The September number of the MAGAZINE contained news of the bequest to
the Society by Miss Genevieve Mills of Madison of her interest in the
parental homestead. We return to the subject now for a twofold reason.
In the first place it is proper to render adequate formal
acknowledgment of the fine gift made by Miss Mills to the Society. Of
vain or ill-advised memorials to the departed, America affords
numerous examples; the wisdom and appropriateness of Miss Mills’s
memorial to her parents appears, by contrast with some of these, all
the more obvious. Money which might have gone to the building of a
useless pile of granite has been devoted to the perpetual enrichment
of the commonwealth, to the upbuilding of which Simeon and Maria Mills
dedicated their lives. To illustrate concretely the work which the
Mills bequest will perform, the annual income from the estimated value
of the estate will suffice to pay the entire cost of publication of
this magazine; or it will print annually such a volume as those
included in the _Collections_ of the Society. If the cost of
authorship as well as printing be charged against the fund, it will
suffice to produce a volume of our _Collections_ every two or three
years. And this work, without exhausting the principal of the fund, is
to go on perpetually.
If the present world war has taught any lesson, it is that of the
value to a nation of its civic and patriotic ideals. But these cannot
be cultivated unless due regard be paid to the preservation and study
of the country’s historical records. Thus Miss Mills’s bequest
constitutes a permanent factor making for the development of
patriotism in our commonwealth. Well would it be if all givers of
funds for a public purpose should display equal wisdom. At the present
time, we understand, the Norwegians of Wisconsin are contemplating the
erection of an expensive memorial to Colonel Heg of the Fifteenth
Wisconsin Infantry, the famed Norwegian regiment. That Colonel Heg
richly deserves a suitable memorial no one will be disposed to
dispute. The establishment of a perpetual fund, the income of which
should be devoted to the study of the Norwegian contribution to
Wisconsin and American history, would constitute, we respectfully
suggest, a more useful and suitable memorial to Colonel Heg than any
bronze or granite pile, however costly it may be.