMISSION: Wisconsin newspapers may reprint any article appearing in the Wisconsin 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 appear on the Magazine}.

COVER PICTURE: Photograph by Russell Lee, Farm Security Administration, supplied by the Museum of Modern Art. VOLUME 41 NUMBER 3

PUBLISHED BY THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN • SPRING, 1958

Editor: WILLIAM CONVERSE HAYCOOD

CONTENTS

Photography: Witness and Recorder of Humanity. .. .EDWARD STEICHEN 159

Two Noteworthy Wisconsin Women: Mrs. Ben Hooper

and Ada James LAWRENCE L. GRAVES 174

Civil Disobedience on the Mining Frontier ANN M. KEPPEL 185

A "Down-Easter" in Wisconsin: Sears Letters, 1849, 1854 KENNETH DUCKETT 204 Pioneering the Electrical Age G. W. VAN DERZEE 210

FEATURES Meet the Authors 158 The Collector .196 Smoke Rings 168 Sincerely Yours .... .208 Circuit Rider 181 Readers' Choice .... .215 Accessions 234 meet the authors

EDWARD STEICHEN was an infant in arms Steichen burned the bulk of his canvasses when his parents emigrated from their and abandoned a distinguished career as an native Luxembourg to settle in Michigan artist in order to devote himself exclusively and later in Wisconsin. As a young art to photography, becoming one of the coun­ student in Milwaukee he helped found try's best known, most respected, and most the Art Students League which, he recalls, imitated photographers. In the second World held its first meeting on an autumn night War he was a Captain in the Navy, respon­ in 1896 when the great bell of the city sible for the creation of a pictorial record of hall tolled for the first time. A boyhood warfare that will probably never be sur­ interest in photography persisted during passed. In 1947 he was appointed director of his early years as a painter and set the photography for the Museum of Modern pattern for a lifelong struggle to secure for Art, a post from which, as in the case of his the new medium its deserved recognition world-famous Family of Man exhibition, he as an art. Following World War I, in continues to demonstrate the validity of his which he served as an Army Captain, Mr. conviction that photography is an art.

LAWRENCE LESTER GRAVES was born in of his doctoral dissertation was the woman Perry, in western New York, and is a suffrage movement in Wisconsin. He has graduate of the University of Missouri. taught at the Woman's College of the Uni­ During World War 11 he served as an artil­ versity of North Carolina and at Texas lery officer in the 96th Infantry Division, Technological College, Lubbock, where he and following the war received his master's is now associate professor of history. His degree from the University of Rochester fields of interests include the social and in 1947 and his doctor's degree in 1954 from cultural history of the United States. the University of Wisconsin. The subject

ANN M. KEPPEL is a native of Mindoro, a from her master's thesis which dealt with b&** graduate of Wisconsin State College at La the federal government's abortive attempts Crosse, and has taught in the high school to enforce its unpopular lead land policy at Edgerton and in the Manitowoc-Sheboy­ during the period 1785 to 1846. Currently gan Centers of the University Extension Miss Keppel is a history and education fel­ Division. In 1954 she received her master's low at the University, working toward her degree in history at the University of Wis­ doctorate in the field of rural attitudes re­ consin. Her article in this issue is adapted garding general education.

WALTER S. DUNN, JR. was born in Detroit, jobs as a scheduler of parts production in attended the public schools of that city, and the Timken Axle Company and as a clerk after military service with the 38th Infantry in the Detroit Bureau of Surveys. In 1953 spent a year at Wayne University before he joined the staff of the Detroit Historical going on to Durham University in England Museum as Curator of Industrial History where he received his undergraduate degree and Education, and in 1956 was appointed in 1951. Back home again, he combined Chief Curator of the Museum of the State work on his master's degree at Wayne with Historical Society of Wisconsin.

KENNETH W. DUCKETT was born and grew staff, first as assistant manuscripts librarian, up in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and then as curator of the Museum's educational graduated from its high school directly into services. He is the author of Frontiersman the Army where he spent three years in of Fortune; Moses M. Strong of Mineral field artillery observation. After the war he Point (State Historical Society Wisconsin, attended the University of Denver and later 1955.) In 1956 he was appointed librarian the University of Wisconsin, receiving his of the Oregon Historical Society in Portland master's degree from the latter in 1951. For where he lives with his wife and two chil­ five years Mr. Duckett was on the Society's dren.

GOULD W. VAN DERZEE, born in Albany, panics in 1945, and was elected chairman New York, is senior officer of Wisconsin of the board for Wisconsin Power and each Electric Power Company and its subsidi­ of its subsidiaries in 1956. Long active in aries—Wisconsin Michigan Power Company civic affairs, Mr. Van Derzee was director and Wisconsin Natural Gas Company—and of the Milwaukee War Chest during World as such heads a utility system serving an War II and is now a director of the Mil­ area of about 12,500 square miles in two waukee County Welfare Council. He is a states. A graduate of the University of Wis­ past president of the Wisconsin Utilities consin, he began his utility career in 1913, Association and of the Association of Edison became president of the associated com- Illuminating Companies.

158 Those who attended the Society's annual meeting at Green Lake in June of 1957 enjoyed a unique opportunity—that of hearing the man considered by many as Photography: Witness the world's leading authority on creative photography discuss his art, its relation to history, and the personal philosophy and Recorder of Humanity behind his universally acclaimed Family of Man Exhibit. Here, together with an abridgement of Mr. Steichen's ad­ by Edward Steichen dress, we are privileged to reproduce some of the photographs from the exhi­ bition that has stirred the imagination of the world and with which Edward Steichen's name will be forever linked. something that comes out of his pictures and remains with us; something that helps us to know and understand each other. When the camera is used by an artist, while retaining its mechanical objectivity, it becomes an addi­ Man's first knowledge of the world we live in tional tool for penetrating beneath the surface and how it was fifty million years ago is based appearance of things. It is the artist with the on images that are in fossil form preserved in camera who by his knowledge, sensitivity, and rock. Man's first images, first means of com­ experience sees the significance of appearances. munication, go back to the Stone and Ice Ages These influence him in the selection of what he when images were painted on the walls of photographs, in how he photographs it; and caves. Man's first non-oral means of communi­ the result assumes an added meaning. In the cation was calligraphy—images. photographing of human relations it is the Today we have this extraordinary new proc­ artist who gives us our real and enduring ess for making images and a great world of material. photographers that is making them. Today, As a result of a survey that was made there whether a piece of film is exposed in a cyclo­ are said to be forty million homes in the tron wherein neutrons and protons make self- United States that have at least one camera. In portraits, or whether it is in the recording of that light, consider the potentialities and possi­ the drama that took place in Budapest, photog­ bilities of this medium. That means there are raphy is—in the historian's role peculiar to at least forty million photographers, forty mil­ it—producing historical documents. Photog­ lion potential historians. And there lies a re­ raphy is many things, but this is one of its sponsibility: What to do about this? How to important phases. Any photograph that is direct this? Above all, how to select the result­ made—the very instant it is completed, the ant material for preservation? very instant the button has been pressed on the To illustrate what I mean by responsibility, camera—becomes a historical document. Its let me draw on my own experience in two use as such will depend largely on historians. World Wars. In World War I, I was in com­ I want to emphasize what I consider the mand of all aerial photography under Billy most important service photography can render Mitchell, a former Milwaukeean like myself. history, and that is in the recording of human I had fifteen photographic sections in my com­ relations, in the explaining of man to man. If, mand, and thirty-two squadrons were employed as Pope said, "The proper study of mankind in doing nothing but taking pictures. It was all is man," then it is the artist-photographer who very primitive; we had to improvise every­ in photographing his fellow man with under­ thing. But we made over a million photographs. standing, with sympathy and warmth, gives us Here was a kind of history of the war that

159 Czectioslovattia. Robert Capa Magnum could not be duplicated. Yet no one knows what graphs of the Civil War. We don't know who became of all those photographs! I know they made them because Brady had a staff working were packed carefully, section by photographic with him. The Navy, I believe, appreciates the section with a record of the work of each, and importance of these World War II photographs they were shipped to Washington. But since and will take care of them for historians. then, no one has been able to find them. They But responsibility does not lie solely in the may not be lost: they may turn up in some preserving of photographic records. There is warehouse someplace, molded, or rotted, or also a responsibility in the making of them, bleached. But it is of importance to historians and it is my belief that scholastic and academic —a responsibility of historians—to see that circles have been inordinately delinquent in such valuable documents are preserved. the use of the image in educating our young. During World War II, I was first in charge We have in photography a medium which com­ of a small photographic unit of six top-ranking municates not only to us English-speaking young photographers whose duty it was to peoples, but communicates equally to every­ photograph naval aviation. During the height body throughout the world. It is the only uni­ of operations the Secretary of the Navy versal language we have, the only one requiring placed me in command of the entire combat no translation; but in all our universities it is photography—four thousand photographers a stepchild. We have elaborate courses in art photographing everything from pictures for in each university: sometimes there may be a aerial maps to the shattered, hopeless look on camera club. But what we need are academic a surgeon's face (and on the nurses') when courses to bind the other resources of the they were operating on a boy who had been university with photography in order to create torn apart by shrapnel and they knew they better photographers than we have. could do nothing for him.^ Those records have I plead for a greater use of photography. I been carefully preserved; each photograph has plead for upsetting the conditioning which been filed under the name of the photographer habits people to the word. The word and the who made it; then cross-indexed for all pur­ book are our priceless possessions. But it is poses. This is very unlike the Brady photo- our duty to marry the image to the word and let them speak together. In the photographic ^Edward Steichen, The Blue Ghost: A Photographic Log and Personal Narrative of the Aircraft Car­ exhibit, "The Family of Man," which I organ­ rier USS Lexington in Combat Operation (Harcourt ized for the Museum of Modern Art, this— Brace, New York, 1947; and Edward Steichen, comp., Power in the Pacific (U.S. Camera Publishing through the use of appropriate captions and Corp., New York, 1945.) quotations—is precisely what I tried to do.

160 All photographs courtesy of the Museum of Modem Art.

Behind that exhibit lay a threefold purpose: world that didn't have that thing. She told me to show the relationship of man to man; to how distressed she was; how heartsick she demonstrate what a wonderfully effective lan­ was that I didn't seem to understand that. guage photography is in explaining man to That's where my exhibition really began— man; and to express my own very firm belief with a great woman and a great mother. that we are all alike on this earth, regardless To assemble this exhibition, my staff and of race or creed or color. myself went through over 2,000,000 photo­ This conviction is something that began in graphs to select the material. This 2,000,000 my life as a young boy in Milwaukee. My was boiled down through our preliminary se­ mother had a millinery store on Third Street, lection to 10,000, and then I took over entirely. and I came home from school when I was Boiling it down from 10,000 to 5,000 was about seven or eight years old and as I closed relatively simple; but from then on it was a the door of the store I yelled out to a boy in heartbreaking struggle to reduce it to the the street, '.'You dirty kike!" My mother called final 500-odd prints that constituted the final me over to her—she was waiting on a cus­ choice. tomer—and asked me what I had said. I freely The exhibition, as those who have seen it repeated it; and so she excused herself from know, opens with a vast panorama of water her customer, locked the door of the store, and and sky, with captions from the Bible or its took me upstairs to our apartment. There for equivalent from five different religions or hours she talked to me about how wrong that races. The first is an Egyptian inscription was, because all people were alike; that I was about creation. There is the Chinese, the In­ in America because in bringing me to America dian, and so on. While we can not photograph she had hoped I would have a chance in a the past, we did seek to bring to the exhibition

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a dimension of the past in the captions that shoot a poisoned hunting arrow; a Negro go with the photographic groups. We searched father leaning with tenderness and care over through the Scriptures, the great literature, a sick child; a father going off to war saying the works of philosophers and scientists of all goodbye to his son; and finally a father and ages to cull these captions. For instance, the son, both of them stretched out on the sofa, caption on the picture of a baby being born reading the Sunday newspaper. is taken from Scriabin: "The universe re­ From there we go into a room of work; and sounds with the joyful cry I am." Then there in the center of that room—the focal point of are pictures of mothers and their babies. The the entire exhibition—is a group of families: babies start to grow, the children start to grow a family from Bechuanaland, said to be con­ up and to play and to learn. There is a series temporary cave men; an American family of father and child, fathers and sons: a so- photographed in Nebraska—a wonderful pic­ called savage in Africa teaching his boy to ture of good, hearty, earthy farmers posed

162 .y- :--'t

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U.S.A. Nina Leen Life WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1958

around an old kitchen stove. In the center is lovely, buxom young women singing, pound­ a grandmother in a rocking-chair, silver- ing the wash with ladles on the rocks, as they haired, surrounded by her children and her do still in many parts of the world. And right grandchildren; and on the wall behind, a row next to it was a picture of a maze of wash of grim-looking ancestors. Then there is an lines in Harlem, extending between flats, look­ Italian family and a Japanese family and a ing like a million sheets and towels and shirts Hungarian family. Wherever you turned in and pants hanging out on the line. the exhibition you saw this grouping of family Then there was bread—food. On a field of and were reminded: "This is the root. The wheat I placed the smallest picture in the family unit is the root of the family of man, exhibition; a tiny picture that I made years and we are all alike." All of these were posed ago of my mother. The family was living at pictures. All of the families were frankly hav­ Elmhurst, Illinois, at the time, and I was ing their pictures taken: all had the same bland visiting. I had the camera out in the yard, expressions everybody always has when he is photographing the house and the porch. I was having his picture taken; but there was some­ all set to make a picture of the porch, with thing very sweet and holy about this group. grape vines growing over it and shrubs on There was a section on women's work in either side. My mother opened the screen door, different lands. There was a picture from Aus­ came out, and held forward a big cake she tria; women doing their washing in a stream: had just baked, saying, "Now here's some-

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,tv*i ^^y ^r thing worth photographing." And I did. With the photograph I used an old Russian proverb: "Eat bread and salt and speak the truth." My mother didn't happen to know that proverb, but it sounded like her, and that's the reason I associated it with her picture. Then there were people in all countries, eating. There was a Russian family—^farmers —all seated around a table eating soup out of Image suppressed one bowl, all except the baby. The baby had a separate dish. This kind of warmth went pending copyright through the whole thing. There was education: an Arab child doing clearance his alphabet; next, a picture of the hands of an old woman learning to write; then a group of scientists at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. Beside the picture of Einstein I placed one of a small boy in AUentown, Penn­ sylvania, doing his sums at the blackboard— one and two make three. There were pictures of atomic scientists, and the last picture on the m4 wall was of a blasted city in Germany, crum­ bled in ruins, and in the foreground a boy going down a flight of steps with a knapsack on his back, a schoolboy going to school, begin­ ning all over again to surmount man's mon­ «"> strous stupidity. We had things in the exhibition that none of us had ever dreamed of before as possibili­ ties. We had the game of ring-around-a-rosy from sixteen different countries, and we placed the pictures all in a circle. 5( Then there was a room where human alone- ness was stressed. In it was a picture of a woman, disheveled and only partly clothed, sitting crumpled on a bench in an insane asylum. There was a child on a beach, leaning against a post. The beach was empty except for two or three people off in the distance. The aloneness of that child was gripping. But the most alone picture in the series was of a man r-. and his wife and daughter waiting for a Image suppressed parade. The woman was leaning on a bench in front of her, and she was the most alone of pending copyright them all. From loneliness we went to compassion, the clearance .*;•' emotion that carries with it the wonderful, warm, human gesture of putting your arms around somebody. To me, the climax of that series was a picture of a shell-shocked boy being comforted by an older soldier who had his arm wrapped around the boy. '•-m . - France. Fred Plaut And then came hard times, the hard times that happen to people all over the world. There was a picture of a gaunt American woman with three children. You could see that they were hungry and that she was worried. And there was a picture taken in another part of the country of a man with his two children, miserable because he had no work. Famine was depicted; people starving in India, in China; old, wrinkled women reaching out for a handful of rice; a hungry little Chinese boy with an empty cup. From hard times and hunger the exhibition moved on to revolt, beginning with the picture of a little baby caught between two chairs and trying to fight his way out; ending with a pic­ Aiiili-ilia n;i\i(l \l ture taken at the time of the revolt in Eastern Germany—young men throwing stones at a heavily-armed tank, the quintessence of the spirit of man in rebellion against injustice. Another section dealt with voting, with a caption taken from Jefferson: "I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of soci­ ety but the people themselves." All the pictures showed women voting along with their men­ folk—in Japan, China, France, the United States—a step toward universal human right that has been taken in my lifetime. Then came a warning; the only place in the exhibition in which I overtly editorialized. There was a series of nine faces, three men, three women, three children. One was the photograph of a child perhaps three or four years old taken the day after the bomb hit Nagasaki—a Japanese child with a bleeding face, dry-eyed, looking straight at us and ask­ ing, as all the faces asked, "Why?" Captioning France. Hans A. Schreiner that series was a quotation from Bertrand Russell warning that "the best authorities are unanimous in saying that a war with hydrogen bombs is quite likely to put an end to the human race . . . there will be universal death— sudden only for a fortunate minority, but for the majority a slow torture of disease and disintegration." From there one walked into a darkened room in front of which was the photograph of a dead soldier lying in a trench, taken on Eniwetok during the last war. In that darkened room was a great picture of the hydrogen test-bomb being exploded on that same island. There is, in such pictures of explosions, a kind

China. Chien Hao STEICHEN PHOTOGRAPHY

of untruth, an untruth in many war pictures, seen the exhibit; a million copies of the book, because they look so beautiful. As I was going • The Family of Man, have gone all over the through that room I once heard a man say, world. In Holland, a country where they rare­ "It looks like a beautiful sunset. The last sun­ ly sell books not having a Dutch text, 35,000 set." In that case, at least, I felt that the picture copies were sold in two weeks.^ had told its story. This is irrefutable proof that photography is Leaving that room you came upon, saw a universal language; that it speaks to all peo­ facing you, ten pictures from different coun­ ple; that people are hungry for that kind of tries showings men and women who had lived language. They are hungry for pictures that their lives together, had never heard of Reno; have meaning, a meaning they can understand. and with these pictures was a quotation from Here is a great historic tour. Here is an Ovid: "We two form a multitude." On each exhibition that is making history. And it has picture the caption reappeared: "We two form been received with such love and reverence. I a multitude." And they were all looking to­ have seen it now in three countries, America, wards the darkened room that held the photo­ France, and Germany. I have seen it in nine graph of the hydrogen bomb. Then you saw cities. The reaction in each case is exactly the the largest picture in the exhibition, a picture S£mie; and I believe—at first I was puzzled— of the United Nations in session, also facing but I believe now that the answer is that peo­ the room with the bomb; and across that pic­ ple participate in the exhibition personally: ture was 'the preamble of the UN charter begin­ they feel they are a part of it. As a Japanese ning: "We,'the peoples of the United Nations, poet said: "When you look into the mirror, it determined to save succeeding generations is not you that sees your reflection; your re­ from the scourge of war, which twice in our flection sees you." These people look into the lifetime has brought untom sorrow to man­ mirror of life and their reflection looks back kind " at them and smiles. Then you swung around and were in a ^Edward Steichen, The Family of Man (Museum forest of children. One portrait was of a Java­ of Modem Art, New York, 1955). nese girl-child with a basket of flowers: others were of children from many lands, experienc­ ing the universal joyousness and curiosities of childhood. Here, the picture before the last, was one of the earliest photographs in the exhibition—a photograph by Lewis Carroll of the original Alice of Alice in. Wonderland. The last picture was Eugene Smith's wonderful image of two little children walking out of a dark tunnel of leaves into the sunlight. When the Museum of Modern Art made plans to send the exhibition around the world I was greatly concerned as to what would happen in countries with an ideology entirely different from our own. I was particularly concerned about India and Japan. But I need not have been, for the exhibition is now in ten editions, three circulating throughout the United States, seven being circulated by the U.S. Information Agency throughout the world, while two small editions are still on exhibit in Japan. The largest attendance in any one day was in Calcutta where 29,000 people crowded into the exhibition hall on a hot, blistering day. Over 3,500,000 people have

U.S.A. Dan Weiner Brackman Assoc, Fortune To come back to the desk after nearly five months away is quite an experience. In the past, three-week vacations have brought enough changes to make a seasoned observer is now meeting the challenging dreams Ruth blink: Don McNeil and I have both had that Kohler had for it when she launched the. experience. But five months! organization a little over seven years ago. The acting directorship has been no mere In television, the generous gift of Mrs. John holding operation. In view of the substantial Wilson, daughter of Mrs. B. C. Ziegler, has amount of extra work required to supply the enabled us to plan an early re-entry into this data and reports necessary to the work of the field. Another grant in this field is being Planning Committee, just holding the line sought. A local Madison series, "Let's Find would have been a happy accomplishment. Out," has entailed weekly appearances by staff But the Society has done more than that; it members. Material from earlier television and has moved a long way forward. radio programs has been submitted for the The formal announcement of the Mass Com­ 1957 Westinghouse Award. munications History Center produced not only A business history conference was arranged a memorable Founders Day program, but a for February 15. Heritage Month was ob­ wealth of additional materials for the collec­ served. The second volume of the Journals of tion Hans Kaltenborn began two years ago. William Arnold Greene, edited by Alice Smith, EspeciaUy notable were the papers of movie appeared, as did the Harper-Smith First Sup­ magnates Harry and Roy Aitken of Waukesha, plement to the Guide to the Manuscript Collec­ reporter Louis Lochner once of Milwaukee, tions and Don Oehlerts' Guide to Wisconsin cartoonist H. T. Webster once of Rhinelander. Newspapers. The Supreme Court building at To the McCormick Collection were added some Belmont was dedicated; foundations were one hundred four-drawer filing cases contain­ poured for the first four units of the village ing the papers of Mrs. Emmons Blaine and of the 1890's at Stonefield. The museum gal­ Harold McCormick, making this without ques­ leries on the first floor were completed, opened tion one of the two finest collection of family Sunday afternoons, with free educational films papers in the country. Received also were the offered in the Sellery Room. Borden's "Hail papers of the American Country Life Associa­ the Hearty" was given its Wisconsin premier tion; of utility magnate John I. Beggs; cam­ in the same room. The silver service of the paign papers of Phileo Nash and Senator U.S.S. Wisconsin was secured from the Navy Proxmire; the papers of many a church, or­ for exhibit. Plans for the 1959 Historymobile ganization, and individual. display were perfected. New quarters for the With "Tides of Taste," the midwinter Mil­ Inconographic Collections were opened. waukee meeting, and its many services at It has been a busy and successful period. Founders Day and elsewhere, the Auxiliary Don and the rest of our hard-working col­ has wound up its richest biennium under the leagues deserve and get a gold star each— dynamic leadership of Dorothy Schubert. It Don's with a couple of oak-leaf clusters.

168 SMOKE RmGS

From September 15 to February 1, I was public relations, with no taste for administra­ absorbed in a special assignment from the tion; concentrating his very real abilities on Board, writing the history of the Society. It research, writing, and editing. He was full, may never interest anyone else, but I have too, of good ideas: the Domesday book; the found it a fascinating experience. Would that farm census project; the use of schools, ab­ this had been my first assignment eleven years stractors, and local societies on Domesday re­ ago, or that had it been done for my edifica­ search; the Hattie Fisk Moving Picture Col­ tion just before I came to State Street! I lection; the Page of Pictures; the search of emerge from splendid isolation with a new church records for internal migration statis­ perspective on the job, a more profound— tics; the move for security copies of early because more soundly based—respect for the town and city records; the search abroad for Grand Old Lady, some long-needed revisions America letters—but once the ideas were an­ of the folklore of the Society, a sizable manu­ nounced, he did little to effect them. Writing script I suspect the Society will publish, and this period was as frustrating to this writer as a whole series of vignettes. Since the book living it must have been to Schafer himself— won't be out for some months, let me share and to Annie Nunns and others trained in the tradition of a wide-ranging program and a dy­ some of the latter with you now: namic Society. It was not the depression which Draper—the frail, neurotic, terribly ener­ licked Schafer, though he muffed many of the getic little dynamo; building greatly out of opportunities offered by the various work re­ nothing, often discouraged and ready to quit; lief agencies; nor was it the matriarchy headed under heavy attack several times; begging, bor­ by Annie Nunns: it was his urbane and su­ rowing, cajoling, manipulating, maneuvering; perb ineffectuality, his total lack of follow- ahead of his time in grasping the elements of through. By the close of his twenty-year re­ effective public relations; building—always gime, the Grand Old Lady was back about building—the library and his famous manu­ where she had been before the turn of the script collection. century. Quaife—the energetic young scholar doing Alexander—young, personable, full of ideas his best to improve on the fast pace set by Wisconsin had not ^leard about for nearly his distinguished predecessor; launching this thirty years; reorienting the Society, getting magazine, initiating an annual conference of it back on the track; cutting and trimming its local historical societies, an exhibit at the state program here and there as he rationalized the fair, a monthly group of historical shorts for obligations, matching responsibilities with the Wisconsin press, a monthly feature for the available funds; resuming programs started by United Press; bringing library accessions to Thwaites and Quaife, regaining lost ground, the all-time high of over 13,000 titles a year; getting back the popular touch lost since 1913; adding so greatly to the manuscript collections working with the local societies; boosting the that one contemporary curator labelled him museum; resuming the peripatetic meeting; another Draper; bringing in huge collections starting Founders Day; getting appropriations of photostats of original materials from Wash­ back to the pre-depression levels; building a ington and other depositories bearing on the new staff; laying the groundwork for the later history of the upper Mississippi. Shy, he boom; keeping on good terms with the Uni­ seemed to some cold and aloof. Inexperienced, versity commynity—then leaving just as war's he never knew when to draw back from a end brought the chance to realize the dreams buzz saw. In the end he settled for the life of he had been shaping. research, writing, and editing for which he Institutions are the creations of the men was best equipped. But not before he had who serve them. Men like those above: officers made a real contribution to the Society and like Marshall Cousins, stepping in as long- launched a publication program which, had term president to serve as the front man the it been realized, would have advanced Wis­ Society needed and Schafer was not: Like consin history far beyond its present levels. George Burrows, real estate operator and leg­ Schafer—an admittedly frustrated would-be islator, staunch friend of the Society in the teacher, an amiable academician, innocent of Capitol and elsewhere, and the Society's only

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^ WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1958

records only to be brushed aside by Schafer— dreaming of a farm museum not lo mature until long after he had left the state; but seeing to it that the debacle of the Schafer regime was not worse than it was. Curators such as Elisha Keyes, Republican boss of the state, sitting on the Board with Democrats like Burrows and George R. Smith, plotting ways and means to help ihe Society in the legislature and ulti­ NjSlg?*' mately with Burrows being made an honorary life member for "legislative services"—the only such honor in the Society's history. Men like Lucius Fairchild, warmest friend of the Society's over to occupy the Governor's chair, restoring Civil War cuts in salaries, printing, postage, and other prerogatives; bringing ihe Society into a new era of opportunity in the post-Civil War years; twice helping it get better quarters in the Capitol, and finally lob­ bying through the 1895 legislature the bifl for the present building; heading until his death Lyman Copeland Draper, Seciptavy. 1851-1886. Ihe Commission in charge of its construction. The list is long: curators like Frederick large-scale benefactor: Like Howard Greene, Jackson Turner, Charles Kendall Adams, E. giving something here, something there, man­ Ray Stevens, Burr Jones, D. C. Everest; staff uscripts, museum pieces, cash, and above all like Librarians Daniel S. Durrie and Isaac good advice—offering his help on business Bradley; luminaries like Louise Phelps Kel­ logg, Emma Blair, Emma Hawley, Asa Tilton Keiihen Gold Thivaittj^, Secretary and and—in very different fields—Annie Nunns Siipciinlcndenl. 1881-1913. and Charley Brown. But in the story of the Grand Old Lady one figure towers above the rest—Reuben Gold Thwaites. Draper, handpicking his successor, did no greater single deed for the Soci­ ety. For Thwaites (Turner vouched for this forty-four years ago) revolutionized the con­ cept of the western historical society. He intro­ duced business methods and controls in place of the rather slipshod records-keeping of his predecessor. He hired and trained a young and able staff. He systematized and mechanized operations. He centered manuscript collecting on Wisconsin, brought great riches to the So­ ciety in this field. He began large-scale pro­ curement of transcripts of Wisconsin materials from the federal archives in Washington and other collections on this continent. He partici­ pated in the vast co-operative transcript pro­ grams in the European archives; was key man in setting up the Committee of Seven for the procurement of French archival transcripts under Waldo G. Leland. He sparked the forma­ tion of the Conference of Historical Societies

170 < SMOKE RINGS

Milo Milton Quaife, Superintendent, Joseph Schafer, Superintendent, Edward Porter Alexander, Superintendent, 1914-1920. 1920-1941. 1941-1946.

under the American Historical Association, boundaries of the campus to the borders of which later became the American Association the state. for State and Local History. He was recognized Thwaites created a vision of the western as one of the leading librarians of the country, historical society which lasted within the staff honored by election to the American Library and within the local societies even through the Institute and the presidency of the American frustrations of the Schafer regime. It was a Library Association. He was recognized as one vision, too, which was passed on to the histori­ of the leading historians, chairing the Con­ cal societies of America, paved the way intel­ ference of Historical Societies, receiving the lectually for Schafer's successors to build again presidency of the Mississippi Valley Historical in the Thwaites tradition of which they per­ Association. He wrote 15 books, edited an haps had heard little or nothing directly. incredible 183 others during his lifetime. This is the cardinal figure of the Society's But his great contribution was his interest long history; this the man to whom the whole in popular education. In the progressive era country is indebted for a concept of historical and since, this was essential for the Society. society responsibilities and potentialities which It led Thwaites to open the doors and stacks sixty years later is still new to all too many. of the library to the public as well as to the "Other men," said Turner, "will succeed to scholar, to take an effective interest in the Dr. Thwaites' office, and if they do their full museum; and in Brown, to put it in the hands duty . . . they will open new avenues of prog­ of a trained museum man. It led him to spon­ ress to this Society and will explore new fields sor affiliated local historical societies, spend of history. Happy, thrice happy, they, if in much time coaching and encouraging them. the times to come their names shall be spoken It led him to travel widely, speaking all over with the respect and affection with which we the state, until at his death the State Journal speak the name of Reuben Gold Thwaites." could call him the best-known man in the state outside active political life. It led him to These few months away are apt to make me urge the preservation of landmarks, the mark­ the most unpopular person on the staff. Hence­ ing of historical sites, historical pageants, the forth, anytime one of my bright young col­ observance of anniversaries, and greater at­ leagues come up with a scintillating idea, I tention to local history in the schools. And in shall have to sneer and say, "So-and-so tried all this he had the close support and sympathy that fifty years ago." Draper had the idea of of a University which was also interested in a women's auxiliary. Thwaites wanted a vet­ popular education, was also then extending the eran's memorial hall as the nucleus of a new

171 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1958

fireproof building; sought an assistant secre­ dentally—by one of the librarians. The results tary who could help him in his field work; were shattering; but the pieces have been care­ started two ethnic programs; set up the state fully preserved. I can foresee a restoration archives; encouraged local societies to gather project undertaken by popular demand, so local manuscripts for their research programs; that ten cents can be collected from the direc­ wanted to get out materials to fill the schools' tor each time he says patronizingly, "Well, needs for materials on Wisconsin history; now, that isn't too bad an idea, but you know started the travelling conventions Alexander Draper tried that back in 1858 . . ." This could revived. Quaifd" proposed a historical atlas of get pretty awful. Wisconsin, a biographical dictionary, a series A more probable reaction is that the staff, of biographical monographs, started a confer­ proud of continuing accomplishment, will, like ence of local historical societies, and began a the director, realize that we really have the program of displays at the state fair. Colonel Grand Old Lady back just about where Reuben Greene started talking business records in Gold Thwaites had her in 1913; and that if 1926, farm museums in 1932. Brown started we want to advance the movement, or have circulating panels of photographs in 1909, of any idea of making any real contribution of artifacts 1919-1924, put on special drives for our own, we'd better get humping. farm, circus, and railroad memorabilia be­ Perhaps, too, future selection committees tween 1911 and 1926, boosted museum at­ choosing successive directors, warned of the tendance'to the 100,000 mark. Schafer tried pitfalls of 1913 and 1920, will insist on more movies in 1928 and with Kellogg and Brown than just academic qualifications in the candi­ made consistent though sparing use of the dates. The necessity of historical training, in­ radio; pled for the funds with which to micro­ deed of the doctoral degree, cannot be denied. film the ever-growing flood of newspapers to Alone it is not enough. The job requires and relieve him of a plight like that of the sor­ always will require a Reuben Gold Thwaites cerer's apprentice. No one in the Society has or the best available counterpart. ever done better with press releases than Draper. Quaife and Schafer persuaded a num­ The Sputnik Revolution, with its legitimate ber of Wisconsin organizations to place their sense of national crisis, is giving an enormous records with the Society. The Auxiliary of the and obvious boost to the physical sciences. State Medical Society started collecting doc­ Not only government funds, but presumably tors' records, medical society records, and doc­ an increasing proportion of foundation funds tors' implements and kits in the mid-thirties. and individual and corporate benefactions will So when some colleague bursts into the office be poured into the effort to catch up with and with a gleam in his eye, I can just see myself excel the scientists of the Soviet Union. Real sitting back and citing chapter and verse on as is the crisis, the solution may well bring the seven times that idea has been tried before in Wisconsin. It may get so bad that we will with it evils which only an early and deter­ have to glue Lyman together again. Lyman, mined stand can avoid. Already a national for those who never saw him, was a more or television program, sponsored by a major in­ less life-size plaster gnome, trade symbol of a surance company, has direly warned that we well-known Wisconsin brewery. In the early may have to give up not only our luxuries but post-war years a bowl at his feet in my office our liberties in the search for survival. Al­ collected dimes from staff members who ready the pressures on talented young people greeted new ideas with nyets or even nyahs. to go into the laboratory instead of other fields Constructive criticism was welcome: uncon- have become immense. The sudden enthrone­ structive critics fed Lyman ten cents per crit. ment of science by a panicky public involves One of the first and most generous contribu­ grave dangers not only to science itself—be­ tors was the then Senator from Superior, Art ware the pressure for immediate results, the Lenroot, who paid in advance. Later on, as pressure for applied rather than pure research, the Joint Finance Committee met, he got his the probable swing of the pendulum of public money's worth. Lyman served his purpose well •opinion before the battle is won—but to other until knocked off his perch—seemingly acci­ aspects of thought, culture, and tradition that

172 make American democracy so radical a force in the world today. I would put as a close second to the neces­ sity of intensifying pure research in the physi­ cal sciences, the necessity of keeping alive our American heritage—in our thinking, our act­ ing, our voting, our government, our day-to­ day living. Until diverted by the little moons, we had for years been acknowledging that our materialistic, scientific achievements had far outstripped our ability to live as educated hu­ man beings; that mundane achievements had dangerously outrun the development of civili­ zation. And in recent years many of the major One of the most distinguished and justly foundations had again begun to put money into revered men ever to serve the State Historical interdisciplinary approaches to a broader un­ Society of Wisconsin was Marvin B. Rosen- derstanding, into the humanities, even into berry, whose peaceful death occurred after history. Will they continue to do so, or are we only brief illness on February 15, 1958, in the entering another era when everything will go ninety-first year of his life. He had been a to science? Will we in the years ahead turn valued and loved member of the society's the country over to scientists, some of whom board of curators since 1949. occasionally have shown a disturbing lack of Justice Rosenberry began life under startling political sense and human wisdom? Will we auspices—where ancient mythology ends it, turn all our able young people into scientists, at River Styx (Ohio), and on Lincoln's birth­ leaving few if any to lead in the operation of day, 1868. He studied law at the University our polity and economy and society? of Michigan and in a Wausau, Wis., law office, We must not do so. For the need will be became Wausau city attorney and a prominent greater than ever to keep strong the faith and lawyer of the north country. understanding of the American heritage, to His mystical auspices continued at work; develop the basic loyalties and attitudes that on his forty-eighth birthday he was appointed in the long run are just as important—perhaps to the Wisconsin supreme court. He advanced more so—if we are to maintain the dignity by seniority of service from the seventh to of the individual, the reward of individual achievement, the ability to change station, the first seat, that of chief justice, in just which have produced our highly dynamic thirteen years, and continued there for twenty- economy and our admirably fluid and demo­ one more, in what was by far the longest career cratic society. as chief justice in Wisconsin history. The grand old judge stepped down voluntarily as he My plea, therefore, is that in the present mood of near-panic, we keep our eye on the neared the age of 82, and cheerfully resumed main chance; that we insist that Atlases and the practice of law! Jupiters and Thors will not solve all our prob­ Having announced his retirement decision. lems ; that we strive for a balanced advance in Justice Rosenberry in 1949 accepted election which science shares both material and human as a curator of the society. He served diligently resources with the other fields—including Her­ as chairman for constitutional revision, and itage—which must also advance in senses both the society's 1954 constitution and by-laws are relative and absolute. the product of that work. His presence graced board meetings regularly until the last years, when even he ceased to feel as young as he used to. Meanwhile he had made history in another public service assignment, as chair­ man of the legislature's committee that pro­ duced the Rosenberry reapportionment law of 1951. P.C.H.

173 DANGER! Woman'* Suffrage Would Double the IrrespoiMiUe Vote

Only a few short decuHcs a^o I he liuiul It is a MENACE to the Home, Men's that rocks the cradle—and thereby rules Employment and to All Buaness the worhl—could not raise itself l<» be counted in the 'yea' and 'nay' of politics. That such a condition !><'fni.>i aiiacliroiii.x- Official Referendum Ballot lic today—even lo llio.se wlio renK-inbcr it as fact—is largely ouiii!; lo a l<-<;ion of mililantly resolute women like ili<> dis­ similar pair vignetted in IIUK arlicle.

,..n N.[X]

^^ TKe >bove M an euci reproduction p\ ol rhe trparaie ballol phnied on ^T pink papet which will be tundird to ^4 you in your voting pUce on Novem- 1^ bci 5 Be Mire and put your croaa <^ (X) in tKe square after the word "no" at rfiown here, and—be ture «ad vole thU pink balloL

^T PROGRESS PUBLISHING CO A 1912 campaign poster; from the Society's collec­ tions, negative WqWHi (X3) 2902.

Two Noteworthy Wisconsin Women: Mrs. Ben Hooper and Ada James by Lawrence L. Graves

When the women of Wisconsin gained the right der the leadership of their president, Mrs. Ben to vote it was only after more than half a cen­ Hooper, of Oshkosh, soon began the rather tury of strenuous effort, and despite the most formidable task of realizing the league's motto determined opposition by the men of the state. of "every woman an intelligent voter." One of the most often-heard arguments against Skepticism over the extent to which women enfranchising women was that they had no de­ would interest themselves in politics seemed sire for the ballot and if given the opportunity justified by the league's initial difficulties. Late to vote, would refuse to do so. Even after they in 1920 the secretary of the Dane County participated in their first presidential election League of Women Voters reported sadly from in 1920, women had still to demonstrate what Madison that their organization had made they would make of their new status of politi­ very little impact on women there and had cal equality. attracted few members. By 1922, two years Since the 1880's the fight for woman suf­ after its founding, only forty-four local leagues frage had been led by the Wisconsin Woman had been organized in the state, with a com­ Suffrage Association, an auxiliary of the Na­ bined membership of only about three thou­ tional American Woman Suffrage Association. sand. For this condition there were several On gaining victory, the N.A.W.S.A. promptly reasons. One was the continuing timidity and transformed itself into the League of Women inertia of women who had not yet learned to Voters, with the W.W.S.A. doing likewise to be concerned with community affairs and become the Wisconsin League of Women Vot­ were now reluctant either to vote or to join ers. Many suffragists moved over into the the League of Women Voters. In 1924 Mrs. Wisconsin branch of the new league and un­ Theodora Youmans, a prominent Waukesha

174 GRAVES : NOTEWORTHY WISCONSIN WOMEN

newspaperwoman, in pleading for women to ings she might have were not subject to her become good citizens, to vote, and to join the husband's control and could not be seized to league, complained about the "disgracefully help pay his debts. But the laws failed to ex­ small" vote in the state's 1922 and 1924 pri­ cuse the husband from paying his wife's debts maries.^ or from supporting her. About the only con­ In addition to the normal difficulties experi­ solation left to the husband lay in the fact enced by a new organization, the league was that he couldn't be held responsible for the plagued by uncertainty as to its mission. Al­ debts his wife had accumulated before her though it was intended to include members of marriage, nor could he be forced to pay her various political persuasions, groups of women for the labor she did in his behalf.*' A person were reluctant to commit themselves until cer­ accepting a promissory note made jointly by tain the organization was not attached to either a man and his wife had to be careful to require the Republican or Democratic party. One the wife to indicate clearly that she was bind­ woman wrote Mrs. Hooper from Appleton that ing herself to make payment; otherwise the her woman's club wanted to know more about law maintained that a woman's separate prop­ the league before joining in order to avoid be­ erty could not be held liable for the debt, no coming politically involved; and, as late as matter if she were a cosigner of the note.^ 1926, one member expressed the fear that Re­ Unfortunately for women, the legislature even­ publican women were using it for political tually took this preferred position away from purposes, whereas the Democratic women had them. bent over backwards in their effort to be non­ Marriage carried with it still further com­ partisan.^ Still another difficulty was that the plications for the husband. As a matter of League of Women Voters was torn by internal course he had the final voice in deciding where dissensions, as had been the case with the the home would be, and in providing it. But woman suffrage societies that preceded it. if his steps faltered, his wife might sue for Perhaps another and equally important rea­ divorce or separate maintenance; and in either son why some Wisconsin women were unen- case the court could compel him to support thusiastic about further agitation for their her and their minor children. Furthermore, rights was that the state's laws concerning the husband might be required to return to women were already among the most progres­ his wife all or part of any property received sive in the nation—as some men who came from her and to give an accounting of it. in contact with them undoubtedly discovered. There was no similar compulsion for the wife Wisconsin statutes provided that a man could to support her husband, although if he were be arrested in a civil action for a number of given custody of the couple's children as the reasons, among them embezzlement, miscon­ result of a divorce or separation, the court duct, or neglect in office, or where the de­ in its discretion might force the wife to sup­ fendant was about to move from the state. port these children from her estate. Similarly, However, the statutes exempted women from in the matter of wills, the husband could not this sort of indignity: "No female shall be ar­ cut his wife out of his, for by law she was en­ rested in any action except for a willful in­ titled to one-third of his estate; yet there jury to person, character or property."^ seems to have been no barrier to her dispos­ Women were also highly favored by the ing of her own personal property in such a property laws of the state. The real estate fashion as to omit him from her will." and personal property of a wife, the income In passing the so-called equal rights bill, from this property, and any individual earn- the legislature in 1921 deprived women of this privileged status—at least to some extent. This 'Mrs. Margaret D. Schorger to Mrs. Ben Hooper, measure extended to women the same rights as December 28, 1920; undated memorandum, both in the Jessie Jack Hooper Papers, in the State Historical Society of Wisconsin; "What Ails Wisconsin?" in *Ibid., Sections 2340, 2341, 2343, 2346. Forward, 3:6-7 (October, 1924). ^Arthur L. and John B. Sanborn, eds., Supplement 'Mrs. B. W. Wells to Mrs. Ben Hooper, Marcli 7, to the Wisconsin Statutes of 1898 (Chicago, 1906), 1921; Mrs. Margaret Fragstein to Hooper, November Section 2345n, pp. 1099-1100. 26, 1926, both in the Hooper Papers. "Wisconsin Statutes, 1911, Sections 2366, 2371, 2365, "Wisconsin Statutes, 1911, Section 2689. 2172.

175 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1958

thusiastic over the equal rights law because she declared it was the first such in the English-speaking world.* When critics condemned women for seek­ ing the ballot in order to improve a status already better than that of men, they were only partially justified. Some did indeed want the right to vote—primarily to protect themselves from unjust legislation—but a more compel­ ling reason with the majority was the fact that increasing numbers of women were de­ veloping a social consciousness which brought with it an awareness of community problems as well as of their own more narrowly-restricted personal concerns. Some women fairly seethed On land, at Sister Bay with desire to participate in politics and move­ ments of one kind or another aimed at social men in such matters as voting, freedom of betterment, and many different individuals contract, holding office, jury service, holding might be cited as representative of the new and conveying property, care and custody of thinking on the part of twentieth-century Wis­ children, and in all other respects. The courts consin women. But perhaps no two would soon held that under these provisions a woman better epitomize this intellectual trend than who cosigned a note with her husband was Mrs. Ben Hooper and Ada James. liable in her personal property for the debt.^ Jessie Jack Hooper illustrates the type of If these modifications in their legal status person who might be described as a "club­ seemed distasteful to some women, such de­ woman" in the best sense of that term. Since cisions as that a woman might vote in her her husband was a prosperous attorney and own district if her husband lived far away in wholesale grocer, she had the opportunity another state, or that a son would be exempt early in her married life to develop a zeal for from non-resident tuition fees at the University public affairs, an interest which never ap­ of Wisconsin if his mother was a resident of preciably diminished. One of her first ventures the state while his father was not, were much was in the 1890's when, in concert with other more appealing to others. One woman was en- women, she helped to finance and equip a ' 'Forward, 2:10 (March, 1923). kindergarten in Oshkosh. The experiment was viewed with some skepticism at first, but when . . . and on water, women carried the fight forward. Photos: above, negative (X3) 5587; below, negative (X3) 5588, both it proved successful the city fathers soon took in the Society's collections. it over, going on to establish other kinder­ gartens in the city's schools. Mrs. Hooper also devoted several years' effort to inducing Win­ nebago County to build a tuberculosis sani- torium, and participated in a project of the women of Oshkosh to secure a nurse for the city's schools.^

^Jessie Jack Hooper, "Eauality in Wisconsin," in The Woman Citizen, 7:11 (February 24, 1923) ; Mrs. Frank Putnam, "Equality in Wisconsin," in ibid., 7:11 (March 10, 1923); Mrs. Frank Putnam, "In Reply to Mrs. Hooper," in ibid., 7:23-24 (May 5, 1923). "Oshkosh Daily Northwestern, May 8, 1935; Jessie Jack Hooper, "The Autobiography of Jessie Jack Hooper," typescript copy in the State Historical So­ ciety of Wisconsin, pp. 9-10.

176 GRAVES : NOTEWORTHY WISCONSIN WOMEN

Wearied of trying to "dig a hole with a Her defeat by no means meant Mrs. Hoop­ teaspoon" when a steam shovel was needed, er's retirement. In addition to her feeling that Mrs. Hooper finally turned her attention to making the senatorial campaign was a duty, woman suffrage as a necessary tool, and cam­ she had also believed that if elected she could paigned actively for the Political Equality advance the cause of world peace more effec­ League during the months preceding the tively than La Follette. As early as 1921 she woman suffrage referendum held in 1912. had led the League of Women Voters into dis­ Thereafter, until ratification of the nineteenth armament work and attempted to get 100,000 amendment in 1920, she continued her activi­ Wisconsin women to join her. Several years ties in the cause, serving for a time in Wash­ later she was responsible for the creation of ington with the National American Woman a major women's peace society. In 1924 she Suffrage Association as a lobbyist, and even­ wrote to prominent women in every state, in­ tually becoming first vice-president of the viting them to a luncheon to be given while Wisconsin Woman Suffrage Association. When the national convention of the League of the latter organization became the Wisconsin Women Voters was assembled in Buffalo. A League of Women Voters, Mrs. Hooper was hundred and fifteen women responded to her the logical choice for its president, and in overture and agreed to hold a Conference on 1920 became the first occupant of that new the Cause and Cure of War, which was even­ office.!" tually sponsored by ten leading U.S. women's She might have held her position indefi­ organizations. For a number of years in the nitely, had not the Democratic party leaders late twenties the conference met annually in in 1922 asked her to challenge La Follette for Washington in the cause of world peace. his senate seat. Mrs. Hooper wrestled with her conscience—briefly, for the men gave her only three hours to decide^then accepted. She later declared that on entering the race she realized the tremendous appeal of La Follette in the state, but was unable to bring herself to decline the contest in view of the fact that having always censured men who shirked their responsibilities, she refused to commit the same offense. La Follette easily defeated her, and the election left Mrs. Hooper with some bitterness towards her party. She claimed the Democratic State Central Committee had given her practically no support at all, and was un­ able to cite any male who had spoken in her behalf. Excluding the money she spent her­ self, she received only about $500 from all other sources, and less than $200 from the men of the state. Nevertheless, she contended that the struggle had been worthwhile: she had maintained her self-respect, received a great many votes from women, and proved that women could stand for a political office and receive just treatment from the public. Ac­ tually, she had gotten over 78,000 votes— Jessie Jack Hooper at her summer home on Lake some 26,000 more than the Democratic candi­ Winnebago ca. 1928. Photo in the Society's collec­ date for governor.!! tions, negative WHi (X3) 9138.

Papers in the State Historical Society of Wisconsin; Hooper to Mrs. M. F. Cunningham, November 13, "Jessie Jack Hooper, "Autobiography," 11, 31. 1922, in the Hooper Papers; Wisconsin Blue Book "Hooper to Ada James, July 4, 1922, in the James (Madison, 1923), 564-565.

177 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1958

During the ^last decade of her life Mrs. Forestry Association, the National Child Labor Hooper devoted herself mainly to attempts to Committee, the National Trade Union League, achieve international peace. Her contributions the League of Nations Association, and the were recognized in 1928 when she was given American Indian Defense Association. Her the chairmanship of the Department of In­ inclusion in Who's Who in America indicated ternational Relations of the General Federa­ the esteem in which she was held, as well as tion of Women's Clubs, a post she held for the scope of her wide-ranging interests.^* several years. As she had with her other pur­ Miss Ada James was another Wisconsin suits, she took her peace activities very seri­ woman who ably proved that members of her ously, devoting the major part of her time to sex need not necessarily limit their abilities to generating support for U. S. entry into the the management of their own personal affairs. World Court and to increasing sentiment in In contrast with Mrs. Hooper, whose interests favor of disarmament. She carried on a heavy to a considerable extent turned outward from correspondence with the state chairmen of her her own state. Miss James confined her atten­ department, dispatched thousands of pieces of tion chiefly to state and local matters during literature, made several radio broadcasts, and the many years she was active on the Wis­ embarked on extensive speaking tours across consin scene. But although they differed some­ the country.!^ what in the fields they chose to emphasize, both The Kellogg-Briand Pact occupied most of women exemplified the potentialities women Mrs. Hooker's energies in 1928, but by 1931 might display if given the opportunity. she had plunged deeply into the formidable Ada James first attracted statewide attention task of securing signatures from one million for her vigorous direction of the unsuccessful members of the General Federation of Wom­ campaign waged by the Political Equality en's Clubs, to be sent to the World Confer­ League during 1911-1912 for passage of the ence on Disarmament scheduled to be held woman suffrage amendment. Following this, in Geneva early in 1932. The goal was not she remained active in woman suffrage work, reached, but Mrs. Hooper's devotion to her and during World War I attempted to found duty had been so conspicuous that Carrie Chap­ a Wisconsin branch of the National Woman's man Catt, chairman of the Conference on the Party. Throughout the conflict she remained Cause and Cure of War, appointed her to head steadfastly in opposition to U.S. participation; the committee taking petitions from all U.S. thus agreeing fully with the stand taken by women's groups to Geneva. This trip marked Senator La Follette. But by the end of the the high point in her career, and she rightly war she had become disillusioned with the considered it to be one of the most important two major parties in the state, and for a time episodes in her life.!^ entertained a vain hope that a third party By the time of her death in May, 1935, Mrs. might rise to displace them. When this failed Hooper had thoroughly demonstrated that a to occur she continued in the Republican woman could take an informed and important party, serving from 1920—1926 as vice-chair­ part in public affairs and need not sit back man of its State Central Committee while that and leave the solution of civic problems ex­ party was still firmly in control of the clusively to men. Among other organizations La Follette forces. In addition, she served as she belonged to were the City Planning Com­ president of the Wisconsin League of Progres­ mission of Oshkosh, the National Tuberculosis sive Women for several years until she re­ Association, the Foreign Policy Association, signed in 1924 in order to enjoy the freedom the Social Hygiene Association, the American to express her political opinions without the restraints of office.!'*

"Hooper to Mrs. Lucy Morris, June 23, 1928; Hooper to Mrs. Howard Kissam Pell, December 14, 1931, all in the Hooper Papers. 1931, both in the Hooper Papers. "Oshkosh Daily Northwestern, May 8, 1935. "Hooper to Mrs. Edgar N. Bowker, October 1, • "Diary of Ada James, in the State Historical So­ 1928; Hooper to Mrs. John J. Louis, November 2, ciety of Wisconsin, entries for March 20 and March 1931; Hooper to Mrs. Henry Fradkin, December 30, 28, 1920; Milwaukee Journal, April 21, 1924.

178 GRAVES NOTEWORTHY WISCONSIN WOMEN

Mainly she wanted the liberty to criticize croft because he was not an ardent prohibi­ Governor John J. Blaine and his administra­ tionist, and the publicity she focused on his tion for the deficiencies she found in both. record was widely credited with bringing the victory to Smalley. This so incensed Bancroft that he instituted a futile court action against her.!' In later years Miss James occupied herself chiefly with affairs in her native Richland County. In 1922 her father, D. G. James, set up a memorial trust fund for the relief of the needy, and much of his daughter's time was subsequently spent in its administration. Her primary interest lay in helping neglected and underprivileged children, wayward girls, and unmarried mothers. No one was ever turned away from her door without a sympathetic hearing, and the number of unfortunate per­ sons she sheltered in her home or aided finan­ cially will probably never be known. When the legislature passed an act authoriz­ ing the formation of county children's boards, Richland County was one of the first in the state to take advantage of the new statute. From the inception of such a board in her county in 1930, Ada James was its chairman, retaining her position until its merger into the county welfare board in 1948. The board had as its function the protection of needy Ada James. From an undated photo in the Society's children—mentally defective, neglected, ille­ collections, negative WHi (X3) 9137. gitimate, or delinquent—making certain that aid was given them and that their legal The decision was characteristic of her and rights were protected. Miss James discharged was adhered to in spite of the fact that from her duties with vigor and compassion. As the 1921—1923 she had been a firm supporter of number of cases handled by the board grew the governor and had often been consulted by steadily in number year by year, so too did him on policies and appointments. Her corre­ her pity for the people involved, both children spondence reveals that she had some influence, and adults. Gradually she became convinced not only with him, but also with his wife and that sterilization of the mentally unfit, together the lieutenant-governor as well. But by 1923 with the dissemination of birth-control infor­ she had cooled perceptibly in her enthusiasm mation, was necessary to prevent tragedy in the toward Blaine, chiefly because he had failed homes of parents unable to rear their children to abolish the National Guard, and she no properly. Naturally, there was much opposi­ longer considered him a real Progressive. Nor tion to both schemes; but Miss James remained did she hesitate to voice her disapproval of their staunch advocate during the last years Senator La Follette's continued support of of her life. Blaine.!" During this same period, in 1921, Miss James had become embroiled in a bitter Ada James had become imbued with Pro­ struggle between Judge Levi Bancroft and gressive doctrines early in her life, which Sherman E. Smalley for the judgeship of the explains why she became such a devout sup­ fifth judicial circuit. She disapproved of Ban- porter of La Follette after he had appeared to articulate those same ideas. She defined a "Governor John J. Blaine to James, February 24, 1922; Lt. Governor George F. Comings to James, Feb­ "William C. Dean to James, April 13, 1921; George ruary 15, 1921, both in the James Papers; Milwaukee Staudenmayer to James, May 21, 1921, both in the Journal, April 18, 1924. James Papers.

179 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1958

Progressive as one not afraid to try something This account might be extended indefinitely new: Progressivism itself symbolized growth, by including the contributions of many other development, and progress; there was always women of Wisconsin, for during the early something to be done by those with vision twentieth century Progressive concepts swept and courage to plunge ahead. Reactionaries, over women as well as men. When the state on the other hand, were to her mind those was young and the vast majority of people who lacked the spirit of adventure and were lived on farms, women along with most men too cautious, too willing to stand pat.^^ could concern themselves almost completely At her death the Richland Democrat con­ with their personal affairs without damage cisely summed up the foundations of the career to either their own interests or those of the pub­ of Ada James, and in so doing must also have lic. But when popijation began to increase, expressed the ideals of a host of other women when cities began to replace villages, and in­ as well: dustries began to bring people closer together, "The secret—if it be a secret—of Miss isolation of one's private life from all that was James' long and successful career in many happening in the state was no longer possible. lines of endeavor, will be found in her vision and breadth of mind; in an unquenchable By their very nature women were concerned faith in her neighbor and in love for all with the welfare of their communities—moth­ with whom she came in contact. Not inter­ ers whose children needed better schools and ested in creeds and doctrines, she was most playgrounds; working women anxious for their tolerant toward all religious faiths. Her own welfare; still others with the leisure and consuming passion and desire was for the money to devote themselves to civic better­ upright life and to help her fellow man in ment. Not all women accepted the challenge better living."!^ and concerned themselves with such matters, it is true, but Jessie Jack Hooper and Ada L. "Milwaukee Journal, January 16, 1927. James were typical of the growing number "Richland Center Richland Democrat, October 2, who did. 1952.

Suffragette meeting in Richland Center (Ada James in middle in plaid dress.) Plinfn from the Society's oollertions, negative Wo. WHi (X3) 2905.

!^^V\ *'. Circuit Rider

Don McNeil

I guess it had to happen sooner or later. being brewed in the bathrooms of the nation? Sure enough, now there's going to be an Inevitably, the role of moonshiners must be American Whiskey Museum. Oscar Getz, presi­ told, and I hope the museum fieldmen, as they dent of the Barton Distilling Company, is tackle this dangerous assignment, will be dis­ creating it in Chicago to bring together "for criminating in their collecting policies. research" in one museum everything needed Out in the South Pacific during the war, to portray the history of the industry. It raises some bibulous, brave-hearted souls with noth­ some interesting questions, of course. If it's ing better to do used to pour into a five-gallon a museum, that means artifacts; and artifacts gas can some pure alcohol, dehydrated lemon in this field must certainly mean samples of juice, sugar and, if feeling particularly merry, production. Will this call for new protective canned fruit salad. They would bury it for measures? Will curators now, in addition to seven days, only they usually dug it up in five. checking for stolen items and prohibiting When they served this rare drink to their tourists from touching the merchandise, also friends they called it "whiskey." This, too, have to keep an eye out for the exact state of must be part of our whiskey culture. It is not sobriety of the clientele? Can children under important that these weird, desperate con­ twenty-one be permitted in the museum ? Who coctions failed to measure up to the standards would dare explain the significance? Perhaps of the industry: in the minds of the revelers local option will prevail. this was whiskey, devised by good old Yankee And what of the museum employees? Should ingenuity. And that concept must certainly be they know something of tippling, so that the as important museum-wise as any of the tall, novelty of working with such artifacts won't cool ones which find their way into the hands intrigue them; or should they be avowed tee­ of Men of Distinction. totalers? But wait—if they are abstainers, will they have a real appreciation of the history It's like collecting manuscripts or books or they are purveying to the museum-goers? other important artifacts: Where do you draw Other questions will plague the museum, I the line ? In short, what's good whiskey history, am sure. When, like librarians facing the prob­ and how do we preserve it for posterity? lem of which near-print and ephemeral mate­ We wish the museum good fortune. We rials should be added to their collections, what hope it may attract as many visitors as does will the custodians of our alcoholic heritage do Chicote's renowned museum of world liquors on being confronted with cheap imitations in Madrid. If it ever expands to include other that have played such an important role in the stimulating beverages besides whiskey, then development of leisure-time activity in these certainly Wisconsin, the land of beer and United States? I suppose they will rule out the Braves, will have an important contribu­ "bathtub gin" because that isn't whiskey; but tion to make. And when the museum has its who, during the 1920's, could tell if it was gin dedication, that will surely be one celebration or vermouth or stale beer or even whiskey the historical profession will not soon forget.

181 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1958

On a more serious note, the Historymobile uninformed," and "dozens of teachers were has completed another successful season. This saying the same thing." We should, he con­ year's exhibit, "Mechanizing the Farm," was cluded, "remember whose money you're spend- seen by 63,381 adults and 85,339 children. ing." Between May 1 and November 6, the hard­ We answered the "Teacher and Taxpayer" working curators, Mr. and Mrs. Jake Tschudy, with a letter to the area newspaper. In the first hauled the 43-foot trailer to 140 towns and vil­ place, the Historymobile, which has been seen lages in the state. They attended eight county by more than half a million people in the four fairs, two centennials, and five conventions. years it has been on the road, does not cost The Society is fortunate to have the the taxpayers of Wisconsin one cent. Every Tschudys shepherding the Historymobile piece of equipment was donated: the trailer around the state. They spend long hours day by the Rollohome Corporation of Marshfield; in and day out (weekends included) explain­ the truck by the Ford dealers of Wisconsin; ing the exhibits, talking with citizens interested the generator by U. S. Motors of Oshkosh; in history, and attending to the nerve-wracking and other smaller pieces by business firms in details of choosing sites, parking, driving nar­ the state. The A. & P. Stores, for example, row roads, and meeting schedules. Their sense donate food coupons to help us with the salaries of dedication is great, but we didn't realize of the drivers. All salaries and running ex­ how great until this fall. Upon their return to penses are paid from the private funds of the Society. These generous contributions have winter quarters this year, Mr. and Mrs. helped make the Historymobile successful. We Tschudy donated $250 to the Society toward hope the anonymous author will somehow find the purchase of a replacement for the present access to this information. Historymobile. This year the exhibit will be on the ethnic In the past we have attempted an intelligent contributions. In 1959 we hope to prepare a appraisal of the impact of the Historymobile. fine exhibit on the Seaway, tracing the ori­ But any analysis is guesswork at best. Who gins of lake commerce and ending with the knows how many of the 148,720 persons who story of the impact of the Seaway on future saw the exhibit this past year carried away generations of Wisconsinites. Next to the some spark of new-found interest in history? school program, the launching of the History- We have no way of correctly differentiating mobile is the most important educational pro­ between those who push through quickly with­ gram which the Society has devised to take the out a word, and those who linger long over story of the state's history to the people all each exhibit case. Like television, the History- around the state. mobile has an unascertainable impact. Yet we do get impressions. The Tschudys The silver tea service from the battleship report a great interest in some towns, and they U.S.S. Wisconsin has been the object of tre­ have vivid stories to tell of persons who actu­ mendous interest. In the last issue I told of our ally study the exhibit. We know that the His­ receiving the forty-eight piece service on loan torymobile exhibit is seen by more people from the U.S. Navy to supplement the "Tides than all those who visit our museum in Madi­ of Taste" exhibit prepared by the Women's son and the three historic sites combined. Auxiliary. We did not know then to what Letters from school children also testify to the lengths the U.S. Navy would go in focusing results. And people around the state frequently attention on the decommissioning of the bat­ associate the Society with the "big red trailer." tleship which fought through the deadly bat­ Once in a while, though, we find a word tles of the Pacific during the closing months of dissent. OHC anonymous letter writer (the of World War II. The Navy invited about handwriting and strong language indicated thirty-five Wisconsinites to represent the state the male animal) wrote how "utterly dis­ at the decommissioning ceremonies of the gusted" he was to think that taxpayers had "last battleship." With the director on leave, I to contribute to "keep up such a useless dis­ joined the contingent of newspaper editors, play." Hundreds of school children, said the industrialists, bankers, friends of the Navy, nameless critic, went away "unimpressed and and governmental leaders for the pleasant trip.

182 CIRCUIT RIDER

Immediately after the ceremonies, we climbed into a bus for a long ride out beyond Brooklyn and boarded a plane for home. By this time, I had freely confessed my fear of flying, and those who deplaned at Milwaukee seemed to enjoy the fact I had one more take off and another landing to endure. But we made it safely, and I wish I hadn't spent those hours in the air worrying: I should have en­ joyed myself. In a few weeks the silver service, which we had seen on display in the wardroom of the battleship during the trip, arrived in Madison. We installed the service in the first floor corridor and thousands of visitors have seen the display. Most of the items are the original pieces, first given by the people of the state to the U.S. Navy in 1901. Fourteen pieces were Dow Brereton, Governor Thomson, and Don McNeil added in 1945 when the service, discovered examining the Wisconsin's silver punch bowl. in a San Diego warehouse where it had been stored from the time of the decommissioning of the first U.S.S. Wisconsin in 1922, was returned to the state to be refurbished.! The We flew to Norfolk, Virginia, boarded the ship service will remain on display at the Society and cruised up the Atlantic to New York City. until the Navy recalls it to place it on another During the voyage we clambered down the vessel. We hope the ship will not have a name endless row of hatches to the mysterious "in­ like Baton Rouge or Fargo, because the state nards" of the leviathan, squeezed our bodies seal, handchased on every piece of service, through the narrow passages of the gun tur­ might look a little out of place. rets, and boarded a helicopter on the fan-tail for short jaunts around the moving ship to get Founders Day this year grew into something "perspective." I would estimate that camera akin to the 1954 Draper Centennial. Four shutters clicked more than 5,000 times during nationally-prominent newspaper, radio, and the trip. television personalities flew in to Madison for We arrived in New York on that city's the official opening of the Society's Mass Com­ election day, and most of the delegates fanned munications History Center. The afternoon out over the city until time for the ceremonies symposium on "The Role of the Commentator" at 3 P.M. From the gold braid on deck that afternoon, it looked like admirals outnumbered enlisted men. Stewart Honeck, representing the state, gave the commemorative speech to the 'This is the story pieced together by past research­ ers. However, after this was written, the Society 500 persons, excluding the ship's crew, who received a letter from Harold J. Bachmann, energetic were present. In a way it was a historic occa­ president of the Menasha Historical Society, in which he takes issue with the "mysterious disappearance" sion: Nostalgia and melancholy were every­ of the silver service for almost twenty years. In 1940, where as naval officers talked of the "passing Mr. Bachmann writes, he was the guest of the Cap­ of an era," of the modern needs for faster, tain of the Yorktown, then docked in Coronado, California. He saw the Wisconsin silver service on smaller, ships—aircraft carriers and missile the ship and the Captain told him that the Yorktown, ships—rather than battleships and heavy cruis­ without a silver service, was lent the Wisconsin service sometime after the 1922 decommissioning of ers. Some officers stoutly maintained that the the U.S.S. Wisconsin. When the Yorktown, which batdeship was not through; that once again, eventually was sunk in battle, went into active service as it was during the Korean crisis, the U.S.S. in World War H, the silver was taken off the ship and stored. Wisconsin would be taken out of mothballs We are indebted to Mr. Bachmann for this foot­ and put back into action. note to history.

183 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1958 was held in the reading room of the Society written letters on behalf of the Society and with reading facilities temporarily readjusted, urged his friends in the profession to deposit rows of folding chairs replacing the lounge their papers with us. In short, the success of furniture used heavily these days by Univer­ the Mass Communications History Center has sity students, and with television cameras been made possible through his efforts. We grinding away. hoped he would be able to join us for the Quincy Howe, A.B.C. news commentator Founders Day celebration, but his doctors and president of the Association of Radio- sent him off to Jamaica to recuperate from an Television News Analysts, chairmanned the operation this fall. meeting and gave a paper on the commentator We cannot adequately tell our appreciation. as critic. Austin Kiplinger, executive vice- The Society is indeed fortunate in having such president of the Kiplinger Washington Agency, a supporter, and if the Center continues to spoke on the commentator as reporter; Gun- grow as it has these past two years and be­ nar Back, news director and commentator for comes the center for research and writing in WFIL and WFIL-TV, Philadelphia, on the this field, the credit must go to the distin­ commentator as censor of the news; and Louis guished former Wisconsinite—H. V. Kalten­ Lochner, veteran Associated Press foreign cor­ born. respondent who has placed the first installment of his large collection in the Mass Communi­ Elsewhere in these pages readers will find cations History Center, spoke on the commen­ a formal statement announcing the increase tator as the victim of government censorship. in annual membership dues from $4.00 to Mr. Lochner also gave the Founders Day ad­ $5.00. The special $1.00 membership rate dress to the large crowd of more than 200 who (which does not include a subscription to this attended the banquet this year. His speech, magazine) remains unaffected. Quite natu­ "Communications and the Mass-Produced rally, the Society regrets the raise in price, one Mind," will be printed in a future issue of of several which the Board of Curators decided this magazine. upon at the Founders Day meeting. Also in­ creased were admission fees charged visitors With such an auspicious opening, the Center to the historic sites—Stonefield, Wade House, now needs a push to make these significant and Villa Louis. Adult fees were raised from collections grow. Already the Center has the 50 to 60 cents, children's from 10 to 15 cents, records of H. V. Kaltenborn, Harry and Roy and 30 instead of 25 cents will be charged Aitken, Carl Anderson, Gunnar Back, Dr. W. members of tour groups of more than 100 W. Bauer, C. E. Butterfield, Charles C. Col- persons. lingwood, Joseph C. Harsch, Frank King, The Board has felt compelled to keep prices Fontaine Fox, Louis P. Lochner, Austin Kip­ at an approximation of costs. And nowhere linger, and Gluyas Williams. Others, such as have costs risen more sharply than in the field Merrill Mueller, Ned Calmer, and Tommy of publishing. The cost of paper, printirig, pic­ Cowan have been promised. This is a relatively tures, engravings, wages—all the ingredients new field and the Society, working with the which go into our publications—have sky­ University of Wisconsin, hopes to make the rocketed in recent months. Regrettable though Center the depository for other major collec­ the change may be, the $5.00 rate is in line tions in this untapped area. with (and in many cases still lower than) the The Mass Communications Center would dues charged by the historical societies of not have been possible without the aid, sup- other states. A letter was sent to all members pdft, and encouragement of H. V. Kaltenborn, announcing the raise in membership dues, the dean of American news analysts. In 1955 effective February 1, 1958. So far, the replies Mr. Kaltenborn placed his papers here, pro­ have been sympathetic. We trust that all mem­ vided money for the arrangement and catalog­ bers will be appreciative of the problem and ing of his voluminous papers, and then set out will stay with us as we strive to carry out the to obtain other collections in the field. He has purposes of the Society.

184 Historically, popular resistance to un­ popular legislation has resulted in either repression or reform. To the Midwestern lead miners of the early nineteenth cen­ tury, resistance to what they regarded as the myopic policy of a chuckleheaded Congress assumed the aspect of a patri­ otic obligation—^with victory the ulti­ mate and ingeniously arrived at goal.

Civil Disobedience

on the Mining Frontier

bil Ann M. Keppel

Not until the acquisition of the Louisiana Ter­ ritory in 1803 and the subsequent discovery that lead was being mined in a section of what Missouri until 1829, and in northwestern Illi­ is now Missouri did the federal government nois, eastern Iowa, and southwestern Wiscon­ have occasion to invoke one of the principles sin until 1846 when Congress, recognizing the laid down in the Ordinance of 1785. This prin­ impossibility of continued attempts to enforce ciple, permitting the reservation of certain unpopular and unworkable regulations, caused specified mineral-bearing lands, established a the lead lands to be sold. During this entire tenet of federal policy that was to meet its period implementation of the law, hampered only test in the lead regions of Missouri, Illi­ at the outset by a number of fundamental ob­ nois, Wisconsin, and Iowa.! stacles, failed largely because of the inability In 1807, Congress not only designated all of those who made and executed the law to un­ lead lands in the public domain as reserved, derstand the needs and psychology of the min­ but also arranged for federal agents to lease ers, or the conditions peculiar to their cafling. such lands to individual miners who would Lead mining was a gamble, uncertain but then be required to pay rent for the privilege exciting. There were no infallible surface in­ of mining them. This system was applied in dications of underground deposits, and unsuc­ cessful prospecting far exceeded the occasional "The Ordinance of 1785 and the discussions pre­ successful strike. The most reliable clue to a ceding its passage are to be found in John C. Fitzpat- hidden vein was the presence of "gravel" min­ rick, ed.. Journals of the Continental Congress eral—loose rock lying on the ground. Besides (Washington, 1933), 28:254, 284, 301. English colo­ nial charters customarily reserved for the Crown one- this, the miner looked for unusual rock forma­ fifth of all gold and silver discovered on the King's tions, natural ravines, or "sink holes" in the domain. However, each colony evolved its own pol­ terrain. When these were discovered, he would icy, and no consistency is evident during the colonial period. The unique lead land policy had its roots not start digging.'' in colonial experience but in the circumstances of the American Revolution when war shortages of lead were met by state control of mining. See Amelia Picture: Cross-section of a lead mine, taken from Clewly Ford, Colonial Precedents for Our National the David Dale Owen report of 1844. Negative (X3) Land System as it Existed in 1800 (Bulletin of the 8420. University of Wisconsin, no. 352, Madison, 1910), 143; ^The most detailed description of mining in Mis­ Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut (Hart­ souri is in Henry Schoolcraft's View of the Lead ford, 1850-1890), 15:37; William Waller Henning, Mines of Missouri (New York, 1819). Customs of Statutes of Virginia (New York, 1823), 9:71-72, 237. the Wisconsin and Illinois miners are described in

185 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1958

Extraction methods were crude. The stand­ As a group the miners were a restless, wan­ ard equipment, a pick and gad, usually suf­ dering lot whose extreme mobility made the ficed for cursory digging; but if the surface government's leasing policy difficult if not im­ rock resisted these tools it was necessary to possible to enforce. The individual miner's blast through the hard, top layers—a danger­ chance of ultimate success was partially de­ ous business when done with loose powder and pendent on the ease with which he could pick hot burning coals. In addition, at certain up his equipment and dig near someone who depths the mines filled with water and no one had found lead. Discouraged by meagre re­ in that day was able to cope with this problem. turns in one spot, miners were quick to aban­ Nevertheless, optimism ran high, for once a don their diggings and pursue rumors of rich vein was discovered relatively little time, sudden fortune elsewhere. Swarming over the equipment, or skill was needed in order to countryside, they worked singly or in pairs, convert the ore into cash.^ digging on public or private land wherever The traditions and habits of the miners, re­ there was no one to prevent them. markably similar throughout the whole mining Collusion between miners and smelters on area, were based on personal experiences often the one hand, and their natural antipathy sharply at variance with the intent of the fed­ toward federal agents on the other, gave rise eral law. Custom permitted anyone who came to problems not easy to resolve. Eventually the upon a mine to begin digging in its vicinity, lands were sold, but in the interim years— and henc^ to tap the same vein. Miners con­ until 1829 in Missouri, and until 1846 in Illi­ structed crude shafts to prevent cave-ins, at­ nois, Iowa, and Wisconsin—a prodigious taching a common windlass and bucket to the volume of mining was carried on. Most of it opening of the mine to carry out the ore and was completely outside the law. On occasion debris. Customs varied with the circumstances. there was violence; but more often the miners In Missouri, for example, where the lead- resorted to a variety of ingenious illegal and bearing lands were confined to a comparatively extra-legal stratagems in order to occupy and small geographic area and where veins of ore obtain ownership of federal lands which they were close to the surface, custom forbade the regarded as rightfully theirs in the first place. miner from digging horizontally and thus en­ In the areas acquired through the Louisiana dangering the mines of others. Conversely, Purchase miners had been digging for lead for farther north where the lead mines were gen­ over thirty years, and since title to land was erally believed to be inexhaustible, "drifting" complicated by a profusion of questionable —that is, horizontal digging from one pros­ French and Spanish grants, it became im­ pect hole to another—was allowed.* mediately necessary to determine just which lands were public and which private.^ To ac­ complish this difficult assignment Congress sent a United States Board of Land Commis­ James M. Goodhue, Struck a Lead, An Historical sioners to St. Louis to represent the new gov­ Tale of the Upper Mississippi (Chicago, 1880) ; and ernment and to sort out the conflicting claims.^ in David Dale Owen, Report of a Geological Survey All mining was ordered temporarily suspended of Part of Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois (28 Congress, 1 session, Senate Document no. 407, serial 437, June while the commission, acting as an official 11, 1844). Albert M. Lea describes the Iowa miners court of arbitration, and following its direc­ in Notes on Wisconsin Territory, with Particular Ref­ erences to the Iowa District of the Blackhawk Pur­ chase (Philadelphia, 1836). 'Hezekiah Gear literally became rich overnight when he struck a particularly productive vein of ore tions to Lt. Martin Thomas on his appointment as in the vicinity of Galena, Illinois. See Clarissa Emely mine agent, in 29 Congress, 1 session, House Report Gear Hobbs, "Autobiography," in the Journal of the no. 576, May 4, 1846, pp. 23-24 (Serial 490). Illinois Historical Society, 17:712-714 (January, "Louis Houck, A History of Missouri (Chicago, 1925). 1908), 2:215, 329, 356; Ada Paris Klein, "Lead 'Schoolcraft, Lead Mines of Missouri, 107, 113-118, Mining in Pioneer Missouri," in the Missouri Histori­ 131-132; Goodhue, Struck a Lead, 13-14; Galena cal Review, 43:251 (January, 1949) ; American State (Illinois) Northwestern Gazette, December 12, 26, Papers: Public Lands, 1:189; Clarence E. Carter, ed.. and 29, 1843; History of Grant County, Wisconsin The Territorial Papers of the United States (22 vols., (Chicago, 1880), 480-481; History of Jo Daviess Washington, 19.34-), 13: 273-274. County, Illinois (Chicago, 1878), 260-275; instruc- "United States Statutes at Large, 2:327-328.

186 KEPPEL : CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE

tions to encourage orderly settlement, labori­ simultaneously encouraging orderly settle­ ously sought to untangle a snarl of confused ment. Superimposed upon an already complex claims. situation in which battles over possession and On one occasion, in a particularly rich ownership were raging, the 1807 leasing laws mining area, miners continued digging in incited widespread resentment. Having been defiance of the order, and although the gov­ permitted to roam and mine at will by both the ernment hesitated to use force to achieve co­ French and the Spanish regimes, the miners operation, troops were sent to the mine. The were in no mood to co-operate with the agents local military commandant, outnumbered by of the United States; and it is hardly sur­ miners who refused to budge, had no alterna­ prising that the first agent, Frederick Bates, tive but to withdraw, and as a result mining viewed his job with deep pessimism. He, the continued even though the title to the land was commission, and the available federal troops still unclear.' Thereupon, resentment against were unable to encourage even a semblance of the government became focused on the com­ conformity to the law. "God knows where it mission which had an unhappy time of it, so will end," Bates observed as he sent in reports much so that in the course of one of its ses­ on miners whom he believed to be determined sions a commissioner was physically attacked to "Carve their way thro' life . . . armed with and told, "March you damned rogue. March, Pistols and Durks and sometimes with you damned rascal." Rifles. . . ."!» The board registered official apprehension Between 1807 and 1816 a trail of broken at so "dreadful a precedent," but being in­ leases marked the frustrated efforts of Bates adequately supplied with troops, was powerless to enforce leasing. Whenever he issued a to retaliate against the assailant who remained government lease—as from time to time he was in Missouri as a respected citizen and eventu­ called upon to do for a newcomer to the area— ally represented the Territory in Congress.^ It the lessee was ultimately and inevitably ejected goes without saying that such incidents neither from his land by some prior claimant, rein­ enhanced the prestige of the commission nor forced with "a band of desperate young men." encouraged co-operation from the miners. Bates, though continuing with his futile efforts, Congressional legislation of 1807 ushered recognized that no authority then existing in in a period of increased resistance to law in the Territory could effectively control the Missouri. Despite the fact that the commission mines for the United States. He was powerless had not yet completed its work and that the to prevent repeated intrusions; local juries, question of the legality of land titles remained quite naturally on the side of the miners, re­ unsettled. Congress authorized the President fused to uphold federal leases in local courts. to grant leases to miners empowering them to Bates' conclusion was that the people of the dig on the public domain.^ The leasing system area were "turbulent and ungovernable in was conceived as a means of preventing mo­ their disposition" and would view the new nopoly of a valuable natural resource while government with favor only when told they could have the land they wanted, under con­ ditions they regarded as fair.!! Newspapers picked up the local attitudes 'Carter, Territorial Papers, 13:273 §. 'Portions of the official minutes of the Board of of resistance to the commission and the- Commissioners appear in Houck, History of Missouri, leasing agent. Handbills and petitions justi­ 3:48-49, wherein it is noted that the assailant, Rufus fied the miners' position with such public Easton, was ordered to the "common jail" for "14 days"; see also Eugene C. Barker, ed., "Austin Pa­ announcements as: pers," in American Historical Association Annual Re­ port, 1919 (Washington, 1919), 1:113-114. °Two leasing laws were passed by Congress in 1807, one applicable to the Indiana Territory including what is now Illinois and Wisconsin, and the other to apply to the area west of the Mississippi River. See ^"Thomas Maitland Marshall, ed.. The Life and U. S. Statutes at Large, 2:445, 449. For evidence that Papers of Frederick Bates (St. Louis, 1926), 1:41, President Jefferson personally concerned himself with 127,136-137. the details of leasing, see his correspondence with "/6JU, 1:112-114, 134-135. Official records of early Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin in Carter, leases are given in ibid., 1:197, 211, 253, 274, 281- Territorial Papers, 7:485, 489-490. 282.

187 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1958

"Remember that you were born free and Sporadic but half-hearted gestures aimed at that you enjoyed that freedom until the enforcing the law were made by numerous latter part of 1805 when the land commis­ government officials, but aside from one pay­ sion, with its agents, consteibles &&&... ment of rent in 1816—which precipitated con­ tyranized over you with the most insolent siderable official correspondence as to what and vindictive spirit until they dragooned you into the most abject submission and should be done with the money—no revenue forced you to give your property into their was forthcoming from the federally-owned hands. . . ."!2 mines in Missouri until 1826, nearly twenty Those whom Bates deemed ungovernable years after the enactment of the leasing law.!** simply argued that "The people are something In the meantime, the Treasury had been re­ or they are nothing; if nothing, they will go lieved of the task of supervision by the War . . . and petition the board."!^ Department which delegated control of the leasing operations to Army Ordnance offi­ Continued opposition to the law presented cers.!' But even under the comparatively close an apparently insoluble problem unless one surveillance of the army, the miners, continu­ side or the other would compromise, which ing in their traditional ways, escaped detection neither displayed any disposition to do; and while avoiding regulation. Ordnance officers it is questionable if even full-scale military verified Schoolcraft's descriptions of how support for the agent and the commission mining was carried on: intruders were every­ could have brought about submission on the where, elusive and impossible to apprehend part of the miners. Amos Stoddard, first resi­ and punish. When ordered by an officer to dent governor of Louisiana, toured the mines leave a particular tract for which he had no and noted that: lease, the miner simply moved on, searching "If people be prohibited from taking it elsewhere for a likely spot to strike a "lead." [lead] from one or more places, they will resort to others. All the troops in service This uneasy shifting of people from place to would not be able to guard this treasure; place gave rise to extensive trespassing.!^ and those disposed to purloin it would laugh It was by concentrating their efforts on the at legal restraint."!* smelters that the agents ultimately succeeded On the other hand, though scoffing at and in collecting rent. The smelter, whose equip­ flaunting the federal law, the miners scrupu­ ment bound him to a more or less permanent lously operated within the framework of their location, was at a disadvantage in the race own codes of behavior. Henry Schoolcraft against supervision. Recognizing this, the traveled through the mines in 1819 and de­ army agents went beyond the letter of the scribed the local customs, which he felt had a 1807 law and required the smelter not only to "tendency to prevent disputes." One was the post a bond but also to pay as rent one tenth practice whereby each man lucky enough to of all the lead he smelted. As a consequence, discover a new mine claimed the ground for it was not uncommon for the smelter to falsify twenty feet in each direction around the origi­ his records of the amount of ore refined. But nal strike, and was respected in his rights by by concentrating their attention on these cen­ those who staked claims in the immediate tral depositories of ore, the agents actually vicinity, "no man troubling himself with a collected some rent monies for the govern­ lease."!^ Miners objected not to rules as such ment between the years 1826 and 1828.!" but to regulations imposed by outsiders who The agents' job, however, was a nearly hope­ had no knowledge of the problems involved in less one, incredibly complicated by conflicting lead mining. . claims to ownership of land; and in 1828 the

"Carter, Territorial Papers, 14:778-779; 15:219- 220. ^''American State Papers: Public Lands, 4:523. ^"American State Papers: Military Affairs, 2:460- *'St. Louis Missouri Gazette, February 1,1810. 461; 19 Congress, 1 session. Senate IJocument no. 45, "Ibid., October 19, 1809. February 22, 1825, pp. 6-7, 13, 18 (Serial 126). "Amos Stoddard, Sketches, Historical and Descrip­ ^Report of the agent in American State Papers: tive of Louisiana (Philadelphia, 1812), 288. Public Lands, 4:524-526; 19 Congress, 2 session, "Schoolcraft, Lead Mines of Missouri, 107, 119, House Document no. 7, December 8, 1826, pp. 8-9, 131-132 passim. 10-12 (Serial 149).

188 KEPPEL : CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE

agent recommended the sale of the Missouri many months will elapse without the neces­ mines so that he might devote his full energies sity of military force (the only force rec­ to the mines of the "upper Mississippi" where ognized in this country) to protect the men were reportedly "amassing great for­ interest of the mines and encourage their tunes" and where rents were "easily collected" development."^! and "cheerfully paid." Congress complied, Although the actions of the miners are im­ authorizing the sale of the publicly-owned possible to trace with any degree of accuracy mines in Missouri, and henceforth the Ord­ because they were too busy to write of them­ nance officers directed their attention to the selves, it is clear that while population and mines of the north—in the vicinity of Galena lead production in the "upper Mississippi" in­ in Illinois, in the Dubuque region of Iowa, and creased between 1826 and 1830, rent collec­ in Wisconsin in and around Mineral Point.^° tions decreased.. And by 1836, no rent was At the outset of the supervision in the north, being paid by anyone in either Illinois or the agent reported "perfect harmony" among Wisconsin.^^ the miners who found "universal satisfaction" In this newly-opened territory, freedom to in the system of leasing lands from the federal explore and exploit without interference was a government. However, the honeymoon was brief and soon the agent was writing of: "... a great itching for privileges, and a ^^American State Papers: Public Lands, 4:524; superabundant measure of independence. History of Jo Daviess County, 266. Complaints about the right of ground, and ^'Estimates of lead production, ranging from 10,- 662,000 pounds in 1830 to 22,782,000 pounds in 1836, this, that, and the other right accumulate are given in Joseph Schafer, The Wisconsin Lead Re­ daily, both from the diggers and the smelt­ gion (State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison, ers and God knows where and what will be 1932), 37. Ordnance Department records of declin­ ing rentals for the consecutive years of the same pe­ the end of all things. I am no prophet but riod appear in the following: American State Papers: I will be mad enough to predict that not Military Affairs, 4:617; ibid., 5:156; 23 Congress, 1 session. House Document xx no. 1, December 3, 1833, p. 60 (Serial 254) ; 23 Congress, 2 session, House Document no. 2, December 2, 1834, p. 230 (Serial ™\9 Congress, 2 session, Senate Document no. 1, 271) ; 24 Congress, 1 session, House Document no. December 5, 1826, p.l #. (Serial 144) ; U. S. Statutes 2, December 8, 1835, pp. 229, 259 (Serial 286) ; 24 at Large: Public Laws, 4:364 (March 3, 1829); Congress, 2 session. House Document no. 2, Decem­ American State Papers: Public Lands, 5:347-348. ber 6, 1836, p. 329 (Serial 301).

Type of windlass used in early Wisconsin lead mines. Photo from the Society's collections.

189 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1958 prime attraction. A new arrival at Galena in sible, he placed great stress on the lead lands. 1827 boasted that "There is no civil law here The legislature attempted to overrule the nor has the Gospel been introduced; or to federal law by state statute, and Governor make use of a common phrase here, 'neither Edwards not only encouraged miners and the law nor the gospel can pass the rapids of smelters to cease paying rent, but also urged the Mississippi.' "^^ So intent were miners on the legislature to protect both groups in their finding ore that they seldom stopped to build illegalities. The legislature complied by ex­ a cabin, but housed themselves and their fami­ empting Illinois courts from all cases which lies in caves dug in hillsides. When repri­ the agent might press against delinquent tax­ manded for mining public land, they retorted, payers or trespassers on federal land.^' Thus, "We have a right to go where we please."^* refugees from federal law found temporary The same mobility that had harassed the haven in the laws of Illinois. agents in Missouri characterized the miners of Leasing in Wisconsin was complicated by Illinois and Wisconsin. Driven from one spot, the establishment of the Federal Land Office at they merely gathered up their few tools and Mineral Point (then a part of Michigan Terri­ started digging somewhere else. tory) and by the opening to sale, under the Nonetheless, the law remained on the statute statute of 1834, of lands in the lead district.^® books and the federal agents attempted to en­ The statute did not abrogate the 1807 leasing force it, much as a later generation of federal law, which continued in force, but it did fur­ agents duly tried to enforce a similarly un­ nish the entering wedge for illegal sales and, popular law during the era of national prohi­ though ambiguous in wording, was interpreted bition. In opposition, the miners and smelters, by President Andrew Jackson to mean the enlisting support wherever they could find it, continuance of reservation and leasing.^" gradually banded together to protect their But it was one thing to interpret a law in mutual interests against the government. These distant Washington, and quite another to en­ dissidents began to argue that not only was the force it on the local scene. The crux of the law unconstitutional, but also that the actions problem in the Wisconsin area lay in the in­ of the agents were not defined by law. The Miners' Journal summed up one aspect of the ability of either the register of the Mineral general attitude when, referring to the prac­ Point Land Office—a Treasury Department tice of licensing smelters—not specifically in­ employee—or the leasing agent at Galena— cluded in the 1807 laws—it said, "The less an army officer under the Ordnance Depart­ control the general government exercises over ment—to separate mineral from non-mineral us, the better."^^ Memorials to Congress for lands. No geological surveys had been made rent reduction and pre-emption rights brought and neither man knew accurately which pre­ no change in official policy.^" Appeals to the cise sections were mineral-bearing and which agent were so much wasted breath. were not.'" In Illinois, the legislature hit upon a scheme The local register, John Sheldon, was un­ to force the federal government to abandon able to canvass the entire territory within his leasing. In Governor Ninian Edwards' cam­ jurisdiction. He was remote from the counsels paign to acquire as many federal lands as pos­ of the General Land Office in Washington and

"Journal of the House, 5th General Assembly, 1826, 52; ibid., 7th General Assembly, 1831, 16-22; Laws '"History of Jo Daviess County, 252. of Illinois, 7th General Assembly, February 15, 1831, ^'Daniel M. Parkinson, "Pioneer Life in Wiscon­ 82 sin," in State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Col­ ^'f/. S. Statutes: Public Laws, 4:496-497. lections, 2:332 (1903); Ebenezer Childs, "Recollec­ '"President Jackson's proclamation was sent to the tions of Wisconsin since 1820," in ibid., 4:181 (1906) ; secretary of the General Land Office and to the reg­ Thomas L. McKenney, "The Winnebago War," in ister of the land offices at Green Bay and Mineral ibid. 5:203-204 (1907); and "Adele De P. Gratiot's Point. See Carter, Territorial Papers, 12:786. It was Narrative," in ibid., 10:267 (1909). also published in the Galena (Illinois) Galenian, "Galena (Illinois) Miners^ Journal, August 14, July 19, 1834. 1830. • ""In 1839, the Treasury Department, unable to pro­ "Ibid., April 24, 1830; Carter, Territorial Papers, vide Congress with estimates of the extent and loca­ 12:93-98. tion of lead-bearing mines in the public domain.

190 KEPPEL CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE

was surrounded by men who had long clam­ oath, acquire other mineral land at the same ored for the right to purchase lands. As a time. Even more blatant were those who be­ result, he devised his own means of categori­ fore applying for purchase at the land office zing reserved land by requiring each appli­ diverted the register's attention while they cant for federal acreage to produce a sworn erased from the official plat the word "digs"— statement to the effect that the particular tract the term used to indicate a reserve. Through in question did not contain a mine. This re­ such machinations, mineral land was tempo­ quirement, technically unofficial, was adopted rarily converted into farm land and made by the register in an effort to facilitate sales.''! eligible for sale.^^ Sheldon's unofficial scheme rapidly depleted It should be pointed out that certificate of the federal reserves within his^ district as title, issued by the register, did not constitute miners hastened to comply with the require­ legal possession, since final patents to land ment and still purchase mineral land. It was were issued in Washington. Governor Henry not unusual for a prospective buyer to walk Dodge, himself one of Sheldon's customers and a blindfolded friend over mineral-bearing therefore understandably anxious to protect land and then have him swear to its non- dubious purchases from possible repossession mineral quality. Or a buyer might enlist the by the government, recommended immediate aid of honest neighbors who knew nothing legislative action, and the Wisconsin Terri­ about township or section lines. It was easy torial Legislature lost no time in providing a enough to escort them over lands where no cloak of legal protection to buyers. In 1846 mines existed and, on the strength of their the legislature, through statute, recognized the hastily ordered an official survey. David Dale Owen, the General Land Office, Record Group 49, micro­ former Indiana state geologist, headed the project filmed manuscripts in the State Historical Society of and reported a lead supply that was "inexhaustible Wisconsin. Sheldon lacked the requisite cash to ... for many years, if not for ages." It must be speculate in lands himself, but from time to time noted, however, that this cursory survey was com­ he acted as unofficial agent for eastern speculators. pleted in two months by Owen and 139 untrained See his correspondence with William Russell, in the "assistants" whom he briefed in geology on the boat Boston and Western Land Company Papers in the trip north from St. Louis. See 28 Congress, 1 session, State Historical Society collections, particularly Rus­ Senate Document no. 407, June 11, 1844, pp. 1-191 sell to Sheldon, February 18, 1836; Sheldon to Rus­ (Serial 437). sell, January 4 and 24, 1836, and March 17, 1837. ^'Both Sheldon and Mine Superintendent Thomas In 1810 Sheldon was removed from office. He de­ Legate took advantage of their own loose interpreta­ fended his actions while register in the Madison tions of federal law. Legate's purchases of reserved Wisconsin Enquirer, July 1, 1840, publishing copies timber lands were brought to public attention in a of typical sworn statements he had required of pur­ series of anonymous letters in the Galenian, July 15 chasers. and 21 and September 19, 1835, and were officially "^Schafer, Lead Region, 119; Wisconsin Enquirer, recorded in the tract books among the Records of February 19, 1841; Carter, Territorial Papers, 12:839.

Surface diggings in a lead mining district. Photo from the Society's collectiu!!-,

191 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING. 1958

temporary certificates issued by the local regis­ not authorize the sale of such lands in the ter as evidence of legal title in any court of the Mineral Point district.''^ But by then, the time Territory.^^ Thus Wisconsin, like Illinois, did had passed when court decisions bore any not hesitate to anticipate and overrule federal effective weight. authority. Leasing had virtually been abandoned by Under such circumstances, with the miners 1844, not only by local miners and smelters, and smelters operating within their own code but by the Ordnance officers as well. Local as well as under the laws of Wisconsin and citizens attributed the failure to the "ignor­ Illinois, rents were collected only sporadic­ ance of functionaries in Washington." The ally.^* Finally permitting the law to become leasing system, the Galena newspaper noted, inoperative, the agents turned to the local was "erroneous from the outset, and every courts in an effort to uphold the right of the year's experience added proof of its injustices government to continue leasing despite the to the citizens."^" For the most part, the hap­ concerted opposition of the people. Needless less government agents tended to agree, and to say, this maneuver likewise failed, and the joined local residents in urging Congress to agents gave up when the cost of taking a case sell the remaining reserves. to court was not compensated for by the fines Finally, in June of 1846, Congress opened local juries saw fit to impose on those who had the lead reserves to sale, thereby reversing a mined without government permission—in policy which had been doomed from its some case as low as five cents.^^ In Wiscon­ inception. In the 1846 law Congress stipulated sin, even the U.S. District Court protected that mineral lands would be sold to the highest buyers who might have sworn falsely in order bidders at public auction the following spring. to obtain mineral land, by ruling that the oath Individuals could purchase eighty-acre tracts required by Sheldon was "not authorized by for no less than $2.50 an acre—double the law and that falsely taking that oath did not current price for agricultural lands. The local constitute perjury under the laws of the land officers would determine which lands Territory"!^" were "actually being worked" as mines, and Unable to get favorable decisions in federal thus officially regarded as more valuable. All and territorial courts, the agents appealed sev­ such reserves not sold at the time of the sale eral cases to the U.S. Supreme Court where would then be subject to private entry, with leasing was belatedly upheld. In 1840 the the exception that if no one bid on a particular Court held that the smelters' license, though tract the pre-emptor could file affidavits of not explicitly mentioned in the 1807 legisla­ possession and purchase his claim at the end tion, was nonetheless a legal contract within of a year for $1.25 an acre.*" the spirit of the law.^' Not until 1844, when The mining community received the new much of the mineral land had already been legislation with wild enthusiasm. Someone sold, did the Court rule that the 1834 law did predicted that: . "The miners will be able to invest their gains advantageously, romping bachelors

""Typical irregularities in the issuance of patents are discussed in 27 Congress, 2 session. House Report no. 482, April 1, 1842, (Serial 408) ; also in the speech by Dodge in 1st Legislative Assembly, 1st Ses­ ""United States v. Gear (3 Howard.) 121 (1844). sion, 1836, Journal of the Council, 9-10; and in the The brief filed by the defense was published in the territorial law in Acts Passed at the First Session of Northwestern Gazette, March 20, 1845. the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Wiscon­ ""Mineral Point Democrat, August 6, 1845; see also sin, 1836, 1:53. Northwestern Gazette, January 12, February 23, April "*The annual reports of the Ordnance Department, 2, 1844, in one issue of which the editor noted that found in the report of the Secretary of War in Ex­ "no attempt of the government will ever be able to ecutive Documents, indicate that no rents were paid enforce the law," and advised the Secretary of War to the government between 1836 and 1840. to have at "least one agent to every square mile—• ""Lucius Langworthy, "Reminiscences," in the Iowa whose duties shall extend underground as well as Journal of History and Politics, 8:411-412 (July, 1910). above ground, and who shall be qualified ... to look "°27 Congress, 2 session, House Report no. 484, both ways in the daytime, and sleep with one eye April 1, 1842, p. 2 (Serial 408). open at night." "'United States v. Gratiot (14 Peters.) 526 (1840). '"U.S. Statutes, 9:37. _ '

192 KEPPEL : CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE

will be transformed into sedate household­ Agitation for claims associations began in ers, and every man will be interested in the fall of 1846 and gained strength as the permanently improving the country, and time for the sale approached.*'' In September the condition of society—externally and in­ and (October, a writer calling himself "The ternally—in business and intelligence and Pioneer," carefully planned the strategy that morality—will improve immediately and immensely."*! provided the course of action subsequently followed in and around Galena and Mineral The law was indeed a major popular victory. Point: But from the standpoint of the miners it was still inadequate. The first serious shortcoming "It is conceded by all reasonable persons that the provisions of the law are such that was the lack of a clear-cut pre-emption clause. with the assistance of able, honest, and fair Only after the sale was completed could a township committees, equal and ample jus­ squatter file possession or pre-emption rights. tice will be secured to both farmer and Furthermore, the law did not take cognizance miner."*'' of the maze of conflicting claims that had "The Pioneer" advised all interested claim­ grown up since the early 1820's, for despite ants to join township groups, and to "exercise the illegality of transferring official mining the utmost care and reflection" in choosing permits, miners and speculators had not only men to represent them as adjudicators to settle resold their permits to lease, but their illegal contested claims. He urged those chosen for possession rights as well.*^ As the editor of the this position to serve "regardless of the per­ Galena paper pointed out: sonal inconvenience," suggesting as well that "It will be strange if there is not some jar­ each claimant "present himself in front of the ring and discord at first. Claims piled upon land office on the first day of the sale, ready each other for a period of twenty years are for active service, fully determined to remain not to be adjusted without exciting some until the sale closes." No one was to "sneak off personal strife. But when this cloud passes home and leave his neighbor's land un­ away, the clear sunshine of prosperity will protected." United action was crucial and shine benignly."*^ ". . . instead of sending a deputation to Dix­ The most outstanding example of civil dis­ on to attend to our business, we should re­ obedience on the mining frontier was the solve ourselves into a Committee of the claims association, formed to avoid the pre­ Whole for that purpose and that, not only dicted "jarring and discord" among disap­ every man whom the Committee shall decide pointed land-seekers. No one person or group is in equity entitled to a claim attend the deserves credit for the spontaneous co-opera­ sale, but that he should take with him his tive organizations that sprang up throughout sons, if he has any, and any other friends the area. Rather, they reflected the universal or persons in his employment, who are conviction that land inherently belonged to anxious for the promotion of justice."*' the man who made it productive—a convic­ Although the law stated that mineral lands tion concisely summarized by an anonymous would sell for $2.50 an acre and non-mineral contributor to the newspaper: lands for the established minimum of $1.25, "Whether it be a law or not, it is not right that a man who by his labor has improved •"The prevalence of such co-operation among pro­ the value of a piece of wild land from $100 spective purchasers of federal land is generally ac­ to $1,000 should now be compelled to bid cepted, but because they functioned outside the law on it at its present price with no advantage they rarely left records. The significance of the Wis­ over strangers."** consin and Illinois claims associations, therefore, lies in the fact that they published an account of their actions. Benjamin Hibbard deals with Alabama and *'Galena (Illinois) Semi-Weekly Galena Jefferson- Wisconsin claims organizations in his A History of ian, September 18, 1846. Public Land Policies (New York, 1924), 200 #.; '^Goodhue, Struck a Lead, 13-14; Report of Com­ resolutions adopted by Iowa claimants were pub­ mittee on Public Land Concerning Fraudulent Sales lished in Benjamin Shambaugh, "Frontier Land in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa (27 Congress, 2 ses­ Clubs or Claims Associations," in the American His­ sion, House Report no. 484, serial 408, Washington, torical Association, Annual Report, 1900 (Washing­ 1842), 1-7. ton, 1901), 1:67-84. '^Semi-Weekly Galena Jeffersonian, September 28, '"Semi-Weekly Galena Jeffersonian, September 28, 1846. 1846. "Ibid., July 27, 1846. "Northwestern Gazette, September 19, 1846.

193 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1958 local residents were well aware that no suc­ Settlers at Mt. Hope chose as their adjudi­ cessful means had ever been devised for cators three farmers and three miners, and separating the two. Land officers were to desig­ this group in turn selected a seventh member nate as mineral only those mines currently who was acceptable to the entire association.^" "being worked," and another anonymous All claimants were notified when their case writer suggested the possibility of operating was to be reviewed. Provisions were made for within the letter if not within the spirit of the examining witnesses under oath when the law: "litigant" demanded it. The impartiality of "The words 'being worked' have no more the court was protected by regulations pro­ to do with the past than they have with the hibiting any member of the arbitration board future, and it is torturing language to con­ from sitting in on a decision involving his strue them so as to give any other applica­ own claim. All members signed a pledge to tion than at the present time."*^ accept the considered judgment of their rep­ By this logic, pre-emptors would be able resentatives whose decisions were final. To to obtain their diggings at the price of agri­ prevent the possibility of confused bidding at cultural land by momentarily suspending the time of the sale, all associations chose one operations, except as "the people in their man to act as their authorized bidder: his job, generosity" agreed to pay more. that of calling out the bids of those whose Through one means or another, such advice claims were approved. spread, arid during December and January Although the authority behind the associa­ prospective purchasers of federal land settled tions was self-delegated, the wording of their down to perfecting a method of arranging for constitutions was ominously legal in tone. pre-emption and adjusting conflicting claims. Peremptory in language, the rules carried with In the village of Stump Grove near Mineral them the veiled threat of force, i.e., the force Point; at the Mt. Hope meeting house; in the of local law. If a claimant refused to submit Weston school building; in the Scales Mound evidence of his right to possession, while con­ township hall; and in the homes of interested tinuing to insist upon his prior rights, adju­ claimants, miners and farmers met to organize dication proceeded "without regard to the themselves against what they considered the rights of said person."^! All members vowed "rapacity of speculators and the robbery of to attend the sale as a physical barrier against the government."*^ Settlers meeting at Galena, any possible interruption of authorized bid­ December 5th, set the pace and adopted res­ ding. One group went on record as willing lo olutions with which all subsequent groups pay the stipulated minimum price per acre agreed. but threatened to "repel by force" any attempt A remarkable similarity characterizes the to make them pay more.^^ rules adopted by all of the voluntary co­ The claims associations sometimes complied operative associations functioning throughout with the technicalities of the law: more often the lead region. Decisions were made on the they did not. Most of the groups made provi­ local township level where presumably the sions for pre-emption rights to protect the judgments of elected representatives were bonafide setder who lacked—or refused to most valid. Each group chose from among its pay—the requisite $2.50 an acre demanded by members a board of from five to fifteen ad­ law. If such cases met with the approval of judicators which acted as a claims court. For the claims committee, the authorized bidder each claim filed and decided, nominal fees was advised to remain silent. It was assumed ranging from 25fS to $3.00 were charged. that the presence of township members would prevent any bidding on the land in question; so that after the sale and in accordance with ''Ibid., October 2, 1846. both the wording of the law and the decisions "Quotation from an undated Lancaster Wisconsin of the board, the claimant could file for pre­ Herald, as it appears in History of Grant County, 493. For official records of township meetings see Semi- emption and purchase his land in a year at the Weekly Galena Jeffersonian, December 21 and 29, 1846; the History of Grant County, 492-493; North­ ^Northwestern Gazette, January 8, 1847. western Gazette, December 19 and 25, 1846, and "Ibid., December 25, 1846. January 1, 5, 8, and 15, 1847. '^'History of'Grant County, 492.

194 KEPPEL : CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE reduced price of $1.25 an acre. It was clear, tion committees" prevented any possible in­ however, that it was "improper to apply for terference from "officious meddlers."'^' The a pre-emption right without an intention to claims associations dominated the public auc­ perfect the same."°^ If the arbitration board tions in the lead region and according to local accepted the legitimacy of several claims to standards, the mining community settled down the same eighty-acre tract, the bidder pur­ to "quiet orderliness."^** chased the entire eighty acres in his own name, A year later the illegal occupation of fed­ later reselling the correct subdivisions to the eral lead land reserves by squatters was a properly authorized claimant. Despite the gen­ thing of the past.**" eral pattern common to all associations, each The federal government's attempt to act as group nevertheless reflected the peculiar needs landlord over tenant miners on the federal do­ of its area. main consistently failed. Contributing to the Before the actual sale got under way, town­ failure was the indifference and confusion ship associations merged into a county organ­ among department heads in Washington, the ization. Fifteen townships in Jo Daviess absurdly large ratio of miners to enforcement County, Illinois, elected delegates to a meeting officers in the field, and the inefficiency of mine at Galena on January 5, 1847. Here the group agents and land officers. More fundamental, justified its rules and regulations in an elabo­ however, was the spirit of the people them­ rate statement wherein all their accumulated selves, who viewed the leasing system as unfair grievances and their plan of action were set and unworkable. Obedience to local law meant forth. civil disobedience to federal law. Experience It was agreed that unless the township in­ had taught the miners that federal laws ig­ sisted upon its own bidder, the county repre­ nored local conditions and they felt fully justi­ sentative elected at the Galena meeting would fied in ignoring the laws. When agents made call all bids. An appointed "register" opened serious efforts to enforce leasing, the people an office there to record the names of quali­ resisted. There was occasional violence. But fied claimants in the proper location on town­ when left to their own devices and freed from ship plats. The county group protected no hampering legislation, the miners shaped their claimant who did not attend the sale, unless own rules and regulations and adhered to them the township board officially excused him faithfully. Even in the midst of chaos there was from attendance. All members vowed to pre­ a sort of order in their actions. By adopting vent bids other than the official ones and to see mining codes outside the canons of law they that nobody bid on pre-emption claims when avoided serious conflicts among themselves. the bidder remained silent.^* Their final triumph was the claims associa­ This system of authorized bidding based on tions, and in 1847 the long drawn-out guerrilla decisions of local boards worked smoothly warfare against the United States government when the time came for the actual sales. At and its agents ended in popular victory for Dixon, Illinois, bidding reportedly "went off the miners and smelters. quietly." In the several cases where difficulty had been anticipated, last minute compro­ mises prevented "any interruptions."^'' An ob­ "History of Grant County, 493. server at the Mineral Point sale in Wisconsin "'Rodolph, "Wisconsin Lead Regions," 372. °"Even the so-called "fraudulent" entries of mineral Territory noted that with the exception of one lands were settled in favor of the local claimants. The "speculator" who was "immediately lifted over General Land Office sent an agent to Galena in early 1847 with instructions to secure one or more affidavits the heads of the bystanders, put out into the from each purchaser swearing that "at the time of the streets and told never to show his head again," original entry, he had no knowledge of the existence no one tampered with the bidding of the as­ of lead mines and diggings on the land in question." Thus the G.L.O. ultimately employed the same tech­ sociations.^^ In all cases, township "inspec- nique which they had earlier censured Sheldon for utilizing, and it is small wonder that 549 claims were '"Northwestern Gazette, January 15, 1847. accepted as valid and oiliy thirteen were rejected. "'Ibid., January 12, 1847. See Northwestern Gazette, May 4, 1847; and "Lists "Ibid., April 2 and 20, 1847. of Purchases of Lead Lands in Wisconsin and Iowa, ""Theodore Rodolph, "Pioneering in the Wisconsin 1834—39," in the microfilmed Records of the General Lead Region," in State Historical Society of Wis­ Land Office, Record Group 49, State Historical Society consin, Collections, 15:372 (1900). collections.

195 THE COLLECTOR

Collecting for the Museum: Theory and Practice

by Walter S. Dunn, Jr.

Why does a museum accept one gift, materials are being sought to make the refuse another? What happens to the collections more complete? In his an­ hundreds of objects of historical value swers to these questions the Chief Cura­ donated annually to the Museum of the tor provides some fascinating glimpses State Historical Society? How are they of backstage activities the public seldom stored, cared for, used? What additional sees.

To fill the collections of a historical museum, facts used in these general exhibits. The mu­ one can not simply turn to a department store seum is also a place in which things of the catalogue and order a needed item. Artifacts, past are kept to help the student understand as items in a historical museum are technically Wisconsin's history. More will be said later on referred to, are gathered together as a result the subject of exhibits, but for the present it of gifts and purchases extending over a period is sufficient to say that the museum collects of many years. Purchases, at least in the case artifacts for the purpose of using them in of the State Historical Society Museum, are exhibits. seldom made, the rare exceptions usually The first thing to be decided when we start arising from the necessity to purchase an arti­ to collect is: What do we want? Because of fact essential to a particular exhibit. Hence the the many kinds of exhibits and many uses to decisions which the curator makes—accepting which artifacts can be put, this is a very diffi­ some gifts and rejecting others—to all intents cult question to answer. It is extremely easy and purposes become the collection policy of to think of reasons why we should accept items the museum. that are offered us. Turning down an item is The factors influencing the decisions, which more difficult, and can become very difficult in the aggregate make up the collection policy indeed when we are offered something similar of the Society's museum, are intimately as­ to what we want but still not quite what we sociated with the reasons why the Society had in mind. Then comes a day when an maintains a museum in the first place. After object is offered to us that we had never con­ all, artifacts are collected for use; therefore, sidered accepting or not accepting. It had what we collect should be determined by the simply not occurred to us that such a thing purposes which the artifact will be called would be offered, as for example, a robe used upon to serve. by a spiritualist in her seances. Primarily, the Society's museum is a place In the matter of acceptance, great care must where general exhibits impart information to be exercised; for unlike specimens in a nat­ the public and to school children in groups. ural history or a science museum, items given The collections pro\ide a source of the arti­ to a historical museum have a very definite

196 personal value. Usually they come from the family of the donor and are highly prized family possessions. No donor would be happy if he felt that his gift would not be safe­ guarded. Thus, once we accept an item for our collection, it must immediately be acces­ sioned and thereafter accorded the best pos­ sible care. Accessioning, or the recording of donated items—to say nothing of their subsequent care—takes considerable time, as anyone with museum experience will testify. Mrs. Sondra Jacobs, registrar, measuring a new gift to the mu Furthermore, once having accepted an item, it is difficult to dispose of it should we decide we no longer want it. For example, we may be "Spanish American War," everything we have offered an organ much more appropriate than relating to that period. There is also an alpha- ' / the one we have on hand. As a result we no betical file of donors' names by means of longer have any real reason for keeping the which, when a donor comes in and wishes to original organ and would like to give it to a see his gift, we can quickly ascertain its acces- - • local society's museum. But to do this, permis­ sion number and location. In addition, there sion must be obtained from the Board of Cura­ is another alphabetically arranged file listing tors, since no item can be disposed of without the names of all persons known to have been its approval. Or there may be an item, in the associated with a given artifact. From this file ' possession of another museum which we would we can easily and rapidly locate items as­ very much like to have and for which we sociated with a particular man, such as would like to trade one of our artifacts. Again Lincoln or Lewis Cass. we must consult the Board and gain its ap­ The paper work having been completed, the . proval. However, these are comparatively in­ item itself must be cared for. Often it is in frequent occurrences and the transaction is need of cleaning or repair; often the simple not simple. Consequently, once the museum process of putting the accession number on an has accepted an item it is, to all intents, a artifact is complicated by the fact that every permanent part of the collection. If we do not effort must be made not to sjpoil the object's want it as such, we must be careful not to appearance. Finally the artifact must be care­ accept it. fully packed to avoid possible damage and to , ' When an artifact is given to a representative make it readily available for use when needed "''\, of the Society it is tagged with a number, and in an exhibit. AU this requires a vast amount - a sheet with a corresponding number is filled of painstaking work, and about 15 to 20 per out by the fieldman. The museum registrar cent of the museum staff's time is taken up in then receives both the sheet and the item and caring for the collection. on a work sheet fills out all the known infor­ Once the decision is reached as to what par- ^ mation concerning the artifact, describes it ticular artifacts we want to acquire, the next fully, and gives it a permanent accession num­ step is how to go about acquiring them. The ber. The registrar also makes out an accession Society is fortunate in having a field service - sheet which is permanently bound in the ac­ whose fieldmen continually comb the state cession book and becomes the official record searching for historical materials. These field- of the gift. The donor is sent a letter by the men collect for the Society as a whole, not just chief curator, thanking him or her, and en­ artifacts for the central museum, but also for closing a copy of the accession sheet. Using Stonefield and other branch museums. Old the work sheet, which has been thoroughly letters and diaries are coflected for the Manu­ checked, numerous catalogue cards are typed. scripts Section; some books are collected for These are filed in the card catalogue, so that the Library; government records are collected if one of the curators is looking for an artifact for the Archives; pictures of all kinds for the on the Spanish American War, for instance, Iconographic Section; old newspapers for the ] ,. he can quickly locate under the heading Library's Newspaper Section. Because of this

197 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1958

very active and alert field service, we collect But once it has been decided that an item is far more than the average historical society a worthwhile addition to the collection, cau­ and, therefore, can be more selective in what tion must be exerted to make certain the donor we accept. Probably more than half of the understands he is giving the item without museum artifacts offered to the field service or reservations. In actual practice, the museum to the museum directly are rejected, not be­ does not accept artifacts on permanent loan or cause they are not valuable for historical on deposit. Nor can it enter into any agree­ purposes, but because we already have dupli­ ment to keep together a collection of items cate items; or because the artifact in question from a single donor, exhibit donated items would not be of any use in the carrying out of permanently, or even to keep an item in per­ the purposes of our particular museum. petuity, since these conditions can not be ad­ Collection may come about in a number of hered to if a museum is to remain flexibly ways. A fieldman may glean information from alive. While less than 10 per cent of the objects the newspapers, from interested friends of the in the Society's museum are on display at any Society, or from letters sent to the Society. All given time, over a span of years a great part of these leads are recorded on the "lead cards" of the collections is put on public display as maintained in the field service office. During exhibits are periodically changed. If in the the course of their many trips throughout the past the museum had agreed to display every­ state, the fieldmen visit the potential donors. thing permanently, we would have been Aftei* getting a description of the artifact—or forced to stop collecting fifty years ago, and since the purchase of our new polaroid cam­ the static collections with which we would era, a photograph—the fieldman returns to have wound up would today seem crowded Madison for consultation with the museum and uninteresting. staff as to whether or not the item should be Besides the personal satisfaction of having taken. Sometimes the fieldman, on the basis made a contribution to the communal heri­ of his experience, will accept the item on a tage, there is also a financial advantage accru­ temporary loan, being fairly certain that the ing to the donor of a gift: he may list it as a museum will want it, but leaving the door deduction on his income tax, using the evalu­ open for return in the event that the collection ation set by the museum staff. This value, it already contains similar items. should be pointed out, reflects the gift's worth to the museum only; not what the item might conceivably (but seldom does) fetch on the open market. In our state-wide search for items of historic interest and significance, it is inevitable that conflicts should occasionally arise between the Society's desire to bring the item to Madison or to place it in one of the branch museums, and a local historical society's natural wish to see the item remain in its home area. Local societies may derive comfort from the knowl­ edge that the Society, in its turn, has its own difficulties when national historical agencies seek to remove Wisconsin items to Washington or to national depositories in other localities. For this reason, we are fully aware of the local societies' side of the story. Fortunately, when such conflicts of interest are encountered they can usually be solved on an individual basis and often to the advantage of both parties. Recently a new local museum was opened and we received a request from it Staff members Navid McNamara and Dan Porter bring a newly acquired donation in from the field. for the return of some medical items sup-

198 THE COLLECTOR

posedly donated to the Society' many years conveniently available and not located in an ago. Actually, as it turned out, the items had area awkward of access, or in a public gallery been given to the University Medical Library. through which carts must be distractingly The museum staff tracked down the items and trundled. If it can be avoided, public display arranged for their return to the local society. cases are not used as storage cabinets, the Often, owing to the wider publicity given the exception being when a collection of small State Historical Society, a gift will be offered items such as coins is stored in a cabinet, the it by a donor unaware of the existence of upper part of which is a table-top case where­ nearby local societies. In such instances, in groups of coins may be put on display from should the gift be refused, it may be referred time to time. to a local society—a procedure that can result While space is, of course, the major problem in the rapid building of the local collection. involved in storage, it is not the only one. On the other hand the local society may refuse Preservation of artifacts presents its own the gift for the identical reason that led the peculiar set of difficulties, and doubts concern­ Society's museum to refuse it, namely, because ing an article's preservability may, and often it is a duplicate. In some cases, the donor do, influence the decision to reject it. Despite simply does not want his gift to go to the local all precautions, damage can occur to items in society. But in any event, wider co-operation storage. Changes in humidity can cause wood between our fieldmen and the local societies to warp; silverfish may attack certain items, can result only in mutual benefits. particularly those containiiig paste or glue; Assuming that through whichever of the delicate fabrics deteriorate on exposure to procedures that have been described we have light. Moths, unless controlled by liberal ap­ acquired an artifact and have decided to keep plications of moth crystals, can wreak enor­ it, the next step is to give it proper care— mous havoc. Just keeping artifacts clean is a which leads us to the vexatious and ever- serious problem inasmuch as normal cleaning present problem of storage. Only a small pro­ procedures can not be used with most of portion of the museum's artifacts, as has been them. In brief, the correct storage and proper stated, are on display at any one time; the safeguarding of artifacts constitute one of remainder are in behind-the-scene storage, a museum's major responsibilities, while and one of the major considerations affecting inevitably playing a determining role in its the acceptance or rejection of a gift is the collection policy. question of whether or not we will have the So far only passing mention has been made space in which to store it. The difficulties in­ of the ultimate use to which collected artifacts volved not only make wise decisions on collec­ will be put. In the museum at Madison two tion policies but also the advance planning of types of exhibits are maintained; the general the future general exhibit program, a virtual exhibits on the first floor of the building and necessity. Because the museum is limited by the study collections on the fourth, with addi­ the actual physical dimensions of its available tions constantly being made to both. When storage area, many items offered must be re­ present plans are completed the general, or fused for the simple reason that there is not first-floor exhibits, will tell the basic history of enough room to accommodate them. the state from prehistoric times to Pearl Currently, the museum's storage area occu­ Harbor. Already the two galleries covering the pies a part of the fourth floor of the Society's years 1634 to 1890 are open to the public. The building. Several rooms contain row after row first, dealing with Wisconsin's pioneer and of specially designed shelving and cabinets territorial days features a full-scale log cabin, equipped to hold specific types of articles. complete in every detail, as it would have been Clothing is stored in garment bags which hang in the 1840's. The second portrays life be­ from specially constructed racks; the collec­ tween 1850 and 1890. Featured in this gallery tion of oil paintings is hung on thirty-five is a drugstore of the 1890's, bringing back to large mesh screens. By consulting a catalogue us the charm and elaboration of that era in card, any of these hundreds of stored items which a small town was an entity in itself, the can immediately be located. From the cura­ druggist a champion in coping with the many tor's point of view stored materials must be diseases we were just beginning to understand.

199 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1958

To serve as a source of artifacts for these terested in collecting in the several special and future exhibits is the most important func­ fields represented by the State Farm and Craft tion of the museum collection. And to make Museum, the Circus World Museum, the Rail­ available the articles necessary to relate the road Museum, the Medical Museum, and Old history of a state is not an easy task. Although Belmont. many of the required artifacts can be and are The State Farm and Craft Museum is drawn from the regular collections of china, located in Nelson Dewey State Park near Cass­ firearms, and so forth, others will not be in ville. Here the buildings of the Dewey estate any category. No museum, even those with are being restored and others added to re­ storage areas the size of warehouses, can col­ create an agricultural village of the late nine­ lect every kind of furniture, for example. Still, teenth century. Collecting is already under for the general exhibits, certain pieces of fur­ way, but without adequate collections from niture must be acquired, either for their which artifacts can be drawn, not all the special importance or because of intended use money in the world could make of this village in a period-restoration room which has been a historically acceptable restoration. planned. As a case in point: we collected a Another museum for which our fieldmen loom, logs from an original log cabin, a are currently acquiring artifacts is the Circus trundle bed, a primitive table and a large World Museum in Baraboo. Situated in the settle, all for use in the log cabin in the pio­ birthplace of the Ringling Brothers' Circus, neer and territorial gallery and all now on this museum will eventually recreate the Ring- display in it. But we have no desire to collect lings' winter quarters and through its displays any additional looms or primitive tables or tell the story of the circus in Wisconsin. Here settles. Their very size limits the collecting of again, artifacts must be collected now if we many objects to one or a very few examples. As a result we may accept a particular piece are to have a museum in the future. like a loom one year, and the next refuse the Work has also been begun on the Railroad offer of another, even though it may be quite Museum at Green Bay, and several locomo­ different in design. But for our purposes they tives have been acquired. In this case, a wise are duplicates. collection policy would seem to be doubly im­ perative, since no museum could afford to keep The second use for artifacts is in making five or six duplicate locomotives. up the study collections and the study collec­ tion exhibits. Basically, these are groups of The Medical Museum is in the blueprint similar objects logically arranged to provide stage, and while funds are being raised for information to students and other interested buildings, extensive collecting of medical ma­ persons, including hobbyists and collectors. terials is being undertaken by both the State In addition to its endeavors to build up its Medical Society and the State Historical own study collections, the Society is also in- Society. Still far in the future but with a fine poten­ tial is the complete recreation of Wisconsin's Mrs. Jacobs locating a shawl in the textiles storage area. first capital at Old Belmont. Although the Capitol Building and the Supreme Court Building have both been restored and a few exhibits installed, much remains to be done; and at present collections of artifacts to be used in the restoration are almost entirely non­ existent. The Society's fieldmen are constantly on the lookout for items which might have come from the Belmont of 1836. Each of these projects has a purpose slightly different from that of the Society's main mu­ seum in Madison. Items not acceptable to the latter might prove to be highly desirable to one of the branch museums. In the case of the THE COLLECTOR

Railroad and Medical Museums the problem emphasized that this list is neit;her complete of storage is critical, since neither yet possesses nor exhaustive. The museum will gladly take suitable quarters in which to store their grow­ many artifacts that do not appear in this list­ ing collections. In the meantime, a special ing and will refuse to take others that do— study of each of these branch museums and dependent upon the size of the item, its con-, its collection policies is being made. dition, and whether or not it is a duplicate of Having described at some length the process an item already acquired. whereby a museum arrives at its collection If, after reading through this list you dis­ policy, how it seeks to acquire the artifacts cover that you or members of your family own it wants and needs, and what it does to insure an item or items which through the medium of the orderly arrangement and safety of the do­ the museum you would like to share with the nations it receives, it is proper to raise here people of the state, write us a letter. In it give the perennially-asked question: Just what is it as much information as possible about the that you people in the State Historical Society article. One of the Society's fieldmen will then Museum are looking for to add to your call on you to discuss the proposed gift and to collections ? answer any question you may have. Please, do In answer to that question, the following not send items by parcel post or express. want list of items at present being collected by Simply write to us and wait for a fieldman to the museum has been prepared. It should be call on you.

Museum Want List

Advertising Matter; all kinds. Agriculture; small equipment, hand tools, models of various implements. Animal Equipment: clothing, tags, masks, shoes, etc. Architecture; details of buildings, such as examples of Norwegian iron work and panels; early building equipment, such as brick molds and thatching equipment; models of signif­ icant buildings. Badges; all varieties. Baskets: ethnic or very early types only, e.g., cheese baskets. Bells: sleigh bells or other special types. Blacksmithing: tools and products. Boxes: original store boxes (except seed boxes); late nineteenth century painted boxes. Brewing and Liquor Industries: containers and tools. Buttons; especially those from or designed for uniforms. Calendars and Almanacs; especially pictorial. China: only items in good condition and having complete information. Circus Materials: costumes, posters, animal trappings, articles used in acts, printed material, photographs, etc. Clothing; especially those items listed below: Women's—separate skirts blouses and waists (pre-1870.) coats (pre-1870.) capes, dolmans, shawls (pre-1870.) dresses (pre-1880.) sportswear, sweaters, swimming suits, gloves, mittens (sportswear only.) handbags, purses (pre-1850.) corsets cuffs, collars, jabots—^lace (for repair of our collections.) veils, scarves (early autoinobile period.) stockings (unusual clocking or heavy knit type only.)

201 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1958

Clothing: Women's—(continued) gaiters hoops (only if in excellent condition.) bustles, other costume padding hats (1870-1880 or earlier.) underwear nightgowns, caps, bedrobes, etc. coats of house type (pre-1870.) ^ work clothes ethnic costumes military shawls I shoes ' Men's—civilian clothing (except formal wear.) handkerchiefs (commemorative only.) military wallets, billfolds, money belts ' shoes work clothes Children's—(boy's clothing especially.) Baby's—see children's listing (we have dozens of baptismal dresses!) Communication: examples of telephones, movie and camera equipment, telegraph equipment. Construction Trades; tools and equipment (except planes and gauges.) Costumes; circus and other entertainment; occupational types like fireman, policeman, con­ ductor, pilot, farmer, etc.; unusual pieces like strait jackets; all military, particularly civil war or earlier; costume-ball costumes, adult and child; academic; choir; groups like Shrine, " KKK, and American Legion, having special costumes or regalia; sports outfits (swimming, skiing, hunting, etc.) Crafts and Trades; (See individual listings. In general, our collections in this area are good.) Dolls: only those in good condition, since we have a large collection. (We collect paper dolls, toy animals, and puppets.) Doll dishes (miniatures of some special china pattern.) Doll-house furnishings and doll furniture (no, imless we approve.) Education: school bags and other equipment (except books and slates.) Entertainment; theater programs and invitations to various social occasions. Fancywork: beading, cut paper, sewing, lace, crochet, "hand" painting, patterns, stencils, cata­ logues, and folk art material. (We do not need additional women's purses, crazy quilts, patch work, sand in bottles, wax and hair work.) Fans: commemorative fans only. Fire Fighting: uniforms, models of equipment, small equipment for home or professional use. Flags; all countries (including pennants, standards) ; military, and organizations. Food Industries; tools, very old cans and jars of glass and pottery. Games: all varieties. Glassware; fine pieces, cut glass, pressed pattern pieces, colored pressed glass, old bottles and flasks. Heating Equipment; anything except large pieces. Holidays: greeting cards, ethnic and religious pieces, decorations and costumes. Household Equipment: children's furniture, cleaning equipment, cooking equipment, food containers and molds. Invention and Manufacturers' Models; anything and everything. Jewelry: all varieties. Lighting Equipment: early electrical equipment. Luggage: saddlebags, carpetbags (but not large chests.)

202 THE COLLECTOR

Lumbering and Mills: tools and equipment (except large pieces.) Medals; all varieties. Medical: stethoscopes, face masks, costumes, crank medical equipment, and early hearing aids. Military; uniforms,- guns, swords, flags, badges and buttons of United States forces. Mining: tools and equipment. Money: American coins and paper money; Wisconsin bank notes and trade tokens. Music: no pianos or organs, but other musical instruments; sheet music only if it has a Wis­ consin association. Office Machinery; typewriters no, but anything else. Optical Instruments: equipment, other than reading glasses. ? Organizations: clothing, regalia, badges, flags of all groups. Pewter: plates, mugs, and especially porringers. Stamps: all are considered, although we have a large collection. Wisconsin postal history mate­ rial is sought. Photography: equipment of all kinds. Police: costume, models of equipment, small equipment, guns, badges, memorabilia. Politics: badges, banners, flags, costumes, memorabilia of important people, etc.; State Capitol memorabilia. Pottery: only items in good condition. Puzzles; afl varieties. Radio: equipment and receivers. Religion: robes, articles such as crosses (but not Bibles and missals, as we have many examples.) Ribbons: all varieties. Scales: but no steelyards (We have plenty.) Sewing Equipment; patterns, catalogues, fashion books, tools and large pieces of very old fabric and ribbon which can be used in costume repair. Shaving: shaving mugs, especially occupational mugs (but not razors.) Shoemaking; except bootjacks and shoe lasts. Shops and Stores; We are looking for display equipment, bolts of cloth, goods in original packages, letterhead stationery, old wrapping paper and bags, dispensers, tokens, advertis­ ing, and the like. Silver: most especially a tea and coffee service. Smoking: original cans, boxes of tobacco and match containers (but not pipes or match boxes.) Sports; equipment, costumes, trophies, and medals. Tanning and Saddlers: tools and equipment. Textiles: good examples of lace, weaving, and printed goods. Timepieces: except mantel clocks and grandfather clocks. Toys: all kinds. Transportation; well-made models, clothing, uniforms, badges, tokens, tools, etc.; small trans­ port pieces like skates, snowshoes, skis. Unions and Organizations of Business, Manufacturing, Trades: all material. University of Wisconsin: memorabilia; athletic costumes and sweaters, flags and pennants, academic regalia, unusual school or class items. Weapons: We have a good collection of American firearms and edged weapons, but are accept­ ing additions. Weaving Equipment; except spinning wheels and carding paddles for wool. Wheelwright; tools and equipment. Writing Equipment: associated with signing of famous bills, e.g., inkwells and other desk equipment.

203 A "Down - Easter" in Wisconsin;

Sears Letters, 1849, 1854

Edited by Kenneth Duckett

Thomas Sears was neither financier, politi­ cian, land speculator, merchant, soldier, nor reformer. His role in Wisconsin history was less colorful but more fundamental to the de­ velopment of the state, for it was he and the thousands of other farmers who emigrated westward, built their homes, cleared and Exeter, September 7th 1849 fenced the land, raised the crops, and turned Brother David the frontier into a rich agricultural area. I suppose that you are expecting a line from Sears was born October 18, 1819, in Knox, us and I have a good oportunity. I will com­ Waldo County, Maine, where he lived on a mence a little description of our journey after farm until he was fifteen. In 1834 his father saying that we arrived in Milwaukie safe and purchased a woolen mill in Freedom, Maine, sound a week ago last Wednesday making our which he later gave to his sons Thomas, John, journey 17 days. We got into Boston Tuesday and David. When the woolen mifl burned the morning and stayed there with Porter Tripp boys built and operated a saw and shingle until Wednesday morning 8 o'clock and then mill until 1844. Then they sold the sawmiD, took the 2d class cars to Albany. . . . We got and for three years Thomas earned his living our miniatures taken and left them with Por­ as an itinerant millwright. In December, 1847, ter Tripp. He keeps a boarding house on Fleet he married Adaline Holt, and two years later Street. I do not know the number. His name their first son was born. In the fall of that is on his sign in pretty large lettres over his year, 1849, .Sears, his brother John, and their door. He some expected to go to California families, moved to Wisconsin.^ In the two and to visit Freedom before now. If he does letters printed below Thomas tells of their not you will have to send for them. Louisa^ journey, describes Wisconsin, and contrasts it wishes her father to have hers. We contracted with Maine.^ in Boston to have our freight taken through to Milwaukie for $1.50 per hundred lbs. When Picture: "In the Emigrant Train," a drawing by we got into the cars at Boston we found it C. Maurand in Harper's Weekly, January 24, 1874. stuffed pretty full of Irish who were going out 30 or 40 miles so that we soon had a good de­ ^History of Green County, Wisconsin . . . and Biog­ cent company, plenty of room, and a comfort­ raphies of Representative Citizens (Springfield, Illi­ able chance. nois, 1884), 1009-1010. 'The letters reproduced here are the property of We arrived at Albany Wednesday 6 o'clock Mrs. J. D. R. Steven, Eau Claire, Wisconsin, who P.M. and stayed over night on the east side of allowed the State Historical Society of Wisconsin to the river to see a man that was going to Farm- make photostatic copies for its manuscripts collec­ tions. The letters are published in their entirety ersburge, Iowa. He said that there was plenty except for brief family items of no general interest. In order to aid the readers, paragraphs and some punctuation were supplied. 'John's wife, Maria Louisa Sears.

204 V

DUCKETT : SEARS LETTERS

of government land & a good chance. He was after arriving was rainy so we stayed in Mil­ very anxious that we should go too. Our fare waukie that day and inquired the prices of to Albany was $3.35. Thursday morning it goods and got a little information of almost commenced raining and rained hard till 7 all kinds. I don't think of anything now in o'clock. We were on the east side of the river the eatable line but what is cheaper than in and there was no covered carriage to be had Maine except molasses. Good sugar five cts. so we had to put out on foot, kits, cats, sacks, per lb. Dried apples 22 lbs. for one dollar. and wives, through the rain for all the world Stoves I should think were 25 per cent lower like pedestrian Paddies. Unless any body than in Maine. I can buy a pretty good cook­ wants poor accomodations, poor fare, poor ing stove for $8. Wooden chairs from .42 to waiters &c I would advise them not to stop in 1.00 each, plain black walnut tables about Greenbush.* the same as birch ones in Freedom and bureaus The immigrant train of cars started from from 5 to 20 dollars. Factory clothes are Albany at 121/^ P.M. There was one car con­ about one cent per yard higher than in Maine. siderably better than all the rest which they Coming from Buffalo we got acquainted with kept locked so that every thing could not get a Methodist minister and his family. He was into it. I found this car and made friends recommended to leave his family about 20 with him who had the key so that we got into miles from Milwaukie west in the town of Pe- it and fixed things so that we could monopo­ waukie while he looked for a chance to locate. lise four seats which gave us a pretty good Being all of us in the same situation we con­ chance through the night. We spread our pil­ cluded to keep together and leave our families lows shawls &c on one seat and stowed away together. So we hired a team for $4 to take the children. Adaline I got a chance for partly us all there and the next morning we left the on the seat and the rest in my lap so that she folks and paid him $2 more to take us as far slept about five hours considerable comfort­ as the town of Richmond on rock prairie. We ably. We got to Buffalo about 1 o'clock Friday. stayed with him over Sunday free of charge. Fare $5. We stopped very near the steamboat He had an excelent farm which he wants to landing at Wheeler's Hotel. This is not so sell for $10 per acre. It would be an agrava- stylish and fashionable a house as some but tion I know to a Maine farmer to look over they were quite accomodating taking us bag that prairie as far as the eye could reach and and baggage from the cars to the house and see the great fields of corn and almost innu­ from the house to the boat free of charge and merable stacks of wheat & shocks of oats con­ we stopped only to get our dinner but went on taining about twelve large bundles as thick board the boat and stayed. together as bundles would be in Maine. They The boat started Saturday morning at 9 have reaping machines that reap from 15 to o'clock. This boat went round the lakes and 20 acres per day by horse power. landed in Milwaukie in 41/2 days. We took 1st Monday morning we started for this place cabin passage, $30 for the whole. We arrived by way of Jaynesville. We went to this town at Milwaukie about 10 P.M. and put up at of Centre and Magnolia which lies next west the Tremont House.'' We did not like our of Centre. Here we dropped our minister. He quarters very well and should think the Amer­ bought 40 acres of prairie, a gravel house 16 ican House'' would be preferable. The morning by 20 two stories hight, six acres of sod corn, a stack of hay, one hog, two cows, a horse & waggon, and takes possession immediately for ^Greenbush, New York, also called East Albany, $415. We had a pretty good farm offered us a former village in Rensselaer County, located on the in Magnolia for $1000. It contained 160 acres east bank of the Hudson River opposite Albany. of prairie with a good spring on it, 65 acres Angelo and Louis Hielprin, eds.. Gazetteer or Geo­ graphical Dictionary of the World (Philadelphia, 1922) 756. "The Tremont House, a second-class hotel, located on Michigan Street, is not listed in the Milwaukee "The American House, located at 27-31 Spring city directories of the period, although it was adver­ Street (now Wisconsin Avenue), was a three-story tised in Samuel Freeman's Emigrant's Handbook frame hotel built about 1842, and managed for many (1851). See John G. Gregory, History of Milwaukee, years by Messrs. Skinner and Blackstone. In 1861 Wisconsin. (4 vols., Chicago, 1931) 2:689. it was destroyed by fire.

205 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1958 prepared for a crop next year, 100 apple trees . . . We hardly know what to make of that grafted fruit set out, and 40 acres of opening part of your letter "expecting this to be your two miles distant. We have not known of seeing last year in Maine." You have never men­ but one piece of government land and that is tioned about having [an] oportunity of dis­ an island so called, surrounded by a kind of posing of your property there. I thought while dry marsh. It contains about a section. It is making my garden that perhaps I had ought good wheat land and would make a capital to anticipate your wants and enlarge a little farm for raising stock as there is plenty of which I should have done if you had been a hay and pastureage for nothing. We got here little more explicit, but it was thought it day before yesterday & shall not all get ready would perhaps be counting on unhatched to start on our tour till Monday. I must say chickens. If you are coming to Wisconsin I good bye & write the rest some other time. If want you to speak in season and carry on you write to us you can direct to Milwaukie John's place the first year until you can get or to our wives at Howard post office Pewau- your own in order.^ kie. The office is in the house they stay in. I do not know when I left Maine that I had any serious thoughts of ever returning and Mt. Pleasant, April 30th 1854' now think it extremely doubtfuU. I often think Dear Brother of my feelings when first catching sight of . . . Our spring thus far has been uncom­ Freedom Village after a long absence.^ After monly fine. iThe three first weeks of March tossing about by sea and land about three were warm for the season. A considerable weeks my head at last passed over the hill on [part] of the time we had no fire in the school the country road above De Bellows' from house and frequently kept doors and windows whence I could command a full view (of that open. Some of the large boys were taken from modern Sodom). Well I exclaimed to be sure school to commence spring work and plowing I have taken a great deal of pains to behold was commenced by many and sowing by some so meagre a prospect. I have no nest egg before the middle of the month. The last week there now and never have one lingering desire was colder and froze up and put a stop to to see it again. I am a farmer now and if I plowing. I commenced my farming April 4th. should visit what should 1 see (viewing by I have but little to cultivate this year on ac­ contrast) but smafl fields (with numerous count of sowing so much down to grass last rocks looking larger than heretofore) covered spring, viz 27 acres. I have only 20 this year. principally with grass indicative of the labour My team is light (a middling sized pair of of tilling the soil and an almost everlasting four year old steers and a dobbin that I harrow winter. I would be glad to see my friends but with) and my plowing all to do this spring. I tell them if they want to see me, why [not] I have sown 10 acres wheat, 2 of oats, and come here and not only see me but other planted 2 of murphys, one acre reserved for things which will be new to them. Adaline, I grass [?] seed and other et ceteras and fin­ think when we left, set four years for her ished one week ago. The last week I have return which will elapse in September, but been preparing the ballance for corn, making she says if your family moves here she shall garden, and grafting. I have grafted two or never go back. She says if you know when you three hundred this spring. I think that I will have trees enough for you an orchard by the time you are ready for them and of the best kinds too of which I will write you the cata­ 'John Sears either died or migrated elsewhere, leav­ logue. ing Mrs. Maria Louisa Sears to manage his farm. In 1857 David Sears moved to Wisconsin, and both he and Thomas prospered. Three years later their real and personal property totaled $7,830 and $6,663 re­ spectively. Manuscript Federal Census for the State 'Thomas and John Sears bought land in Mount of Wisconsin, 1860, Green County, Mount Pleasant Pleasant township. Green County, and during the township, 172, 174. winter of 1849 they shared their log house with a "Thomas was probably referring to the winter of third family. Four years later Thomas built a frame 1844 when he traveled to Georgia, where he worked house, which he occupied until 1879. History of Green as a millwright, and returned to Maine in the spring. County, 1010. History of Green County, 1010.

206 ^.

DUCKETT : SEARS LETTERS are well off you will stay where you are but third and plenty of buyers. Wild land to im­ is still very anxious for you to come. I some­ proved farms (without buildings of any con­ times tell her I believe I must follow suit and sequence) are selling from five to twelve sell out and go somewhere else. She quickly dollars per acre. Stock of all kinds is mon­ puts her veto on that saying that she should strous considering the cost of raising. Cows never find another place that seemed like are from 20 to 35 dollars, oxen from 70 to home, and I dare say she would not exchange 120, horses fair to good 100 to 150. Prices of her situation to go to any place she was ever produce in market are a fraction lower than in. they were. Butter 121^, eggs not worth taking New England people are flocking in this to market so we just fall to and crucify them spring faster than ever. Four men from Maine ourselves. I will send Sarah a recipe for mak­ bought out residents in this vicinity lately. ing Wisconsin cake which she may try if she Two more young men were here from Oxford can afford the eggs, but as Adaline has not County a week or two since and last night returned from meeting yet I shall have to wait some New Hamshire men were here trying for the description ... to rent a part of my house. Every house, shanty, or empty [hut?] is occupied (my old cabin among the rest)^" and people are obliged to push on further for chances to stop. "In the winter of 1854-1855 the first school in district number eight met in Thomas Sears' log Land has risen within six months at least one cabin. History of Green County, 997

AN ANNOUNCEMENT TO OUR READERS

By action of the Board of Curators, annual membership dues—which include a year's subscription to the Wisconsin Magazine of History-—have been increased from $4.00 to $5.00, effective February 1, 1958. Subscribers under the former rate will continue to receive copies of the magazine until expiration of their current membership. This change—a regrettable necessity forced on the Society by the continuing cost spiral —in no way affects the traditional services rendered members. They will, besides the Magazine of History and its yearly indexes, continue to receive the monthly Wisconsin Then and Now and the annual Proceedings. In addition to contributing to the Society's periodicals program, membership supports such worthful projects as the country's largest junior historians' program; a rapidly developing historical museum; one of the largest libraries of American history in the Middle West; the increasingly popular Historymobile; the regular publication of books on Wisconsin history; and three of the state's outstanding historic sites—^Villa Louis, Wade House, and Stonefield.

STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN 816 State Street • Madison 6, Wisconsin

207 broke down the restraints of society. But the wrecking was not by way of puncture or slow leak. It was instantaneous, dynamic, explosive. Barnum, although first in the world in show­ manship (and the word should not be con­ fused with showman), was a discouragingly poor specimen of a businessman. He was, at the time, unaware that his pompous utterances, bombastic slogans and startling advertising that he bestowed on the circus had stirred the pulse of the American spirit for acceptance of a new agency—advertising and publicity—in the field of industrial expansion. Visit the libraries of Washington, New York, London, Paris, and Rome. Open the pages of Sincerely yours, the press just eighty years ago. What was the character of commercial and industrial adver­ tising? There wasn't any. There hadn't been any since the crack of dawn—up to Barnum. Advertising and publicity throughout the world had been mere names of negligible serv­ ices until seized on by the circus. It is the cir­ Madison Avenue's Debt to the Circus cus that first engaged these telling agencies in I am making an announcement that may well service. It is the circus that put horsepower be considered a refreshing revelation in Ameri­ into advertising and popularity into publicity. can history. It put public opinion into a new mold; it ban­ My announcement is this: That the econ­ ished society's taboo on the circus; it loosened omic development of America is due to, and the chains on enterprise. The circus developed directly traceable to, the circus. I am not refer­ advertising and publicity into high-powered ring to its importance as a vehicle of enter­ service and engineered their proven value in tainment. the open field of America's economic progress. Before the advent of the big circus in The circus put America in gear. America, industry was bogged down, groping Historians have been blind—the people un­ for an avenue of expansion. In the absence of mindful—of America's debt to the circus. the influence exerted by the circus, America JOHN M. KELLEY might still be plodding her way to progress. Baraboo Advertising and publicity have been the life line of America's economic development. Who was it that introduced it? Who developed it Early Milwaukee Revisited for the world? The circus. I am charmed with the picture on the cover Briefly, the historic picture of the early era of the last number, just received. It brings out in America is this: A social caste of dominant details that I do not find in the photograph of aristocrats had American enterprise (as well the same picture which my father treasured as customs and manners) in a straitjacket. It and which is marlced to designate various was a circumstance rooted in imperialism, spots. He knew the site. dominant for centuries throughout the world Perhaps the Editor did not know the loca­ prior to the advent of the American circus that tion of this picture, or perhaps he thought it came to flower in the last quarter of the nine­ was the place of Milwaukee to preserve that teenth century. identity; but my thought is that if the Museum Barnum's showmanship, expressed in what possesses so fine a picture, there should some­ was then considered a horrid concept of adver­ how be attached to it a description, before it tising and accompanied by what was regarded is too late. The very center of this picture shows as a surge of offensive, unethical publicity— the quarter-block which my grandfather began

208 SINCERELY YOURS

to acquire in about 1843, and it does it well. Ludington and Company, including a docked I would gladly have used it to illustrate part cargo vessel (upper left); (2) the establish­ *t)f the story I wrote for my family and which ment of Chapin and Gregory, grocers, site of the Magazine printed in September, 1943. the present Empire Building; (3) the old Oddly it happens that the less clear picture Congregational Church, later the first Method­ which the Magazine has printed on page 122 ist Episcopal Church; (4) Ogden's carriage of the current number is another favorite of shop, between North Second and North Third mine. My father left a large copy of that, Streets; (5) the old Spring Street bridge; (6) which hangs in my home. Below the picture, the Sherman M. Booth Building, present site twenty buildings are designated. Perhaps the of Gimbel's; (7) the American House, fore­ Museum possesses this large copy. This picture runner of the famous Plankinton House where could point the story of "Comstock Castle," the Plankinton Arcade now stands; (8) a from the tower of which Lapham made the building tentatively identified as possibly the observations for his surveys. Free Congregational Church at Sixth and West I think pictures are very great adjuncts to Wisconsin, which later'became Lincoln Hall. stories, and of course the reverse is true. The second picture to which Miss Ogden re­ MARION G. OGDEN fers, and which appeared on page 122 of the Milwaukee last issue, is a more naturalistic sketch of Mil­ waukee made by L. Kurz about 1850. It was Miss Ogden's letter refers to the Winter 1957- reproduced from a photograpfdc copy in the 1958 cover which depicted a segment of Spring Society's display album of Wisconsin views. Street (now West Wisconsin Avenue) as it The article mentioned in her letter is "John appeared in a much larger panoramic drawing Ogden, Milwaukee Pioneer," Wisconsin Maga­ of Milwaulcee made by George J. Robertson zine of History, 27: 56-74 (September, 1943). in 1853 and lithographed and published the Miss Ogden is also the author of Homes of Old following year by Smith Brothers, 59 Beelcman Spring Street, first published in Milwaukee in Street, New Yorlc. The cover detail was taken 1944, with a second edition in 1946. from a 21/^ by 4 foot, muslin-backed copy in EDITOR. the Society's Iconographic Collections. Also on file is a lithographic key to the prom­ inent landmarks and buildings portrayed. This key accompanied a 16-column engraving pub­ lished by the Milwaukee Sentinel in connection with, the June 27, 1937 observation of its centennial. Three of the city's leading histori­ ans—John C. Gregory, Frederick Heath, and William George Bruce—assisted in the prepar­ ation of the key. Nearly a month was spent checking records, newspaper files, books, and old city directories to facilitate the picture identifications. Although only several scores of the m,ore than 1,000 structures shown in the original panorama could be positively identi­ fied, comparison with contemporary prints and pictures revealed the artist's astonishingly ac­ curate rendition of even the minutest archi­ tectural details. That portion of the key, identifying the more important landmarks and buildings shown on the last issue's cover, has been redrawn by Joel Salter of the Society's staff and is repro­ duced here. Shown are (1) the lumberyard of

209 Pioneering the Electrical Age by 6. W. Van Derzee

^ws^^**"' •JIM;- •ic^^J'^'i^KiS'^ three succeeding years Edison improved the existing generators and a distribution system, Seventy-five years ago, on an Appleton and found bamboo a better filament than street appropriately named for the Ro­ thread for his incandescent light. In order to man god of fire, a miracle took place— prove his lighting equipment, he planned to and a slumbering giant came awake. erect a power plant to generate electricity from steam power in the investment district of New York. Rogers returned from his fishing trip so en­ The year was 1882. Chester A. Arthur was in thusiastic about the miracle of incandescent the White House—^promoted from the vice- light that he did not wait for Edison's system presidency by an assassin's bullet which had to be proved. He persuaded A. L. Smith, who killed James Garfield the year before. At the was also a personal friend of Edison, H. D. 1882 Republican convention in Wisconsin, pro­ Smith, a blast furnace owner, and Charles hibition was the main issue. And in Appleton Beveridge, a banker, to join him in forming the Appleton Post reported plans for a series the Appleton Edison Light Co., Ltd. The new of new brick sewers "to provide the city with company entered into a contract with Samuel drainage of a permanent character and wifl be Insull, Edison's secretary, for the exclusive a part of a perfect system which will serve for franchise to use the Edison system in the Fox all time."^ An advertisement in the same issue Valley. Rogers' new home on the bluff over­ of that newspaper announced a great bargain looking the Fox River, and two paper mills in heavy beaver Dolman coats trimmed with were wired. The house, by the way, still stands, plush and satin for eight dollars each. Pure and some of the original wiring may still be in ground Rio coffee was advertised at ten and use. Copper wire was used, usuaUy with in­ one-half pounds for a dollar, and you could sulation of cotton or tape, sometimes bare. purchase twenty-five packages of stove polish Mechanics fastened the wires between floors, for the same amount. in walls, and to the waUs with wooden cleats.^ In July of that year, H. F. Rogers, suc­ While Edison was building his New York cessful paper manufacturer, went fishing with power plant, using steam, the Appleton paper his friend H. E. Jacobs, remarkable salesman makers, long experienced in utilizing the power for the Western Edison Electric Company. No of the Fox River, were preparing to use the one knows whether or not H. J. Rogers landed power of faUing water to generate electricity. any fish on that trip, but the star salesman The generator and water wheel had arrived, landed a contract for an Edison central sta­ and the little hydroelectric central station was tion. So successful was Jacobs' selling that nearing completion. Rogers, though he never had seen a light bulb, Word came that the Edison plant in New bought a complete plant.^ York City was in successful operation on Sep­ Three years before, Edison had conducted tember 4, 1882. Efforts in Appleton were re­ his now famous experiments in which he cre­ doubled. "We will start operating in the morn­ ated incandescent light, using a piece of car­ ing," said one of the Edison experts. On the bonized sewing thread as a filament. In the morning of September 30, 1882, everybody was present at the appointed moment—Rogers, *Adapted from an address given at Appleton, Wis­ the two Smiths, Beveridge, and their friends. consin, October 8, 1957, commemorating the seventy- fifth anniversary of the world's first hydroelectric cen­ tral station. 'Ibid., 35; Louise P. Kellogg, "The Electric Light ^Appleton Post, October 5, 1882. System in Appleton," in the Wisconsin Magazine of Torrest McDonald, Let There Be Light: the Elec­ History, 6:3-8 (December, 1922); Francis Stover, tric Utility Industry in Wisconsin, 1881-1955 (The Milwaukee Journal, May 23, 1953; and Wisconsin American History Research Center, Madison, Wiscon­ Michigan Power Company, Souvenir Booklet (Apple- sin, 1957), 34r-35. ton, 1932).

210 VAN DERZEE PIONEERING

The leather drive belt was connected to the adequate. There were no volt meters or am­ water wheel, and everyone drew a long breath meters, no lightning protection, no fuses, nor of anticipation. Nothing happened. "Change instruments of any kind. Any disturbance the connections," was the order. They changed would short out the circuit. When this hap­ and changed and changed; the generators pened, all hands went out tracing the wires, turned, but the lamps did not light. Noon came and service was suspended until the trouble and afternoon dragged on. The five o'clock was located. Althought the electric light often whistles blew and still the specialists tinkered did not work, it was judged a success. It was with the mysterious thing, electricity. It was a novelty and—perhaps as important—it was getting dark when suddenly, whimsically, some­ inexpensive. In fact, the company knew so lit­ thing happened: the carbonized filaments slow­ tle about the economics of its business that ly became dull red, then bright red, then in­ for some time it actually sold its service below candescent, and Glory Be—there was light! cost. It is recorded that the men jumped up and down and screamed like schoolboys. The man who had made the final connection then speeded up the dynamo and the lights bright­ ened. Water power was making light. Tri­ umphantly the Appleton Post reported that "the lamps produced a beautiful soft white light absolutely steady and constant, and equal in intensity or exceeding, if desired, the il­ luminating power of a gas jet of the best quality. The electric light is perfectly safe and convenient, and is destined to be the great illuminating agent of the near future."* This tiny plant of 12.5 kilowatts capacity on Vulcan Street in Appleton was the first central station in the world to convert the power of falling water into electric power; and this plant was a grandparent of hydroelectric cen­ tral stations all over the world that now put rivers to work making electricity. H. J. Rogers' home in Appleton which received electric serv­ ice from the Appleton Edison Light Company on that memorable September evening, bears the distinction of being the first house in the world—devoted exclusively to residential use World's first hydroelectric central station, Appleton, Wiscon­ —to receive electric service from an electric sin, 1882. Photo in the Society's collections, negative WHI (X3) 9134. central station. This was but the beginning. If the first Despite a great increase in the number of moment of operation was a dream, the next customers, the company lost money, and only twenty years were a nightmare. Sometimes the through such unorthodox methods as applying voltage was so high that afl the lamps in the stock subscription payments to operating ex­ circuit burned out; and, with lamps costing penses instead of plant investment, was it able $1.60 each, this was an expensive fault. Be­ to meet expenses during those early years. By cause regulators had not yet been developed, the end of 1885 it was overdrawn at the bank the intensity of the light was governed by the by more than $1,000. In practice, the company operator at the power house, who depended never audited its books or knew exactly where on his own eyesight to judge if the voltage was it stood. In the first three years the stockhold­ ers had invested nearly $24,000 in the com­ pany. They owned a plant worth only $18,700, 'Appleton Post, October 5,1882. and had neither received a cent in dividends

211 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1958

nor would they expect any in the foreseeable in addition a competing electric company was future. It should be remembered that the serv­ formed. The Edison company was forced to ice was only for lighting—from dusk to dawn cut its rates; some of its electric light and —since motors and other uses of electricity power business slipped away; and receipts of were yet to be discovered. the street railway department dropped, instead In 1884, the company launched a bold, im­ of rising as anticipated. The company lost its aginative, and decisive program to solve its credit at banks and the "roof fell in."^ problems. An extensive promotional campaign In January, 1896, the Appleton Edison was initiated. Early in 1886 a new plant was Electric Company formally went into bank­ built with a capacity of 190 kilowatts. The ruptcy. But A. L. Smith, president, never sur­ new plant incorporated all the advanced fea­ rendered. At a foreclosure sale in 1896 Smith tures of the Edison system, including various bought the property of the defunct enterprise regulatory devices, fuses, and a three-wire dis­ and formed a new company. In 1897 the new tributing system. In 1888, electrolytic meters company acquired the competing electric com­ were added, and in 1890 twenty-four hour pany which had also run into financial difficul­ service was begun and some customers in­ ties due to its inability to secure new capital stalled and operated electric motors. By 1890, for expansion. The new Appleton Electric Light the number of customers had increased 6,000 and Power Company seemed at last to be on per cent, from only three customers ten years solid ground. But just as the future was begin­ before, to'a total of 182.=* ning to look promising, a fire destroyed the In 1886, during the company's expansion entire generating plant in 1897.* The new program, an even more revolutionary develop­ ment was taking place. The Appleton Electric 'McDonald, Let There Be Light, 43-44. Street Railway Company was incorporated by 'Milwaukee Sentinel, April 8, 1897. three other Fox Valley residents. A 60 kilowatt generator, driven by water power, furnished the electricity for the trolleys. This company, too, had its difficulties, and when the novelty wore off in 1891, the street car company was put on the block." To the investors in the lighting company the street car system looked like a golden op­ portunity. An electric street car system, they reasoned, would provide a daytime revenue for their electric plant which was a full-time investment working only at night. Further­ more, the street car company could be cheaply bought. Accordingly, A. L. Smith and C. A. Beveridge purchased the street railway com­ pany and formed a new corporation to con­ solidate the lighting and street railway compa­ nies. This, they learned later, was a mistake. Revamping the street railway system cost much more than anyone had anticipated. If the com­ pany had remained exclusively in the lighting and power field it would have been a thriving success, but the street railway operated at a net loss of over $4,000 for the year 1893. Then in 1894 the local gas company cut its rates, and

"McDonald, Let There Be Light, 37-40. "Ibid., 41; unpublished paper read by A. C. Lang- stadt before the Wisconsin Utilities Association, Reconstruction of the original central station, near March 24, 1922. the original site. Photo by Rueckle, Appleton, 1954.

212 VAN DERZEE : PIONEERING company limped along until 1900 when it was Wisconsin Electric Power Company, the par­ merged with the Neenah and Menasha Elec­ ent company of Wisconsin Michigan Power tric Railway Company, and the Wisconsin Company, ordered a fifth generator to be in­ Traction, Light, Heat & Power Company was stalled at its Oak Creek power plant in the formed. southeast corner of Milwaukee County, Wis­ The enthusiastic salesmanship of H. E. Ja­ consin. This single generator will have a ca­ cobs and the expectations of the original inves­ pacity of 250,000 kilowatts, or 20,000 times tors had been too optimistic. Though thousands as much capacity as the original Vulcan Street of dollars had been poured into the venture of plant. Expressed in less technical terms, the electrical power for the Fox Valley, the venture new generator will produce enough electricity had never paid a dividend. But out of the to light 5,000,000 lamps of 50 watts each, nightmares and ashes of nearly twenty years compared to the 250 lamps of the pioneer plant. of labor had risen a potentially great electric So inexpensive is electricity today that few utility which was to become the backbone of are denied the advantages of electrical work- Wisconsin Michigan Power Company in 1927. savers on account of the cost of electricity to From the consumers' point of view, the ex­ operate them. Certainly electricity has been tent and quality of electric service in this area the most important factor in bringing to the in 1901 were equal to, perhaps better, than in smallest homes the fundamental family living any other cities of comparable size in the advantages enjoyed by the most prosperous. world. Where once only the well-to-do could afford Certainly the founders of the Appleton Edi­ candles at night, today the finest electric lamps son Light Company, Ltd., must have been that money can buy and science can produce guided by a vision of the potential of an elec­ can be operated all evening for a penny or trical industry or they would not have per­ two. Even the very wealthy can buy no bet­ sisted despite the obstacles they encountered. ter refrigeration, entertainment, cooking, and The only known use of electricity in 1882 was washing equipment than that in general use for lighting. Doubtless Jacobs and Rogers in the average small home. would have called the idea "preposterous" if, And what of the future? The electrical in­ in 1882, they had been told that some day dustry is now entering a new era: Commer­ electricity would put pictures in our living cially practical electrical energy from atomic rooms through a device called television; that heat is challenging us. We in the United States some day the housewife would throw away her are not short of electric power. We consume scrubbing board and be able to wash and dry more electricity than Russia, Great Britain, clothes electrically; that some day an electric West Germany, France, Canada, Japan, and alarm clock would awaken us; that electric Italy combined. And we can supply the addi­ blankets would keep us warm at night in the tional kilowatt-hours we will need for many winter, and air conditioning units keep us cool years to come using our abundant supplies of in the summer; that electricity would heat our conventional fossil fuels. Nations not blessed morning coffee, and that the cream for it would with such supplies must grasp, and are grasp­ come from cows milked by electricity and fed ing, for means of meeting their power short­ hay cured by electricity; that we would use ages, and some are introducing atomic power electric machines to shave our whiskers; that regardless of economics. water would be pumped into our homes and Because power generating, using conven­ heated by electricity; that electrically powered tional fuels, is relatively inexpensive in the machines would solve even the most complex United States, atomic power must be further mathematical problems. These men, though developed before it will be fully competitive in they saw a vision far beyond their time, could most of the country. There appears to be no not possibly have envisioned the miracles of sound reason why this country should engage present-day electrical living. Perhaps even we in a race for mediocrity. The nation's investor- do not envision the miracles still to come. owned electric companies are directing their The pioneer plant could generate only developmental work toward testing various enough power to light 250 bulbs of 50 watts systems of atomic-powered generation; devel­ each, or a total of 12.5 kilowatts. Recently oping reactor designs; trying out new ma-

213 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1958 terials; learning the technique of operating color to fit the individual's mood of the mo­ atomic electric plants. We are behind no na­ ment. Tomorrow's home owner wifl sleep in a tion in the search for the most efficient means bed circled by the warming rays of a radio- of generating electricity from the atom. If frequency canopy: no covers will be needed progress comparable to that made in generat­ and no beds will have to be made. An elec­ ing electricity from water and fossil fuel power tronic brain will store instructions and provide can be made in the generation of electricity each member of the family with automatic from atomic energy, the day is not too far off reminders and assistance for the next day's when many new generating plants in the efforts. Cleanliness may no longer be a major chore. Clothes may be cleaned in a precipitron United States will utilize atomic power. washer that wifl need neither soap nor water. Electrical manufacturers have great won­ When the housewife goes to market she may ders in store for the American housewife— make all her selections by simply pushing but­ with the electronic home only a step or two tons. Computors will help the farmer to plan away. The forerunner of the development in his crops and livestock operations. Industrial this field, the electronic range, made its debut automation is even now leaping ahead to elimi­ this past year. A combination freezer and elec­ nate human drudgery in manufacturing. tronic oven that will make food preparation as Are these predictions of the electrical future simple as pressing a button soon will be on fantastic? Or are they, in actuality, any more the market. The only thing the housewife will incredible than the once seemingly fantastic have to do with food is to eat it. Entire walls belief of the pioneers of Vulcan Street that by of the electronic home will glow with light harnessing the Fox a lightless lamp could be and be adjustable, bright or dim, and in the made to burst into mysterious incandescence?

Interior of the reconstructed central station. Photo by Rueckle, Appleton.

Image suppressed pending copyright clearance '^i

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214 readers' choice

GENERAL HISTORY ened the country by maneuvering in such a way that partition was the only possible solu­ The Transfer of Power in India. By V. P. tion. Probably the most interesting sections MENON. (Princeton University Press, Prince­ of the book to American readers will be those ton, New Jersey, 1957. Pp. 543. $8.50.) dealing with the final drama of the actual Party Politics in India: The Development of transfer of power and particularly Mr. Menon's a Multi-Party System. By MYRON WEINER. description of the outbreak of communal vi­ (Princeton University Press, Princeton, New olence that followed swiftly on the heels of Jersey, 1957. Pp. xiii, 319. $5.00.) independence and which severely threatened India's future as a democratic nation. Also, The first of these two volumes. The Transfer Americans will be impressed by his description of Power in India, begins with a brief review of the towering role that Lord Mountbatten of events from 1858, when government passed played in the events that led to independence. from the hands of the East India Company to Although it deals impressively with impor­ the British Crown, and emphasizes the con­ tant events, the book is not likely to be ex­ stitutional developments in India from 1917 tremely interesting to the general reader. As a to 1942. In actuality, this portion of the book literary product it is probably not a great is a brief narrative which the author sets down book, and possibly future research may even as background for the events to follow. There show that it is not a completely adequate his­ are few footnotes or references to sources, but tory of the transfer of power in India. But no this aspect of Indian history is well known and student of Indian life can possibly afford to is adequately covered elsewhere. ignore this intimate account of one of the The book's real contribution lies in its treat­ most important periods in the history of this ment of the years 1942-1947 during which the great new democracy, devotedly written by a discussions, and finally the actual transfer of man who observed as no one else could the power took place—a period in which Mr. full detail of events as they occurred. Menon himself played a significant role as Myron Weiner's book is in a sense comple­ constitutional advisor to successive Governors- mentary to Mr. Menon's, since it is devoted General of India. Since it is quite apparent to the emerging political character of inde­ that he held rather strong views about the in­ pendent India. Essentially, Mr. Weiner ex­ terests of his country and the courses of action amines the forces accounting for the growth which would be best for its future, it is doubt­ of a multiparty system in which one party, the ful if his writing about this period can be Congress, dominates to such an extent that completely free from bias. there is in reality no effective opposition func­ From beginning to end Menon was solidly tioning on a national level. He points out that against partition and felt that the Congress a major factor in preventing the emergence of and the British failed to deal effectively with a new opposition party is an electoral system the Muslim League on this and other issues. which provides for election by a simple major­ However, he clearly indicates the enormous ity vote and a single ballot. Thus, the plurality diificulties of the situation with which the party obtains a disproportionately larger num­ British had to cope, and he seems always to ber of seats in the legislature, while smaller have believed in their good intentions, if not parties receive disproportionately smaller num­ in the measures they employed to carry them bers than their popular vote would indicate. out. His analysis of the long series of events In the author's explanation of why, in the face which finally made partition inevitable gives of such a system, no workable mergers have the lie to the charge frequently heard in India developed among opposition parties, the one and elsewhere that the British purposely weak­ thing that stands out is the vital importance

215 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1958

of the characteristics of the party leaders, tive in America prior to the Civil War. In particularly their social philosophies and their addition, they have provided major source ref­ personal motivations and aspirations. Time erences for each artist, thereby not only fully and again, in the cases he cites, leaders failed documenting the dictionary, but also offering to take the decisive steps which would have the reader a helpful guide to further study. given their parties an opportunity, usually By probing the vast resources of city direc­ through merger, to become a united opposi­ tories, census records, exhibition catalogues, tion. And, usually, the most apparent reason newspapers, periodicals, and extant works of for this was the leader's unwillingness or in­ of art as well as earlier biographical and his­ ability to compromise—even when the compro­ torical studies, Groce and Wallace have com­ mise, at least to an outsider, would seem to be piled a handy one-volume reference work that minor in nature. far surpasses all previous dictionaries in thor­ The book closes with a chapter devoted to oughness, accuracy, and scope. the prospects for stable government. It is ar­ However, while such a dictionary will be an gued that the prospects for the success of invaluable aid to the student and researcher India's democracy depend upon the ability of in early American art, the terminal date of government to deal efficiently with some of the 1860 makes it of limited value to those inter­ country's most pressing problems, particularly ested in the art of the later 19th century or economic development, national unity, and the the art of those regions—particularly the West and Mid-West—whose major cultural communal and regional issues. It is then con­ development occurred in the years following cluded that India needs a strong opposition the Civil War. Here the student must still rely party (most likely candidate: the Praja So­ on the older dictionaries and the few available cialist Party) which would differ from the studies that concentrate on specific areas. Al­ Congress party on many economic issues but though the authors give no indication of con­ would stand solidly with it against all op­ tinuing their work, it is to be greatly hoped ponents of a democratic and secular state. that their excellent methodology and expe­ The book is well and imaginatively written. rience will be used to produce at least a second It provides the best analysis of the present volume which will broadly extend the geo­ Indian political situation available, and is graphic range of the Dictionary and complete particularly timely because it helps one to the roster of American artists through the understand many recent political developments 19th century. in India—including the success of the commu­ MERRILL C. RUEPPEL nists in Kerala. Its conclusions, while neces­ Minneapolis Institute of Arts sarily specific to India, have important impli­ cations for other newly emerging democracies. The Territorial Papers of the United States: Taken together these two books must be Vol. XXII, The Territory of Florida, 1821- considered required reading for anyone who 1824. Compiled and edited by CLARENCE wishes to understand the present political situ­ EDWIN CARTER. (Government Printing Office, ation of India. Washington, 1956. Pp. xiii, 1129. $8.25.) WILLIAM H. SEWELL With the publication of this, the twenty- University of Wisconsin second volume of the Territorial Papers, the series stands on the edge of the great divide in The New York Historical Society's Dictionary westward expansion, between the predomi­ of Artists in America, 1564-1860. By GEORGE nance of the South and the predominance of C. GROCE and DAVID H. WALLACE. (Yale Uni­ the free states. Of the eleven territories for versity Press, New Haven, 1957. Pp. xxvii, which papers have appeared (Northwest, 759. $15.00.) Southwest, Mississippi, Indiana, Orleans, The need for a comprehensive biographical Michigan, Louisiana-Missouri, Illinois, Ala­ dictionary of American artists has been long bama, Arkansas, Florida), seven were south­ felt by students of American art and culture ern; of the seventeen territories still to be —a need which has been met, at least in part, covered, not one belonged to the South, and by the volume under review. In it the authors only the very last, Oklahoma, even bordered have gathered the names, and wherever pos­ on it. sible, the dates, location, and significant bio­ The two centers of Florida in 1821 were the graphical details of the more than ten St. Augustine area in the northeast and Pen- thousand painters, sculptors, and print makers, sacola in the extreme northwest. Both places both native and foreign born, who were ac­ were ancient by American standards, but their

216 READERS CHOICE populations were small (the governor credited duction, is marred in its first paragraph by a East Florida with eight thousand inhabitants, sarcastic reference to Americans, even though West Florida with five), and the hundreds of the volume, priced in dollars rather than miles between them, as well as the hundreds pounds, is obviously designed to appeal to the down the peninsula, remained almost unin­ American market. Moreover, in the succeeding habited. Consequently the territory had, for all paragraphs on the first page he fails to mention its nominal age and exotic background, much the author or the title of "the publication . . . in common with other infant American com­ which is most widely consulted . . . particularly munities. One is impressed here as elsewhere in America." How are the ignorant Irish and with the prevalence of ill health and high mor­ other amateur genealogists in America to know tality, the importance of roads, the usefulness what book to avoid, or at least consult with to a new country of military posts and army care? Otherwise the chapter has some useful officers, the precarious position of the Indians, information about authoritative books and the the frailties of territorial officials, and the over­ right use of coat armour in England, Scotland, riding interest in land problems. Matters more and Ireland. It would have been enlightening, peculiar to Florida were the transition from however, if the author had explained the sig­ Spanish to American rule, with Andrew Jack­ nificance of the term "Wild Geese" on page son in the foreground, and the naval and cus­ 13—surely it is too much to expect the be­ toms activities occasioned by an immensely nighted Americans to know the jargon cur­ long seacoast. rently prevailing in Ireland. The cardinal editorial policy of the Terri­ In the succeeding chapters of Part I the torial Papers has been to give priority to author explains the significance of the patrony­ materials relating to the territories as adminis­ mic prefixes Mac (son of) and 0 (grandson trative problems of the Federal government. of) and makes it clear that the former is not However wise the policy, a reader of the used exclusively in Scottish names. An inter­ Florida papers is likely to question certain esting account of the prevalence of surnames of its fruits, e. g., the lavish documentation of in the counties of Ireland is followed by tables appointments, and the scores of pages devoted of their distribution and continuity. He then to bickering among officials. The indexing of the volume, so important in a compilation discusses Christian names and gives a table of this kind, is admirably copious. of their popularity: John, Patrick, and Mich­ ael, in that order, are the most freauentlv used The next territory after Florida is Wisconsin. today. In the final chapter of Part I, Dr. BARNES F. LATHROP MacLysaght deplores the lack of laws con­ University of Texas trolling changes of name, and with striking examples illustrates the resultant confusion Irish Families, Their Names, Arms and Ori­ which exists. gins. By EDWARD MACLYSAGHT. (Hodges Fig­ Part II, comprising two-thirds of the book, gis & Company, Ltd., Dublin, 1957. Pp. 366. consists of brief essays on the Irish surnames Plates, maps. $20.00 plus $1.00 postage.) and their transitions in form and spelling. This is an attractive book, of quarto size, Notable persons bearing each are mentioned. clearly printed on good paper, with excellent In the case of armigerous septs and families, colored plates on which are blazoned the coats- reference is made to the plate in Part III on of-arms of 243 Gaelic families. It is reasonably which an illustration of the arms, properly priced, considering printing costs today. blazoned in heraldic colors, may be found. Dr. MacLysaght, formerly Chief Herald of These have been drawn by Myra Maguire, an Ireland and head of the Genealogical Office accomplished heraldic artist in the Genealogi­ in Dublin, later Keeper of Manuscripts in the cal Office, Dublin Castle. National Library of Ireland and now Chairman Anglo-Irish surnames are enumerated and of the Irish Manuscripts Commission, has writ­ briefly discussed in Part IV. This is followed ten this book out of experience and knowledge by six appendices, mainly tables of names gained in handling, during his long official with the equivalents in Gaelic or English. career, thousands of genealogical and his­ The bibliographies (pp. 316-336) should be torical manuscripts covering several hundred especially useful to those who wish to trace years of Irish history. Hence, his statements ancestry. should be authoritative, even though he gives The index, which is to surnames only, is no references to his sources and does not differ­ ingeniously arranged by the basic element in entiate between fact and opinion. each name, with prefixes given but properly The first chapter, which serves as an intro­ ignored in the alphabetization. It is to be re-

217 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1958 gretted that no subject index, especially to commonplace—along with town views, monu­ Part I, is provided; the blank portion of page ments, photographs of churches and related 366 would have been sufficient for this pur­ buildings (as would be expected), and less pose. The index is followed by a large, clear commonplace diagrams of ecclesiastical vest­ map of Ireland, 1300-1600, giving county ments, selected illustrations of period wedding divisions, etc. gowns, memorabilia of noted literary figures, It is unfortunate that the author did not and such photographs as were obtainable of indicate the pronunciation of Gaelic names, what the author calls in his chapter heading, not only in Part I but particularly in Part II "Frontier Christianity and America's hillbilly where it could have been easily inserted after Christians." the heading of each essay. Perhaps, if a second Certain chapters treat broad historical de­ edition is called for, this feature could be velopments, but most are devoted to a single added without resetting the type on each page. denomination or group of denominations and It would be valuable, particularly since a ma­ emphasize organizational history, or often, in jority of the Irish in America—certainly the the earlier stages, phases of persecution and majority of those interested in genealogy—are martyrdom. The fine distinctions such as that three or four generations removed from the between the National Baptist Convention of emigrants and, speaking nothing but Ameri­ the U.S.A., Inc., and the National Baptist Con­ can, of course, are quite ignorant of Gaelic. vention of America which pervade the text, GILBERT H. DOANE along with data on the height of buildings and University of Wisconsin seating capacity, are occasionally bewildering to a layman and must perhaps depend on other Pictorial History of Protestantism. A Pano­ works for clarification. The treatment of the ramic View of Western Europe and the United Moravians, the various Lutheran groups, and States. By VERGILIUS FERM. (Philosophical the Scandinavian churches is especially full Library, New York, 1957. Pp. 368. $10.00.) and valuable. This volume compresses an enormous amount PAUL VANDERBILT of factual information, with related portraits State Historical Society of Wisconsin and illustrative material, into a large book which is still much too small for its subject. Homeward to Zion; the Mormon Migration Fortunately the condensation has not been from Scandinavia. BY WILLIAM MULDER. achieved by reducing the size of the illustra­ (University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, tions or by overcrowding them on the pages. 1957. Pp. xii, 375. $7.50.) The subject of Protestantism is treated in nu­ It is something of a surprise to discover, merous chapters, some only a page or two in both north and south of Salt Lake City, settle­ length, but generafly consisting of an intro­ ment after settlement populated in the main by ductory historical passage followed by pictures, the remaining text being in the form of cap­ Scandinavians. These people, loyal members tions. The result is interesting to peruse and of the Mormon church and now thoroughly use as a source of isolated data which may be assimilated into the social and economic life unfamiliar to most readers, but the editorial of Utah, are there today largely because of the format is not one best adapted to historical efforts of the Scandinavian Mission. This clarity. The context is frequently difficult to mission, which was founded in Copenhagen in follow and the inclusion of certain items of a 1850 and gradually extended its activities to background nature sometimes seems capri­ Sweden and Norway as weO as to all parts of cious, though this varied supplementary ma­ Denmark, not only carried on a vigorous work terial is generally interesting for its own sake. for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day On the whole, the text seems open to criticism Saints, but also transported something like as uneven and sometimes poorly phrased. But 30,000 Scandinavians to the American Far it is only fair to judge this volume as the com­ West. Although less important than the British pendium of illustrations which it claims to be Mission, with its headquarters in Liverpool, il and not as a historical text. It is at any rate was nevertheless a close rival, and during some free of any overt proselytizing tendency and years after 1860 it sent even more emigrants is reasonably well balanced. to Zion than did the older mission in the The variety of iflustrations is commendable, United Kingdom. including many sixteenth century woodcuts, William Mulder has written a fascinatirig contemporary caricatures, reproductions of account of the Scandinavian Mormon migra­ historical illustrations and paintings—often tion, emphasizing—as he should—that religion,

218 K

READERS CHOICE not economics, was its prime mover, and that in Salt Lake City—which Mulder spells the converts, although usuaUy poor, were any­ Bikiiben throughout his volume—reveals a thing but the dregs of society they have often persistence of Danish and Scandinavian senti­ been pictured as being. Acceptance of the new ments not at all pleasing to the leaders of a religion from America meant in most cases a religion that had originated in America and painful severing of ties with family and friends had been revealed for the most part in English in the homeland, and at worst persecution at to an English-speaking prophet. Similarly, this the hands of officials. It was therefore a step book contains next to nothing on the interest­ not lightly taken. Only the strongest converts ing relations of the Mormon and Gentile Scan­ remained steadfast in the new faith; defection dinavians, in the Upper Midwest and in Utah, actually occurred among about thirty per cent after 1847. The whole field of Scandinavi- of the Mormon emigrants. anism, however, has been largely unexplored The very factors that made mission work in even on the part of those with a stronger the Scandinavian countries so difficult, and knowledge of the Scandinavian languages than called for so large a body of missionaries, pro­ that possessed by Mulder. duced among the faithful a spirit of unity that The University of Minnesota Press has per­ was truly remarkable. Brigham Young once formed another excellent editorial job on this remarked that it was only necessary to give delightful book, which contains a complete people a few good principles that they could bibliography and a satisfactory index. easily understand—and plenty of soap—and KENNETH BJORK they would achieve great things on this earth. St. Olaf College But nothing short of a literal belief in the rev­ elations of Mormonism could have led them to share their wealth in order to pay the passage Gray Ghosts and Rebel Raiders. BY VIRGIL of their poorest brethren, or could have given CARRINGTON JONES. (Henry Holt and Com­ them the courage to endure imprisonment and pany, New York, 1956. Pp. 371, Notes, index. social disgrace, or have spurred them on $4.50.) during the first years of pioneering in the This book has an expressed and an implied desert of Zion. It was religious faith, too, that purpose. The first is to secure proper recogni­ caused them to join in the co-operative ven­ tion for what the author feels is at once the tures of the United Order and to follow the highly important and improperly neglected instructions of church leaders when this course role of the Confederate guerrilla fighters, or meant new excursions on the frontiers of "partisans"; the second is to re-create vividly geography and social life. the dashing exploits and personalities of that By the very nature of its religious beliefs, unorthodox warfare. the Mormon church attaches great importance Mr. Jones does not attain this first purpose to the preservation of historical records. Luck­ beyond question. He makes abundantly clear ily for present-day scholars a number of pio­ that the men under such leaders as Harry neer journalists and missionaries, among them Gilmor, John H. and Jesse McNeiU, and John the Dane, Andrew Jensen, made a special S. Mosby captured supplies, cut important effort to collect data of significance in the communication lines, disrupted Union plans, mission story. All of these materials, together tied up troops otherwise intended for army with private diaries and similar documents, reinforcements, and in other ways wrought have been at Mr. Mulder's disposal in writing confusion and at times consternation among his book. The result is a story rich in anecdote Federal commanders and men. Also, regular and interesting detail—a grass roots record— army officers such as Lee and Sheridan prob­ written with verve, imagination, enthusiasm, ably unduly belittled the effectiveness of this and sympathy. Homeward to Zion is, in fact, warfare. No doubt, too, the necessarily scat­ a remarkable tribute to an important element tered and fragmentary surviving evidence of in the Mormon population from the pen of a guerrilla activity does not do full justice to the Mormon capable of viewing his people in confusion, delays, and damage it created in scholarly perspective. enemy ranks. Yet when all the evidence is Mr. Mulder's dependence in the large on weighed—and Mr. Jones' evidence is vast and English source materials, however excellent, persuasively presented—the fact is that by has led him to underestimate the strength of 1863 whenever competent Union generals had Scandinavian feelings among the immigrants. clear objectives and adequate forces they usu­ A careful reading of Bikuben, the leading Dan­ ally moved against their objectives, partisans ish-Norwegian Mormon newspaper published

219 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1958

Against armies less vast, supplies less in­ covered, but the pay dirt left down in the silt exhaustible, or leadership less determined the is seemingly inexhaustible. With hundredth partisans might have proved decisive. As it anniversaries of all the dramatic events of the was, they were a harassment and a drain. But 1860's almost upon us, a new gold rush is many scholars will still doubt Mr. Catton's under way. prefatory statement that they "almost certainly Virgil Carrington Jones, a newspaperman . . . prolonged the war in the Eastern Theater turned historian, has staked out his claim in by eight or nine months," or Mr. Jones' con­ the area of unusual major raids in the War. jecture that the number of prisoners captured His Gray Ghosts and Rebel Raiders won much by partisans would have formed a force "per­ praise, and will be the basis of the first Civil haps large enough to give Grant, through nu­ War film series on television. Now he has merical superiority, the courage to capture turned his attention to one of the most cele­ Richmond during '64." It is much more cer­ brated Yankee raids, which was the subject tain that as Federal reprisals grew ruthless, of controversy for thirty years after Appo­ as war weariness increased, and as able parti­ mattox. san leaders were killed and their men scattered The "eight hours" Mr. Jones writes about or captured, partisan warfare grew more vi­ commenced about 10 A.M. on March 1, 1864. cious and less effective until finally it rep­ It was then that a two-pronged attack of resented only vindictiveness and produced mounted forces, under Yankee Brigadier Gen­ nothing more than bitterness and hate. eral Judson Kilpatrick, was launched. The Mr. Jones more clearly attains his second object was to release the thousands of Union objective. The book is an action-filled account soldiers held prisoner on Belle Isle and in of adventures, ambushes, raids, and escapes— Libby Prison, and if possible to capture Rich­ a story of colorful men and riotous anecdotes. mond. Like the early partisan warfare, the first part Everything, including the weather, went of the book is too episodic and unrelated for wrong. The brifliant victory the North had perspective. However, as time passed and the anticipated turned into disorderly retreat and irregulars found leadership and co-ordination, galling pursuit. Colonel Ulric Dahlgren, second the story after 1863 gains coherence without in command, was kifled. On his body were losing motion or color. From the Valley cam­ found papers which ordered the Northern paigns of Sigel and Sheridan to the last defiant troops to hang Jeff Davis and burn Richmond. post-Appomattox fusillade, the action is clear The authenticity of the papers became a matter and enthraUing. of endless controversy. To settle the matter, The author's style is, like his subjects' tac­ once and for' all, is one of Mr. Jones' purposes tics, sometimes irregular, and at times his in writing this book. breeziness carries a chill. Thus, Lincoln "gave McClellan the ax," General White "messaged His conclusion—that the disputed documents Pope," Hunter "was burned up over the ap­ were not Confederate forgeries but were gen­ pointment of White," and when young General uine—is not convincing. Despite the elabor­ Edwin H. Stoughton died "it was thirty for ate documentation (there are twenty-six pages Stoughton in years and thirty for Stoughton of notes) Jones' obvious bias shines through in life." The first law of reporting, too, should his efforts to be "scientific." He insists that prevent Joseph Johnston from becoming Kilpatrick is a rake who cavorts with "women "Johnstone." of low virtue of all colors" (shades of The These whimsies are trivia, however, when Birth of a Nation!). Kilpatrick also hunts set against Mr. Jones' really impressive re­ "wild pigs in the woods." He makes an ad­ search and able writing; and they do not seri­ mirable fall guy for this devoted Southern ously detract from a well-argued case and an writer. exciting story. There is nothing wrong with partisan writ­ W. H. MASTERSON ing; indeed, it is one of our chief sources Rice Institute of information and delight. But it should not be disguised as something else. Like many of Eight Hours Before Richmond. By VIRGIL us who are native Southerners, Mr. Jones' CARRINGTON JONES. (Henry Holt, New York, heart goes out to all that is Confederate. The 1957. Pp. 180. $3.50.) result, in this case, makes moderately good reading, but rather biased history. The living stream of history which is the American Civil War has been well worked for MARSHALL W. FISHWICK years. Most of the big nuggets have been dis­ Washington and Lee University

220 READERS CHOICE

The Governor and the Rebel: A History of explain away contrary evidence. A quotation Bacon's Rebellion in Virginia. By WILCOMB E. from Philip Ludwell's letter dated April 14, WASHBURN. (Published for the Institute of 1677, to Secretary of State Sir Joseph Wil­ Early American History and Culture by the liamson (p. 155) suggests that the Virginia University of North Carolina Press, Chapel colonists were, among other things, motivated Hill, 1957. Pp. XV, 248. $5.00.) by a desire for local self-government. Wash­ burn follows this quotation with a conjecture The struggle between the Bancroftians and that "Ludwell probably misjudged the causes the anti-Bancroftians continues. Was the co­ of the rebellion because ... he assumed that lonial period a history of the efforts of demo­ the leaders had thought out their plans and cratic colonists to deliver themselves from their knew what they were after." The Ludwell letter autocratic governors, as the Bancroftians teach, deserves more serious consideration than this. or are the anti-Bancroftians right in arguing Washburn's efforts to whitewash Berkeley that colonial governors were somewhat less and debunk Bacon are sometimes forced, as, autocratic—and the colonists somewhat less for example, the rather strained argument on democratic—than has been supposed? The page 45. The narrative is often marred by controversy never seems finally resolved as conjectures such as "Possibly the restrictions each generation of historians fights the same placed on volunteer commissions by the Assem­ battle on pretty much the same fields and with bly made Bacon unwilling to accept such a much the same weapons. commission . . ." (p. 52). It is surprising that Wilcomb E. Washburn, in this new book, a publication of the Institute of Early Ameri­ challenges the Bancroftian interpretation of can History and Culture has its footnotes in the Bacon's Rebellion of 1676 in Virginia ad­ back of the book instead of at the bottom of vanced by Thomas Jefferson Wertenbaker in the page: it is also somewhat annoying. his Virginia under the Stuarts (1914) and developed in his Torchbearer of the Revolu­ ROY N. LOKKEN tion: The Story of Bacon's Rebellion (1940), Madison, Wisconsin and which has been generally accepted by the community of historical scholars. Washburn, while researching in England, discovered a Interpreting Our Heritage. BY FREEMAN TIL- hitherto unused collection of letters of Sir Wil­ DEN. (University of North Carolina Press, liam Berkeley, Governor of Virginia during Chapel Hill, 1957. Pp. xviii, 110. $3.50.) the time of Bacon's Rebellion, among the pa­ Americans have often been described as a pers of Henry Coventry at Longleat, the Wilt­ "people on wheels." They like to go places shire estate of the Marquis of Bath. These and see things. Visitor volume in our national letters throw new light on Bacon's Rebellion, parks now exceeds 55,000,000 annually; and indicating that Berkeley had not been the cruel Ronald F. Lee, Chief, Division of Interpre­ despot Wertenbaker described. The result of tation in the National Park Service, expects Washburn's researches in the Coventry Papers the figure to go beyond 80,000,000 as the , and his re-examination of the conventional N.P.S. Mission 66 program, celebrating the sources is The Governor and the Rebel. service's fiftieth anniversary, swings into high The book is a good corrective of the Werten­ gear. Many millions more visit state and local baker interpretation of Bacon's Rebellion. In parks and almost innumerable points of scenic, the light of the new evidence which Washburn historical, archeological, and geological inter­ offers, it seems clear that Bacon and his fol­ est. The question is raised: How much does lowers were not "democratic reformers" after the sightseer really see ? afl, but merely frontier planters who disagreed, In a foreword, Conrad L. Wirth explains the evidently erroneously, with Governor Berke­ purpose of "interpretation," in terms of the ley's Indian policy. Washburn's portrayal of basic purposes laid down by Congress in es­ the rebellion itself is, however, sometimes in­ tablishing the National Park System about credible. He describes it as the culmination of forty years ago "to conserve the scenery and a rather nebulous development of complex the natural and historic objects and wild life factors nobody ever really understood. Bacon therein and to provide for the enjoyment of was like a blind man leading the blind. Issues the same in such manner and by such means were in no way clear-cut; desertions were fre­ as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoy­ quent on both sides; the participants them­ ment of future generations." selves did not know what the shooting was all The word "interpretation" has become very about. Unfortunately, in so portraying the popular in our cultural world. As applied to rebellion, Washburn tends to gloss over or the ranger-naturalist and ranger-historian serv-

221 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1958 ices, museums, historic houses, battlefield sites, Ford: Expansion and Challenge, 1915—1933. campfire programs, and roadside markers, By ALLAN NEVINS and FRANK ERNEST HILL. the function of interpretation truly is a "com­ (Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1957. plex art." Mr. Tilden has done a good job in Pp. 714. $8.95.) presenting its underlying principles and has given them a solid evaluation. Many writers have attempted to tell the story of Henry Ford, usually with indifferent Part I is devoted to the definition of basic success. Ranging from Samuel Marquis' mov­ concepts of interpretation. The author lists six ing Henry Ford: An Interpretation, through principles and then proceeds to explain each Keith Sward's well-written hatchet job Legend in a separate chapter, drawing on many and of Henry Ford to Harry Bennett's pathetic diverse examples to illustrate the foflowing: apologia We Never Called Him Henry, all of (1) Any interpretation that does not somehow the earlier attempts at interpreting Ford have relate what is being displayed or described to fallen short of the mark. To a great degree something within the personality or experience they failed because their writers were propa­ of the visitor will be sterile; (2) Information, gandists, more interested in making a case for as such, is not interpretation. Interpretation or against Ford than in attempting to present is revelation based upon information: They him as he was. Many of his biographers' are entirely different things, although all in­ writing abilities far outran their competence terpretation includes information; (3) Inter­ in research. Indeed, some of them seemed not pretation is an art which combines many arts, to know of the process of research at all. whether the materials are scientific, historical, or architectural, and any art is in some degree With the publication in 1954 of Allan Nev­ teachable; (4) The chief aim of interpretation ins' Ford: The Times, The Man, The Com­ is not instruction but provocation; (5) Inter­ pany, it became apparent that a definitive pretation should aim to present a whole rather biography of Henry Ford was being written. than a part, and must address itself to the Combining literary skill of a high order with whole man; (6) Interpretation addressed to thorough and careful research Nevins was ad­ children (say, up to the age of twelve) should mirably equipped for the task he set out to not be a dilution of the presentation to adults, perform. In addition to his own considerable but should follow a fundamentally different talents Nevins commanded those of an able approach. To be at its best it will require body of research assistants, chief of whom a separate program. was Frank Ernest Hill, his collaborator on the volume under review. In Ford: The Times, Part II describes interpretation techniques, The Man, The Company, Nevins achieved a with some wise words of warning regarding high standard of excellence. their inadequate, excessive, or inappropriate use. The book packs a lot of information and Ford: Expansion and Challenge fully lives a lot of punch into its little more than a hun­ up to the standard set by the first volume. It dred pages. is well written and carefully documented. For all of its weighty scholarship it is a highly Apparently the study had as its immediate readable book, sustaining the reader's interest objective the establishment of principles to through afl of its 714 pages. In part this is guide the National Park Service in its tre­ inherent in the story itself, for it covers the mendous celebration program. However, as period of Henry Ford's and the company's rise the excellent preface by Christopher Critten­ to pre-eminence in the industry, their decline, den states, this book will have a much wider and the start of their comeback. It was a appeal. Concluding his masterful appraisal of dramatic career, and the authors have retained the opportunities for, and the values of, ex­ the drama in the telling. Some portions of the plaining and revealing American historical and book deserve citation for being particularly outstanding: the chapters dealing with the natural heritage through media other than Peace Ship episode, the building of the Rouge the printed word, Mr. Crittenden recommends plant, the death of the Model T and birth of the book to all "whether amateurs or profes­ the Model A, and the story of the Ford Socio­ sionals, who are interested in museums, in logical Department are the high points of the parks, in historic houses, and the like," and book. adds that it wiU be "interesting and stimulat­ The book also contains a more complete ing" to general readers as well. The writer description of the Ford overseas operations heartily concurs. than can be found in any other work, al­ RAYMOND S. SIVESIND though, as the authors themselves admit, each State Historical Society of Wisconsin segment of the Ford Motor Company's foreign

222 READERS' CHOICE empire deserves a separate volume for itself. ent lack of power and Muslim influence and Even so, in their survey of Ford's foreign op- their domination by Western nations has cre­ (!rations Nevins and Hill have presented the ated in them a profound malaise. There is a main features in their proper relationship to feeling among Muslims that something has the company as a whole. gone wrong with Islamic history. To them Henry Ford was not a sophisticated man, the fundamental problem, therefore, is how- and his lack of sophistication has betrayed to reverse the course of events in such a way many of his biographers into portraying him that Islamic society may once again flourish in sharply contrasting shades of black or white. as a divinely guided society should. In reality, his was a highly complex charac­ The author examines several Muslim areas: ter, possessed of many dissimilar and con­ the Arab states, Pakistan, and the Muslim com­ tradictory traits. It was during the period munity of India, and notes in them certain covered by this volume that Ford's character intellectual trends directed at meeting the hardened into its permanent mold, shaped by crisis. Although he does not predict the fu­ the vast wealth he amassed and the enormous ture development of Islam, he does surmise power he wielded. No biographer has suc­ "that the creative development of Islam as a ceeded in presenting the total Henry Ford, but religion on earth lies rather in the hands of it seems reasonable to say that Nevins and Hill those Muslims whose concern for the forms have come as close as any ever will. Aided by and institutions evolved in Islamic history is the great resources of the Ford Archives they subordinate to their lively sense of the living, have presented us with a clearly-drawn por­ active God who stands behind the religion, trait of the colossus of the automobile indus­ and to their passionate but rational pursuit try. The present volume is a worthy sequel to of that social justice that was once the domi­ Ford: The Times, The Man, The Company. It nant note of the faith and dominant goal of is an excellent biography. its forms and institutions." JOHN C. COLSON As a whole the book seems to exaggerate the significance of spiritual and moral factors in State Historical Society of Wisconsin influencing the course of events in the mod­ ern Muslim world. The causes of the present Islam in Modern History. By WILFRED CANT- crisis must probably be sought not only in the WELL SMITH. (Princeton University Press, tensions aroused by conflicts of faith and his­ Princeton, 1957. Pp. x, 317. $6.00.) torical fact, but also in equally influential phe­ An understanding of certain basic phenom­ nomena such as nationalism and the politico- ena underlying current events in the Muslim economic-social characteristics of the Muslim world can best be achieved—according to the community in relation to the rest of the world. author of this book—through an understanding Furthermore, to attempt to explain the role o[ the Muslim religion and by an examination of so complex a force as nationalism by identi­ fying it exclusively with religious loyalty, as of its development in modern times. He finds Mr. Smith seems to do in this work, is a highly that more than any other religion, Islam has debatable procedure. concerned itself with its role in the physical world. While the secular-religious Christian A. F. JANDALI civilization has had a dual character. Islamic Michigan State University civilization has been unitary. The Islamic com­ munity is not only a social unity but also a Congressman Abraham Lincoln. By DONALD religious body, and the true Muslim feels it W. RIDDLE. (University of Illinois Press, Ur­ a duty to participate in the building of the bana, 1957. Pp. viii, 280. $4.50.) ideal society, in the carrying out in this world Dr. Riddle has not succeeded in the task he of God's will on earth. set for himself—to describe and explain Lin­ Mr. Smith's fundamental thesis is that the coln's congressional service "in the full crisis of the Muslim world in modern times is context of the historical situations which oc­ owing primarily to a tension arising from curred" so as to shed light on his character Muslims' sense of what their history was sup­ and development, while easing the research posed to be, and their awareness of what their task of future Lincoln biographers. actual history is. For some centuries, as the In part. Dr. Riddle has failed because he has author sees it, Muslim history was an accept­ not mastered his material. Crucial contradic­ able approximation of the Muslim ideal of tions mar his story. For instance, Lincoln history, as reflected in the solidarity and glori­ is called a member of the Southern wing of ous achievement of their society. But the pres­ the Whig party; yet other remarks place him

223 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1958 in the Western or Northeastern faction, while count of the Thirtieth Congress overflows with the New England Whigs are described as being indignation at the playing of politics during themselves divided. And the existence of such such a crisis. But Polk's party lost, and the sectional factions within the party is never Whigs won the elections of 1846 and 1848. demonstrated to begin with. Again, in his in­ Dr. Riddle fails to realize that such victories— troductory chapter. Dr. Riddle states that by the actual standards of political conduct President Zachary Taylor wanted to make then and always adhered to—either justify the Lincoln governor of Oregon Territory, but "in Whig policy or else require a re-examination an egregious example of maladroitness" a of Polk's course. Instead, the author concludes, cabinet member appointed him secretary of the on what evidence he does not say, that the territory. The episode is caUed "a series of ultimate disruption of the Whig party in the blunders"; yet a later chapter reveals that the middle 1850's was its inevitable punishment lesser appointment was made first, and by for having "made partisan use of foreign pol­ cabinet recommendation; hence with Taylor's icy." full knowledge. The governorship was not of­ Here is the key to the failure of this book: fered Lincoln until another man had refused it. the author has not explained Lincoln and the A second cause of the author's failure lies in Whigs in terms of the times in which they his use of questionable evidence. A main thesis lived. Instead he has judged them by a totally of the book is that Lincoln's opposition to the unrealistic standard of political ethics, and as Mexican War was unpopular in Illinois, with a result, has abandoned his investigations at disastrous results for Lincoln and his party. the crucial point. He has shown that Lincoln Much of the evidence of Illinois opinion is was a politician: that is not news. He has weak. Democratic criticism must be discounted suggested that Lincoln expected to gain some­ as partisan, the author says, yet it has thing from his conduct: that goes without say­ "weight." How much? "Nonpartisan" public ing. But he has not found out what Lincoln meetings denounced Lincoln, it is stated. But expected to get, whether he got it, or why. At all that is proved is that these meetings claimed times Dr. Riddle appears to believe that Lin­ to be nonpartisan. Still more evidence, sup­ coln expected an appointive office; yet he demonstrates that Lincoln never sought one on plied by William H. Herndon years after the his own volition. The question remains: What event, is accepted, although Riddle elsewhere did Lincoln hope to gain by his opposition to repeatedly discredits Herndon's reminiscent the war, by his advocacy of internal improve­ testimony. In another instance, the testimony ments, by his flirtation with abolitionism, by of an office seeker is accepted as conclusive his eager support of Taylor's candidacy? When proof that his rival was animated by the pet­ this question has been answered, biographers tiest sort of jealousy. of Lincoln will indeed have been saved consid­ The greatest weakness of the book, however, erable labor. is that the treatment of motivation never pene­ trates beneath the surface. For example, the GORDON E. PARKS author finds the logic of Lincoln's Resolutions North Texas State College and anti-war speeches to have been plausible, even tricky, and from this he deduces that Norway, Home of the Norsemen. By HARLAN Lincoln's motives must have been evil. Having MAJOR. (David McKay Co., 1957. Pp. 195. identified the "bad guy" by the color of the $4.50.) horse he rides, by his shifty eye and slick If you intend to go to Norway, read this tongue, Dr. Riddle condemns him. Then he book. If you don't intend to go there, read it assumes that by condemning Lincoln's acts anyway. You might be tempted to go after­ he has explained them. Such snap moral wards. judgments are a poor substitute for analysis. Not only does it give you a lot of interest­ They are the most unfortunate feature of this ing information about the country and its in­ book. habitants, but to begin with you are taken on In this respect, the contrast repeatedly made a trip to the four major cities—Oslo, Bergen, between President James K. Polk and the Trondheim, and Stavanger, where the author Whigs is significant, both for the character­ presents to you the main attractions. Then he istics which are contrasted and for those which goes on to tell about transportation in this are not. The virtuous Polk is praised for sin­ mountainous country—in particular about the cerely seeking to accomplish something; the strange inclination of the Norwegians (or evil Whigs are damned for their selfishly-mo­ rather some of them, not by any means all of tivated and insincere obstructionism. The ac­ them!) to travel on foot. But even if you don't

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feel any particular desire to join the pedestri­ Frederic Bancroft, Historian. With an Intro­ ans, don't be scared. You will find listed and duction by Allan Nevins and Three Hitherto described other, more convenient ways of trav­ Unpublished Essays on the Colonization of eling on sea, on land, and in the air. American Negroes from 1801 to 1865, by Fred­ However, the author is not satisfied with eric Bancroft. By JACOB E. COOKE. (Norman, merely telling you about railways, boats, and University of Oklahoma Press, 1957. Pp. 282. buses; for in the next chapters he takes you Illustrated. $4.00.) along on different trips: on a fjord bus jour­ Frederic Bancroft (1860-1945)—a name ney from Trondheim to Hammerfest; a bus that belongs in a generation of great histori­ trip from Hammerfest to Saltdal. And all the ans—is the subject of a useful little book time he keeps you informed about the possi­ produced by Columbia University's Jacob E. bilities of staying overnight in the different Cooke, assistant editor of the Papers of Alex­ places, and what you can do and see there. ander Hamilton. In another era this volume Finally he takes you on two motor trips; one might have been called a "memoir," for it is through the fjord country of Western Norway; divided into two sections, the first containing the other from Oslo to Trondheim through the Dr. Jacob's expertly written biography of Fred­ Gudbrandsdal—the valley of valleys. eric Bancroft, and the second containing three You have seen and heard many interesting minor essays composed by Bancroft forty years things on these travels. But maybe you have ago. not been able to take in everything. So in the Dr. Cooke makes it clear that no man aspir­ next chapter you are given a short introduc­ ing to be an historian had more favojable op­ tion to the arts and crafts of Norway. The portunities than Bancroft. He enjoyed a broadj stave churches are there, carving, weaving, unhurried education in the finest graduate and rose painting also. And you will find in­ schools available in the 1880's, traveled widely, formation about Norwegian silverware and and associated with the foremost historians of enamel and the old and noble art of making his day both in the United States and Europe fancy things of glass. In the last chapters you —including Herbert Baxter Adams, Anson D. will read about fishing (the best salmon riv­ Morse, John W. Burgess, Munroe Smith, Wil­ ers of Norway are listed), skiing, hotels, food, liam A. Dunning, von Treitschke, von Hoist, and you may even learn a few of the most and the living relics, von Ranke and George important words of the native language. Bancroft, a distant cousin. A life-long bachelor, You should have a map of Norway in front he was never beset with family demands. And of you when you read the book. If you do, you a rich and indulgent patron, his brother Edgar, will certainly have a good time and learn a freed him from the drudgeries of earning a great deal about the country. And one more living as an underpaid professor in some re­ thing: don't forget to take a look at the pic­ mote college. He made his home in Wash­ tures. They are excellent! ington to be near the great archival and Maybe I should add this: what I have said manuscript depositories and to cultivate ur­ does not mean that this book is the terminal bane, critical friends whom he hoped might guide his work and direct his maturation as of wisdom, and perfect in every respect. There a scholar. were moments when I was irritated with the way the author was writing. On pages 4-5, for Despite these inducements, Bancroft pro­ example, we read this: "The threat of frigid duced relatively little in his eighty-four years. temperatures or tough Vikings did not bother Dr. Cooke says simply that he was devoted to Claire or me.... Our problem centered around historical research but "lacked diligence and the fact that we and fourteen pieces of baggage industriousness in its exposition." He frittered were in Rome. . . ." away his small talents and illusive energies in Also the generalizations on the history of countless ways—private wars with the Library the country are sometimes too sweeping. The of Congress pages, exaggerated feuds with the decline of the Norwegian Monarchy, for ex­ inner circle of the American Historical Associ­ ample, is attributed exclusively to the German ation, and the indiscriminate, almost compul­ merchants in Bergen. On the other hand, this sive jottings in his journals and diaries of daily routine, gossip, and conversational scraps. is a travel book, so let us not be too severe Bancroft revealed few traces of humor, insight, on this point. imaginative powers, or relentless energies born ERLING REKSTEN of an inquiring mind. His best talent, that of Haugesund Kommunale Hogre seeking the company of prominent men, put Almenskole, Norway him to one side of every picture, never in the

225 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1958

center. When he died, he left a parcel of pub­ The Frontier in Perspective. Edited by WALKER lished works, a large collection of private pa­ D. WYMAN and CLIFTON B. KROEBER. (Uni­ pers, and a fortune of $1,500,000 for which versity of Wisconsin Press, Madison, 1957. Columbia University is understandably grate­ Pp. XX, 258. $5.50.) ful. But his scholarly bequests did not include grand interpretative insights befitting a Turner A welcome may be accorded to the thirteen or a Beard; he left no rich collection of books essays by as many authors published in this and manuscripts to rank him with a Draper; volume. The essays were delivered as lectures he was not an editor of monumental works in at the University of Wisconsin in the summer the tradition of a Thwaites; he left no memo­ of 1954. ries as an inspirational teacher of younger In "Roman Colonization and the Frontier generations. In short, he is an unexciting sub­ Hypothesis" Paul McKendrick relates the fron­ ject for a biography. tier concept to the facts of Roman expansioM. Faced with these narrow dimensions. Dr. But before sitting down to write this stimulat­ Cooke treats Bancroft charitably. It is not ing essay, the author should have carefufly until the end of the 140-page memoir that he perused an historical work by one of his Madi­ accurately sums up his subject in a quotable son predecessors in his own department, Wil­ understatement: "Frederic Bancroft was not liam Francis Allen's A Short History of the a figure of central importance in American Roman People (1890). A knowledge of this scholarship. . . ." But he adds a plea for giv­ book, which studies Roman growth outward ing minor figures a place in written history. in the light of a knowledge of American ex­ Bancroft, he insists, was "a human bridge" pansion into the West, might have caused Dr. connecting the old tradition of history as an McKendrick to modify some of his conclu­ avocation for the rich with the new tradition sions. Professor Allen was Turner's teacher at of history as a profession. Madison. The second half of the volume offers Ban­ "The Mediterranean Frontiers, 1000-1400" croft's three essays on Negro colonization is an essay by Robert L. Reynolds. The author projects in the nineteenth century. They suf­ covers a broad sweep in his provocative paper. fer from age and reveal little that is new. The In the reviewer's opinion, however. Dr. Rey­ first essay, "The Early Antislavery Movement nolds has sometimes seen frontiers where and African Colonization," is the weakest of frontiers were not. AU historical examples of the trio. It reveals Bancroft's antipathy for the expansion are not necessarily examples of a antebellum South and displays methods of his­ frontier experience; again, all historical ex­ torical research that would be considered su­ amples of border conflict are not necessarily perficial in graduate schools today. Apparently examples of frontier experience; and when one he ignored enormous manuscript data within commercial power (say the Hansa) establishes his reach and relied on sources available in a trading post in populous London, calling it any large library. Early Fox's study of the the Steelyard, is that an instance of a frontier American Colonization Society, completed category? The Genoese did this very thing in about the same time, surpasses Bancroft's the eastern Mediterranean. It is an example work, and perhaps for this reason he chose of expansion, but it is not an example of fron­ not to publish it. The other two essays, dealing tier experience as Turner understood and ap­ with the Chiriqui and He a Vache projects plied the term. The test to be used is this: during Lincoln's administration, have merit Is this particular case an instance where men and unquestionably deserved publication forty go forth from a "home area" distinguished by years ago. Unfortunately, other students have a comparatively high density of population, since pre-empted these Central American into a "new area" distinguished by a density schemes, and the essays are now antique curi­ of population that is either absolutely or rela­ osities rather than fresh contributions. tively low? In using the concept of the fron­ Dr. Cooke brings insight and diligent labor tier in work dealing with the facts of medieval to his subject, and any shortcomings in his history, there is need for discrimination be­ attractive volume are Bancroft's, not his bi­ tween phenomena that are genuine frontiers, ographer's. Professor Allan Nevins, whom and phenomena that seemingly resemble true Dr. Cooke credits for the genesis of the book, frontiers but cannot meet the test of genuine­ provides the introduction. Two or three typo­ ness. graphical errors scarcely mar the product. A. Lobanov-Rostovsky writes with zest on P. J. STAUDENRAUS the Russian movement into the Siberian in­ University of Kansas City terior in "Russian Expansion in the Far East

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READERS CHOICE in the Light of the Turner Hypothesis." Some predecessors, D. F. Sarmiento and V. F. Be- mention or comment by the author on his launde. Inexplicably, however, he fails to give Russian predecessor Kliuchevski, author of a proper consideration to the generation-long five-volume work on Russian history which scholarly labors of Turner's student and an was published in the 1890's and stresses the historical master in his own right, the Wis­ role of expansionism in that history, would consin-born Herbert Eugene Bolton. Bolton's have been helpful. It was Kliuchevski who lifework was the study of the northward ad­ wrote that the history of Russia was the his­ vance of the Spaniards in New Spain. His tory of a nation being colonized. Highly general treatment of the subject. The Coloniza­ relevant modern works by Raymond Fisher, tion of North America (1920), should have George Lantzeff, and Robert J. Kerner are been listed in the bibliography. Why has missing from the "Select Bibliography." Kern- Berkeley's star so soon been dimmed south er's The Urge to the Sea (1942) should be of the border? known to all students who interest themselves A. Irving Hallowell, anthropologist, con­ in the comparison of frontiers. tributes "The Backwash of the Frontier: the "Chinese Mandarins and Western Traders: Impact of the Indian on American Culture." the Effect of the Frontier in Chinese History" A concentrated, meaty essay, and a persuasive is by Eugene P. Boardman. Presenting mate­ one, it will probably be taken as the point of rials unfamiliar to most readers, the essay is departure for various future studies. therefore instructive, though without being en­ Thomas Perkins Abernethy is the sole con tirely convincing. A defect in focus somewhat tributor to this volume who was a studen blurs the statement of the problem. under Turner. For more than one reason, there W. P. Webb in "The Western World Fron­ fore, his brilliant essay, "The Southern Fron tier" offers a condensed and partial statement tier, an Interpretation," is intensely interesting of some of the ideas developed at length in his His contribution shows (1) the fertility and The Great Frontier (1952). In the present suggestiveness of Turner's ideas concerning the essay Dr. Webb asserts the reciprocity of in­ Old South; and (2) the necessity and the use­ fluences operating outward from metropolises fulness of revising them in the light of his upon frontiers, and outward from frontiers own deep-probing particular studies. Such upon metropolises. These propositions are pow­ revisions are quite in the mode of Turner him­ erful ones to work with. They were first seen self. Abernethy offers us a partial retention and in a large-scale way applied to historical and a partial modification of Turner's posi­ studies by the Gottingen historian Heeren, tion on the Old South. His piece compactly whose two-volume work, The European States sums up many years of research and alert, System, was published in 1809. William Fran­ critical thinking; no one of its paragraphs is cis Allen knew this work, used its ideas, in­ without interest and value. troduced them to Turner, his student. They Paul W. Gates writes on "Frontier Estate form part of the underpinning of Turner's Builders and Farm Laborers." His well- historical ideas. Dr. Webb's essay may be grounded essay offers a condensed statement profitably compared with the piece on "The of some of the findings developed in his re­ Frontier a World Problem," by Carl Russell search works published earlier. These set forth Fish, published in the December, 1917, issue the roles in American agrarian history of farm of this magazine. laborers and capitalist estate builders, and give A. L. Burt contributes "If Turner Had an enriched content to this important field of Looked at Canada, Australia, and New Zea­ our history. land When He Wrote about the West." If he had looked, asserts Burt, he would have found "Classics on the Midwest Frontier," by Wal­ abundant extra-U. S. confirmations for his in­ ter A. Agard, is an essay on the processes of terpretations. A brilliant, richly informative the diffusion of culture, as a result of which essay, doubly welcome, but all too brief. some of the elements of the classical heritage "The Frontiers of Hispanic America" comes possessed on the Atlantic slope entered the to us from the workshop of Silvio Zavala. Care­ locales of the Middle West and took root there. fully designed and well stocked with exact in­ The essay presents a generous garnering of formation, the author has contributed a mas­ facts. terly survey and condensation of the current In "Language on the American Frontier" state of knowledge about these frontiers. This Frederick G. Cassidy supplies a useful, gener­ essay will be of continuing suggestiveness. alised treatment, supported by a helpful bibli­ Zavala in passing refers to his frontier-minded ographical note.

227 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1958

The essay by Henry Nash Smith on the company reorganizations; and the Public Serv­ structure of Mark Twain's Roughing It may ice Commission of Wisconsin, which forced in the long run mark a considerable advance financial reforms at an embarrassing time. in the study of Twain's literary unfoldment. McDonald treads rather lightly on the sins In any case, and certainly for the present, the of the public utility holding companies—of argument does not lack for interest. A careful which we have heard much before—but he is reading of Twain's sketches collected under merciless in exposing the frauds of the Rural the title The Washoe Giant in San Francisco Electrification Administration. He concludes (1938) might supply Dr. Smith with additional that the REA delayed by several years the evidence to support his point of view. He does extension of electrical service to Wisconsin not mention this collection in his essay. farmers, charged high rates, and wasted its heavy government subsidies. FuLMER MOOD University of Texas A rather unusual feature of this book is that it is written with the aid of the records of the utility companies themselves—a valuable heljj. REGIONAL AND STATE HISTORY Wisconsin seems as good a place as any to make an intensive study of the development Let There Be Light: The Electric Utility In­ of the electric power industry in the United dustry in Wisconsin, 1881-1955. By FORREST States. Such a local investigation can reveal MCDONALD (American History Research Cen­ principles and forces—in economics, engineer­ ter, Madison, Wisconsin, 1957. Pp. x, 404. ing, or politics—which operate universally, Illustrations and maps. $5.95.) although the names, faces, ocal circumstances and conditions and modifying factors may The use of electric energy has wrought a differ elsewhere. transformation in the life of the nation, and the business of supplying it has grown vast. The JAMES F. DOSTER development of the enterprises which generate University of Alabama and distribute electric power in Wisconsin is narrated and analyzed by Dr. McDonald from its beginning, with skill and insight. Inexpe­ My First Eighty Years. BY HJALMAR R. rience, rapid technological change, and mis­ HoLAND. (Twayne Publishers, Inc., New York. understood or uncontrollable economic factors 1957. Iflustrated. Pp. 256. $4.00.) brought losses to the early developers, and One doesn't have to know Hjalmar Holand business failures were common until large —though who in Wisconsin does not?—to en­ integrated systems were developed. Even these joy this book thoroughly. But if you do know last went through their periods of trial. Mis­ him you'll enjoy it even more. It is full of the calculations were easy and frequent. The first detail of a dedicated life, always in itself in­ use of electricity was for lighting; then electric teresting, and always significant. More unusu­ streetcars were introduced, but the streetcar ally, especially in an octogenarian, it is full of business absorbed capital and ultimately good-humored self-deprecation. This, like so proved unprofitable. much of the author, is usually associated with The electric power industry required enor­ much younger men—younger in body, for mous amounts of capital for expansion, and there are none younger in spirit. skill in engineering and in economic practice "Eighty years," Mr. Holand teUs us in an for successful operation. The three public util­ illuminating preface, "is not a great age but ity holding companies which developed in a mature one. It is a good point of observation Wisconsin supplied these vital needs better than from which to view the vicissitudes of life and could the individual operating companies. In evaluate them objectively. An age of tranquil the 1920's there occurred an enormous expan­ reflection and the vision of informed intelli­ sion of service, a great increase in the efficiency gence. It is the best period of life. . . . [Those] of turning coal into electric energy, and a who reach the mature age of eighty or more decline in rates; still, few rural customers have considerable advantage over the half- were reached. grown persons of forty or so. ... I am looking The depression of the 1930's hurt the Wis­ forward to my second span of eighty years consin electric companies by reducing con­ with keen anticipation. The foolishness of cal­ sumption of their product at a time when all low youth is forgotten, and the unwise ambi­ were geared for expansion, but they weathered tions of early manhood have long since passed the storm. More severe was the attack of the away. Now I can meditate on the countless New Deal progressives, which forced holding- miracles of nature. ... I have leisure to renew

228 READERS' CHOICE my friendship with the great characters in Norse linguists of the generation. He dug the literature and history. ... I may even write Newport tower, came up with the most ingeni­ some little things of my own. With good health ous and probable explanation yet of its origin. and a clean conscience. . ." (p. 10). He checked on every halberd and axe dug up From this vantage point, he gives us a along the possible routes of Norse penetration thumbnail sketch of life in old Holand in the of the continent. He searched for and found southeastern corner of Norway, the tribula­ "mooring stones" at Lake Comorant, at Lake tions of the early 1740s, and the family land- Winnipeg, throughout Minnesota and Canada. loss which accompanied economic disaster two And he devoted himself, too, to the history of hundred years ago. A delightful yarn of Nor­ his own immediate area, interesting more wegian childhood is followed by an account of people in Door County history than is given the crossing of the Atlantic and a clerkhood in to most men of any locale to do. Marshall Field's at three cents an hour while But don't think for a moment that the gen­ taking night courses at the Chicago Y. The eral mellowness of this book has completely green but game and spirited young man turns duUed the author's tongue. His literary eyes to proselytizing for the Adventists; then to flash still at the memory of old wrongs: the Battle Creek Sanitarium as a would-be medical lack of cream in Paris and Cologne; the Paris missionary. Incidentally, the young man's re­ cabmen—"irresponsible madmen"; an aca­ action to the Sanitarium's system of working demic skeptic on the runestone, "with a with­ for two unsquare meals a day in the name of ered and petrified mind" (p. 219). And here W. K. Kel ogg (of corn flakes fame) is and there an old prejudice shows through. understandable. Monks are men who "fled material problems Then came laying rails into Neillsville and of life and lived lives of carefree ease" a longer term of selling books to farmers who (pp. 200-201). Berlin is an inferior replica did not read, fending off the often hostile dogs, of Chicago (p. 206). gathering notes on the Norwegian pioneers for How to stay young? Find an occupation for his first book. There are charming tales of col­ which you have a "native apitude" (p. 250), lege days and of choosing a wife before, for regardless of making money. Contentment largely romantic reasons, he chose his home­ and victory are conducive to long life. The stead on Eagle Bluff out of Ephraim, Wiscon­ "natural mood of man is joyful. ... I have sin. Though aspiring to the Ph.D and the charted my own course and have been wholly literary life, he turned, because of the caU of content" (p. 250). This is the intriguing this land, to orcharding in Door County. Off story of a man who has devoted much of season, he fenced to fend the rabbits from his his life to a historical crusade. The rest is the land, sold maps for Rand McNally, traveUed charming story of a man who has mastered by stage, foot, and railroad to make enough life on his own terms. Read it—and stay young. money to plant and develop his young CLIFFORD L. LORD orchards. State Historical Society of Wisconsin He lived to make his own terms for beauti­ ful Eagle Bluff with the state conservation com­ John Johnston and the Indians in the Land of mission and the area's Republican boss; to get the Three Miamis. With Recollections of Sixty well into the history, red as well as white, of Years, by John Johnston. BY LEONARD U. his chosen peninsula; to stage the greatest HILL. (Privately printed, Piqua, Ohio, 1957. historical celebration ever seen in Door Coun­ Pp. 138. $2.75.) ty; to launch one of the more distinguished The subject of this book was one among a midwestern local historical quarterlies; to relatively obscure list of faithful and just civil write an American best seller in Norwegian. servants who represented the federal govern­ Then he came across the Kensington Stone, ment in its relations with the Indians. John and his life course was fixed. He acquired the Johnston was appointed factor to the newly de­ relic, launched a half-century fight in its de­ signed factory (warehouse) at Fort Wayne, fense, took it to Rouen, searched, dug, and Indiana, on July 1, 1802. In 1809 he assumed studied. Entirely on his own, reinforced in his from William Wells the added responsibility later years by a Guggenheim grant, he carried of sub-agent to the Indians under territorial on his research in Europe and America, con­ Governor and Indian Agent William Henry fronting his antagonists face to face, seeking Harrison. Because of poor health Johnston everywhere for new evidence, meeting his tra- resigned from both positions in 1811, but the ducers with refutations based on wide research following year he resumed the responsibility and personal contact with the leading medieval of Indian agent and served in that capacity

229 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1958

until the spoils of national politics dictated his One gets the impression that he repeated leg­ replacement in 1830. ends which he had heard from Indians of The years covered by Johnston's activities as Michigan beginning around 1830 or 1835. The Indian agent encompass the period of the War more than 500 pages of the book are divided of 1812 and of the Indian removals from the among nine legends, making each rather long, Territory of Ohio. In the first and longer part which would seem contrary to the almost uni­ of the book the author writes of these critical versal legend regarding Indian succinctness. periods in Ohio and Indiana, and of the part And since the legends deal almost exclusively Johnston played in their evolvement. Quoting with warfare, one doesn't learn a great deal extensively from contemporary records, the about other aspects of Indian life; thus the author has produced an account which will book is mostly for "those who just like a fas­ create for many readers a sense of contempo­ cinating story." raneity and urgency. In addition to its absorb­ This work is a period piece, which may ing interest as historical reading, it is of make it fascinating, and in all probability it value to the student of government—Indian could have been written only in the late nine­ history for its extensive bibliography of source teenth century. Along with stories about In­ material. dian wars, there is the standard legend about The second part of the book is a reprint a romance between Indian maid and brave of John Johnston's "Recollections of Sixty warrior. ("She was young, sprightly, of grace­ Years," first printed as a series of fourteen ful form and lovely features. Lithe and agile articles in Cist's Advertiser for 1845-1846, and in step and movement, she was gifted with the later in 1846 reprinted in part in a book called fleetness of the forest fawn. . . ." Father Mar­ Cist's Miscellany. While the brevity of the quette himself named her Star Light.) And eight "chapters" leaves much to be desired, there is the equally standard tale of white these personal reminiscences have a certain maidens captured by the savages ("Alice and value for the insight Johnston gives into the Effie," or "The Captive White Maidens of the Indian problems of the time—which have not Huron River"). There is even the usual white hero. Dead Shot, ("tall, erect and well to this day been satisfactorily resolved—and formed," movements "all graceful, lithe and into the character of some of the leading par­ elastic," with nose "strictly modeled after ticipants, both Indian and white, in frontier the Grecian type" and mouth "well cut and history during the first four decades of the comely. . . ."). nineteenth century. J. JOSEPH BAUXAR Mr. Littlejohn was not always strictly ac­ Rockford College curate about the historical framework within which he wove his legends. For example, he locates La Point[e] on the site of the present Legends of Michigan and the Old Northwest. Duluth and credits Marquette with having By FLAVIUS J. LITTLEJOHN. (Allegan County founded a mission there in 1668. But, as Historical Society, AUegan, Michigan, 1956. Littlejohn said, the legends "were originally Pp.572. $6.00.) penned by the author for his own amusement, in his hours of leisure or relaxation from more Subtitled "A cluster of unpublished waifs, arduous duties." And that is the way they gleaned along the uncertain, misty line, divid­ may be read, if one is so inclined. ing traditional from historic time," this book was first published by the Northwestern Bible JAMES I. CLARK and Publishing Company in 1875. The author, State Historical Society of Wisconsin Flavius Littlejohn, was a pioneer and long-time resident of Allegan, Michigan. According to A History of Dairy Journalism in the United the "Forward," he surveyed the original plat States. By JOHN T. SCHLEBECKER and AN­ of the city, was for many years a circuit judge, DREW W. HOPKINS. (University of Wisconsin and was considered an authority on the sub­ Press, Madison. Pp. 423. Offset. $6.00.) ject of Indian lore. Since the book over the Even to a layman who knows little about years had become rare, the Allegan County farming or about agricultural journalism, this Historical group thought it should be reprinted new work is extremely interesting. It is quite for "people interested in Indian life or even as much a social history as a story of 140 those who just like a fascinating story." years of pioneer publishers, since it outlines By his own admission in the preface, Little­ as background the romantic story of the de­ john had completed about forty years in west­ velopment of farming practices from early days ern Michigan at the time he wrote the book. to the present.

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READERS CHOICE

The coUaborating authors are well qualified after his lady friends. And it's exceflent to to write such a story. Andrew W. Hopkins, have a flavorsome word like "landlooker" Emeritus Professor of Agricultural Journalism serving as the title of a good regional novel. at the University of Wisconsin, after some years The title alone will make people look a second as editor of two leading farm journals, headed time; and the second time they may buy this the Agricultural Journalism Department at the really Wisconsin story which could hardly be University from 1913 until his retirement dull to anyone who knows anything at all several years ago. John T. Schlebecker, Pro­ about the Badger State, even though the book fessor of Agricultural and Economic History at is about the harness, rather than the lumber Iowa State College, began his study of dairy business. journalism and received the Ph.D. degree in For whfle Mr. Steuber buUds his plot around history at the University of Wisconsin, in the attempt to seU off three boxcars full of war more or less close association with Hopkins. surplus harness (made by Pa Rohland and The research behind this pioneer piece of bought back by him for practically nothing history is impressive. The authors examined after the Civil War), he sends the cars up into the files of ninety-two dairy publications, as Wisconsin, perhaps so he can tell about the weU as ten earlier general farm papers. Al­ many wonderful things that were going on in though chief attention was given to publica­ the state in 1871. tions launched before 1911, some study was The events of the plot, involving Emil Roh­ also made of seventy-odd journals started since land, a fifteen-year-old boy and his brother that date. Several leading journals were read Rudolph, seven years older and full of vigorous chronologically from beginning to end, and juices, are highly interesting and entertaining. in the case of journals that lasted less than But the fact that they sell harness from Mil­ five years, every volume was examined. In waukee to Chippewa Falls and back to the publications of longer life, the first, last, and DeUs and up to Green Bay and Marinette—and every fifth volume were surveyed. In addi­ Peshtigo—brings them into contact with a tion, an effort was made to examine several whale of a lot of good Wisconsin folklore. journals for each year between 1852 and 1950; There is a scene in which Emil tries out Mr. and to supplement their studies of the files, the Sholes' strange invention for writing type just authors used such primary sources as Ayer's by pressing a few keys. There is a time when American Newspaper Directory, issued at Wa­ the Rohland boys witness a "Panorama" show terloo from 1884 to 1905, and Hoard's Dairy­ —the battle of Gettysburg unrolling event by man which has been a leader in the field since event from a great cylinder of painting until W. D. Hoard founded it in 1885 after he had perhaps a half mile of dramatic portrayal has begun influencing dairying through the col­ passed before them. (The panorama, of course, umns of his weekly Jefferson County Union as was the motion picture of 1871 and would be early as 1870. a good show today if any of the great ones GRANT M. HYDE were left.) University of Wisconsin We see medicine shows, real backwoods style; lumber jacks in their setting—and very well and carefully pictured, too. We meet "Mr. Wilcox" of Kilbourntown, surely the proto­ The Landlooker. By WILLIAM F. STEUBER, JR. type of Mr. Bennett who photographed the (Bobbs-Merrifl, Indianapolis; New York, 1957. Dells and the life of the raftsmen so very well; Pp. 367. $3.95) we ride a raft of lumber through the narrows; we take, with Emil and Rudolph, a sauna (a "Up in the pine country is a special trade. steam bath sans bathing suits) with a fine Strong men thai walk alone in the woods to family of Finns in the woods country up north­ only look and decide. You know, Emil, the east of Green Bay; and finally we go through name of the trade?" the horrible Peshtigo fire and see how—along "Sure, Pa, that's the landlooker. He goes with burning several hundred people to death into the timber ahead of any crews or even —the fire maybe begins to make a man out of before it's been bought and makes up his mind older brother Rudolph. what it amounts to—" Landlooker is another name for timber I thoroughly enjoyed The Landlooker; and cruiser, and we have had some notable timber I don't believe all of my enjoyment came from cruisers or landlookers in Wisconsin; for in­ my interest in and pretty superficial knowl­ stance. Gene Shepard who named most of edge of Wisconsin lore and local history. I the lakes in Oneida County—many of them think Mr. Steuber has crafted out a pretty

231 :M WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1958

good novel and that the technique, in the extend its academic services to every nook novel-writing sense, is sound. The excursions and corner of the state. into lore are, I found, among the most enjoy­ To tell the story the author traces the early able parts of the book; but for the average developments of extension work at the Uni­ reader perhaps they do tend in a few instances versity, which occurred amidst similar devel­ to slow the story down. opments elsewhere. During those early years Primarily the reader is interested in the two of experimentation the University generously boys and in how they are going to get rid of sampled various extension programs consisting the three carloads of harness, and he is inter­ of many things—the mechanic institutes, the ested in Pa Rohland and his reactions. In order extension lectures, the teacher institutes, the that Mr. Steuber may dose us with Wisconsin summer school, and correspondence study. As lore, perhaps we don't get enough of these a result, the work at Wisconsin underwent well-drawn characters. Personally, I didn't growing pains which sometimes brought pleas­ mind the excursions. ure and pain, supporters and critics, and The book is full of warmth, shrewdness, and successes and failures. in certain instances, penetrating comments on While Wisconsin's initial efforts were American life in geaeral, and in particular doomed to a short period of dormancy, the the American life of the 1870's. It probably early extensionists gleaned the important isn't for boys and girls, but any full-grown knowledge that "to be successful, a far-flung person with an appreciation of the American extension program needed not only an enthu­ scene is likely to enjoy it. Mr. Steuber should siastic and specialized faculty, but a permanent write more stories about Pa Rohland and and dedicated administration. It was clear, too, Emil: He could probably go on forever with that efforts designed to be of lasting signifi­ the sequels. And heaven knows there's a big cance must be based upon premises that seed of Wisconsin lore still unused, even if distinguished fad from sustained interest." It Mr. Steuber did take a big bite of the best of it. remained, however, for a revivification move­ As an example of a creative work using lo­ ment occurring in 1906-1907 to give the ex­ cal history as its basis, I can't think of a more tension education program its second start. pertinent contemporary example than The Fortunately, the program already had a tradi­ Landlooker. tion which could never disappear. ROBERT E. GARD Mr. Rosentreter continues the story to re­ University of Wisconsin late how the division was forced to grow, to alter constantly its methods and operations. He The Boundaries of the Campus: A History of describes the efforts of certain forceful per­ the University of Wisconsin Extension Divi­ sonalities who left their mark upon the divi­ sion, 1885-1945. By FREDERICK M. ROSEN- sion's program, pointing out, however, that TRETER. (University of Wisconsin Press, Madi­ the division "has been more than the mani­ son, 1957. Pp. vii, 210. $3.50.) festations of any one man; it has been a mani­ Occasionally a doctoral dissertation merits festation of industrialism, of social uplift, of publication: this is one of those rare occasions. man's search for order in a superficially cha­ Mr. Rosentreter has revised his dissertation otic world." into the first full-length account of the Exten­ The history of the Extension Division is a sion Division of the University of Wisconsin story of pioneering extensionists who were in a book which follows by a few years the scholarly history by Merle Curti and Vernon willing to experiment and engage in imagina­ Carstensen, The University of Wisconsin, tive work in order to realize the dictum that 1848-1925. While parts of Mr. Rosentreter's "the boundaries of the campus are the bound­ work cover much the same ground found in aries of the state." From the very beginning, the earlier history, it enjoys the benefit of and continuously, the division has served as additional sources of information found in the a model for similar developments in other Eighty Papers, more recently added to the parts of the country. State Historical Society of Wisconsin's manu­ It should not, therefore, in any way detract script collection, and extends the history of from the book to suggest that it contains much the Extension Division to 1945. "how to do it" information for those who are Furthermore, Mr. Rosentreter has written in still seeking to build or strengthen their pro­ an exciting manner the account of how the grams of extension service. University of Wisconsin shook off the "ivory FRANK J. WOERDEHOFF tower" tradition of the historic university to Purdue University

232 READERS' CHOICE

Guide to the Manuscripts of the State His­ modation: They are, in fact, characteristic of torical Society of Wisconsin; Supplement collections everywhere. Number One. Compiled by JOSEPHINE L. The annotations set a high standard. They HARPER and SHARON C. SMITH. (State His­ are scrupulously succinct, informative, and re­ torical Society of Wisconsin, Madison, 1957. sponsive; the longest, which describes the Pp. vii, 222. $5.00.) Richard T. Ely Papers, extends only to five pages. As a supplement, the form of entry Whether viewed as an instrument of histori­ and arrangement have had to conform to the cal scholarship, or as evidence irrefutable of earlier volume. Thus it has been impossible the health and growth of an honored institu­ to follow the example of William S. Ewing in tion, this continuation of the Guide commands his Guide to the Manuscript Collections in the the gratitude and admiration not only of the William L. Clements Library (1953), and to practitioners but of the public generally. De­ present the record in accordance with the rules voted to acquisitions secured in the period from for cataloging collections of manuscripts de­ 1941 through May, 1956, the work is divided veloped by the Library of Congress for use in into two parts, the first of which, under some a projected national union catalog. Some will seven hundred headings, describes organized lament the omission of a statement of prove­ materials while the second reports less than nance, despite the fact that it is discoverable by ninety accessions as yet unprocessed. These reference to the Wisconsin Magazine of His­ figures forcibly demonstrate an enviable ca­ tory, runs of which may not always be at hand. pacity to absorb. But these are minor faults, as is the confusion As to dimension, these additions range in of Robert Todd Lincoln's Papers (which are size from single documents to large collections not known to exist) with the Papers of his and consolidated groups. In form, some are father, Abraham Lincoln; and any criticism originals; others are photographic reproduc­ of the Guide must be dismissed as finicky and tions. With respect to their content, many, per­ captious and inappropriate. The compilers haps most, are in some way related to Wiscon­ have essayed a formidable task and have per­ sin and its people; but, as becomes a reposi­ formed it magnificently. For their accomplish­ tory founded upon the widespread garnerings ment they deserve the highest commendation of Lyman Draper, their scope extends bevond and loud applause. the state's boundaries and the geographical DAVID C. MEARNS limits of the Midwest. It seems clear, for ex­ Library of Congress ample, that the Society's holdings have estab­ lished it as the principal center for the study of the labor movement and the course of so­ cialism in the United States. Occasionally, Magazine Indexes Available however, this broad selection policy has ad­ Annual indexes and title pages for vol­ mitted strays, eccentrics, and what might be insensitively termed curiosa, such as the rec­ ume 38 (Autumn, 1954, through Sum­ ords of a blacksmith's shop in Chautauqua mer, 1955), volume 39 (Autumn, 1955, County, New York (No. 850) ; the autobio­ through Summer, 1956), and volume graphical sketch of a general in the Russian 40 (Autumn, 1956, through Summer, Imperial Army (No. 865) ; the diary of a 1957) of the Wisconsin Magazine of His­ Phfladelphia girl, kept in 1850-1851 (No. tory are now off the press and ready for 1118) ; a letter from Francis Parkman re­ distribution. The names of curators and questing that his name be placed upon the exchanges appear on a permanent mail­ subscription list for a recent publication (No. ing list to whom indexes are sent auto­ 1263) ; letters from a Vermont physician de­ matically. All others receive copies only scribing the difficulty encountered in estab­ lishing a remunerative practice (No. 1316) ; at their request. Please mail a postcard the recollections of a fireman on the Chicago, to the Society if you want one or all of Burlington, and Quincy Railroad (No. 1371) ; the indexes. They will be mailed to you and a letter from a noted journalist and future without charge. Librarian of Congress to Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant address: concerning the possibility of a third term for her spouse (No. 1504). But these oddities Magazine Index are so few in number and so inconsiderable ' . State Historical Society in bulk as to present no problems of accom­ Madison 6, Wisconsin

233 ACCESSIONS

Museum Accessions during World War II by the donor, Mrs. L. B. Sargent, Waukesha; a Civil War uniform belt Some time ago the Museum took cognizance and sash, two sabers with scabbards, four pairs of its lack of material relating to fraternal of shoulder boards, and G.A.R. medals, given and social organizations. As a result an active by Miss Sylvia Pollock, Madison. program of collecting in this field was under­ Pharmaceutical items for the pharmacy re­ taken, with conspicuously successful results. construction were donated by John C. Helen- During the last accessions period our hold­ ore, New York City; Dr. L. T. Kent, Kenosha, ings in this area were materially increased by contributed a group of surgical instruments for the donation of a sizeable group of Masonic the proposed Medical Museum. badges, medals, and ribbons from the John I. Other donations to the Museum are as fol­ Beggs Estate. Included is a coflection of dele­ lows: a valentine, Mr. H. D. Orth, Madison; gates' badges and ribbons from commanderies an autograph album and a 1901 calendar, Mrs. all over the United States attending the con­ W. H. Wendt, Madison; Woodland pot, pot­ clave of 1880 in Chicago. Also received were sherds, and early drugstore items, Mrs. John medals commemorating anniversaries of var­ Barr, Reedsburg; a rose point lace coflar, Mrs. ious lodges, and insignia of offices held in the Julia Mailer, Madison; silver calling-card case, Order. Other items in this accession are medals Miss Helen Wright, Milwaukee; a food mixer commemorating various events in the electrical and a steamer, Mrs. E. M. Poser Estate, Co­ and transportation industries, and memorabilia lumbus; two wire carpet beaters, Miss Bryn- associated with Mr. Beggs. The donation is hilde Murphy, Madison; a box camera, Mr. through the courtesy of Mrs. James L. Oakes, William Doudna, Madison. Miami, Florida. A sail needle, articles of fancywork, and Another group of material of this nature miscellaneous pamphlets, Mr. Paul Been, comes from Mrs. N. Wallinger, Ashland, Vir­ Grantsburg; an early nineteenth century globe, ginia, who donated items formerly owned by Mrs. Earl Dawley, Madison; a pair of roller Dr. Chandler P. Chapman and his father. Dr. skates with wood wheels, Mr. Monte Rand, C. B. Chapman. Organizations represented are Muscatine, Iowa; two quilts and two pressed the Masons, Knights Templar, Shriners, glass alphabet plates, Mrs. Carl A. Johnson, G.A.R., Iron Brigade, and Society of Colonial Madison; men's and children's clothing, a Wars. Other Chapman items donated were woman's nightcap and a pair of Menomonee Civil War insignia, a large brass door plate of Indian moccasins, Mrs. B. J. Ramsey, Keene, Dr. C. B. Chapman, and a pair of curtain New York; a toy fan, a forty-six star flag and tie-backs of the 1830's. a small collection of unused Civil War patri­ From Miss Marie Foulkes, New Canaan, otic covers, Mrs. W. T. Stephens, Madison. Connecticut, the Museum received a pin of the Two early Wengel radios, Mrs. Sheldon Castilia Society, a University of Wisconsin Wengel, Reedsburg; a cookstove, Miss Jeanette student organization; Carl N. Jacobs, Stevens Schalk, Berlin; a Pueblo pottery vase and a Point, donated several medals and badges, in­ San Ildefonso vase. Miss Lelia Bascom, Madi­ cluding a 1912 Bull Moose campaign badge. son; a carved baroque bracket, Mr. Victor Mrs. Vincent W. Koch, Janesvifle, gave a Riedel, Milwaukee; a Blickensderfer #5 type­ 1901 silk flag, and two molds for making writer, Mrs. W. H. Milward, Madison; a picture-frame decorations. child's rocking chair, Mrs. Walter Sauerbach, Items of military significance were donated Madison; a pair of shell-groove ice skates, ca. by a number of people, as follows: a collec­ 1862, Mrs. Benjamin T. Schick, Milwaukee. tion of U.S. Army World War II patches and insignia, donated by Forrest Middleton, Madi­ The Museum has also acquired a vaporizer son; uniforms and insignia of Rear Admiral and a fumigator, received from Miss Catherine Nathan Twining, donated by Lt. Commander Martindale, LaCrosse; a carrier pigeon net John W. Erickson, Oswego, Oregon; a United and a razor strop, Mrs. J. C. Curtis, New Lis­ Mexican Border Veteran's hat, given by Mr. bon; two patchwork quilts and extra pieces, R. F. Fredrickson, La Crosse; a small collec­ Mrs. Ingolf Roe, Stoughton; two comic lantern tion of U.S. Army World War II sleeve patches, slides, Mr. John Glaettli, Jr., Madison; a Hart­ donated by Louis Durst, Sauk City; complete ford No. 27 typewriter, Mrs. A. J. Vogels, Fond summer and winter Red Cross uniforms worn du Lac; a pewter coffee pot, Mrs. John Cors-

234 'VCCESSIOiNS cott, Madison; a beaded bag, ca. 1840, Mrs. The remaining exchange of letters is with Alice Goode, Pentwater, Michigan; a red calico publishers, sociological societies, various re­ quilt, Ruth and Adelaide Winner, Milwaukee; form societies and groups, or personal and a hitching plug, Mr. Dow Brereton, Madison; professional contacts, and is of a routine na­ a token (Good for One Beer), Mr. Warren ture. The papers were presented by his sons, Wittry, Madison; a Bingo device and score­ Frank A. and Lester Ward Ross. board, Mrs. E. L. Watson, Ripon; a bisque doll Other accessions for this period include: and a doll's chair, Mrs. Frances Loma, Evans- diary, 1848, kept by William Britten, recording ton; a muskrat spear, Mr. Louis Durst, Sauk his experiences during the Mexican War under City; a lapboard, Alice and Bettina Jackson, General Lane; also a letter. May 29, 1849, Madison; and a pair of curtain tie-backs, ca. written from Mexico by Britten to his brother, 1830, from the home of Governor Henry photostat copies presented by Graecia Britten, Dodge, donated by Mrs. John I. Hahn, Dodge- Bremerton, Washington; copy of a deed dated ville. February 18, 1854, conveying lands in the county of Oneida, New York, from Sophia and James Carter to Warren Kellogg, pre­ sented by Milton Patrick, Trevor; reminis­ Manuscripts cences of Lucien B. Caswell, attorney, assem­ The Merlin Hull Collection, presented to the blyman, and representative from Fort Atkin­ Society by the Hull estate, is one of the largest son, Wisconsin, presented by Mrs. Elizabeth manuscript collections ever to be processed May Caswell Perry through Mrs. Zida C. Ivey, by our staff. Contained in 213 boxes and nu­ Fort Atkinson; a bibliography of books and merous volumes are the papers of this Black pamphlets concerning the Chicago, Milwaukee, River Falls attorney and newspaper publisher St. Paul and Pacific Railroad Company, com­ who was active on the Wisconsin political piled in 1946 and 1955, presented by Frank scene for nearly fifty years, serving as assem­ Efliott, East Lansing, Michigan; letters, 1935, blyman from 1909 to 1915, as secretary of received from former students by Mary L. state from 1917 to 1921, and as a Progressive Edgar, a teacher at Madison's Washington Republican congressman from 1929 until his School, upon her retirement after fifty years death in 1953. The papers cover the period of teaching, presented by Mrs. C. A. Weaver, from 1881-1953. The correspondence ante­ Wenatchee, Washington, through Mrs. Nor­ dating 1928 primarily concerns Wisconsin man Bassett, Madison; letters, 1928-1938, politics, Hull's law practice in Jackson County, received by Lyman Fischer, Manitowoc County and his ownership of the Jackson County Progressive Republican leader, from fellow Banner-Journal. However, the greater portion Progressives including Robert La Follette, Jr., of the papers relate to his congressional period Philip La Follette, Joseph D. Beck, John and consist mainly of letters from constituents Blaine and others, concerning campaigning activities in his county, presented by Mrs. and routine correspondence. The letters give Lyman Fischer, Manitowoc; letters, written evidence of Hull's support of old age legisla­ by the Fussett family of Mannsville, New York, tion and agricultural measures, as well as of to relatives in Mayville, Wisconsin, presented his isolationist stand in foreign affairs. by Allie Freeman, Horicon; biographical data A smaller but highly interesting collection, concerning Ernst Corner of Milwaukee, pre­ also processed recently, is the Edward A. Ross sented by Edwin Tomlinson, Middleton; copies Collection covering the years 1859-1951. Ross, of letters and records, 1849-1855, of Henry a political economist and sociologist, taught Koop, a Mineral Point merchant, presented at the University of Wisconsin from 1906 to by Florence Brugger, Oshkosh; account of the 1937. The bulk of the papers consists of cor­ escape of Frank Finkel from the Custer mas­ respondence, although some articles written sacre, written by Dr. Charles Kuhlman, with by Ross are also to be found. There is very additional details written by Ray Peterson, little family correspondence, except for the and letter, October 20, 1949, written by Hermie very early years. The correspondence with C. Billmeyer, (typewritten copies of originals friends, professional associates, and students in the Oshkosh Public Museum), presented by deals with such topics as the academic free­ Stuart Mong, Director of the Oshkosh Public dom issue Ross was involved in during the Museum; papers, of Densmore William Maxon, late 1890's; his trips to China in 1910, South founder of Cedar Creek, member of the first America in 1913, and Russia in 1917, to study state legislature and surveyor, including social conditions; or his educational activities. diaries, 1858-1886, relative to his business and

235

•;^ WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1958 political activities, presented by Mrs. Rufus W. Olmsted, financial agent for the Home Healy, Cincinnati, Ohio, also a letter, Decem­ Society of Wisconsin, to Phillip McConnell of ber 20, 1886, written by Maxon giving a brief West Salem, presented by the John E. McCon­ family genealogy, presented by Milton Maxon, nell family through Frances L. Swain, La West Bend; autograph and verse book, 1829- Crosse; an account of expenses of trips made 1833, kept by Mrs. Sophia Morris, wife of by the Rickard family in 1837, an account of General Morris, presented by Joseph W. Jack­ losses sustained by members of the same fam­ son, Madison; letter, August 15, 1941, written ily owing to a fire in 1838, also a letter written by Rear Admiral Chester W. Nimitz to Dean by George White describing a spiritualist F. 0. Holt of the University of Wisconsin seance he attended in 1864, (photostat copies Extension Division regarding the correspon­ made from originals in possession of Mrs. dence courses available to Wisconsin service­ Alice White, Lake Mills); letters, 1911-1940, men, also an autograph of Ernie Pyle, Ameri­ written by Abbie Parsons Ives TourteUotte to can newspaperman, signed September 4, 1944, a cousin, presented by Mrs. Elliott 0. Strand, both presented by Louis W. Bridgman, Madi­ Alliance, Nebraska. son; letter. May 23, 1895, written by John

BOOK REVIEWS: Carter, The Territorial Papers of the United States: Vol. XXII, The Territory of Florida, 1821-1824, reviewed by Barnes E. Lathrop 216 Cooke, Frederick Bancroft, Historian, reviewed by P. J. Staudenraus 225 Ferm, Pictorial History of Protestantism. A Panoramic View of Western Europe and the United States, reviewed by Paul Vanderbilt 218 Groce and Wallace, The New York Historical Society's Dictionary of Artists in America, 1564-1860, reviewed by Merrill C. Rueppel 216 Harper and Smith, Guide to the Manuscripts of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin; Supplement Number One, reviewed by David C. Mearns 233 Hill, John Johnston and the Indians in the Land of the Three Miamis, reviewed by J. Joseph Bauxar 229 Holand, My First Eighty Years, reviewed by Clifford L. Lord 228 Jones, Eight Hours Before Richmond, reviewed by Marshall W. Fishwick 220 Jones, Gray Ghosts and Rebel Raiders, reviewed by W. H. Masterson 219 Littlejohn, Legends of Michigan and the Old Northwest, reviewed by James I. Clark 230 McDonald, Let There Be Light: The Electric Industry in Wisconsin, 1881-1955, reviewed by James F. Doster 228 MacLysaght, Irish Families, Their Names, Arms and Origins, reviewed by Gilbert H. Doane 217 Major, Norway, Home of the Norsemen, reviewed by Erling Reksten 224 Menon, The Transfer of Power in India, reviewed by William H. Sewell 215 Mulder, Homeward to Zion; the Mormon Migration from Scandinavia, reviewed by Kenneth Bjork 218 Nevins and Hill, Ford: Expansion and Challenge, 1915-1933, reviewed by John C. Colson 222 Riddle, Congressman Abraham Lincoln, reviewed by Gordon E. Parks 223 Rosentreter, The Boundaries of the Campus: A History of the University of Wisconsin Extension Division, 1885-1945, reviewed by Frank J. Woerdehoff 232 Schlebecker and Hopkins, A History of Dairy Journalism in the United States, reviewed by Grant M. Hyde 230 Smith, Islam in Modern History, reviewed by A. F. Jandali 223 Steuber, The Landlooker, reviewed by Robert E. Gard 231 Tilden, Interpreting Our Heritage, reviewed by Raymond S. Sivesind 221 Washburn, The Governor and the Rebel: A History of Bacon's Rebellion in Virginia, reviewed by Roy N. Lokken 221 Weiner, Party Politics in India: The Development of a Multi-Party System, reviewed by William H. Sewell 215 Wyman and Kroeber, eds., The Frontier in Perspective, reviewed by Fulmer Mood 226

236 Guide to Wisconsin Newspapers 1833-1957 compiled by Donald E. Oehlerts

In the Guide to Wisconsin Newspapers, 1833-1937 the State Historical Society presents a major research tool to the historian, the writer of historical fiction, and the general reader inter­ ested in the newspaper publishing field. The Guide is the only volume published to date that contains a complete listing of every newspaper published in the state since the first one appeared in 1833 (the Green Bay Intelligencer). In an eight-page preface to the volume, Oehlerts outlines trends in the history of newspaper publishing in Wisconsin: the birth of the weekly press, the changes effected by the Civil War, the rise of the metropolitan daily, the influence of the foreign-language press, and the contribu­ tions of Wisconsin newsmen to the national press. The Guide contains 2,259 newspaper listings. Each newspaper entry is accompanied by a de­ scriptive text on dates of publication, variations in the title of the newspaper, editors and pub­ lishers, place of publication, and the last title under which the newspaper appeared. All Wisconsin foreign-language newspapers are also listed. The author is head of the State Historical Society's newspaper section. 338 + xiv pp. Price: $8.00

published by the STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN 816 State Street • Madison. Wis. 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.