Since the sixty-fourth meeting in October, 1916, four life and
twenty-four annual members have been enrolled in the State Historical
Society. The new life members are: R. C. Ballard-Thruston of
Louisville, Kentucky, John Strange of Neenah, Chester Lloyd Jones of
Madison, and Harry W. Bolens of Port Washington. The annual members
are Dr. James S. Reeve and Henry L. Tinker of Appleton; John T.
Durward of Baraboo; John J. Wood of Berlin; Leland S. Kemnitz of
Detroit, Michigan; Amasa J. Edminster and R. C. Rodecker of Holcombe;
Oscar G. Boisseau of Holden, Missouri; Walter M. Atwood, William H.
Faust, Clarence B. Lester, Edwin C. Mason, Mary Oakley, Frederic A.
Ogg, and Mrs. Jessie Russell Skinner of Madison; Clarence R. Falk and
Arthur G. Santer of Milwaukee; Ruth Thompson of Minneapolis,
Minnesota; Mrs. L. T. Hill of Sparta; Katherine A. Rood of Stevens
Point; John S. Roeseler of Superior; Arthur T. Leith of Washington, D.
C.; E. P. Winkelman of Waterloo; and Philip B. Gordon of White Earth,
Minnesota.
In the same period the Society has lost by death five of its members:
David J. Ryan of Appleton; William N. Merriam of Duluth, Minnesota;
Hon. John A. Aylward, Gen. Benjamin F. Cram, and Justice William H.
Timlin of Madison. Probably the list should include names of other
members, of whose deaths the administration of the Society has not yet
been apprised.
By the will of Hon. George B. Burrows of Madison, who died in 1909,
his entire estate was bequeathed, subject to certain contingencies, to
the State Historical Society. Through the death in October, 1916, of
the testator’s only son and heir the estate at length comes to the
Society. At the time of Mr. Burrows’ death in 1909 its appraised value
was fixed at $219,000. It is the belief of those best informed in the
premises that its present value is considerably in excess of that sum.
The property will be available for the Society’s use when the usual
court procedure shall have been gone through with.
By the death of Miss Genevieve Mills of Madison at the close of 1916
another important bequest to the Society became public knowledge. Miss
Mills made a will by the terms of which the Society is ultimately to
receive her half-interest in the old Mills homestead at the corner of
Monona Avenue and Wilson Street, Madison. The will states that the
property is given “as a tribute to the loyalty of my mother Maria L.
Mills and my father Simeon Mills toward the State and the State
Historical Society they loved and helped to found.” The sum realized
from the property is to constitute a perpetual fund, named in honor of
the giver’s parents the “Maria L. and Simeon Mills Editorial Fund”;
the proceeds of the fund thus established are to be devoted to the
editing of materials for middle-western history, preferably that of
Wisconsin itself. The present value of this wise gift is supposed to
be in the neighborhood of $25,000. How soon it will become available
to the Society is still uncertain.
The last few months have witnessed an unusually large number of
changes in the staff of the Wisconsin Historical Library. In
September, 1916, Mr. Frederick Merk, for five years research assistant
on the Society’s staff, began an indefinite leave of absence, with a
view to prosecuting his graduate studies at Harvard University, where
he had received a teaching-fellowship appointment. In January Miss
Lydia Brauer of the editorial staff was compelled by illness to
relinquish her position. In February Miss Alice Whitney, assistant in
the museum, withdrew to accept a much better position in the Emporia
Normal School. The close of the fiscal year in June witnessed several
resignations of long-time members of the staff. Miss Eleanore Lothrop,
for several years the superintendent’s secretary, withdrew in order to
accept a position in the East. Mr. Lyell Deaner of the newspaper
division answered the call of his country by enlisting in the army.
Others whose resignations went into effect in June were Miss Pauline
Buell of the reference division, and Miss Ora Smith of the order
department.
To fill these and other gaps in the ranks of the Library staff the
following appointments have been made: In September, 1916, Miss Ruth
Hayward, for several years cataloguer in the Cincinnati Public
Library, became a member of our cataloguing staff. In February, Miss
Genevieve Deming and Miss Ruth Roberts, recent graduates of the
University of Wisconsin, began work as assistants in the order
department and museum, respectively. Mr. Gaige Roberts of Madison
filled the vacant position in the newspaper division. In July Miss
Marguerite Jenison of Fond du Lac, a recent graduate of the state
university, began work as assistant to the superintendent and
calendarer of the Draper manuscripts. Mr. Theodore Blegen, teacher of
history in the Riverside High School, Milwaukee, spent the summer
months as research worker on the Society’s staff. Finally, Dr. John W.
Oliver, of the Indiana State Library, began work in September on an
appointment as research assistant.
The current year of the Society (October, 1916-October, 1917) has been
one of unusual activity in the field of research and publication. In
the nine months ending July 1, 1917 three substantial volumes and two
bulletins were issued, in addition to certain minor items. The volumes
were: _Frontier Advance on the Upper Ohio_ (_Collections_ of the
Society, Vol. XXIII), edited by Louise P. Kellogg; _An Economic
History of Wisconsin During the Civil War Decade_ (_Studies_ of the
Society, Vol. I), by Frederick Merk, and the _Proceedings_ of the
Society for 1916. Each of these volumes will receive fuller notice
elsewhere. The two bulletins were a _List of Portraits and Paintings
in the Wisconsin Historical Museum_ and a checklist of _Periodicals
and Newspapers_ currently received by the library.
A new publication feature, begun in February, 1917, is a monthly
_Checklist of Wisconsin Public Documents_. Each issue, appearing about
the tenth of the month, lists the documents of the state issued during
the preceding month. Of this publication the _Mississippi Valley
Historical Review_ for June, 1917 says: “This is a unique undertaking
for a state historical agency. The value to historians, librarians,
and state officials, of such a series of bulletins makes it a welcome
bibliographical addition.” It may be added that, so far as the
Society’s administration is aware, the undertaking is unique not
simply for a “state historical agency,” but for any agency whatever.
The Library of Congress attempts to do for the entire country what the
Wisconsin _Checklist_ does for our state alone. Useful as the Library
of Congress list is, however, it cannot possibly cover the various
states with the promptness and comprehensiveness which attaches to our
own list for Wisconsin. The credit for the conception of this
publication enterprise of the Society and for its execution belongs to
Mrs. Anna W. Evans, chief of the public-documents division of the
library.
Of research enterprises under way but not yet completed, or if
completed not yet issued from the press, the following may be noted. A
valuable account, as it is believed, of the public-documents division
of the library, prepared by Mrs. Evans, has been long in the hands of
the state printer. Material for a succeeding volume of the Draper
Series (to be published as Vol. XXIV of the Society’s _Collections_,
with the title _Frontier Retreat on the Upper Ohio, 1779-1781_)
should, with reasonable promptness on the state printer’s part, be
distributed to our members about the time they receive this magazine.
Copy for Volume XXV of the _Collections_ was given to the printer in
the spring, and in the usual order of things it may be expected to be
ready for distribution near the close of 1917. It consists of the
letters of Edwin Bottomley, a pioneer Racine County farmer, written to
his father in England in the years 1842-50. At the time of writing
(July) the preparation for the printer of a second volume of the
Draper Calendar Series, is approaching completion, and its publication
may be expected to follow the usual interval of time required by the
state printer. Dr. Edward Kremers of the University of Wisconsin has
been engaged for many months in the editing of what will become the
initial volume of the Society’s Hollister Pharmaceutical Series. More
definite announcement concerning it may well be postponed for the
present. It is believed, however, that the Society’s constituency may
anticipate with pleasure the appearance of this initial volume of what
will constitute a new and unique undertaking among American historical
societies. Another, but minor, research enterprise under way is the
preparation by Mr. Blegen of a comprehensive report on the Wisconsin
archives situation--a subject, it may be noted, concerning which there
is crying need of public enlightenment. To conclude this summary
catalogue, in the _Wisconsin Magazine of History_ the reader has
before him the initial installment of the Society’s most recent
publication enterprise.
A sum of money has been placed at the disposal of the National Board
for Historical Service whereby it is enabled to announce a prize essay
contest open to public school teachers in each of the several states
of the Union on the subject “Why the United States is at War.” To
teachers in the public high schools of Wisconsin five prizes ranging
from $75 down to $10 are offered; for elementary public school
teachers, three prizes ($75, $25, and $10) will be awarded. Essays
must not exceed 3,000 words and must be in the hands of Waldo G.
Leland, 1133 Woodward Building, Washington, D. C., not later than six
o’clock p. m., November 15, 1917. The awards will be made by boards of
Wisconsin judges appointed by the State Historical Society. The essays
will not be signed and the committees of award will not be informed
concerning the author’s names until after their decision shall have
been rendered. In announcing the contest the National Board states
that it is intended to lay stress, in making the awards, on
intelligent use made of such materials as may be accessible to the
competitor living in small communities with no large library at hand.
It is to be hoped that a large number of Wisconsin teachers will enter
this contest. Every participant in it will be a winner; this
regardless of whether he gains one of the prizes awarded, since the
intellectual and patriotic stimulus he will experience will in
themselves more than repay the labor involved. For full particulars
concerning the contest apply at your nearest normal school or college,
or directly to the National Board for Historical Service, 1133
Woodward Bldg., Washington, D. C.
Dr. E. D. Pierce of Trempealeau, one of the Society’s curators, has
been engaged the past year in editing a history of Trempealeau County,
to be published shortly by the Cooper Company of Chicago and Winona.
In this connection, the editor has been given the use of a short
history of Wisconsin to 1848, prepared by Miss Kellogg for publication
by the State Historical Society. Probably this narrative will appear
shortly in this magazine. It was prepared with a view to placing it
freely at the disposal of county historians and any others who may
find it useful; this in the belief that since the subscription county
history is often the only book of a historical character which comes
into the homes of our citizens, the Society is acting in line with its
ideal of serving the public as fully as possible by doing what it may
to improve the quality of these volumes.
Another Wisconsin local history approaching completion at the hands of
a curator of the Society is the history of Door County by Mr. Hjalmar
R. Holand of Ephraim. It is understood that this is to be published by
the Lewis Company of Chicago.
The eleventh annual meeting of the Waukesha County Historical Society
was held at the Congregational Church in Waukesha on May 5, 1917.
Aside from business reports and luncheon and other social features,
the principal part of the program was devoted to two addresses: one by
Judge C. E. Armin on “The Early Bar of Waukesha County”; the other by
M. M. Quaife on Increase Allen Lapham. The Society voted at this
meeting to send its secretary, Miss Julia A. Lapham of Oconomowoc, as
a delegate to the annual meeting of the State Historical Society in
October. This is an act which it is hoped will be widely imitated by
the other local societies of the state, since mutual encouragement and
profit will undoubtedly result from a greater participation by them in
the affairs of the parent organization.
On June 16, 1917 under the auspices of the Waukesha County Historical
Society, a bronze tablet in memory of Increase A. Lapham was unveiled
on Lapham Peak. Lapham Peak, until recently known as Government Hill,
is the highest point in Waukesha County. From an observation tower
which formerly stood within a few feet of the tablet it is said that
one could see, on a clear day, Lake Michigan on the east and as far as
Madison on the west. No more appropriate spot for a memorial to
Wisconsin’s first great naturalist could have been chosen than this,
with its far-sweeping view of the beautiful lakes and valleys and
hills of southern Wisconsin. The tablet was unveiled by Julia A.
Lapham, daughter of Dr. Lapham. Present also were two sons and a
granddaughter of the scholar in whose honor the assemblage had
convened. Addresses were given by M. M. Quaife of the State Historical
Society and John G. Gregory, editor of the Milwaukee _Evening
Wisconsin_. The tablet, affixed to a large gray boulder, bears this
inscription:
LAPHAM PEAK
Elevation 1233 Feet
Named by the U. S. Geographic Board
In Honor of
INCREASE A. LAPHAM
_Eminent Scientist and Useful Citizen_
MDCCCXI--MDCCCLXXV
Tribute of
The Waukesha County Historical
Society
1916
Mr. W. W. Bartlett of Eau Claire, an enthusiastic cultivator of the
local historical field, has been running for many months a series of
lumbering articles and reminiscences dealing particularly with the
Chippewa Valley. He has recently given a lecture, illustrated with
lantern slides, on the subject of logging in the Chippewa to an
audience of Norwegian-Americans, most of whom were familiar with the
industry before coming to America. Mr. Bartlett is chairman of the
history section of the Eau Claire County Defense Council.
The Agricultural College of the University of Wisconsin has prepared a
moving-picture film depicting the historical stages in the invention
of the Babcock test. Fortunately it was possible to have as principal
actors in the scenario the two men who played the principal rôles in
the original discovery, Professor Babcock and Professor Henry.
The Wisconsin Archeological Society, which holds monthly meetings
during the year in the Milwaukee Library-Museum, has been giving
during the past year a series of lectures on American anthropology and
archeology, the subjects ranging from descriptions of the Eskimo to
the antiquities of Brazil. For the coming year President Barrett
proposes a series of lectures which will constitute a course of study
in American anthropology, with its relations to geology, zoölogy,
ethnobotany, folk lore, and the fur trade.
The Milwaukee Museum is planning to install a replica of Solomon
Juneau’s fur-trade post, in anticipation of next year’s centenary of
Juneau’s first appearance on the site of Milwaukee.
On February 22 the Milwaukee Old Settlers’ Club, organized in 1869,
held its annual banquet at the Pfister Hotel. During the year
thirty-two of its members had been claimed by death. On May 17 many
members of the club joined in celebrating the ninetieth birthday of
Frederick Layton, the Milwaukee philanthropist.
The old settlers of Pierce and St. Croix counties held a “homecoming”
at Ellsworth on June 20. The qualification for membership in the
organization is forty years’ residence in the St. Croix Valley.
On January 17 the old settlers of De Pere met at the Presbyterian
Church. Speeches relating to the early history of the Fox River Valley
were delivered.
In connection with the summer session of the University of Wisconsin
an archeological and local historical excursion was given July 7. This
is the fourth time that Curator Charles E. Brown, assisted by local
historians, has coöperated with the university in arranging such a
field day. The number of excursionists is limited to one hundred, and
admission to the privilege is eagerly sought by students from distant
parts of the United States, who desire to learn of the first things in
Madison’s environment.
Pageantry is proving one of the most attractive means of popularizing
and visualizing history. At Milton College’s semi-centennial its
history was vivified by a pageant written by the faculty and produced
by the literary societies. West Allis, under the joint auspices of the
schools and the library, enjoyed a pageant in the early summer,
written by W. E. Jillson, city librarian.
At Monroe on June 7 the commencement exercises of the high school took
the form of a historical pageant. The Mitchell Park Sane Fourth
Committee provided a pageant for Milwaukee southsiders on our national
holiday. A number of other pageants that had been planned have been
postponed because of war conditions.
St. Gabriel’s Catholic Church at Prairie du Chien celebrated its
one-hundredth anniversary June 10-12. Bishop Schweback was the guest
of honor. To this church undoubtedly belongs the honor of being the
oldest parish in the state, since the records preserved show that
baptisms and marriages were performed, and a cemetery consecrated in
the spring of 1817 by Father Joseph Dunand, a Trappist monk from the
Illinois monastery opposite St. Louis.
The eightieth birthday of the Milwaukee _Sentinel_ was celebrated June
27. This famous paper, whose editors have enjoyed national
reputations, was first issued in the second year of Wisconsin’s
territorial career, having been founded by Solomon Juneau to herald
the fame of the east-side town whose interests he was promoting. The
present publishers issued a memorial edition of the paper on June 24,
giving a historical résumé of the _Sentinel’s_ past.
Nashotah House, the mother seminary of the Episcopal Church in the
Northwest, celebrated its seventy-fifth anniversary at the
commencement in May. The historical address was delivered by Rev. T.
M. McLean of Duluth. This seminary was the outgrowth of the efforts of
Bishop Jackson Kemper, whose extensive private papers, fully
illustrating his missionary career, are included in the State
Historical Society’s manuscript collections.
The seventy-first anniversary of the inauguration of Solomon Juneau as
first mayor of Milwaukee was noticed by the city press, which
published an illustration of the First Spring Street Methodist
Episcopal Church, within whose walls the ceremony occurred.
The fiftieth anniversary of Milton College was celebrated June 16-20.
Six college presidents of the state and the dean of the University of
Wisconsin participated in the exercises.
The Dania Society of Racine, one of the largest Danish-American
organizations in the United States, commemorated its fiftieth
anniversary on May 19.
The Seattle _Post-Intelligencer_ of February 25 printed an interview
with Edwin U. Judd, now living in his ninety-first year at Anacortes,
Washington. Mr. Judd was a resident of Waupun during the fifties of
the last century and was the chairman of the Free Soil party for his
district when the Republican party was born in 1854 at Ripon. He is
probably the last survivor of those who signed the call for a mass
convention at Madison in July of that year. His recollections of Alvin
A. Bovay and the motives for the caucus at Ripon, February 12, 1854,
are interesting material for the historian of political parties.
Mrs. Louisa Sawin Brayton, first school teacher of Madison, died at
her home in that city May 30, aged one hundred and one years. Mrs.
Brayton came to Madison in 1838. She was a prophet not without honor
in her home city; for many years her neighbors had delighted to
celebrate her birthday and the Brayton public school is named for her.
Prof. Frederick J. Turner, in recent years of Harvard University, but
Wisconsin born and bred, is a member of the National Board for
Historical Service, recently organized at Washington to mobilize the
historical scholarship of the country to serve it in its time of need.
Prof. Carl R. Fish of the history department of the University of
Wisconsin is also a member of this board.
Mrs. Lois Kimball Mathews, associate professor of history and dean of
women at the University of Wisconsin, was elected in April president
of the Association of Collegiate Alumnæ, the largest organization of
college women in the United States.
Louis Sky, or Ossawah, of the Chippewa Bad River Reservation, was
recently granted a pension for his services during the Civil War. This
recalls the fact that numbers of Chippewa, Menominee, and Winnebago
braves went from our state to serve their country in 1861-65. Their
descendants are now offering themselves in considerable numbers to
fight for Uncle Sam on the plains of France.
Through the generosity of Mrs. John H. Davidson, the Oshkosh chapter
of the Daughters of the American Revolution has erected tablets on the
Indian mounds at Oakwood, on the southern shore of Lake Butte des
Morts.
Milwaukee’s _Eintracht Gesellschaft_ was founded June 19, 1867. In
honor of the fiftieth anniversary a banquet was given on June 19 of
the present year.
On May 20, St. John’s Lutheran Church at Boscobel held a commemorative
service in honor of its founding fifty years ago.
Rev. T. S. Johnson of the Presbyterian Church of Beaver Dam had the
rare distinction of celebrating this spring a pastorate of fifty
years’ duration.
A large number of interesting and valuable objects were given to the
Historical Society for the museum during the first half of 1917. A few
of the more important are noted below:
The four survivors of the volunteer fire company known as the Madison
Engine Company No. 2, organized in 1856, have donated to the Society
all their equipment and records, including a silk flag, silver
trumpets, brass lanterns, helmets, and belts. The patriotic work of
the pioneer volunteer fire-fighters constitutes an interesting chapter
in the history of the state.
With the coöperation of various individuals and governmental agencies
hundreds of war posters and other material pertaining to the great
struggle on which the nation is embarked are coming to the museum. A
number of special exhibits of this material were held during the
summer in the museum halls. It is expected that in a future issue of
this magazine will be presented an article by Mr. Brown on the
collecting and the character of this contemporary historical material.
From Mr. Thomas Wilson of Black Earth, Civil War soldier in the
Twelfth Wisconsin Regiment, a collection of sixty or more tintypes of
members of his company taken at Memphis, has been received. Mr. Wilson
also gave to the Society an army overcoat worn by himself and an
officer’s sword and sash worn by his brother, Captain Francis Wilson.
Two Spanish War mementos have been deposited in the museum by Miss A.
C. Anderson of Madison. One is a Spanish flag taken from the custom
house at Santiago by members of Company A, Second U. S. Cavalry, when
the city was captured in 1898. The other is a Moro flag captured in
the Philippines by the same company.
The class of 1897, University of Wisconsin, has given a three-inch
shrapnel shell, properly cross-sectioned, of the type now in use by
the Allies in the European War.
By the will of the late W. W. Warner of Madison the Society has
received a collection of Indian stone and other implements, and an
elaborate Swiss music box. The latter is reputed to be the finest
instrument of its kind in the Northwest.
During the current year especial efforts have been devoted to
developing the Society’s collection of newspapers. As a result the
list of papers currently received at the library covers in a general
way every section of the United States and more intensively the
middle-western section more immediately tributary to the library. If
this policy can be adhered to permanently, future generations of
students who come to consult the library will find a much more
comprehensive and logically ordered collection of newspapers than do
those of the present time.
Along with this reaching out for current issues, the library
continues, slowly but persistently, to add to its files of old
newspapers. The more important non-current newspaper accessions in the
nine months ending July 1, 1917, are as follows:
Boston _News Letter_ (photostat copies), 1719-25.
Cherokee (Kans.) _Sentinel of Liberty_, 1879-80.
Fishkill (N. Y.) _Journal_, 1865-89.
Freeport (Ill.) _Monitor_, 1874-75.
Freeport (Ill.) _Bulletin_, 1868-69.
Freeport (Ill.) _Journal_, 1856-57, 1859-60, 1866-80, 1882-1913.
La Crosse _Tribune_, 1904-06, 1908.
Lexington (Ky.) _Western Luminary_, 1826-29.
London (Eng.) _Examiner_, 1808-29.
Milwaukee _Freidenker_, 1914-16.
New York _Citizen_, 1854-55.
New York _Herald_, 1849.
New York _Man_, 1834-35.
New York _Nautical Gazette_, 1874-75.
New York _Sentinel_, 1830-32.
New York _Times_, 1898.
New York _Workingman’s Advocate_, 1834-35.
Oconomowoc _Free Press_, 1858-60.
Philadelphia _Gazette of the United States_, 1791-93.
Portsmouth (N. H.) _Journal_, 1824, 1828, 1830, 1835-55, 1864.
Richmond (Va.) _State Journal_, 1871.
Racine _Advocate_ (incomplete), 1842-48.
Rising Sun (Ind.) _Indiana Blade_, 1843-48.
Seneca Falls (N. Y.) _Millenial Harbinger and Bible Expositor_, 1860-62.
Shanghai _North China Herald_, 1910, 1912-14.
Skaneateles (N. Y.) _Democrat_, 1844-49.
St. Paul (Minn.) _Northwestern Chronicle_, 1866-72.
The annual meeting of the Mississippi Valley Historical Association
was held at Chicago, April 26-28, 1917. Prof. R. B. Way of Beloit was
chairman of the program committee, while Prof. Frederic Logan Paxson
of the University of Wisconsin, as president of the association,
delivered the annual address. His subject was “The Rise of Sports,
1876-93.” Other Wisconsin men who delivered addresses during the
sessions of the association were Prof. James A. James, now of
Northwestern University, Theodore C. Blegen of Milwaukee, and Prof.
Sherwood of La Crosse. M. M. Quaife of Madison was elected to the
board of editors of the _Mississippi Valley Historical Review_ for a
three-year term, while all the newly-elected members of the executive
committee of the association were educated at Wisconsin. These were
Prof. O. G. Libby of the University of North Dakota, Homer C. Hockett
of Ohio State University, and Albert H. Sanford of La Crosse.
The important Bancroft Manuscript Collection at Berkeley, California
has been placed in charge of Prof. Herbert E. Bolton. Mr. Bolton is a
native of Wisconsin and was graduated at the university in 1895.
The annual address before the State Historical Society at the coming
October meeting will be given by Prof. Frederic Logan Paxson of the
University of Wisconsin. Plans are being made for a more active
participation on the part of local societies in the program of the
annual meeting than has been the case in the past. With a reasonable
degree of interest on the part of the members of the state and local
societies it is believed that a better and more profitable annual
meeting can be held than any in recent years.