[1] As the tide of emigration from the northeastern states rose higher,
it bore along a goodly number who were not of the old American stock,
particularly English and Irish, with some Scotch and Germans. Yet, many
of these were natives of the states named and, if foreign born, had
enjoyed so long an apprenticeship to the Yankee system of life as to
enable them faithfully to represent it.
[2] Of whom England, Ireland, Scotland, and Canada combined furnished
1920, Germany 460, and Norway 340.
[3] _Wisconsin Domesday Book, General Studies_, I. _History of
Agriculture in Wisconsin_, chap. 2.
[4] William Dames, _Wie Sieht Es in Wiskonsin Aus_ (Meurs, 1849).
[5] For example, see William Dames, _Wie Sieht Es in Wiskonsin Aus_.
[6] See J. F. Diederichs, _Diary_. Translated by Emil Baensch. Account
of a trip from Milwaukee to Manitowoc.
[7] Those who filed with von Rohr and on the same day (Nov. 5, 1839)
took up most of sections 17, 18, 19, and 20. All of these lands were
described by the surveyor as “second rate” and all had a heavy forest
covering consisting of sugar maple, lynn, birch, alder, black and white
oak, ash, elm, ironwood, etc., together with some cedar in the swamps.
The land lay on both sides of the creek, along which was some meadow,
but the big marsh was farther east.
[8] William F. Whyte, “Settlement of Lebanon,” in Wisconsin Historical
Society, _Proceedings_, 1915, 105.
[9] MS. translation by Emil Baensch.
[10] Page 29 in printed German edition.
[11] This farm, located in the town of Greenfield, Milwaukee County,
was afterwards divided among Kerler’s three sons. A portion of it, at
least, is I believe still in the possession of the family. Louis F.
Frank, _Pioneer Jahre_ (Milwaukee, 1911).
[12] Michel Chevalier, _Society, Manners, and Politics in the United
States_ (Boston, 1839), chap. x, 112-113, 117, says: “Loading a wagon
with a plough, a bed, a barrel of salt meat, the indispensable supply
of tea and molasses, a Bible and a wife, and with his axe on his
shoulder, the Yankee sets out for the West, without a servant, without
an assistant, often without a companion, to build himself a log hut,
six hundred miles from his father’s roof, and clear away a spot for a
farm in the midst of the boundless forest.... He is incomparable as a
pioneer, unequalled as a settler of the wilderness.”
[13] See his _Common Sense_ (Philadelphia, 1791).
[14] See Captain Basil Hall, _Travels in North America in the Years
1827 and 1828_ (Edinburgh, 1829), i, 130.
[15] _American Agriculturist_, i, (1842), 115 ff.
[16] Captain Robert Barclay, _Agricultural Tour in the United States_
... (London, 1842), 41.
[17] _American Agriculturist_, i, 311.
[18] _Germania_ (translated slightly differently in University of
Pennsylvania _Translations and Reprints_), 11.
[19] J. H. von Thünen, _Der Isolierte Staat_ (Berlin, 1875), 103 ff.,
“Ueber die Lage der Höfe in Mecklenburg.”
[20] In southwestern Wisconsin, about 1870, a respectable German farmer
announced to his relatives the marriage of his daughter to a man who
had arrived but recently and had the status of a mere laborer. To parry
all questions about the suitability of the groom, who was known to be
addicted to liquor and other vices, the farmer added: “I’m very willing
to give him my daughter, for he is the best ‘grubber’ I’ve ever had on
my farm.”
[21] When John Kerler settled near Milwaukee in 1848, he bought a farm
on which was no provision for sheltering livestock other than work
animals. He built a barn at once, refusing to permit, for a single
winter, the cruel American practice of leaving cattle out in the cold.
His case is typical.
[22] See the author’s _History of Agriculture in Wisconsin_ (Madison,
1922), _passim_.
[23] Editor’s italics.
[24] An example is in Abram E. Brown, _Legends of Old Bedford_ (Boston,
1892).
[25] Timothy Dwight, _Travels in New England and New York_ (New Haven,
Conn., 1821), ii, 459, 462.
[26] Edmund Burke, _On Conciliation_.
[27] The Ohio Company’s grant, 1787, contained a reservation for
religion as well as grants for education. Joseph Schafer, _Origin of
the System of Land Grants in Aid of Education_, Wisconsin University
_Bulletin_, History Series, Vol. 1, No. 1 (Madison, 1902).
[28] See Edward Eggleston, _The Circuit Rider_ and _The Graysons_.
[29] Goodsell, who was one of the founders of Beloit College, removed
later to Northfield, Minnesota, and became one of the founders of
Carlton College. S. A. Dwinnell, Reedsburg (Wis.) _Free Press_,
December 24, 1874.
[30] _Madison City Express_, March 14, March 23, and April 27, 1843.
Strong and Hamilton are not reputed to have been total abstainers.
[31] The vote stood, for prohibition, 27,519; against, 24,109.
[32] The story was printed in the _Columbian Centinel_, Boston,
December, 1789.
[33] See _Diary of Sarah Connell Ayer_ (Portland, Me., 1910), 227.
[34] See _Almon Danforth Hodges and His Neighbors_ (Boston, 1909),
217-218.
[35] “At sun two hours high,” says the _Farmer’s Almanack_, 1815,
“the day is finished and away goes men and boys to the bowling alley.
Haying, hoeing, plowing, sowing all must give way to sport and toddy.
Now this is no way for a farmer. It will do for the city lads to sport
and relax in this way, and so there are proper times and seasons for
farmers to take pleasure of this sort, for I agree that all work and no
play makes Jack a dull boy.”
[36] See _Hodges and His Neighbors_, 94.
[37] J. R. Lowell, _Biglow Papers_.
[38] The death of Goethe occurred on the twenty-second of March. The
news must have taken several days in travel.
[39] Prussians were apt to console themselves for the pusillanimity
of King Frederick William III by harking back to the really strong if
ruthless monarchy of Frederick the Great, familiarly spoken of as _Der
Alte Fritz_.
[40] Guy Stanton Ford, _Stein and the Era of Reform in Prussia,
1807-1815_ (Princeton, N. J., 1922), 185.
[41] Victor Cousin, _Report on the State of Public Instruction in
Prussia_. Translated by Sarah Austin. London, 1834.
[42] See _Life and Works of Horace Mann_ (Boston, 1891), iii, 346 ff.
[43] Cf. Franklin’s views on the comparative thrift of English and of
German laborers, and note his tentative explanation of the difference.
_The Complete Works of Benjamin Franklin_ (compiled and edited by
John Bigelow, New York and London, 1887), ii, 291 ff. Letter to Peter
Collinson, dated Philadelphia, 9 May, 1753.
[44] By writers like Samuel Laing, in his _Notes of a Traveller on the
Social and Political State of France, Prussia, Switzerland, Italy, and
Other Parts of Europe_ (London, 1854), especially 108-115.
[45] _Life and Works of Horace Mann_ (Boston, 1891), iii, 346 ff. See
also _Reminiscences of Carl Schurz_ (New York, 1907), i, 40.
[46] See William Howitt, _Rural and Domestic Life of Germany_ (London,
1842), _passim_. That portion of Carl Schurz’s work (see note 8 _ante_)
which describes his boyhood life at Liblar throws much light on the
amusements indulged in by the people. There is a delightful account of
the Schützenfest, or marksmanship contest, on pages 45-48 and pages
81-83.
[47] Albert Bernhard Faust, _The German Element in the United States_
(Boston, 1909), ii, 472.
[48] _Daily Free Democrat_, December 27, 1850.
[49] _Nordamerika, Wisconsin, Calumet. Winke für Auswanderer_ (edition
of 1849), 64.
[50] Bradley and Metcalf.
[51] It was managed by G. and J. Burnham, who had an investment of
$10,000.
[52] This was John Braun’s. Best and Company had the largest investment
among the German brewers, $7400, but their output was only $11,250.
Other German brewers were Weizt, Englehardt, Stolz and Schuder, H.
Nunnemacher, and H. Beverung.
[53] If our count is correct, the 1850 census lists as “clerks”
fifty-one Germans. Doubtless many of these were serving in American
stores.
[54] Or thirty-six, if we omit the teachers, some of whom at least were
probably not liberally educated.
[55] The Lutherans included a Fr. Lachner, C. Eisenmeyer, and Ludwig
Dulitz; the Evangelical preacher was Christian Holl, and the Methodist,
Christian Barth.
[56] The Western Medical Society of Wisconsin, representing the
counties of Grant, Iowa, and Lafayette, reported in December, 1850,
that out of sixty persons engaged in the practice of medicine in that
area, only twelve were entitled to be called “doctor.” _Daily Free
Democrat_, January 8, 1850.
[57] “The University and the Germans,” _Daily Wisconsin Banner_, August
23, 1850.
[58] The remaining cases of marriages between Germans and Americans
were briefly as follows: A whitewasher, born in Pennsylvania, was
married to a German woman; tailor, born “in U. S.,” married to
a German; a weaver, born in Germany, married to a woman born in
Pennsylvania; a laborer, born in Ohio, married to a German woman; a
stage driver, born in Ohio, married to a German woman; a minister (M.
E.), native of Hanover, married to a woman born in Illinois.
[59] _Daily Wisconsin Banner_, August 1, 1850 (translation).
[60] _Wisconsin Banner_, August 29, 1846.
[61] _Wis. Hist. Colls._, xxvii, 235.
[62] See this magazine, vi, 395-398 (June, 1923).
[63] “Events teach us,” said the _Banner und Volksfreund_, October 15,
1855 (in the thick of the bitter Barstow-Bashford campaign), “that
the Shanghais (Republicans) despite their prating of antislavery,
are further removed from actual human freedom than the slaveholders
themselves. The occurrences of the past year, during which the
Shanghais have been dominant in various state legislatures, have shown
us that this party is the incubator of the temperance law.” This line
was followed vigorously through the campaign.
[64] Note, for example, the Louisville, Kentucky, riots in which
the Germans were driven from the city. The Wisconsin Democracy, in
August, 1855, made that the excuse for a resolution refusing seats in
the convention to men of Know-Nothing proclivities. See _Argus and
Democrat_ (Madison), August 29, 1855.
[65] See the _Milwaukee American_, 1855-1856, which was the party organ.
[66] Those belonging to the Turner Society are generally classified as
“free thinkers.” The _Turner Zeitung_, national organ of the Society
in 1855, was Republican in its politics, which probably influenced the
result in Wisconsin.
[67] The Mayberry lynching. The lynchers were loggers from an up-river
camp belonging to the murdered man.
[68] See his letter, MS, to Lyman Draper, August 28, 1855.
[69] In the year 1855 the _Wisconsin Banner_ and the _Volksfreund_ were
united and became the _Wisconsin Banner und Volksfreund_.
[70] “Fifteen participators in the lynching affair were indicted and
tried for the murder of DeBar in May, 1856. They were acquitted, as the
testimony did not sustain the allegation that ‘he came to his death by
hanging,’ _there being a reasonable doubt as to his being alive when he
was hung the last time_.” _History of Washington and Ozaukee Counties_
(1881), 358. Editor’s italics.
[71] See a brilliant editorial by Colonel David Atwood, in the _Daily
State Journal_ at Madison, for August 13, 1855.
[72] See the article in _Banner und Volksfreund_, July 28, 1855,
entitled “The So-Called Republicans:” “We encounter in the _Watertown
Anzeiger_ the following appropriate article concerning the so-called
Republican (vulgarly Shanghai) party, by which so many Germans were
duped at the last election and which expects to repeat the same
swindling tactics in the approaching election.” (Translation). The
election of Coles Bashford as governor was due in part to German votes.
[73] “The temperance swindle,” says _Banner und Volksfreund_, October
16, 1855, “is an outflow of Puritan bigotry and comports with other of
their pious pretensions, for example, such a rigorous observance of the
Sabbath as will reduce all sociability to the condition of a Puritan
graveyard. For this sort of thing, also, is the Republican party the
fruitful soil. The Know-Nothings harmonize, in these matters, with the
Republicans.”
[74] Success was to render it practically as cosmopolitan as a
protracted career of triumphs had long since rendered the Democratic
party.
[75] The Chicago and Northwestern. It follows in the sector south of
Muscoda the old military road from Fort Winnebago to Fort Crawford.
Towns taking some of Muscoda’s former trade are Montfort, Fennimore,
and Cobb.
[76] _Wisconsin Magazine of History_, III, 352.
[77] _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, I, 38, 41.
[78] _Wis. Hist. Colls._ XVIII, 263-64.
[79] Featherstonhaugh was obviously in error in calling that stopping
place Prairie de la Bay. The context shows it must have been English
Prairie. See his _A Canoe Voyage on the Minnay Sotor_, I, 199-201.
[80] _Wis. Hist. Colls._ XIV, 147.
[81] The Portage canal was begun in 1836 by a private company. Its
completion was promised in 1837. See Governor Dodge’s message to the
Legislative Assembly, Belmont, Oct. 26, 1836.
[82] Ox-teams owned by Illinois farmers.
[83] Hamilton went to California during the gold rush, finding,
however, not a fortune but an untimely grave.
[84] See Abel, Henry I. Geographical, Geological, and Statistical Chart
of Wisconsin and Iowa, Phila. 1838. The fare for passengers from St.
Louis to Helena (it was doubtless the same to Savannah) was in the
cabin from $10 to $15 and on the deck from $2 to $4.
[85] Smith, William R., _Observations_, 44.
[86] If the office was not open in 1847 it is hard to explain the
language used by a correspondent of the Prairie du Chien _Patriot_,
Feb. 23, 1847, who says: “The mail from ... Mineral Point to Muskoda
goes but once a week. There is no post office in Richland County; their
post office is at Muskoda.” The census of 1846 assigns to the northern
district of Grant County 1,482 persons. It is possible to identify in
the lists of heads of families six families whose later homes were at
or near Muscoda. They are John D. Parrish, James Smith, Manuel Denston
[Dunston?], Thomas Waters, Wm. Garland, and Richard Hall. All of these
are met with again in the census returns for Dec. 1, 1847, where the
“Muscoday Precinct of Grant County” is listed separately. The precinct
seems to have included townships 7 and 8-1 W and townships 7 and 8-2 W,
or the present towns of Muscoda, Castle Rock, Watterstown, and Hickory
Grove. That precinct is credited with thirteen families aggregating 77
persons. Aside from the families mentioned above (except Denston) we
find the names of S. [R?] Carver, J. Moore, N. Head, M. Manlove, D.
Manlove, I. Dale, S. Smith, D. Smith, and A. Mills. Garland is credited
with a family consisting of nine males and two females, which confirms
the statement in the county history that he was managing a hotel in
Muscoda at that time. Moses Manlove has a family of seven males and
five females which suggests a second hotel or “boarding house.” Most
of the other families mentioned probably lived some distance from
Muscoda on farms. Aside from those in Muscoda Precinct of Grant County,
several families living in Iowa County, township 8 1-E, must have
depended for their supplies either on Muscoda or on Highland. These
were John Pettygrove, A. Palmer, A. Bolster, three Knowlton families,
Mathias Schafer, Henry Gottschall, Vincent Dziewanawski, and the two
Wallbridges. If Richland County settlers really were, as reported,
getting their mail at Muscoda, that would mean, according to the
census, that 235 persons living north of the Wisconsin must have done
some trading at that place. The county history says the old log house
once used as the land office served in 1847 as the store.
[87] This is not true of the state lands, which went mainly to
speculators first, then to settlers.
[88] Speech of Senator Cashman, _Wisconsin Magazine of History_, vi,
444-449 (June, 1923).
[89] Essay on _The Rebellion_.
[90] John B. Winslow, quoted in _La Follette’s Magazine_, vol. iv, no.
20, p. 6.