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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5e80329 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #56012 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/56012) diff --git a/old/56012-0.txt b/old/56012-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 30110cc..0000000 --- a/old/56012-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,4516 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's The Yankee and the Teuton in Wisconsin, by Joseph Schafer - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - -Title: The Yankee and the Teuton in Wisconsin - -Author: Joseph Schafer - -Release Date: November 20, 2017 [EBook #56012] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE YANKEE AND THE TEUTON *** - - - - -Produced by MFR, David E. Brown, and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - - - THE YANKEE AND THE TEUTON - IN WISCONSIN - - BY - JOSEPH SCHAFER - - [Illustration] - - Reprinted from the _Wisconsin Magazine of History_ - Volume VI, No. 2, December, 1922 - - - - -THE YANKEE AND THE TEUTON IN WISCONSIN - -JOSEPH SCHAFER - -I. CHARACTERISTIC ATTITUDES TOWARD THE LAND - - -Wisconsin in its racial character is popularly known to the country at -large as a Teutonic state. That means the state has a German element, -original and derivative, which numerically overshadows the American, -English, Irish, Scandinavian, and other stocks also represented in -the Badger blend. It is not necessary to quarrel with this widely -accepted theorem, though some of the corollaries drawn from it can be -shown to be unhistorical; and one can demonstrate statistically that -if Wisconsin now is, or at any census period was, a Teutonic state -she began her statehood career in 1848 as a Yankee state and thus -continued for many years with consequences social, economic, political, -religious, and moral which no mere racial substitutions have had power -to obliterate. My purpose in the present paper is to present, from -local sources, some discussion of the relations of Yankee and Teuton -to the land--a theme which ought to throw light on the process of -substitution mentioned, revealing how the Teuton came into possession -of vast agricultural areas once firmly held by the Yankee. - -The agricultural occupation of southern Wisconsin, which brought the -first tide of immigration from New England, western New York, northern -Pennsylvania, and Ohio--the Yankee element--may be said roughly to -have been accomplished within the years 1835 and 1850. The settlements -which existed prior to 1835 were in the lead region of the southwest, -at Green Bay, and at Prairie du Chien. The population of the lead mines -was predominantly of southern and southwestern origin; that of the -two other localities--the ancient seats of the Indian trade and more -recent centers of military defense--was mainly French-Canadian. When, -in 1836, a territorial census was taken, it was found that the three -areas named had an aggregate population of nearly 9000, of which more -than 5000 was in the lead region included in the then county of Iowa. -The Green Bay region (Brown County) was next, and the Prairie du Chien -settlement (Crawford County) smallest. - -The census, however, recognized a new county, Milwaukee, whose -territory had been severed from the earlier Brown County. It was -bounded east by Lake Michigan, south by Illinois, west by a line drawn -due north from the Illinois line to Wisconsin River at the Portage, and -north by a line drawn due east from the Portage to the lake. In terms -of present-day divisions, the Milwaukee County of 1836 embraced all of -Kenosha, Racine, Walworth, Rock, Jefferson, Waukesha, and Milwaukee -counties, nearly all of Ozaukee, Washington, and Dodge, a strip of -eastern Green County, and most of Dane and Columbia. In that imperial -domain the census takers found a grand total of 2900 persons, or almost -exactly one-fourth of the population of the entire territory. - -Two significant facts distinguish the Milwaukee County census list -from the lists of Brown, Crawford, and Iowa counties--the recency -of the settlement and the distinctive local origin of the settlers. -These people had only just arrived, most of them in the early months -of 1836. One could almost count on his ten fingers the individuals -who were there prior to the summer of 1835. In reality they were not -yet “settled,” for most of the rude claim huts--mere shelters of the -pre-log house stage--were haunted at night and shadowed at noonday -by men only, resident families being still rare, though many were on -the lakes, at the ports of Milwaukee and Chicago, or on the overland -trail which was to end at the cabin door. It was the prophecy of new -communities, not the actuality, that the census taker chronicled when -he recorded the names of claim takers with the number of persons, -of each sex, comprising their households. We have reason to believe -that the numbers were inscribed almost as cheerfully when the persons -represented by them were still biding in the old home or were en route -west, as when they were physically present in the settler’s cabin or in -the dooryard, eager to be counted. - -[Illustration: - - WISCONSIN TERRITORY - 1836 - - Drawn by Mary Stuart Foster.] - -Unlike the other populations of Wisconsin at that time, the vast -majority of Milwaukee County settlers were Northeasterners. Such -evidence as we have indicates that New York supplied more than half, -the New England states, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan nearly all of -the balance.[1] New York’s title to primacy in peopling Wisconsin is -exhibited, most impressively, in the statistics of the 1850 census. At -that time native Americans constituted 63 per cent of the total and -New Yorkers had 36 per cent of the native majority. Native Americans -predominated in all but three of the twenty-six counties, and in all -but five those who were natives of New York, added to the natives of -Wisconsin, were a majority of the American born. The exceptions were -the four lead mining counties of Grant, Iowa, Lafayette, and Green, -together with Richland, which, however, had so few inhabitants that its -case is divested of any significance. - -The three counties which, in 1850, showed a majority of foreign born -inhabitants were Manitowoc, Milwaukee, and Washington (the last named -including the present Ozaukee County); and in each case Germans -constituted more than half of that majority. Together those three -counties had over 20,000, which was considerably more than one-half -of all the Germans (38,054) domiciled in Wisconsin at that time. The -other lake shore counties, together with Calumet, Fond du Lac, Dodge, -Jefferson, and Waukesha, accounted for 15,000 of the balance, leaving -about 3000 scattered over the rest of the state. Thus the area embraced -by Lake Michigan, Lake Winnebago and lower Fox River, the upper reaches -of Rock River, and the south boundary of Jefferson, Waukesha, and -Milwaukee counties was all strongly and in the main distinctively -German. - -Investigating the causes which may have operated to concentrate the -German population within such clearly defined geographic limits, our -first inquiry concerns the land on which settlement was taking place. -And here we find that the distinguishing fact marking off the region -in which Germans abounded from most of the other settled or partially -settled areas of the state was its originally thickly wooded character. -In a way almost startling, and superficially conclusive, the German -settlements coincided with the great maple forest of southeastern -Wisconsin, spreading also through the included pine forest on Lake -Michigan south of Green Bay. - -Returning now to the Yankee element, we find that although it was -strong in all of the settled districts save the five counties named, -it was more completely dominant in some districts than in others. For -example, in Walworth County the northeastern states furnished 96.5 per -cent of the American population, while 3.5 per cent was furnished by -sixteen other states. The foreign born constituted less than 16 per -cent of the total.[2] Walworth County was a section of the new “Yankee -Land,” which included in its boundaries also the counties of Racine -and Kenosha, Rock, and at that time parts of Waukesha and Jefferson. -Nowhere in that region were foreigners very numerous, and in many -localities non-English speaking foreigners were almost scarce. - -Physically, this new Yankee Land comprised those portions of the -prairies and openings of southern Wisconsin which lay not more than -from sixty to seventy-five miles from the lake ports at Milwaukee, -Racine, and Kenosha. The region was just as characteristically “open -country” as that occupied so extensively by Germans was forested. One -land type, the glacial marsh or swale--good for hay and pasture--was -common to the two districts of country. But for the rest, the Yankee’s -land was all ready for the plow if it was prairie, and if oak openings -the labor of felling the scattered trees and dragging them away before -the breaking team was comparatively light. - -The German, on the other hand, in order to subdue his land to the -requirements of successful tillage, must attack with ax, mattock, -and firebrand each successive acre, patiently slashing and burning, -hewing and delving, till by dint of unremitting toil extended over an -indefinite number of years his farm became “cleared.” - -Shall we therefore repeat, as the sober verdict of history, the -statement often heard, that in settling this new country the Yankee -showed a preference for open land, the German for woodland? On the -face of the census returns that seems to be the case, and if our -evidence were limited to the census such a conclusion would be well -nigh inescapable. Fortunately, he who deals with culture history -problems of the American West has this advantage over the Greenes and -the Lamprechts of Europe, that on such matters his evidence is minutely -particular, while theirs is general to the point of vagueness. No one -will doubt that the Yankee staked his claim in the open lands because -he preferred those lands on account of the ease with which a farm could -be made. The question is, whether the German’s presence in the woods -rather than in the openings or on the prairies was with him a matter of -preference so far as land selection in itself was concerned. - -Timber for shelter, fuel, building, and fencing was an important -consideration to all settlers, including the Yankees. In another -connection I have shown, from the records of land entries, that the -Yankee settlers in a prevailingly prairie township of Racine County -took up first every acre of forested land, together with the prairie -lands and marsh lands adjoining the woods, while they shunned for -some years the big, open, unsheltered prairie where farms would be -out of immediate touch with woods.[3] Rather than take treeless lands -near the lake shore, these settlers preferred to go farther inland -where inviting combinations of groves, meadows, and dry prairie -lands, or openings, could still be found in the public domain. Only -gradually did American settlers overcome their natural repugnance to -a shelterless, timberless farm home--a repugnance justified by common -sense, but springing from the habit of generations. When, for economic -reasons, they began to settle on the open prairies, the planting of -quick-growing trees about the farmsteads was always esteemed a work of -fundamental utility. - -Yankee agricultural settlers found special inducements for going inland -in search of ideal farm locations, in the glowing advertisements of -Yankee speculators who early pioneered the open country far and wide. -These speculators concerned themselves primarily with water powers for -sawmill and gristmill sites and town sites. Yet power and town sites -both depended for their development on the agricultural occupation -of the surrounding country, and this made the speculators careful to -locate their claims in areas of desirable lands which would soon be -wanted. It also made them doubly active in proclaiming to immigrants -the agricultural advantages of their chosen localities. - -One may take up at random the land office records of townships in the -older Wisconsin, and in practically every case find proof that the -speculator was abroad in the land before the arrival of the farmer. -Along the banks of navigable rivers he took up, early, such tracts -as seemed to afford good steamboat landings, which might mean towns -or villages also. Along smaller streams he engrossed potential water -powers. In the prairie regions he seized the timbered tracts which -commonly lay along the streams. And wherever nature seemed to have -sketched the physical basis for a future town, there he drove his -stakes and entered an area large enough at least for a municipal center. - -In some portions, particularly of the earliest surveys, the speculator -also absorbed a goodly share of the best farm land, which he held -for an advance when the immigration of farmers became heavy. Other -Americans, aside from Yankees, participated in these speculations, -but the records show that the Yankee’s reputation for alertness and -sagacity in that line is not unmerited. For illustration, the plats of -Dane County townships disclose among the original entrymen who bought -their lands early, the names of well known speculators like James D. -Doty, Lucius Lyon, the Bronsons, Cyrus Woodman, Hazen Cheney, and -C. C. Washburn--all Yankees. In addition, we have distinguished New -Englanders who probably never came west but invested through the agency -of their Yankee correspondents. Among them are Daniel Webster, Edward -Everett, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Caleb Cushing. - -To a considerable extent these speculators, in paying for government -lands, employed military land warrants, usually purchased at a heavy -discount. “Scripping” by this means became more common after the -Mexican War. A German immigration leader wrote at the close of 1848: -“There is a man living in Sheboygan who has already placed 344 of these -warrants [each good for 160 acres] on government lands and intends next -spring to place 200 more on tracts lying north of Fox River.”[4] He -did not say the man was a Yankee; possibly he deemed that information -unnecessary. For, although the German sometimes bought warrants of -the brokers in order to save the difference between the price of such -warrants and the land office price of government land, he did not in -the early years of the immigration speculate in farm lands. - -Therein was one of the outstanding differences between him and the -Yankee. The German could not be tolled into the interior by golden -promises of unearned increments from the sale of city lots, of mill -sites, or of choice farm lands which were going rapidly. His caution -and his phlegm were a protection. He was not particularly responsive -to the optimistic prophecies of the development of this region or -that region in which this company or that prominent individual had -interests. For these reasons, the German’s motives as a land seeker -were more legitimately economic and social than were those of the -Yankee, and on the basis of such motives we can explain his settlement -in the woods. - -In his homeland the German villager loved the forest for its shelter, -its recreational hospitality, and the benefits it conferred in -necessary fuel, timber, bedding, and forage. A large proportion of the -early German immigrants came from south German provinces dominated by -such famous old forests as the Schwartzwald and the Odenwald. From -considerations both of habit and of economy it was natural that in the -New World they should make sure of an abundance of timber on the lands -they sought for future homes. Yet, there is no reason to assume that -the German, any more than the Yankee, courted the grilling labor of -clearing heavily forested land--a labor to him the more formidable for -the want of the Yankee’s training in axmanship and his almost unbroken -tradition of winning fields from forests. Some German pioneers who were -self-helpful struck for the openings and the prairies, and like the -Yankee chose for their farms the ideal combination of wood, marsh, and -open land whenever such a combination could be found within easy reach -of the market.[5] - -But Germans were less venturesome than Yankees, or more prudent, -depending on the point of view. In the old home they were accustomed -to haul their farm produce many miles in going to the markets and -fairs. But there the roads were passable at all seasons. In the New -World, where all was in the making, the roads were often impassable and -always--except in winter--so rough and troublesome as to daunt those -who were not to the manner born.[6] Hence the German settler’s idea -of what constituted a safe distance from the lake ports within which -to open a farm differed from the Yankee’s idea. There is one striking -illustration of that difference. Along the Illinois boundary from Lake -Michigan westward was the strip of prairie and openings twenty-four -miles wide and seventy-eight long which was divided into Racine and -Kenosha counties (on the lake), Walworth, and Rock. We have already -called that region the new Yankee Land and have seen the Yankee farmers -spread over it with seeming disregard to distance from the lake ports, -each being intent rather on finding an ideal combination of desirable -kinds of land. The three divisions of the strip contained almost equal -numbers of Yankees--these people evidently believing that canals, -roads, plank roads, and railways would come to them when needed, while -a good farm location once lost was gone forever; and being willing -also, until such improvements should come, to haul their crops sixty or -seventy-five miles to market. Not so the few Germans who entered this -Yankee Land prior to 1850. More than four-fifths of them were in the -section nearest the lake (Racine and Kenosha counties), and less than -one-thirtieth in Rock County, the farthest west of the strip. - -The movement into the prairies and openings of the southeast had been -going on for about four years before the Germans began coming to -Wisconsin, and so many selections of first choice, second choice, and -even third choice land had been made that newcomers were already at a -disadvantage in that region, especially if a number of them desired -to settle near together in a body, which was the case of Old Lutheran -congregations who made up the earliest German immigrations. Moreover, -most of the Yankees were business-like farmers who generally planned -for fairly large farms, in order to make money by raising wheat. They -were mainly men who had sold small farms in the East in order to secure -larger, or sons of large farmers. Most of them had money or credit to -enable them to acquire land, construct buildings and fences, buy stock, -and begin farming operations. Having found good land by canvassing the -whole region, they were not to be dislodged until, with the failure of -wheat crops at a later time, the spirit of emigration sent numbers of -them to fresh wheat lands farther west, thus making opportunity for -well-to-do Germans to buy their improved farms, which they did to a -great extent. - -Meantime, the forested lands pivoting on Milwaukee, the most promising -of the lake ports, were open to entry at the land office or to -purchase at private sale on easy terms. The Yankee had not altogether -shunned those lands. There, as elsewhere, he had been looking for -good investments, and the project for the Milwaukee and Rock River -Canal, which was to traverse a portion of the forested area through -the present Milwaukee, Waukesha, and Jefferson counties, favored -speculation in farm lands as well as in mill sites and town sites. -Besides, there is evidence that some of the poorer Yankee immigrants -who felt unable at once to maintain themselves on open land farms, -often settled first in the woods, where they began making improvements -with ax and fire, only to sell out promptly at an advance and go to -the prairie or openings to establish permanent farms. But most of the -forested land was still “Congress land” when the Germans began coming -to Wisconsin. - -The German “Pilgrims,” as the first colony was called, arrived at -Milwaukee early in October, 1839, their leader being Henry von Rohr. -Within a month they had decided on a location, in the western part of -township 9, range 21 east (the town of Mequon, Ozaukee County), and -had made numerous purchases of government land. They selected a tract -of high, rolling land, heavily timbered, well watered, and with an -extensive marsh near by in the public domain which would furnish free -hay and pasture.[7] The situation was similar to that which was chosen, -near Watertown (in the town of Lebanon), a few years later by a German -colony from the same region. They also took a tract of heavily timbered -upland neighbored by an extensive marsh. “Here,” said their leader, “we -have both wood and hay” (“_Holz und Heu_”).[8] - -Many of the colonists in these two congregations were very poor. Those -who had means lent to the indigent to enable them to emigrate. For them -it would have been madness to go to the prairies, where such absolute -necessities as fuel, building material, and fencing might cost ready -money and at best would be difficult to procure. In the woods trees -cut on the spot were used to build cabin and log house, stable, garden -and field enclosure. Some of the German families were months without -draft ox or even cow. All work was performed by hand, including the -carrying of logs from the spot where the trees were felled to the -place where they were to be rolled up to make the cabin wall. To such -settlers, bringing timber from a distance would have been among the -impossibilities. Their place was in the forest, where labor alone was -required for making the beginnings of a self-sustaining home. - -In thousands of later instances, Germans who came to Wisconsin on their -own slender means were in a similar case to these early seekers of -religious freedom. An immigrant of 1848, J. F. Diederichs, has left a -diary and letters from which the process of home making in the woods -can be reconstructed.[9] Diederichs, after considerable search, found -eighty acres of good government land nine miles from Manitowoc, where -early in winter he settled down to work alongside of several other -Germans who were as poor as himself. The location was favorable, being -near a port. “What good is there,” he writes, “to possess the finest -land and be 6, 8 or 10 days journey from market.”[10] The first step -was to build a cabin, the next to bring his family from Milwaukee and -with a few dollars borrowed for the purpose to lay in supplies for -them. Then he erected a comfortable log house and continued clearing -till, by the middle of May, he had two acres ready partly for garden -and partly for potatoes, corn, and beans to provide the family with -food. Diederichs realized that “to begin such work at the age of 44 is -some job,” and recognized that not he and his wife but the children -would be the chief beneficiaries. Nevertheless, the joy of creation was -not wholly denied him. He had, he said, the “prettiest” location; house -set on a commanding knoll, with a pure limpid stream flowing within -a few yards of it, along whose course was some open land, making a -“layout for the finest pastures.” And there was timber enough on his -eighty to be worth $30,000 in the home town of Elberfelt. Of this, he -would gladly make his friends in Germany a present of about $20,000 -worth! - -The question of nearness to market was a determinant also in the cases -of Germans who were well enough off to take open lands. William Dames -found, for himself and associates, a favorable tract near Ripon. It -contained 160 acres prairie, 320 acres openings, and 160 acres of -low prairie or meadow land. The advantages of that neighborhood, he -wrote, were these: first, the prospectively near market, by way of -the Fox River Canal to be completed the following spring; second, the -excellence of the soil; third, the ease with which the land could be -made into productive farms. There one need not subject himself to the -murderous toil incident to farm making in the woods. And, fourth, the -healthfulness of the climate and the superb drinking water. - -One bit of information which Dames conveyed to his fellow Germans who -were contemplating immigration to Wisconsin, was that the Yankees (by -which term he described all native Americans) and the Scotch settlers -of that neighborhood were becoming eager to sell their partly improved -farms, preparatory to moving into the newer region north of Fox River. -He advised Germans able to do so to buy such farms, which were to -be had in plenty not only in Fond du Lac County but near Watertown, -near Delafield, and even near Milwaukee--prices varying with the -improvements, nearness to the city, etc. He seemed to think the Germans -but ill adapted to pioneering. Let the German immigrant, he said, buy a -partly cleared farm; then he could follow his calling in ways to which -he was accustomed. Moreover, since such farms produced fairly well even -under the indifferent treatment accorded them by the Yankee farmers, -the German farmer need have no fear of failure. - -The advice to purchase farms already begun was widely followed by the -financially competent German immigrants. Ownership records of one -Milwaukee County township show that the lands were originally taken -mainly by Irish and Americans, yet in 1850 nearly one-half of the -settlers were Germans; and there is no reason to regard that case -as singular. Probably the Germans who bought improved farms were as -numerous as those who bought Congress land. Many poor men worked as -farm hands for some years and then bought small improved farms in -preference to buying Congress land. - -The experience of an 1849 immigrant, Johannes Kerler, illustrates -the less common case of Germans who arrived with considerable means. -Kerler brought with him to Milwaukee a sum, derived from the sale of -a profitable business, which would have enabled him to buy scores of -mill sites and town sites in the public domain. Instead, he limited his -investment to a 200-acre farm seven miles from the city, paying for the -land, including all crops and livestock, $17 per acre. The buildings -consisted of a log house and a cabin. One-half the farm was divided -between plow land and meadow; the balance--100 acres--supported a dense -forest growth. Kerler at once erected a barn for his cattle, and a -good two-story frame house for the family. Then he went to farming and -quickly transformed the earlier crude homestead into a fruitful and -beautiful farm, the show place of the neighborhood.[11] - -Social forces are among the imponderables, and yet their influence -in controlling the distribution of immigration must have been -considerable. The fact that nearly all incoming Germans landed in -Milwaukee, where were acquaintances and often friends, tended in -a hundred subtle ways to attach the newcomers to that community. -Before 1850 Milwaukee had come to be looked upon as a German city. -“There,” said one immigrant, “more German than English is spoken.” It -had its German churches, schools, clubs, societies, and recreational -features, all of which constituted powerful attractions. It was the -most important industrial center of the state, with a relatively large -demand for the labor which with farm work was the poorer immigrant’s -sole means of getting a financial start. In addition, it was the -commercial metropolis, and that the German was firmly tethered to his -market has already become clear. - -The construction of the Milwaukee and Mississippi Railroad, begun in -1849 and completed to Prairie du Chien in 1857, partially freed the -German immigrant from his dread of being marooned in the interior. -Desirable government lands accessible to the proposed railroad were -generally taken up several years before the completion of the road, -and among the entrymen in certain districts were many newly arrived -Germans. This was true to some extent in Dane County, but more -noticeably so farther west. In Iowa County and in Grant were sheltered -pleasant and fertile valleys, opening toward the Wisconsin, which would -be served by the railroad when completed, and which had long been in -touch with the world by means of steamers plying on the Wisconsin. -In those valleys, and on the wider ridges between them, the Germans -competed with others for the choicest locations on government and state -lands. Land entry records for two townships in Blue River valley show, -by 1860, out of an aggregate of 122 foreign born families 59 of German -origin, while the American families numbered 93. A similar proportion -doubtless obtained in other towns south of the river. - -Directly opposite these townships, in the same survey range but lying -on the north side of Wisconsin River, was the town of Eagle, whose -settlement was almost exactly contemporaneous with that of the Blue -River valley. But Eagle, in 1860, had 20 foreign born families to 108 -American, and of the 20 only 13 were German. - -Inasmuch as the people on the two banks of the river had a common -market--Muscoda, which was a station on the railroad--and the lands of -Eagle were more fertile and quite as well watered, the question why the -Germans avoided that town and made homes south of the river is surely -interesting, and possibly significant. - -There were two important differences between the two districts. In -Blue River the valley land, to use the surveyor’s phrase, was “thinly -timbered with oak,” while in the valley of Mill Creek, or Eagle Creek, -opposite was a dense forest dominated by the sugar maple but containing -big timber of several varieties, and dense undergrowth. In a word, it -was a heavily timbered area. Now the Germans near Lake Michigan had -given ample proof of gallantry in attacking forest covered farms, yet -when the choice was before them of taking such land in Richland County -or easily cleared land of poorer quality in Grant, almost with one -accord they selected the latter. - -We cannot be certain that the difference in the timbered character of -the land was the sole motive determining the choice, though doubtless -it was the most important. The railroad ran on the south side of the -river and the principal trading center was on that side. Settlers -in Blue River valley could therefore reach the market by a direct, -unbroken haul with teams over public roads. Those in Eagle at first -were obliged to use the ferry in crossing the river, and later they had -to cross on a toll bridge except in midwinter, if the river was frozen -to a safe depth, when they crossed on the ice. These transportation -conditions might have deterred some Germans from settling north of the -river, even if the lands there had been as lightly timbered as those -on the south side. Taken together, the two causes virtually served to -blockade that district against settlers of their type. - -But if the Germans declined the rôle of foresters, by refusing to -settle in a partially isolated town like Eagle, the Yankees did -the same. New Yorkers and New Englanders were scarcer there than -Prussians or Hanoverians. The town was occupied mainly by families -from Ohio, Kentucky, Missouri, Indiana--with a few from Virginia and -North Carolina; in short, by men who had enjoyed or endured a recent -experience as frontiersmen in heavily wooded regions. So many belonged -to the class described by Eggleston in _The Circuit Rider_, _The -Hoosier Schoolmaster_, and _The Graysons_, that the name “Hoosier -Hollow,” applied to one of the coulees, seems perfectly normal. - -To the Yankee, we may be sure, the heavy woods in the town of Eagle -were a sufficient deterrent to settlement there. The Germans shunned it -either because they disliked heavy clearing when it could be avoided -and when no compensating advantages offered, as was the case near -the lake shore; or because they disliked the risk and the expense of -crossing the river to market; or for both of these reasons combined. -Probably either reason, singly, would have sufficed. - -By way of summary, we may say that as a land seeker the Yankee’s range -exceeded that of the German. Both clung to the lake ports as their -market base. But the Yankee’s optimism painted for him a roseate future -based on an experimental knowledge of material development for which -the German’s imagination was largely unprepared. The New Yorker had -witnessed, in his home state, the almost miraculous transformation -of rural conditions through the construction of a system of canals; -and canal building affected Vermont, Pennsylvania, and Ohio only less -profoundly than the Empire State. To the Yankee, therefore, who cast -his lot in the favored lands of Wisconsin it seemed that nothing could -halt the march of improvement. The chief point was to obtain prompt -possession of the right kind of farm. Having this, he could count on -doing a big agricultural business as a wheat grower, which promised -generous financial rewards. But if for any reason he failed to get the -right kind of farm, if improvements were unexpectedly dilatory, or if -the land ceased to respond to his demand for wheat and more wheat, he -“sold out” with slight compunction and went elsewhere, confident of -success on a new frontier, especially the great wheat plains. To him -land was a desirable commodity, but by no means a sacred trust. - -The German, on the other hand, came from a land of very gradual change. -Although agricultural conditions there were actually considerably -modified in the first half of the nineteenth century, he still, for -the most part, looked upon his dwindling patrimony as the basis, not -of a money making business, but of a livelihood. If, by the combined -labor of all members of the household, the family could be fed, -clothed, and sheltered, the heavy obligations to church and state -redeemed, and a few _gulden_ sequestered for times of emergency, the -peasant was content. His land was his home. It had been his father’s, -grandfather’s, great-grandfather’s. The original estate was parted into -ever more and smaller divisions, as generation succeeded generation, -until the tracts of many holders were at last too small to support the -families. These had no choice but to sell and go to the city, or go to -America. This condition was one of the most general economic causes -of the large German immigration to this and other states. When the -German farmer, or other German, came to Wisconsin and bought a piece of -land, one purpose dominated his mind--to make a farm for a home, and -establish a family estate. In the beginning it did not occur to him -to speculate in land, although in this as in other things he proved -an apt pupil. Accustomed to a very limited acreage, he was not like -the Yankee ambitious to secure a large domain. Habituated to intensive -tillage, a partly made farm having ten or twelve acres of cleared land -was to him an ample equipment for making a living in agriculture. -Enlarging fields meant a surplus and mounting prosperity. If he took -raw land, he could count on clearing enough in a couple of winters with -his own hands to raise food crops, and he looked upon the prospect of -spending ten, twenty, or twenty-five years in fully subduing his 80- -or 100-acre farm with no unreasoning dread or carking impatience. The -remark of Diederichs characterized the German preëmptor: “If I once -have land enough under cultivation to raise our food supplies, I will -win through.” Whereas the Yankee wanted to break 40, 60, 80, or 100 -acres of prairie or openings the first year, the German contemplated -the possession of a similar acreage of tillable land in ten, fifteen, -or twenty years. - -But once in possession of a tract of land, the German tended to hold -on, through good years and bad years, as if his farm were the one -piece of land in the world for him and his. The Yankee, already given -to change in the East, tended in the West, under the stimulus of -machine-aided wheat culture, to regard land lightly, and to abandon one -tract for another on the principle that the supply was inexhaustible -and that one social environment was apt to be as satisfactory as -another. He had before him the great wheat plains, the Pacific coast, -the inland empire and the parks of the Rocky Mountains. Latterly -his range has widened to include the plains of the Assiniboin, the -Saskatchewan, and Peace River. For more than half a century he was -free to roam, to pick and choose land even as he picked and chose in -southern Wisconsin--the slower, more cautious, or more timid German -buying his farm when he was ready to sell. - -It was peaceful penetration, involving no sabre rattling but much -canny bargaining, sober casting up of accounts, and cheerful jingling -of specie. The Yankees, more speculative to the last, more imaginative -and space-free, pressed ever toward the borders of the primitive, drawn -by the same lure of wealth quickly and easily acquired which brought -so many of them to the prairies of Wisconsin in the earlier days. The -Germans, fearing distance more than debt, confident in their ability -to make grain crops grow and farm stock fatten if only they had a sure -market for cattle and for crops, remained behind to till the abandoned -fields and occupy the deserted homes. Thus, so far as Wisconsin’s -farming areas are concerned, the shadow of the Yankee has grown less in -the land, while the tribe of the Teuton has increased. - -What tendencies may have been induced by the passing of the frontier -and the resurgence of a population deprived of its former temptation -to expand into new regions; what social changes were implied in the -agricultural revolution which compels the daily application of science -to the business of farming; what readjustments in relationships were -involved in the modification of the Teutonic type with the coming upon -the stage of the second and third generations of Germans; how the -Germans in turn have reacted to the competition of groups having their -origin in other foreign countries, like the Scandinavians, Bohemians, -and Poles--all these are questions the answers to which would aid us -to determine “where we are and whither we are tending.” But their -discussion will have to be postponed to later issues of this magazine. - - - - -THE YANKEE AND THE TEUTON IN WISCONSIN - -JOSEPH SCHAFER - -II. DISTINCTIVE TRAITS AS FARMERS - - -The agricultural traits and peculiarities of the nineteenth century -Yankees were the resultant of partly contradictory forces, some of -them evolutionary, others devolutionary. In England the period of -the Puritan migration to America and the half-century antecedent -thereto was a time of vigorous agricultural change marked by many -improvements in cultivation and in land management. The agrarian -revolution introduced by the transfer of church properties to -laymen was accompanied by enclosures and a widespread tendency to -shift from an uneconomical crop economy to an agriculture governed -by business principles. In this new system the production of farm -animals--especially sheep--the fertilization of the soil, rotation -of crops, and livestock improvement were main factors. Forces and -interests were set in motion at this time which, a century or so later, -made farming the concern of many of England’s leading minds, whose wise -and persistent experimentation benefited the whole civilized world. - -The few thousand immigrants to the New England colonies, founders of -America’s Yankeedom, were not all farmers. Some were fishermen, some -were small tradesmen, others craftsmen; a few were professional men -and soldiers. But a goodly proportion were land owners and peasants, -and all had a more or less direct knowledge of the principles and -processes which governed English agriculture. The influence of habit, -always a determining factor in the transfer of civilization from an old -land to a new, caused the occasional reproduction in New England of -some features of English farming, especially under village conditions. -The common field system in Old Salem reflected a disappearing element -in English farm life, while the commons of hay, commons of pasture, -commons of wood, and commons of mast, with their administrative “hay -reeve,” “hog reeve,” “wood reeve,” herdsmen, and shepherds, mark a -natural imitating of the ways of parish life at home. - -But there were differences in the conditions “at home” and in America -as wide as those symbolized by the terms “insular,” and “continental,” -applied to the geography of the two countries. Chief among these -differences were the generally forested character of the new-world -land, the necessity of adapting tillage to an unfamiliar climate, in -part to new food cereals, especially Indian corn, and the absolute -dependence upon markets which could be created or opened by the -colonists themselves. It was in fact the problem of a market which so -long subordinated farming proper in New England to a species of country -living in which small patches of arable supplied most of the family’s -food, while forest and stream were the objects of exploitation for -marketable furs, for medicinal plants, and for timber products. Yankee -ingenuity, which justly became proverbial, had an assignable cause. It -was not an inherited quality, or one which was imported and conserved; -it was a distinctively American product, explained by the situation of -the average New England farmer--who was, by force of circumstances, -more of a mechanic and woods worker than a cultivator of the soil. His -house, especially in winter, was a busy workshop where clapboards, -staves, hoops, heading, ax handles, and a variety of other articles of -utility and salability were always in course of manufacture. All the -farm “tinkering” was additional thereto. - -In his contest with the forest for a livelihood, the Yankee farmer was -gradually changed from the eastern New England village type to that -of the American “pioneer.” His axmanship was unrivaled, his skill in -woodscraft, his resourcefulness in the face of untried situations -were equal to the best. When the time came for taking agricultural -possession of broad spaces in the northern and western interior, the -Yankee was the instrument, shaped by four generations of American -history, to achieve that object.[12] - -This general “handiness” was gained not without a partial loss of -such acquired knowledge and skill in agriculture proper as the -first immigrants brought from England. Close, careful cultivation -was impossible among the stumps and girdled trees of new clearings; -the amplitude of natural meadows and the superabundance of “browse” -relieved settlers from the sharp necessity of providing artificially -for the winter feeding of cattle; the mast of oak trees and the -wealth of nuts, supplementing summer “greens,” roots, grass, and wild -apples, supplied most of the requisites for finishing off pork. Under -these conditions farming even at best was an entirely different thing -from what it had been at home. At its worst, it was a crude process, -affording a vegetative kind of existence, but nothing more. In fact, -farming in the New England states hardly attained the status of a -business until the nineteenth century, though in some portions it -gave the farmer and his family a generous living and afforded a few -luxuries. It made thousands of persons independent proprietors who -could not have reached that station at home; it gave the farmers as a -class a commanding influence in politics and society; “embattled,” it -enabled them to wrest their country’s independence from the awkward -hands of a bungling monarchy. In short, it contributed incalculably -to their importance as men in history. The indications are, however, -that as farmers the fourth generation of _Mayflower_ descendants were -decidedly inferior to the original Pilgrims and Puritans. - -The third generation were probably less skillful than the fourth. For, -by the time of the Revolution there were farming areas in southern -New England that were looking up. Timothy Dwight, near the end of the -century, found and recorded some of the evidences of a movement to -improve cultivation, to fertilize the soil, to better the character of -farm livestock--a movement which had been going forward under impulses -communicated from England, where the eighteenth century was peculiarly -fruitful in agricultural development. Dwight was enough of an idealist -to appreciate the limits of the improvement thus far reached. Yet he -did insist, with evident justice, that the farming of the Connecticut -valley and of eastern Massachusetts was at least respectable. Fields -were well cleared and carefully cultivated, clover began to be used -as a feeding and green manure crop, the beginnings had been made -of a system of rotation of crops, livestock was of relatively good -quality--especially in certain Connecticut towns which were already -noted for the weight of the bullocks they furnished to the commissary -department of Washington’s army. By that time, also, leading men -in New England lent their influence toward the building up of the -agricultural interest; agricultural societies were organized and essays -on agriculture came to have considerable vogue. Some importations of -purebred livestock from England took place. The first merino sheep -were brought in from France, then larger numbers from Spain by Consul -William Jarvis. In 1810 Elkanah Watson established his Berkshire County -Agricultural Society, with the county fair which became the model for -subsequent county and state fairs the country over. - -When Tom Paine predicted in 1776 that an independent America would -prosper “as long as eating continues to be the custom of Europe,”[13] -he assumed one point about which some doubt might in future arise: -Would Europe always have the wherewithal to purchase American -foodstuffs at prices which would compensate our people for growing -them and delivering them to the market? During the continuance of the -long revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, Europe managed to make good -Paine’s prophecy, and prices at the close of the wars ruled high. There -followed the great expansion era which spread American farmers over the -New West, both south and north, into which Yankees entered to a large -extent. - -The good prices did not hold. Food could be raised cheaply, but markets -were costly to reach, even with the new wizardry of the steamboat, and -something gigantic was called for in the way of internal improvements. -The answer was at first canals, afterwards railroads. At the same -time, something had to be done by the farmer himself if the entire -structure of American agriculture, now becoming conscious of its own -embarrassments, was not to go down. The answer to this was _better -farming_. It was in 1819, the panic year, that John S. Skinner founded -at Baltimore the _American Farmer_, first of the distinctively farm -journals which almost immediately had a small group of successors. -Among them were the _New England Farmer_, the _Albany Cultivator_, the -_Pennsylvania Farmer_, the _Rural New Yorker_, the _Vermont Farmer_, -the _Ohio Farmer_, etc. - -Yankeedom was a good social soil for these journals. The all but -universal literacy of the people, their curiosity, their love of -argument and disputation, their habit of experimentation, all tended -both to give currency to the new ideas presented and to sift the -practical and valuable from the merely theoretic and futile. Thus was -introduced, in a period of prevailing “hard times,” a meliorating -influence destined to reach a very large proportion of the settlers -in those sections, particularly Vermont, western New York, northern -Pennsylvania and Ohio, from which the bulk of the Yankee pioneers of -Wisconsin were drawn a quarter of a century later. The effect of county -and state fairs was to deepen and fructify the influence of the new -agricultural press. - -It will be understood that the actual “shoring up” of agricultural -practice came about with relative slowness. Yet, it soon began here -and there, and by a kind of mild infection spread gradually over -wide areas. Only in crisis periods, with the introduction of new -methods to suit new market conditions, was progress ever very rapid. -To illustrate, as early as 1820 Josiah Quincy was advocating and -practising the summer soiling of cattle, especially milch cows, and -demonstrating the profitableness of the system for the region near -Boston. It was a long time before soiling became common even in that -district, but this experiment engendered better care of livestock. The -same careful, experimental farmer demonstrated the economy of using -good-sized whole potatoes for seed, as against the practice of planting -seed ends and small tubers; other farmers were slow to adopt the idea, -which is not yet universally followed, yet some improvement doubtless -came from the publication of Quincy’s findings. - -What, then, were the general farming habits of the Yankees who form -the background of Wisconsin’s pioneer age? First of all, they lived in -decent houses which were usually of lumber. Dwight contended that not -one New England village in a hundred was disfigured with the presence -of even one log house. He also gives the result of a count made in 1810 -of the log houses along the road from New Haven to Windsor in Vermont, -thence across the Green Mountains to Middlebury, and back by a direct -route to New Haven, a distance of over 460 miles, much of it through -new settlements. It showed only fifteen to Middlebury and thirty-two -on the return route. It seems to have been a matter of pride with -the Yankee to desert his pioneer log house as quickly as possible. -His personal skill with tools, and abundance of saw timber, made the -construction of a frame house a family undertaking calling for labor -indeed, but only a minimum of hired skill; and for little material -involving the outlay of actual money. So the frame houses rose wherever -the Yankees settled. Along the great road from Albany to Buffalo, -in western New York, they began to spring up before the settlements -were ten years old. When, about twenty-five years later, travelers -passed that way they saw many houses of squared, framed timbers, -covered over neatly with boards at the sides and ends, and roofed with -shingles.[14] These common frame houses were sufficiently inartistic, -no doubt. Perhaps, as one traveler remarks, they did look like “huge -packing boxes.” Similar architectural designs can be seen scattered -over the West--and the East, too--at this late date. Still, they were -more commodious than the log houses, and improved the families’ living -conditions. The next stage was likely to mark a very distinct advance. -“In the more cleared and longer settled parts of the country,” says a -none too sympathetic English traveler, “we saw many detached houses, -which might almost be called villas, very neatly got up, with rows of -wooden columns in front, aided by trees and tall shrubs running round -and across the garden which was prettily fenced in, and embellished -with a profusion of flowers.” Yankees had the habit of building by the -roadside, whatever the economic disadvantages of such a situation, -because it enabled them to keep in touch with the world--a reason which -is by no means frivolous, and for them highly characteristic. - -We have no such definite account of the Yankee farmers’ barns as of -those of Pennsylvania Germans. It is true that Dwight, speaking for the -older New England, suggests that the barn was apt to be a much better -structure than the house. The custom, however, noted by travelers in -New York and elsewhere, of letting cattle run at large all winter -without shelter other than trees and brush, and perhaps the straw pile -or rick of marsh hay, argues that stabling was furnished for only a -minimum number of work oxen, horses--if such there were--and perhaps in -some cases cows in milk. It undoubtedly was not the practice to house -stock cattle, or even--except in isolated cases--to feed them in sheds. -The advocates of careful sheltering who wrote for the agricultural -journals recognized that the weight of opinion was against sheltering -stock. They compromised with that opinion by recommending sheds for -young stock and dry cows, and warm barns only for milking cows and work -animals.[15] Yet, some of the leading cattle feeders of the Genesee -valley, as late as the year 1842, were content to scatter loads of hay -over meadows and through brush patches for the hundreds of beef cattle -they were wintering.[16] - -The livestock, except sheep and pigs, was still by 1840 prevailingly of -no breed. Nevertheless, Durhams and Devons were coming into use. The -Patroon stock of shorthorns, introduced in 1824 from England by Stephen -Van Rensellaer, of Albany, gained its first customers apparently among -the English farmers of western New York, but gradually made its way -among the Yankees as well. Other importations were soon made, so that -by 1840 there were several prominent herds of purebreds in that section -of the state. In 1842 it was said of the Genesee County Fair that “with -the exception of some working oxen and one cow not a single animal of -native cattle was in the yard. All were either pure or grade Durhams or -Devons.... Bulls were shown by some six or seven competitors. Among -them were four thoroughbred ones and one of those imported.”[17] It is -clear that by the time emigration to Wisconsin began to take place, -actual progress had been made and the entire body of Yankee farmers -had been indoctrinated with the idea of better livestock. Sheep and -pigs were already largely improved, the former prevailingly through -the cross with the merinos, the latter with Berkshires and other -English breeds. The Morgan horse, a Vermont product, was gaining wide -popularity. - -From what has been said of the care of livestock, it follows that -the possibilities of the farm for the manufacture of fertilizer were -generally neglected. English travelers were apt to insist that this -neglect was universal, but there were, of course, numerous exceptions. -Farming was extensive, not intensive. Lands were cleared by chopping -or “slashing” the timber, burning brush and logs, then harrowing among -the stumps to cover the first-sown wheat seed. In a few years, with the -rotting of the smaller stumps and the roots, the plow could be used, -though always with embarrassment on account of the large stumps which -thickly studded the fields. These disappeared gradually, being allowed -to stand till so fully decayed that a few strokes with ax or mattock -would dislodge them. As late as 1830 many fields in western New York -were stump infested. - -[Illustration: A FARM NEAR ROCHESTER, NEW YORK, IN 1827 - - From Captain Basil Hall’s _Forty Etchings from Sketches Made with the - Camera Lucida_. London, 1829] - -Wheat was the great, almost the sole, market crop, and it was grown -year after year till the soil ceased to respond. From bumper yields -of twenty-five or thirty bushels per acre the returns fell off to -twenty, fifteen, and then twelve, ten, or even eight. The process of -decline was well under way when the immigration to Wisconsin set in, -and already the turn had come toward a more definite livestock economy, -which in large portions of New York soon gave rise to a system of -factory cheese making. A main reason for the removal to the West, on -the part of farmers whose holdings were too small to make successful -stock farms, or who refused to abandon wheat raising as a business, was -that lands in the West could be had already cleared by nature. Many -half-cleared farms, with customary buildings and fences, could in the -forties be purchased in western New York for from four to eight dollars -per acre. Instead of buying these farms, the young men preferred going -to Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, or Wisconsin, those having such farms for -sale doing likewise after selling out to neighbors, usually the larger -farmers, who elected to remain and change their system of farming. In -Vermont we have a similar story, in Ohio the same. The Yankee farmers -who came to Wisconsin were generally at home either small farmers or -the sons of farmers large or small; while a certain proportion of the -larger farmers, by reason of debt or desire to extend their business, -also sold out and came west to buy cheap lands on the prairies or in -the openings. - - * * * * * - -An agriculture which dates from before the time of Tacitus, and -which acquired permanent characteristics from the influence of Roman -merchants, monastics, and feudatories in Roman and medieval times, was -bound to differ widely and even fundamentally from the agriculture of a -far flung American frontier. The Germans who met the Yankee immigrants -in primitive Wisconsin brought an inheritance of habit and training -analogous to that of the English Puritan emigrants to New England, -but with the difference that the Germans’ training had continued -two hundred years longer, on similar lines. They were old-world -cultivators, the Yankees new-world cultivators. - -Tacitus says in one place: “The Germans live scattered and apart, as -a spring, a hill, or a wood entices them.”[18] Nineteenth century -German economists complained that German farmsteads were seated often -most inconveniently with reference to the management of the farm lands -pertaining to them. They had been established, in the days of long ago, -by lakeside, brook, or river under conditions in which access to water -was the most important single consideration. They had never been moved, -although gradually the arable stretched far back from the dwelling, and -the pasture perhaps was located in a wholly detached area.[19] This -description applies to portions of northern Germany where farms were -large and farming had the status of a regular and dignified business. - -Many individuals and families came to Wisconsin from districts -like Mecklenburg, Prussia, Pomerania, though in the emigrations of -the 1840’s and fifties the great majority were from southern and -central German states. It will be one of the interesting inquiries -in connection with our study of local influences in Wisconsin towns -(_Domesday Book Studies_), how far the special regional inheritances of -foreign born settlers manifested themselves in Wisconsin communities. -The presumption, about the north German, would be that his farming -operations would tend to be on a large scale, under a business -system which--in this new land--would slough off such anachronisms -as the dislocated farmstead, and present the features of an ideal -establishment. But it may be that the forest was such a powerful -leveler as to obliterate most of the regional distinctions among -immigrants. Our chief concern, at all events, is with that great -body of German farmers, and intending farmers, who came from the -southwestern states of the recent Empire, especially Alsace, Baden, -Württemberg, Rhine Palatinate, Rhenish Prussia, Hesse, Nassau, -Westphalia--to some extent Bavaria and Saxony. - -The fundamental facts about the home conditions of these people, so -far as they were farmers at home, were the smallness of their holdings, -their intensive cultivation, and the almost universal village type of -life. Travelers of about 1840 describe the typical middle Rhine country -as a highly cultivated plain without division hedges or fences other -than the tree-bordered roads, with no separate farm dwellings and with -no livestock in sight. The crops of several kinds being arranged in -various shaped fields, patches, and strips, the plain looked like the -proverbial “crazy-quilt.” Villages were huddled at the edges of woods, -and occasionally in the midst of the cultivated area. Their houses, -which were not arranged on a regular plan, were usually large stone -structures, the farm yard, with tools, implements, manure and compost -heaps, occupying a kind of court at the rear. - -As a rule, all animals were housed winter and summer. Here was an -important difference to the farming of the north, where large herds -of cattle could be seen pasturing ample meadows, or ruminating in the -shade of buildings or of woods. The soiling system was universally -practiced in summer. Grass land being scarce and precious, feed for the -cows was laboriously gathered along the brookside, in the open spaces -of the forest, along all the roads, in the cemeteries, and the greens -before the houses. The weeds and thinnings from the growing crops went -to the same object. Vegetable tops were a great resource in late summer -and fall, and patches of clover, while insuring green feed, furnished -hay as well. In places the growing of sugar beets for the market was -a leading agricultural enterprise, and the tops of the beets were -carefully cured for winter feed. - -The cultivation was intensive both in that it aimed at the maximum -produce from given areas, and in that the crops raised included some -which called for very special care. Some sections grew tobacco, in -connection with which much hand work was indispensable. This crop also -called for care in seed selection, in germinating, and in preparing the -ground for the reception of the young plants. Beet culture for sugar -making involved perhaps not less care, and doubtless more hand labor. -Of similar but less particularity was the growing of root crops for -stock feed, the orcharding, which was general, and the vine dressing, -incident to the business of special districts. - -There were, of course, many farmers and farms in the region indicated -and in other contributory regions, which were not so widely different -from the average of those in America. Yet, on the whole, it can be -said that the German husbandman, in training and habit, was analogous -to our modern truck farmer or orchardist, rather than to our general -farmer. He was a specialist in soils, in fertilizing and preparing -them for different crops, in planting, stirring, weeding, irrigating; -in defending plants against insect pests, seasonal irregularities, and -soil peculiarities; he throve by hoeing, dragging, trimming, pruning, -sprouting; by curing and conserving plants, roots, grasses, grains, -and fruits. His livestock economy was incidental, yet very important. -It supplied the necessary fertilizer to maintain soil productivity; it -afforded milk, beef, pork, butter, cheese, wool. It gave him his draft -animals, often cows instead of oxen, and economized every bit of grass -and forage which his situation produced. - -Improvement of livestock appears to have affected southwestern Germany -prior to 1850 very little as compared with the pastoral countries of -England, Holland, Friesland, and north Germany. The animals kept by the -village farmers were therefore not remarkable for quality. But they -were usually well housed, and the feed and care they received made up -in considerable measure for the absence of superior blood. - -The various states of Germany, by 1840, were maintaining schools of -agriculture, a species of experiment stations for the dissemination -of such scientific agricultural information as was then available. To -some extent, therefore, farming was beginning to be scientific. But, -prevailingly it was intensely practical, the appropriate art connected -with the growing of every distinct crop being handed on from father to -son, from farmer to laborer. - -One could almost predict how farmers thus trained would react to the -new environment of the Wisconsin wilderness. Taking up a tract of -forested land or buying a farm with a small clearing upon it, their -impulse would be, with the least possible delay, to get a few acres -thoroughly cleared, subdued to the plow, and in a high state of tilth. -Exceptions there were, to be sure, but on the whole the German pioneers -were not content to slash and burn their timber. After the timber was -off, the stumps must come out, forthwith, to make the tract fit for -decent cultivation. Was it the Germans who introduced in land clearing -the custom of “grubbing” instead of “slashing”? This meant felling -the tree by undermining it, chopping off roots underground at a safe -depth, taking out grub and all, instead of cutting it off above ground. -In timber of moderate growth this practice proved fairly expeditious -and highly successful, for once a tract was grubbed, the breaking -plow encountered no serious obstruction. A good “grubber” among later -immigrants could always count on getting jobs from established German -farmers.[20] - -To the American, who was content to plow around his stumps every year -for a decade, to cultivate around them, cradle or reap around them, -it seemed that his German neighbor was using some kind of magic to -exorcise his stumps. The magic was merely human muscle, motivated by a -psychology which inhibited rest so long as a single stump remained in -the field. - -The German not only used the heaps of farm yard fertilizer which, on -buying out the original entryman, he commonly found on the premises, -but he conserved all that his livestock produced, and frequently, -if not too distant from town or village, became a purchaser of the -commodity of which liverymen, stock yard keepers, and private owners of -cow or horse were anxious to be relieved. The manufacture of fertilizer -was a prime reason for stabling his livestock. The other was his fixed -habit of affording animals such care. Not all Germans built barns at -once, but the majority always tried to provide warm sheds, at least, -whereas Yankee and Southwesterner alike were very prone to allow their -animals to huddle, humped and shivering, all winter on the leeward side -of house or granary, or in clumps of sheltering brush or trees.[21] The -German was willing to occupy his log house longer, if necessary, in -order to gain the means for constructing adequate barns and sheds. - -Germans were not one-crop farmers. The lands they occupied, usually -forested, could not be cleared fast enough at best to enable them to -raise wheat on a grand scale, as the Yankees did in the open lands of -the southeast and west. Their arable was extended only a few acres per -year, and while that was being done the German farmers grew a little -of everything--wheat, rye, corn, oats, barley, potatoes, roots. Clover -was to them a favorite forage, hay, and green manure crop. In growing -it, they used gypsum freely. This policy of clover growing, adopted -gradually by all farmers, was one of the means finally relied on by -the wheat farmers to restore the productivity of their abused soils. - -In ways such as the above, German farmers helped to save Wisconsin -agriculture in the period of stress when wheat growing failed and -before coöperative dairying entered. They were not the chief influence -in popularizing improved livestock. Credit for that innovation must -be awarded to the Yankees. They had resumed in the eastern states the -English tradition of breeding, and brought it into Wisconsin where, by -means of state and county fairs and an active agricultural press, it -was ultimately borne in upon the minds of all farmers, Germans among -the rest.[22] - -Neither did the Germans lead in developing the new agriculture, -of which coöperative dairying was the keystone. Yankee leadership -therein, too, was the dominant influence. Yet, it was the Germans, -Scandinavians, and other foreigners--and numerically Germans were -in the majority--who, by virtue of their agricultural morale, their -steadiness in carrying out plans, their patience and perseverance, have -made the dairy business of Wisconsin the great industry it has become. - -Above all, the Germans persisted as farmers. They prospered not -dramatically, like some of the more successful of the Yankee farmers, -but by little and little they saved money, bought more land, better -stock, and built better homes. When Yankee farmers, discouraged or -impoverished by the failure of wheat, offered their farms for sale -preparatory to “going west,” Germans who had managed their smaller -farms more carefully stood ready to buy; when Yankees who were tired -of being “tied to a cow” wanted to go to Montana, Oregon, or Wyoming -to raise steers by wholesale, on the ranching plan, they sold out to -Germans who made the dairy farms pay larger dividends year by year. -When Yankee farmers retired to the city, or went into business, which -in recent decades they have done by thousands, Germans were among -those who were the keenest bidders for their farm properties. In a -word, the German has succeeded agriculturally through the more and -more perfect functioning, in this new land, of qualities imparted by -the training and inheritance which he brought with him from the old -world. On the whole, Germans have kept clear of speculation, preferring -to invest their savings in neighboring lands with which they were -intimately familiar, or to lend to neighboring farmers on farm mortgage -security. In the aggregate, German farmers in Wisconsin have long had -vast sums at interest. The Institute for Research in Land Economics -(University of Wisconsin) has completed investigations which show that -the nation’s area of lowest farm mortgage interest rates (5.2 per cent -or less) coincides very closely with the great maple forest of eastern -Wisconsin, which has been held, from the first, predominantly by German -farmers. - -We have no desire to minimize the factor contributed to Wisconsin’s -agriculture by the Yankees. They were the prophets and the organizers -of the farmers’ movement. Their inherent optimism, their speculative -bent, their genius for organization were indispensable to its success. -“Anything is possible to the American people,” shouted the mid-century -American orator from a thousand Fourth of July rostrums, therein merely -reflecting what the mass of his hearers religiously believed. When -agriculture had to be remade in Wisconsin, the Yankee’s intelligence -told him in what ways it must be improved, and his tact, courage, and -address enabled him to enlist and organize the means for remaking it. -When the Yankee was convinced, by his farm paper or by the exhibitions, -that a purebred animal was a good investment, his speculative spirit -sent him to his banker to borrow a thousand dollars, and to a distant -breeder to make what his more timid German neighbor would call a -“mighty risky investment”--for the animal might die! Finally, when -local organization was required to secure a cheese factory, a creamery, -or a dairy board of trade, the Yankee by virtue of his community -leadership was usually able to effect the desired result. - -Wisconsin’s almost unique success in agriculture is due to no single -or even dual factor. But among the human elements which have been most -potent in producing the result, none is of more significance than the -fortunate blend in her population of the Yankee and the Teuton. - - - - -THE YANKEE AND THE TEUTON IN WISCONSIN - -JOSEPH SCHAFER - -III. SOME SOCIAL TRAITS OF YANKEES - - -Harriet Martineau, the English traveler who in 1837 published a book -entitled _Society in America_, was deeply impressed with New England’s -concern for education. “All young people in these villages,” she says, -“are more or less instructed. _Schooling is considered a necessary of -life._[23] I happened to be looking over an old almanac one day, when -I found, among the directions relating to the preparations for winter -on a farm, the following: ‘Secure your cellars from frost. Fasten loose -clapboards and shingles. Secure a good schoolmaster.’” - -We do not know what almanac Miss Martineau consulted. But a glance -at a file of the _Farmer’s Almanack_, begun in 1793 by Robert B. -Thomas and circulated by him for more than half a century all over New -England, shows her quotation to be fully justified in spirit if not -in letter. As early at least as the year 1804, Mr. Thomas included -in his directions for the month of November, the indispensable item -of education in connection with other activities: “Now let the noise -of your flail awake your drowsy neighbors. Bank up your cellars. Now -hire a good schoolmaster and send your children to school as much as -possible.” - -The nation was young in 1804. Parts of it were new and for that reason -had made but meager educational progress; other parts were backward -for different reasons. But in the older states of New England popular -education had flourished for one hundred and fifty years. This point, -stressed by a score of writers, illustrated by legal enactments, -court decrees, town records, and anniversary sermons, cannot be -over-emphasized in a summary of the social contributions which the -Yankees made to the new western societies they helped to build. -Notwithstanding all that has been written to prove the priority, in -this or that feature of American educational progress, of other social -strains or geographical areas, history may confidently assign to the -Yankee priority in the attainment of universal literacy on an extensive -scale. - -Once the Puritan had convinced himself that the temptation to ignorance -came from “ye old deluder Satan,” whose fell purpose was to keep men -from a knowledge of the Scriptures and thus the more readily win them -for his own, he hesitated not to require the maintenance of schools -in all towns and neighborhoods under his jurisdiction. He was also -concerned to recruit an “able and orthodox ministry” to take the places -of the aging pastors who had come from England and to supply the needs -of new settlements. Harvard College could turn out the ministers, if it -had properly prepared young men to work upon. So the larger towns were -required to maintain grammar schools in addition to the common schools. -Thus we have, as early as 1647, provision for schooling from the lowest -rudiments up through the college course. - -The original religious motive for maintaining these schools persisted. -But other motives were added as the Puritans perceived how notably -secular interests, as well as religious, were served by schooling. -For one thing, young persons who could read, write, and cipher had a -distinct advantage in worldly matters over those who could not. Cheats -and “humbugs,” of whom every community had its share, made victims of -the ignorant, while they fled from the instructed even as their master, -Satan, was supposed to flee from them. Many New England stories were -designed to carry the lesson, especially to parents, that the best -legacy children could receive was good schooling, without which wealth -and property would quickly melt away.[24] - -Apart, also, from such negative worldly advantages as we have named, -one who had enjoyed good schooling might thereby hope to share in many -special social privileges from which the unlettered were debarred. New -England life on the religious side centered in the church, on the civic -side in the town. Each of the two institutions required a full set of -elective officers, ranked according to the importance of the offices -filled, and all of these were chosen from the instructed portion of -the community. To be a deacon in the church or a selectman on the -town board might not be financially remunerative, but it imparted a -dignity to the individual and a social status to the family which -caused these offices to be highly prized. The older theory was that -only good churchmen could fill either type of office. Gradually, the -town offices, which paid something in cash and yielded considerable -political power, came to be sought with increasing frequency by men -who might have no interest in the church. “Jethro Bass” was typical, -not unique, in his scheming to be chosen selectman, and the training -offered by the district school was looked upon as a minimum basis for -such preferment. Said the _Farmer’s Almanack_ for November, 1810: “Send -your children to school. Every boy should have a chance to prepare -himself to do common town business.” - -The great majority were satisfied with the elementary training -afforded by the district schools, kept for a few months in winter. -But the presence of learned men in every community and the existence -of secondary schools and colleges tolled a good many on the way to -advanced instruction who had no plans for professional careers. -From farm, factory, and counting-room, even from among those before -the mast, went boys to academy and college, while female seminaries -springing up here and there took care of the educational interests -of selected groups of girls. Such schools were not free, but their -benefits were easy to attain, the principal requisite being pluck -and a willingness to work both at earning money and at the studies. -Girls and boys alike could usually earn their way by teaching in the -common schools. Thus the educational system propagated itself, with -the result that men and women of intelligence, culture, and refinement -became widely dispersed through Yankeedom, and learning was recognized -as an aid to the good life as well as a guarantee of the successful -life. This was a fundamental condition of that literary flowering -which marked the middle decades of the nineteenth century. It insured -the poets, historians, orators, and novelists an audience which waxed -ever larger as province after province in the West was added to New -England’s spiritual empire. - -Let us not, however, picture to ourselves a Yankee society wholly -suffused with intellectual and spiritual light. The Yankees had no such -illusions about themselves. Listen to Timothy Dwight’s description of -a class of New Englanders who could not live “in regular society. They -are too idle, too talkative, too passionate, too prodigal, and too -shiftless to acquire either property or character. They are impatient -of the restraints of law, religion and morality, grumble about the -taxes by which rulers, ministers and schoolmasters are supported--at -the same time they are usually possessed, in their own view, of -uncommon wisdom; understand medical science, politics, and religion -better than those who have studied them through life....” He represents -the type as the pioneering or _forester_ class, who had “already -straggled onward from New England” to far distant settlements, and -whose going he was not disposed to lament. “In mercy,” he says, “to -the sober, industrious, and well disposed inhabitants, Providence has -opened in the vast western wilderness a retreat sufficiently alluring -to draw them from the land of their nativity. We have many troubles -even now, but we should have many more if this body of foresters had -remained at home.”[25] - -The above citation doubtless contains an element of exaggeration, due -to Dwight’s ingrained conservatism. He was outraged by the radical -views no less than by the erratic and ignorant harangues he heard “by -many a kitchen fire, in every blacksmith’s shop, and in every corner -of the streets....” Yet we must not lose sight of the fact that he -here sketches for us some Yankee social traits of rather extended -application which were important in the building of the West. These -people belonged to the outstandingly non-conformist type. They were -sufficiently independent--contemptuous, one might say--of established -customs and institutions to be willing, with what ignorance or -awkwardness soever, to bring about changes, some of which were sadly -needed. Religiously they were apt to be _come-outers_. It was largely -among this class that were recruited the Millerites, Millennialists, -and original Latter Day Saints, together with many other minor sects -and factions. In politics, when all orthodox New England was Whig, -they were mainly Democratic; many, however, backed the program of -Nativism; in the person of John Brown they exemplified the principle -of direct action as applied to slavery. The social innovator, the -medical quack, and the political demagogue found among them welcome and -encouragement, sometimes to the temporary distress of society, often to -its ultimate benefit. Not unlike the original Puritans who represented -“the dissidence of dissent and the protestantism of the protestant -religion,”[26] they constituted a dynamic social element although -wanting in the intellectual and religious training, the political -morale, and perhaps the heroism which distinguished the original -planters of Massachusetts Bay. They had the spirit of the revolutionary -New Englanders, who were described, not inaptly, as “hard, stubborn, -and indomitably intractable.” They were the backbone of Shays’s -rebellion. In many ways they illustrate the qualities which, at various -times in our later history, have served as the fulcrum of revolutionary -change. - -Dwight’s _foresters_ were merely the extreme manifestation, the -caricature, of a much larger class of heady, self sufficient, -opinionated, and troublesome persons who equally with the sober, -church going, instructed, conformist type were the product of New -England conditions. The cords of restraint were drawn so taut in the -parishes and towns, that the person who was determinedly “different” -was compelled to break them and become a kind of social pariah in -order to gain the freedom his soul craved. It was not an accident -that so large a proportion of that class went to the frontier. They -found there a less rigorous church discipline, freedom from taxes for -the support of the established church, and a more flexible state of -society in the midst of which they might hope to function. In western -Massachusetts and Connecticut, in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, -they were numerous at the opening of the National period. Soon large -numbers emigrated to western New York, to northern Pennsylvania, to -Ohio, thence throughout the West. They made up an appreciable part of -the thronging Yankee immigration which seized upon Wisconsin’s prairies -and oak openings between 1835 and 1850, and their presence has left -its impress upon our social history. Still the experiences of older -frontiers, such as western New York, had already modified the type. - -When all necessary deductions have been made, however, the church -remained equally with the school a dominant note in the Yankee’s -social landscape. His “meeting house,” not infrequently in New England -a gem of ecclesiastical architecture, fulfilled his artistic ideal; the -congregation was the “household of faith” which claimed his undeviating -loyalty; the pastor was “guest and philosopher” in his home whenever he -chose to honor it with his presence. To men and women alike, attendance -upon the church services was the principal Sabbath day duty and the -chief physical and mental diversion of the whole week. It was an old -custom to linger after the morning sermon for a social chat either -in the church yard, when the weather permitted, or else at a near-by -tavern; and while the talk was ostensibly about the sermon, gossip, -bits of practical information, and even a shy kind of love making were -often interwoven, tending to make this a genuine community social hour. - -The tradition that the minister must be a man of learning was of -incalculable social importance. His advice was called for under every -conceivable circumstance of individual and community need. He assisted -about the employment of schoolmasters and was the unofficial supervisor -of the school. He enjoined upon negligent parents the duty of sending -their children, and he had an eye for the promising boys--lads -o’pairts, as the Scotch say--whom he encouraged to prepare for -professional life. He fitted boys to enter the academy and sometimes -tutored college students. In the rural parish the minister occupied -the church glebe, which made him a farmer with the rest. He was apt to -read more widely and closely in the agricultural press, or in books -on husbandry, than his neighbors, thereby gaining the right to offer -practical suggestions about many everyday matters. Some ministers were -writers for agricultural journals. Many contributed to local newspapers -items of news or discussions of public questions in which their -parishioners were interested with themselves. - -The home missionary idea was inherent in the New England system -both as respects religion and education. Older, better established -communities always felt some responsibility for the newer. Since -settlement proceeded largely by the method of planting new townships -of which the raw land was purchased by companies from the colonial -and state governments, it was possible for the larger community to -give an impetus to religion and education under the terms of township -grants. This was accomplished by reserving in each grant three -shares of the land--“one for the first settled minister, one for the -ministry forever, and one for the school.” Other grants of raw land -were made for the support of academies. Here we have the origin of -the system of land grants in aid both of the common schools and of -state universities, in the western states. The grants for religion -necessarily were discontinued after the adoption of the national -constitution.[27] - -The religious unity established by the Puritans, and maintained for -a time by the simple method of rigorously excluding those holding -peculiar doctrines, gave way to considerable diversity in the late -eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Episcopalianism made some -progress in the older settlements, and Unitarianism created a great -upheaval, while toward the frontiers the Methodists and Baptists -flourished more and more. These several elements, by 1820, were -powerful enough politically to secure the abolition of the ancient tax -for the support of the established (Congregational or Presbyterian) -church--a tax which had long caused ill feeling between West and East, -and no doubt had contributed to the growth of dissenting churches. -These frontier churches had the characteristics of the frontier -populations. Their ministers were less learned, their morale less -exacting, their religion less formal and ritualistic, their ordinances -less regularly and habitually enforced. But there was an emotionalism -which in a measure compensated for defects of training, for looseness -of habit and negligence in the practice of religion. In a word, the -camp meeting type of Christianity prevailed widely along the frontier, -and that type entered Wisconsin Territory with the numerous Methodist -and Baptist settlers from New York and New England. As early as August, -1838, such a camp meeting was held under Methodist leadership in the -woods near Racine; it was attended by hundreds of pioneer families -drawn from the sparsely settled neighborhoods for many miles around. -Its appointments were of the typical frontier kind, though one would -expect less boisterousness in the manifestations of emotion among -those people than seems to have accompanied similar gatherings in the -Southwest.[28] - -The stated religious services in early Wisconsin, as in every frontier -region, were apt to be less frequent than in older communities. -Ministers were too few in number and neighborhoods too impecunious to -justify each locality in supporting a minister. The circuit riding -custom prevailed generally among all denominations. One preacher -traveled, on foot, six hundred miles, making the round in six weeks. -Each group of churches also had its conferences, which were occasions -for planning missionary effort, for unitedly attacking special -religious or social abuses, and for promoting constructive community -effort. The ablest speakers addressed such gatherings; the membership -of the churches concerned and others attended, in addition to the -delegates; and important religious, social, or moral results sometimes -flowed from them. - -Another peculiar Yankee institution allied at once to the school and -the church, was the lyceum or local coöperative organization for -bringing lecturers to the community. The settlements in southeastern -Wisconsin had their lyceums at an early date, and many distinguished -public men from the East had occasion to visit this new Yankeeland -in the capacity of lecturer. Among them were Horace Greeley, Bayard -Taylor, and James Russell Lowell. - -Reform movements, however, though usually receiving valuable aid -from churches, lyceums, mechanics’ institutes, and other permanent -organizations of men for public discussion, had a way of creating -special organizations to propagate themselves. That was true of the -temperance movement, which by the time of the Yankee immigration into -Wisconsin was under vigorous headway. Beginning, in serious form, about -1820, the intervening years witnessed the creation of hundreds of local -temperance societies in New England and New York, and the federation -of these societies into state societies. These central organizations -stimulated the movement by sending out lecturers, conducting a -newspaper propaganda, and issuing special publications. Some of their -tracts are said to have been scattered “like the leaves of autumn,” all -over New England and New York. - -One of these tracts affected the social history of Wisconsin very -directly. It is known, traditionally, as “The Ox Discourse,” because -it was based on Exodus 21:28-29: “If an ox gore a man or woman, that -they die: then the ox shall be surely stoned, and his flesh shall not -be eaten; but the owner of the ox shall be quit. But if the ox were -wont to push with his horn in time past, and it hath been testified -to his owner, and he hath not kept him in, but that he hath killed a -man or a woman; the ox shall be stoned, and his owner also shall be -put to death.” The sermon on this text produced a great sensation and -gained many new adherents to the temperance cause. Among these were two -brothers, Samuel F. and Henry Phoenix, who were storekeepers in a New -York village and sold much whisky. They publicly destroyed all the -liquor they had on hand and became crusaders in the temperance cause. -In the spring of 1836 Colonel Samuel F. Phoenix selected in Wisconsin -a “Temperance Colony claim,” on which he settled that summer. Then he -rode to Belmont and induced the first territorial legislature to set -off from Milwaukee County a county to be known as Walworth, in honor -of the chancellor of the state of New York, who was a noted temperance -leader. He named the village begun by him Delavan, in honor of E. C. -Delavan, pioneer temperance editor and at that time chairman of the -executive committee of the New York State Temperance Society. Colonel -Phoenix lectured on temperance, helped to organize early temperance -societies, rebuked his neighbors--especially the New Yorkers--for -employing whisky at raisings, and, before his death in 1840, had -succeeded in giving a powerful impulse to the movement in southeastern -Wisconsin. - -Another dramatic figure in early temperance annals was Charles M. -Goodsell, who in 1838 settled at Lake Geneva and built the first mill -operated in Walworth County. He was of Connecticut birth, and his -father owned and managed, among other properties, a whisky distillery. -Goodsell, however, when he came west from New York State, was a most -determined opponent of the traffic in intoxicants. Soon after opening -his mill a local company erected in Lake Geneva a distillery for making -corn whisky. Goodsell warned them, he says, not to expect him to grind -their grain and they installed a grinding apparatus of their own. But, -their machinery proving inadequate, they finally sent a grist of corn -to Goodsell’s mill, demanding, as under the law they had a right to -do, that it be “ground in turn.” Goodsell refused, thereby producing -a tense situation, for the pioneer farmers looked to the distillery -as a cash market for their grain. Finally, the distillers brought -suit, won a verdict, and Goodsell appealed. But meantime, he rode to -Madison, where the legislature was sitting, and procured the adoption -of an amendment to the law regulating milling, to the effect: “Nothing -in this section contained shall be construed to compel the owners or -occupiers of mills to grind for distilling, or for sale or merchant -work.” This proviso, adopted in 1841, remained a feature of the statute -for many years.[29] - -It must not be supposed that pioneer Yankee society, even in Walworth -County, was prevailingly of the temperance variety. All testimony, both -of the reformers and of others, tends to show that a large majority -was at first in the opposition. Frontier history would indicate that -excessive indulgence in whisky was apt to be more common during the -primitive phase of settlement than later, due perhaps to the looser -social and religious organization. - -Wisconsin may be said to have been born to the temperance agitation -which, in a few years’ time, produced societies pledged to total -abstinence all over the southeastern part of the state and in many -other localities. In March, 1843, a legislative temperance society -was organized with a list of twenty-four signers. The house of -representatives at the time had twenty-six members, the council -thirteen, or a total of thirty-nine. So a decided majority was aligned -with the movement. Moses M. Strong was chosen president, which was -considered a triumph for the cause, and much interest was aroused by -the adherence of William S. Hamilton, who is reported to have addressed -one of the society’s meetings.[30] - -The temperance agitation everywhere received a notable impetus from -the adoption in 1851 of the prohibition law by the state of Maine. -Immediately other states moved for the same objective, and in Wisconsin -a referendum vote was taken in 1853 which resulted favorably to -prohibition, though no enactment followed.[31] In that election the -southeastern counties were overwhelmingly for the Maine law. Walworth -gave 1906 votes for it and 733 against, Rock 2494-432, Racine 1456-927. -Milwaukee at the same time voted against prohibition by 4381 to 1243. -This shows where was to be found the powerful opposition to legislation -of this nature, which was destined to increase rather than diminish -with the strengthening of the German element already very numerous. - -From the time of the Maine law agitation the communities dominated -by Yankees were generally found arrayed in favor of any proposal for -limiting or suppressing the liquor traffic, although, as we shall see -in later articles, no large proportion of their voters ever joined the -Prohibition party. They did not succeed in abolishing drunkenness, -though it became very unfashionable to indulge heavily in spirituous -liquors and the proportion of total abstainers among the younger -generation steadily increased. Yankees furnished a very small per cent -of those who gained their livelihood through occupations connected -directly with intoxicating liquors, except as such traffic was carried -on incidentally as a feature of the drug business. The disfavor with -which saloon keeping, brewing, and distilling have long been regarded -among that class of the population is explained by the fervor and -thoroughness of the early temperance campaigns. - -Because of their attitude on the liquor question, on Sunday laws, and -other matters pertaining to the regulation of conduct, the Yankees have -always been looked upon by other social strains as straight-laced and -gloomy. In this judgment men have been influenced more than they are -aware by the traditions of Puritanism which it was supposed the Yankees -inherited. They recalled the story of how Bradford stopped Christmas -revelers and sent them to work; they pictured Puritan children as -forbidden to laugh and talk on the Sabbath day; and some may have heard -the story of how Washington, while president, was once stopped by a -Connecticut tithing man who must be informed why His Excellency fared -forth on the Lord’s Day instead of resting at his inn or attending -public worship.[32] - -Two remarks may be made on this point. First, while Puritanism -unquestionably had a somber discipline, there was not lacking even -among Puritans the play instinct which persisted in cropping out -despite all efforts of the authorities at repression. Second, the -nineteenth century Yankees register a wide departure from early -Puritanism in their social proclivities, and the difference was -particularly marked in the West. Even church services were modified to -fit the needs of the less resolute souls. Music became an important -feature and it was adapted more or less to special occasions.[33] -Sunday Blue Laws were gradually relaxed, though never abandoned -in principle. Well-to-do city people allowed themselves vacation -trips, visits to watering places, and to scenic wonders like Niagara -Falls.[34] In town and country alike dancing became an amusement of -almost universal vogue, though protested by some religionists, and -rural neighborhoods found bowling such a fascinating game for men and -boys that the almanac maker thought well to caution his readers against -over-indulgence therein.[35] Ball playing, picnicing, sleighing, -coasting, skating were among the outdoor sports much indulged in -by Yankees, while family and neighborhood visiting, the quilting -bee, donation parties, church socials, and the like furnished indoor -recreation. The circus and the “cattle show” were events in the western -Yankeeland equal in social significance to Artillery Day in Boston. - -Thus, while it is true that Yankees were a sober people, of -prevailingly serious mien and purpose, they were not averse to the -relaxations of play and recreation. The question whether or not the -Yankees were fun loving cannot be answered by yes or no. If we mean by -fun the rollicking joviality characteristic of irresponsible, carefree -folk, the answer is no. Many Yankees found their best fun in work -or business. To the David Harum type, which was fairly numerous, a -horse trade was more fun than a picnic. Some Boston merchants were so -immersed in their business that, though very pious, they nevertheless -spent Sunday afternoon going over their books and writing business -letters.[36] Being serious minded, they tended to make their chief -concern an obsession, and could hardly be happy away from it. But the -majority were quite as ready to amuse themselves out of working hours, -as are the Italians or other social stocks that have a reputation for -fun and frolic. - -The Yankees also found intellectual enjoyment in cultivating quickness -of retort, in giving utterance to clever if homely aphorisms, and in -a kind of whimsical humor. These traits emerge in their vernacular -literature like “Major Jack Downing’s” _Thirty Years out of the -Senate_, and especially Lowell’s _Biglow Papers_. “The squire’ll have -a parson in his barn a preachin’ to his cattle one o’ these days, see -if he don’t,” said one of “Tim Bunker’s” shiftless neighbors by way -of summarizing the squire’s over-niceness in caring for his Jersey -cows. “Ez big ez wat hogs dream on when they’re most too fat to -snore”; “that man is mean enough to steal acorns from a blind hog”; -“the coppers ain’t all tails”; “pop’lar as a hen with one chicken”; -“quicker’n greased lightnin’”; “a hen’s time ain’t much”; “handy as a -pocket in a shirt”; “he’s a whole team and the dog under the wagon”; -“so thievish they had to take in their stone walls at night”; “so black -that charcoal made a chalk mark on him”; “painted so like marble that -it sank in water”--the above are all Yankeeisms of approved lineage and -illustrate a characteristic type of Yankee humor. The example below is -of a rarer sort. “Pretty heavy thunder you have here,” said the English -Captain Basil Hall to a lounger in front of a Massachusetts tavern. -“Waal, we do,” came the drawling reply, “considerin’ the number of the -inhabitants.” - -About the time that Yankees began to emigrate to Wisconsin a talented -French writer, Michel Chevalier, gave the world a brilliant and on the -whole favorable characterization of them. “The Yankee,” he says, “is -reserved, cautious, distrustful; he is thoughtful and pensive, but -equable; his manners are without grace, modest but dignified, cold, -and often unprepossessing; he is narrow in his ideas, but practical, -and possessing the idea of the proper, he never rises to the grand. -He has nothing chivalric about him and yet he is adventurous, and he -loves a roving life. His imagination is active and original, producing, -however, not poetry but drollery. The Yankee is the laborious ant; -he is industrious and sober and, on the sterile soil of New England, -niggardly; transplanted to the promised land in the west he continues -moderate in his habits, but less inclined to count the cents. In New -England he has a large share of prudence, but once thrown into the -midst of the treasures of the west he becomes a speculator, a gambler -even, although he has a great horror of cards, dice, and all games of -chance and even of skill except the innocent game of bowls.” Chevalier -also says: “The fusion of the European with the Yankee takes place -but slowly, even on the new soil of the west; for the Yankee is not a -man of promiscuous society; he believes that Adam’s oldest son was a -Yankee.” - -The Yankee was not more boastful than other types of Americans, though -his talent for exaggerative description was marked. Yet he had a -pronounced national obsession and was uncompromising in his patriotism: -“This land o’ourn, I tell ye’s got to be a better country than man ever -see,” was put into a Yankee’s mouth by one of their own spokesmen and -represents the Yankee type of mild jingoism. It is full cousin to that -other sentiment which also this writer assigns to him: - - Resolved, that other nations all, if set longside of us, - For vartoo, larnin, chiverlry, aint noways wuth a cuss.[37] - -These are but cruder expressions of ideas dating from the Revolutionary -War, and of which Timothy Dwight, who was not a poet by predestination, -gave us in verse a noble example: - - Columbia, Columbia, to glory arise, - The queen of the world, and child of the skies! - Thy genius commands thee; with rapture behold, - While ages on ages thy splendors unfold. - Thy reign is the last, and the noblest of time, - Most fruitful thy soil, most inviting thy clime; - Let the crimes of the east ne’er encrimson thy name, - Be freedom, and science, and virtue, thy fame. - -It need not be supposed that all Yankees who came to Wisconsin or -other western states were familiar with these glowing lines. But it is -almost certain that, in the common schools of Yankeedom, most of them -had thrilled to the matchless cadences of Webster’s reply to Hayne. -What more was needed, by way of literary support, to a pride of country -which, if a trifle ungenerous to others, was based on facts all had -experienced. - - - - -THE YANKEE AND THE TEUTON IN WISCONSIN - -JOSEPH SCHAFER - -IV. SOME SOCIAL TRAITS OF TEUTONS - - -The year 1832, celebrated in Wisconsin history as the time when the -lead miners and other pioneers destroyed the power of the Rock River -Indians, was remembered by later-coming German immigrants for a very -different reason. It was toward the end of March in that year, the -place Trier (Treves), the ancient capital of the western “Cæsars,” a -city which is still rich in the massive ruins of its Roman foretime. -As the story goes, the boys of one form in the old _Gymnasium_ were -being entertained at the house of a professor, where, boy-like, they -were playing indoor games accompanied with much laughter and general -hilarity. Suddenly one of their younger classmates rushed breathless -into the room, exclaiming: “Goethe is dead!”[38] During the balance -of the evening, the less serious of the youngsters having returned to -their interrupted play, this boy engaged with his instructors in eager -discussion of Goethe’s life and writings. - -The youth in question was Karl Marx, whose later history exhibits a -wide divergence from the exclusively literary career prophesied by -his boyhood scholastic interests. The classmate who is authority for -this incident continued in Marx’s company the _Gymnasium_ studies; he -then performed his one year minimum of military service, and having -secured some business experience sailed away as an immigrant to the -new world, settling on a Wisconsin farm. In the course of a long life -he often reverted to the story of Goethe, whose works, as well as -those of Schiller and Lessing, made a part of his home library. These -great names never failed to kindle his pride in the intellectual -achievements of the German people, whose governments at the time of -his emigration in 1841 seemed to him a compound of despotism and -inefficiency.[39] - -Doubtless there were Germans of the immigration to Wisconsin who -knew not Goethe, or if in a hazy way they did know who he was, had -no intellectual right to judge his merits. But the more intelligent -were sure to possess some knowledge of the writings of their greatest -poet and of lesser men who still were great in the world’s estimation. -Hence it was that Germans who at that period went to the new world, -while acknowledging by their flight the political, economic, and social -obstacles to a successful life in Prussia, Bavaria, Baden, Westphalia, -or Luxemburg, were always able to maintain a self-respecting attitude -when confronted with the pretensions of those Americans who were -unsympathetic, jingoistic, or boastful. German immigrants might grant -much to superior cleverness, to the stupendous achievements of a -liberty loving race, domiciled in a peaceful continent and dowered with -free lands and boundless opportunity; but they remembered that _William -Tell_ and _Faust_ and _The Laocoön_ were written by Germans. - -Though many immigrants were far from being literary, they doubtless -possessed, on the average, a knowledge of German masterpieces -fully equivalent to the knowledge which Americans possessed of the -English Classics. For education was looking up, and while most of -the immigrants from German states, like those from other European -countries, were of the peasant class, which was usually the most -backward, still by 1840 nearly all were sure to have enjoyed some -systematic schooling. At an earlier period this might have been -otherwise. The condition of limited serfdom, removed but a generation -earlier, operated powerfully to neutralize such benevolent plans for -universal instruction as kings and ministers proclaimed. For the -peasants were directly subordinate to the local lords, who often felt -“that an ignorant labor supply was less likely to seek to better its -condition by demands upon them....”[40] The great national reform -movement which came to fruition after the close of the Napoleonic wars -swept away many of the disabilities of the common people, and developed -in Prussia and other states a system of universal education as the -surest means of national upbuilding. - -The excellencies of the Prussian school system prior to 1840 became the -theme of flattering reports on the part of educators in many lands. -The celebrated philosopher Victor Cousin made it the basis for his -plan of educational reform in France; the Scotch, English, and Irish -discussed it; Horace Mann proclaimed it to the school authorities of -Massachusetts, and Calvin E. Stowe recommended it to the legislature of -Ohio. That system may not have possessed all of the virtues which the -ordinances quoted by Cousin imply.[41] Yet it had the one excellence to -which educationally all others are subsidiary--a well-trained teaching -force. Indeed, if there is anything which seems miraculous in the swift -and thoroughgoing transformation of school conditions in Prussia during -the first forty years of the nineteenth century, it is explained by -the provision which the state made for normal schools and the supply, -through their agency, of teachers enough to man all the schools. “In -the lowest school in the smallest and obscurest village,” says Horace -Mann, “or for the poorest class in overcrowded cities; in the schools -connected with pauper establishments, with houses of correction or -with prisons--in all these there was a teacher of mature age, of -simple, unaffected and decorous manners.” Mann also made it clear -that every such teacher was possessed of adequate scholarship and -special training for the work of the schoolroom.[42] Such a statement -could not be made at that time about Massachusetts, where popular -education was already two hundred years old, nor could it be made with -equal confidence of other German countries, though several of these -approximated the Prussian standard and most of them were earnestly -promoting education along the same lines and by the use of similar -means. - -We must therefore regard the generation of the German exodus from -which Wisconsin profited so largely in the later 1840’s and the -1850’s, as almost universally literate and usually well grounded in -the rudiments of an education. The intelligent, reading, writing, and -slow but careful figuring German peasant immigrants constituted the -best testimonial to the efficacy of German systems of instruction for -the common people. The _Gymnasia_, the _real Schule_, the universities, -sent forth representatives of the highest German culture to honor -the learned professions, the literary, philosophical, and scientific -circles of America. - -On the basis of formal school instruction alone, the historian of early -Wisconsin would be compelled to assign first place in social fitness to -the immigrants from Germany. Neither the Irish, the English, nor even -the Yankee pioneers on the average had enjoyed as thorough a training -as had Prussians, Saxons, Hessians, or Badeners. Yet, school training -is never all there is of education, and it may constitute but a small -portion of it. No one questions that the social character of Prussian -and other German peasants was far higher in 1840 than it had been in -1800, and this was due to a variety of causes, of which schooling was -only one. In part it was due to the abolition of serfdom, in part to -the reorganization of municipal life; also, largely to the religious -agitation of the period, to the movements for political reform, and -especially to the widespread, momentous, and gripping spirit of -nationalism. - -Nevertheless, despite their superb educational equipment plus other -incentives, the Prussians still seemed to intelligent American -observers in a very retarded social condition. Horace Mann, who wrote -most enthusiastically of their schools and was sympathetic toward the -Germans in every respect, in a passage of almost classic force and -beauty written in 1843, tells us why education in Prussia accomplished -for the people so much less than one might expect. For one thing, -he says, the pupils left school too early--at the age of fourteen, -which was their time for beginning regular and heavy work. Then, too, -books for further self-instruction were lacking. There was in Prussia -nothing analogous to the Massachusetts district school libraries. -“But,” he continues, “the most potent cause of Prussian backwardness -and incompetency is this--when the children come out from the school -they have little use either for the faculties that have been developed, -or for the knowledge that has been acquired. Their resources have not -been brought into demand; their powers are not roused or strengthened -by exercise. Our common phrases, ‘the active duties of life’; ‘the -responsibilities of citizenship’; ‘the stage, the career, of action’; -‘the obligations to posterity’;--would be strange sounding words in -the Prussian ear.... Now, although there is a sleeping ocean in the -bosom of every child that is born into the world, yet if no freshening, -life-giving breeze ever sweeps across its surface, why should it not -repose in dark stagnation forever.” The bill of particulars with which -the great educator clinches his indictment of the Prussian system, -while it aims to describe accurately only the then existing condition -in Prussia, might be equally applicable to almost any other absolutist, -paternalistic state. All responsibility for the people’s welfare was -assumed by the monarch, who in turn was actively aided by a hierarchy -of officials in state and church, in the central government and the -local administrative areas. - -Of this officialdom, particularly in its military and civil aspects, -the nobility was not merely the corner stone but the essential part -of the structure. The church, loyal to its traditions, was much more -democratic, men of every class being found in each of its official -grades. The newly developed educational system gave to the common man -another significant opportunity, since teaching candidates were drawn -in large numbers from the middle and lower classes, and were given -at public expense the training necessary to fit them for permanent -positions in the various types of schools. On the whole, however, life -beyond the school, which among Americans of that day commonly yielded -the major part of education, was in Prussia far less fruitful. For, the -American, whose formal schooling had been limited, was sure to multiply -its efficacy many times through the intensely original character of his -activities. In these he was apt to employ everything he had learned, -and constantly to learn more for the sake of applying the new knowledge -to challenging situations. - -The contrast between the average Prussian’s life and the average -American’s life was sharp and decisive. The boy leaving school at -fourteen in Frederick William’s country was thrust at once into a -routine of severe labor, controlled by others. Either he might be on -a farm, where his duties were fixed by custom and minutely directed -by parent or employer; or he might be apprenticed to a trade which -would give him seven years under an exacting master. Assuming that -he remained in his native region, his career thenceforth would be -determined with the minimum of personal effort. The American boy whose -schooling stopped at an early age might go west and start a new farm -home in a new environment, with every incentive toward employing his -best powers to win unusual success; he might go to the city and engage -in some business; attend school to prepare for a profession; or settle -down on the ancestral acres under social and economic conditions which -called for almost continuous readjustments, and kept his mind on the -stretch to bring these about. - -The governmental arrangements in America were inherently educational; -in Prussia they were the reverse, save when, with revolutionary fury, -the people rose to seek their destruction or reform. In Prussia, says -Horace Mann, “the subject has no officers to choose, no inquiry into -the character or eligibility of candidates to make, no vote to give. -He has no laws to enact or abolish. He has no questions about peace or -war, finance, taxes, tariffs, post office, or internal improvements to -decide or discuss. He is not asked where a road shall be laid, or how a -bridge shall be built, although in the one case he has to perform the -labor and in the other to supply the materials.... The tax gatherer -tells him how much he is to pay, the ecclesiastical authority plans a -church which he must build; and his spiritual guide, who has been set -over him by another, prepares a creed and a confession of faith all -ready for his signature. He is directed alike how he must obey his King -and worship his God.” - -The schools of Prussia inculcated religion and morality as sedulously -as they taught geography, singing, and writing, the methods used -being highly praised by American pedagogical experts. This universal -insistence on the ethical content of life could not fail to produce -results more or less in harmony with the aims of great ethical -philosophers, like Kant of Königsberg, a teacher of the learned whose -“categorical imperative,” popularized in that epoch, has not yet gone -into the philosophical discard. The average German immigrants of the -1840’s knew little of Kant or the Kantian school of ethics. But of -honesty, truthfulness, and fidelity to the plighted word they knew -much, because those were practical virtues with which in school if not -at home all were indoctrinated. Thrift and industry were additional but -fundamental virtues which were widely diffused. It is hard for an empty -sack to stand upright. The reason why in America a German’s note was -more often worth face value than that of some other classes was because -the German usually labored unceasingly and saved what he earned, thus -enabling him to meet his obligation.[43] - -They were not all saints, these Germans, and in the matter of personal -morality the Prussians particularly seem in those days to have deserved -much of the criticism directed against them.[44] However, it is not -necessary to regard even the Prussians as more lax than most other -continentals, and their character is always explainable as a vulgarized -aping of the low if gilded immoralities of court and aristocracy. -Matters of this sort do not lend themselves readily to statistical -inquiry. But it can hardly be doubted that in France, Prussia, Austria, -or any other country of continental Europe the private morals of the -common people were better on the whole than those of the upper classes. -In America, where immigrants from those countries came into contact -with a self-governing people of simple habits and prevailingly high -ideals of personal conduct, though with numerous individual divergences -from the type, sharp attention was bound to be directed to this feature -in the character of foreigners, and the Germans attracted their full -share of suspicion and disfavor from the stricter sort of Americans. - -Such suspicions were heightened by certain social customs of the -Germans to which Americans reacted adversely. Sunday amusements were -all but universal among them. Travelers in Germany dwell upon the -gaiety observed in the villages, or in the city parks and the beer -gardens, the distinctive costumes of different localities lending -color and interest to the scenes. Music was cultivated in every -German community; all Germans could sing and a large proportion could -perform on musical instruments. One was “as certain to see a violin -as a blackboard in every schoolroom.”[45] Wherever Germans gathered -together--and Sunday, since it was the weekly holiday, was their day -for assembling--there was singing and dancing, usually accompanied by -the drinking of beer or wine to stimulate hilarity. This drinking was -not necessarily excessive, because most Germans were moderate in their -appetites for alcohol, some were unable to spend much, and all were -economical (_sparsam_). The dances differed from those favored in this -country, being mainly “round dances,” and the standards of decorum in -the relations of the sexes were different also. No wonder that, when -German families settled in groups near our own people, Yankee fathers -and mothers often shook their heads doubtfully in contemplating the -influence upon their children of these unfamiliar social customs. - -It is probable that the vigor with which among this resilient people -amusements were carried on had a definite relation to the intensity, -monotony, and sordidness of the labor from which they were a recoil. At -all events, with more leisure on week days and an opportunity to do his -work under pleasanter conditions, the German readily adapted himself to -a type of relaxation which was less boisterous and more genteel. His -work and his living being what they were, it is doubtful if anything -better in the form of amusements could have been expected of him. -Travelers from England and America, on their visits to Germany, were -impressed with the wholesomeness of the Sunday picnics, the rambles -through the forests, the frolics on the village greens and in the parks -adjacent to the towns and cities.[46] - -With all his sociability, joviality, and occasional levity, the German -was not devoid of an element of austerity. This was one secret of his -ability to achieve. Whatever the work might be, he settled himself to -its performance with a grim determination expressive of century-long -training. The mechanic, from his apprentice years, was habituated to -long hours of unremitting but improving toil. The farmer (_bauer_) -was a traditional daylight-saver and a night-worker besides, such -excessive labor being compulsory under the system of serfdom, when the -peasant’s time was levied upon to a very large extent by the lord. The -German schools inculcated similar habits of relentless application -to the work in hand, and even the government bureaus, under rigorous -task-masters like old Friedrich Wilhelm and his son Frederick the -Great, enforced compliance with the ideal of a patient, steady “grind” -which not inaptly typified the German in the eyes of other peoples. The -German often performed less work in the time consumed than an alert -Yankee would have performed in a shorter day; his tools and implements -were generally awkward and inefficacious; even in scholarship he not -infrequently took the long way around to reach his goal--but he usually -reached it because he had no notion of turning back or of stopping -at a halfway point on his job. Persistent rather than brilliant, -more industrious than inventive, the German toiled on, content if he -always had something to show for his labor. The contrast, in that -generation, between the German at work and the German at play is the -contrast between a man governed by an intense purpose to accomplish -a given task, whether interesting or not, and the same man intent on -accomplishing nothing with every physical, intellectual, and emotional -evidence of enjoying the process. Some men carry into their play the -morale which governs them in their work; others import into their work -the spirit of their play. In the case of the mid-nineteenth century -German the two aspects of his existence, work and play, differed in -spirit quite as much as in content. - -The Germans had their Puritan sects, like the Moravians and other -pietists, whose attitude was distinctly other-worldly, to whom play -was a sedate if not a solemn activity. Such people disapproved of -dancing and beer drinking Germans quite as heartily as of profane -whiskey drinking and quarrelsome Americans or Irish. Individuals and -colonies of the pietistic classes passed into the emigrations, and -thus Wisconsin’s German population contained most of the elements to -be found at the same time in the German states. This illustrates one -difficulty in generalizing about social characteristics; there are so -many exceptions to be noted that the generalization loses much of its -validity. - -Craftsmanship was a prevalent accomplishment among the Germans of -the early emigration. Every shipload of emigrants of which we have a -social analysis had a large proportion of craftsmen, who were either -established members of the city and village industrial class, or else -belonged to the peasantry and had learned a craft in order to improve -their status. Trades were learned exclusively under the apprenticeship -system, the candidate usually living in the master’s home and giving -service at the master’s will. When he reached the journeyman stage he -was privileged to find work for himself, a quest which though usually -fruitful in educational results often proved disappointing from a -monetary point of view. In those cases the journeyman was peculiarly -open to the temptation to emigrate. Arrived in this country, the -chances of finding employment in the line of his training varied. -Sometimes they were excellent, at other times poor, depending mainly -upon the craft represented. Carpenters were in great demand, as were -also blacksmiths, wheelwrights, millwrights, masons, bricklayers, -plasterers, and in general all representatives of the building trades -and of trades ministering to farmers. Others were in occasional demand. -But, if a dyer, or a slater, or a cabinet maker, or a silversmith, or -a tile maker, or a weaver, or a wood carver happened to find himself -in America without a market for his peculiar skill, he always had the -resource of taking land and commencing as a farmer. Many craftsmen, -indeed, came with the set purpose of doing that immediately upon their -arrival; others contemplated a farming career after a period devoted -to their specialty. In some or all of these ways Germans trained as -craftsmen came to be widely distributed over the farming areas of -Wisconsin as well as among the cities, towns, and villages. - -The possession of special skill in any line, like the possession of -special scientific knowledge, raises a man in social estimation, and -every trained worker properly regards himself with satisfaction as -being not quite “as other men are.” In addition to the social training -which came to him as an incident of his apprenticeship and journeyman’s -experience, the German craftsman often was able to challenge the -respect and admiration of his American neighbors by making articles of -cunning workmanship which to them seemed wonderful because they did -not understand the processes involved. Agriculture being regarded as -an unskilled occupation, the artisan farmer also was very apt to lord -it over the peasant farmer of his own nationality. Craftsmanship, in a -word, established a kind of rank among Germans in this country because -it was a recognized means of personal and social progress at home. - -Statistics are impossible to procure, but the testimony of men and -women familiar with early conditions in Wisconsin proves that the -German population of the state in early days varied quite as widely -in social characteristics as did the American population, though -America had no distinctive peasant class. Accordingly, although in the -beginnings of American contacts with their Prussian or Westphalian -neighbors these were lumped together indiscriminately as “Dutchmen,” -differences soon began to emerge. In the course of a few years a -class of “fine old Germans” was recognized in almost every community -to supplement the well-known type of “fine old Yankee gentlemen.” -These select Germans were very apt to be men who had been trained as -craftsmen, or men who had enjoyed the advanced scientific or literary -instruction afforded in the higher schools and the universities of the -homeland. In the cities, especially Milwaukee, were many Germans who -had been prominent in business lines as well as in the professions. - -The question has sometimes arisen why so many of the second-generation -Germans appear inferior in social character to their immigrant parents. -A hint of the reason is found in what has just been said. Whatever -elements of superiority were shown by the immigrant artisan-farmers or -the highly educated Germans, the social advantages accruing therefrom -were personal, and in a slightly developed western society could not -be handed on to the next generation. In the cities it frequently was -possible for men of high ideals and fine social status to provide -equivalent opportunities for their children. But not so on frontier -farms. There it was a rare case when an education or training like -that received by the father in the old country could be supplied. -Accordingly, the sons of the most intelligent, dignified, and worthy -German farmer, if they became farmers in succession, might perhaps -turn out mere farmers, with none of the graces or exceptional social -virtues of the parents, and little except the memory of a parent’s -high respectability to distinguish them from the farmer sons of the -clumsiest peasant. - -However, this is but half the story. If the superior Germans reared -families incapable of remaining on their own social plane, other types -of Germans, who in their own persons counted for less, frequently -had the happiness to see their children advance to a position -perceptibly higher than their own. Natural gifts, industry, the social -opportunities which yield to the key of economic success availed much. -Sometimes the presence of a good school, a wise and helpful pastor or -some other worthy friend gave the necessary impulse. The process, in -fact, does not differ essentially from that which, throughout American -pioneer history, has enabled the deserving to press forward and -permitted the weak, indolent, or vicious to fall behind in the social -competition. It is impossible to say how many German families made a -step, or several steps, upward, and how many others slipped back. The -delinquents may perhaps exceed the meritorious in number, but probably -not, and the impression that the children of German immigrants shame -their parents is almost certainly an illusion which would be likely to -disappear if the facts were fully known. - -The social institutions of Wisconsin, based on the earlier Yankee and -southwestern immigrations, were profoundly influenced by the German -immigration of the late forties and the fifties of last century. -Milwaukee, the center of German influence (the _Deutsche Athen_), -became a city in which the German language was spoken and read by -many English speaking persons, in order to facilitate communication -and trade with the numerically dominant German element. The Germans -maintained advanced schools for instruction in both English and -German; their parochial schools were conducted mainly in German; the -immigrants themselves felt no compulsion to learn English, and their -children, in many cases, however well educated, spoke the language of -the country with very imperfect accent. - -The universal respect in which the German language was held, and the -extent to which it was affected by others than Germans, provided an -admirable social soil for the development of German music and the -cultivation of German literature. Hardly had the immigrants established -themselves when, in 1847, they founded at Milwaukee their first singing -society, which was followed three years later by the famous and -far-reaching _Musikverein_. A German theater followed promptly, and -became a permanent feature of Milwaukee’s intellectual life.[47] The -_Turnverein_ fostered in America Father Jahn’s conception of athletics, -while restaurants and beer gardens gave an old world, continental -atmosphere to public recreation. Holidays assumed a German aspect. The -_Christ Child_ displaced _St. Nicholas_ not alone in Milwaukee, but -in scores of towns, villages, and hamlets, and innumerable farm homes -scattered over Wisconsin. The joyous German _Weinacht_ made way easily -against the more somber Puritan Christmas, which, however, had already -brightened a good deal in its progress from the seventeenth century to -the nineteenth century. - -In general, Germans did not insist with extreme pertinacity upon the -retention of their own social customs, and wherever people of that -nationality were intermingled with a larger number of Americans, the -process by which they assimilated American habits of living, American -social usages, and even ways of acting, speaking, and thinking was very -rapid. In the schools of a Yankee neighborhood the children of German -settlers, in many cases, could not be distinguished by their manner -of speech from the Yankee children. On the other hand, in communities -made up wholly or mainly of Germans, the grandchildren continue to -have trouble with the _th_ sound in English words, and manifest other -linguistic peculiarities. And this difference is merely symptomatic. To -this day, it is easy to reconstruct, in case of the average person of -German descent, the atmosphere in which he was brought up. If he comes -from Milwaukee, or from some rural “Dutch settlement,” that fact is -usually clear from a hundred trifling intimations. If he was brought -up in a non-German community (so adaptable is the race), a change of -name from the German _Weiss_ to the English _White_, or from _Schwartz_ -to _Black_, would ordinarily suffice to disguise the fact that he is -of German descent at all. Germans thus brought up are apt to have made -their religious affiliations and their intimate social relationships -harmonize with those of the leading American element of the community, -so that these quite as much as their speech would tend to conceal their -racial origin. - -Wisconsin writers have made much of the fact that emigrating German -revolutionists came to this state largely in 1848 and the years -following. That fact, significant as bringing to Wisconsin Carl Schurz, -who became the most noted liberal American statesman and publicist of -German birth, has perhaps been overstressed. At least, it can safely be -said that for every revolutionist disembarked at Milwaukee or Sheboygan -or Manitowoc, probably a full score of plain, everyday, conventional -Germans filtered into the state’s population during the same time. -The important point about the revolutionists is not their relative -numbers, but their character and the leadership they helped to supply -in the affairs of the new commonwealth. Newspaper editors who possessed -exceptional literary and scholastic attainments came from that class; -some found their way into the legislature, and many served the cause -of liberal government on the local plane. - -The name of Schurz was one to conjure with, as American politicians -were quick to discover. He figured prominently in Wisconsin state -politics only a few years, but as a national leader his influence in -attaching the Germans to the causes he advocated was especially strong -in this state, which claimed him as her own. Schurz’s high character -and attainments, coupled with his political successes in this country, -were a source of pride to thousands of Wisconsin Germans who shared -not at all his revolutionary views. Enough that, like Goethe, he was -a great German, and that he had gained the respect and confidence -of large sections of the American people. It ministered to the -self-respect of the average German settler to feel that his people had -contributed something of value to the life of the nation and state. - -Later arrivals from Germany, and especially from Prussia, brought -with them an intense pride of nationalism and enthusiasm for German -achievement in the wars against Austria and against France. The -difference in attitude between immigrants of 1880 and those of forty -years earlier was antipodal. Many of the former had served in the -victorious wars and abounded in military incidents and in stories of -Bismarck, of Kaiser Wilhelm I, and Crown Prince Frederick William -(_Unser Fritz_). These men obviously belonged to a new generation of -Germans, and they have exerted a powerful influence upon our recent -history. But the Germans who deserve special recognition along with -the Yankees, as founders of the commonwealth and its institutions, -are those of the earlier immigrations from a Fatherland which as yet -was united only in culture, while politically its states remained -dissevered. - - - - -THE YANKEE AND THE TEUTON IN WISCONSIN - -JOSEPH SCHAFER - -V. SOCIAL HARMONIES AND DISCORDS - - -The “Sons of the Pilgrims” of Milwaukee held in December, 1850, their -customary banquet to celebrate the historic landing on Plymouth Rock. -The occasion was one which stimulated the flow of oratory and the -display of quaint Yankee humor and sparkling wit. Among the toasts, -some of which embodied genuine wisdom, was the following: “Our adopted -state. She has gathered her sons from many lands and given them all a -home amid her bounty and her beauty. May the elements of strength and -greatness peculiar to each be here transplanted and united to form a -perfect commonwealth.”[48] - -The sentiment was notably generous, voiced as it was by one out of -the many and diverse population elements, and we now see that it was -also prophetic. But the attainment of the ideal here advanced was not -to result from an effortless, unconscious process. Much history is -involved in the relations of Yankee and Teuton--to say nothing of other -stocks--which reveals a general tendency to helpful coöperation, but -presents, on the other hand, episodes marked by animosity, jealousy, -and social estrangement. If there were social harmonies, there were -also discords. - -As early as 1850 Milwaukee contained more Germans than Yankees. Out -of an aggregate population of 20,059 the census taker had designated -3880 as natives of the New England states and New York, while 5958 -were born in Germany. The entire American element (aside from natives -of Wisconsin, who were children of the foreign born as well as of the -American born) amounted to 5113, while the number of foreigners was -12,036. Of these, more than 3000 were Irish and about 1300 English. -Thus the German was numerically the dominant social factor in the city. - -Nevertheless, in all but numbers the Yankee element remained, as it -had been from the beginning of the town’s growth, in a position of -acknowledged leadership. There would be no difficulty in proving that -socially, industrially, and commercially the places of power were -occupied by the “down-easters,” while in politics, although their -control was being challenged from one side or another, they were still -far from recognizing a master. - -Yankees were the promoters of those far-reaching improvements, like -the various plank roads, and especially the railroads, which were -destined to unite the extensive new settlements with Milwaukee and -thus guarantee the future greatness of the city. They were largely -engaged in the carrying trade on the Lakes. They controlled the flour -milling business, the leading industry of the city, in which was -concentrated probably more capital than was invested in all other lines -of manufacturing carried on at that time. They were also prominent in -wholesale merchandising and owned the most pretentious retail stores. - -Their general preëminence in the professions was undisputed. They had -most of the lawyers, a large proportion of the physicians, the editors -of English language papers, the Protestant clergymen, the teachers. -Public opinion, with a reservation to be stated presently, was mainly -of their making, both in the city itself and--through the agency of a -widely read newspaper press--in the state at large. On all questions -affecting public education, social morality, health, and recreation, as -well as business or industry, the American portion of the community was -very apt to mass behind Yankee leadership; and the English speaking -section of the foreign population was not averse to doing the same, -at least under ordinary circumstances. Often, indeed, such was the -prestige of the Yankees, their initiative was followed unquestioningly -by American and foreigner alike. - -But the weight of numbers being with the Germans, the bulk of whom did -not speak or read English--though there were numerous exceptions,--it -was natural that there should have developed a community leadership -within their own group, and such leadership would be determinative in -cases of divergence from American ideas. The presence of this great -body of non-English speaking persons, clothed with political power -and wielding also a goodly share of economic power, especially as -manifested in consumption, tended in itself to generate a more amiable -attitude and more moderate policies on the part of the dominant class. - -For the Germans were a coherent, prosperous, and growing element in the -city. They began coming in 1839, and during the succeeding decade the -annual accretions waxed gradually larger. After the revolution of 1848 -the tide of emigration, especially from the countries and provinces -along the Rhine, was swollen to unprecedented proportions, Milwaukee -and the whole state profiting largely therefrom. But, already before -1850 Milwaukee’s streets, business places, and homes were so habituated -to German speech, that most visitors unhesitatingly described it as a -German city. “In the colony of Herman alone,” wrote Carl de Haas in -1848, “among all the United States is the population so preponderantly -German.”[49] This writer also says, as do other chroniclers of -his race, that not alone the speech of his country, but also the -national habits and customs prevailed exceedingly in Milwaukee; -that the Americans made many concessions to the Germanism of the -environment--merchants, for example, learning the language themselves, -or at least keeping clerks in their establishments who could speak it, -in order to attract German trade. - -The emigration which began in 1839 as a religious movement, a -congregation of Old Lutherans fleeing the pressure of the illiberal -policy of Prussia’s king, was continued thereafter mainly from economic -and social motives. An examination of the census schedules of 1850 -for Milwaukee reveals its general character better than volumes of -reminiscent testimony. The census shows that, among the 5958 Germans in -the city, 1165 (if the count is accurate) were craftsmen. There were -house carpenters, ship carpenters, smiths, wheelwrights, millwrights, -cabinet makers, masons, plasterers, painters, brickmakers, tailors, -shoemakers, saddlers, watchmakers, coppersmiths, silversmiths and -goldsmiths, barbers, bakers, brewers, cigar makers, musicians, sailors, -and many more. In contrast to the large number of craftsmen, those -employed at common labor numbered only 461, while the aggregate of -those who may be described as business men was 248. A total of 45 -persons fall in the class of professional men. Many, even of the -laborers, possessed some property, thus showing that they were of a -substantial, home-making type. A good many of the craftsmen owned -homes, some of the business men were possessed of real estate to -an appreciable extent, and there were a very few capitalists whose -properties were valued at from $20,000 to $50,000. - -The significance to the city of having among the population so large -a body of thoroughly trained and skilled artisans cannot readily be -overstated. It toned up all building operations and enabled them to -keep pace with the city’s rapidly growing needs; it facilitated the -establishment and expansion of industries depending upon a full supply -of skilled labor; it gave the city a fine body of industrious, well -paid residents as homemakers and citizens--at a time when American -artisans were very prone to seek land and raise farm produce. American -business and industrial leaders in Milwaukee appreciated the German -craftsmen who contributed largely to the prosperity of the city; and -the same may be said of the common laborers. - -The appearance of Germans with capital which sought investment in lines -of business already pursued by Americans was no doubt less welcome, -and to some it may have seemed like an intrusion. Generally, however, -Germans began their business enterprises on so modest a scale, and -built them up so gradually, that no serious economic dislocations could -have been felt in consequence. In some cases the German business men -merely undertook to meet demands created by the presence of their own -people, which demands were not fully cared for by existing American -enterprise. Perhaps no better illustration of this tendency can be -found than the local tobacco trade. “Groceries,” of course, carried -the “plug tobacco” used so widely in those days by Americans of all -classes, while drug stores handled cigars. But smoking was more nearly -universal among European immigrants than among Americans. Germans -accordingly set up tobacco shops, which usually included a department -for the manufacture of cigars. The investments were all small, ranging -from $50 to $4000, but the payroll was of some consequence to the -city and the output considerable. It is believed that all firms of -tobacconists or cigar manufacturers listed by the census takers in 1850 -were Germans. - -Another industry in which Germans were prominent in 1850 was tanning. -This they did not monopolize, for several non-German tanners were -operating at the same time. But G. Pfister and Company, Tanners, had -an investment of $35,000 and, employing thirty-five men, manufactured -an annual product valued at $45,000, while all other tanneries taken -together had an aggregate investment of less than $7500. - -In boot and shoe manufacturing one American firm was far in the -lead.[50] Yet, on a smaller scale, German firms were participating in -the business actively, while German craftsmen were an important element -in the success of all shoe manufacturers. A similar statement will hold -true in the department of brickmaking. A large number of Germans worked -in the brickyards as experts, and several had small plants of their -own. But the big brickyard of the city was not managed by Germans.[51] -There was one single rope maker, who was a German, and also one glove -and mitten manufacturer, who was also German. Both of these industries -were small. - -There remains the historically important Milwaukee industry of -beer-brewing, popularly supposed to have been introduced by immigrants -from Munich and other centers of beer manufacture in the fatherland. -The census lists a total of ten establishments designated as breweries. -Of these, seven were owned by Germans and three by non-Germans. The -investments by the latter aggregated $27,000, those of the former -$20,900. But the sum of the annual products of the German breweries -was $41,062, while the aggregate product of the others was $32,425. -The non-German brewery which had the largest investment was doing an -annual business valued at less than the investment, while one of the -German breweries having only $3000 invested reported a product valued -at $18,000.[52] - -When we consider mercantile lines as distinguished from the industrial, -Germans were prominent in those which called for moderate investments. -They had many small grocery stores scattered through the city, a number -of meat markets, and of course a goodly proportion of liquor saloons. -There were also several German clothing stores, confectioneries, and -bakeries. That their business men expected to sell almost exclusively -to Germans is indicated by the fact that for the most part they -advertised only in the German language papers--the _Wisconsin Banner_ -and the _Volksfreund_,--not in the English papers. On the other hand, -the American merchants, as we have already seen, catered to the German -trade by providing German salesmen,[53] and they also advertised -extensively in the German papers. - -There were German taverns which did a thriving trade; the restaurants -made the sojourner from Berlin feel at home; and the German beer -gardens were the despair of the pious Yankee mothers of boys. So -indispensable did German musicians become, that when the Sons of the -Pilgrims banqueted, a brass band directed by a German bandmaster -discoursed “martial as well as festive” music. - -One other form of coöperation between Yankee and Teuton deserves to be -mentioned--the employment of German girls in Yankee homes. This custom, -testified to by German writers and indicated unmistakably by the -census, was widespread. Such service was an immediate resource to the -poorer immigrant families, and a boon to the American families as well. -By that means numbers of future German homemakers came promptly into -possession of the manners and customs of the Yankees, acquired their -speech, and gained some insight into their distinctive views of life. - -The least numerous of the special classes into which we have analyzed -the German population of Milwaukee, in 1850, was the professional -class. Yet it is not for that reason least important, for the little -group of forty-five[54] persons contained most of the individuals -whose views swayed public opinion among the 6000 Milwaukee Germans. -Among them were two newspaper editors, each in charge of a German -language paper. There were six lawyers, nine teachers, and eleven -clergymen and preachers. Four of the preachers are described as German -Lutheran, one was Evangelical, and one Methodist.[55] Two, Joseph -Salzman and Franz Fusseden, were Catholic priests. One, F. W. Helfer, -was called a “rationalist preacher.” Two, John Mühlhauser and G. -Klügel, were merely called preachers. - -It is not strange that medicine, among all the professions, should -have had the strongest representation. A physician, wherever trained, -is equipped to practice anywhere, while a lawyer, clergyman, editor, -or teacher is obliged to prepare for service by first fitting himself -into the community he is to serve. German medical education was far -superior to American at that time, and, in the western states at least, -the supply of trained physicians was below the requirements. There were -communities in Wisconsin where not one-fourth of the practitioners -were graduates of medical schools or had honestly earned the title of -“doctor.”[56] This condition made a splendid opportunity for German -physicians, who could hope to win the patronage of Americans as well -as Germans. That the prospect was alluring to them is shown by the -fact that Milwaukee at the census date in 1850 had seventeen German -physicians, some of them already men of note in the community. - -The Yankees and the Germans came into such close and intimate contacts -in Milwaukee, that it is easier to study their normal attitudes -there than in the outlying portions of the state. On the whole those -relations, in the period terminating with the Civil War, appear to -have been marked by mutual respect, if not active friendship. At all -events, if there were differences causing ill will on one side or -the other, these--so far as they were the outgrowth of the social, -economic, or commercial interplay of the two groups--rarely became -serious enough to be reflected in the public press. The prosperity of -the city, providing usually full employment and adequate returns to -all who wanted to work, made the bond between capitalist and employees -satisfactory, and this solved one important aspect of the class -problem. The absence of any decided public interest in the immigrant -problem as affecting the city--other than politically--is a fact which -obtrudes itself upon one who canvasses the Milwaukee papers, English -and German, during the fourteen years which intervened between the -first constitutional convention and the election of Abraham Lincoln to -the presidency. - -Yet, there are not wanting evidences that the two groups were quite -distinct and that the Germans, as a foreign group, were sensitively -class conscious. This is shown, for example, by the race appeals in -their business advertisements. To call attention to one’s nationality -when offering services of a personal nature, like those of the -physician, or the dentist, or even the druggist, is reasonable and -correct. But there is no good ground for assuming that nationality -makes a difference to the purchaser of lime. Why then the advertisement -of a _Deutsche Kalk Haus_ (German lime house), unless there was a -feeling that the German dealer would be favored by German buyers simply -because he was German? This is a typical example which goes to show the -existence of a city within a city, a German Milwaukee which tended to -live its own group life, for which, as already explained, it possessed, -within itself, great facilities. - -Occasionally some relatively minor happening threw this feeling of -separateness into strong relief, as when, in 1850, a German scholar -published in the Milwaukee papers of his language the story of his -relations with the chancellor and board of regents of the University. -He thought they had promised him a chair, but afterwards they made it -plain that no contract had been closed with him. He may or may not -have had cause of complaint. But what he professed to do was to lay -the whole matter before the Germans of Wisconsin, in order that they -might know how the board of regents “flouts the wishes of the German -citizens,” how it keeps its promises “to Germans,” and how little it -regards the rules of ordinary courtesy “in dealing with Germans.”[57] -No doubt the design was to bring political pressure to bear on the -regents, but the device would not have been resorted to had not the -recognized racial unity among the Germans rendered that a hopeful plan. - -In a society like the present Milwaukee, where inter-racial marriages -are a daily occurrence, and one is rarely conscious of race in -cases of that kind, the condition of seventy years ago seems almost -incomprehensible. For, a close scrutiny of the entire census record -for Milwaukee in 1850 reveals that marriages between Germans and -Americans of all derivations at that time were excessively rare. The -aggregate number of such unions was twelve. But of marriages between -Yankees and Germans I can provisionally identify only six, as follows: -Margaret, twenty-six years of age, born in Germany, was the wife of -John H. Butler, a livery-stable keeper, born in New York. Hiram Brooks, -twenty-seven, born in New York, was married to Mary, twenty-three, born -in Hesse Darmstadt. James Ridgeway, thirty, a cooper, native of New -York, was married to Mary, born in Prussia. Abram Davis, twenty-five, -a cooper, born in New York, was married to C--, twenty-three, native -of Bavaria. Joseph Stadter, thirty-three, physician, rated at $2000, -who was born in Bavaria, was married to Sarah Ann, nineteen, born -in New York (but a female who was a member of the family, and may -have been this woman’s mother, bore a German name). Finally, William -Stamm, thirty-two, painter, native of Bremen, was married to Lucy, -twenty-eight, a native of Massachusetts. - -It is not possible to determine how many of the American born persons -represented in the six cases may have belonged to German families, but -doubtless some did. At all events, we can assert that in Milwaukee -at that time, with its nearly 6000 Germans and nearly 4000 Yankees, -not more than six cases can be found of marriages between them. No -commentary is needed to establish the fact of the virtual segregation -of the two great population groups.[58] If Chevalier, the French -philosopher, was right in his conviction that “the Yankee is not a man -of promiscuous society,” it is equally true that the German at that -time was excessively clannish. His clannishness was due, no doubt, to -natural and inevitable causes, but the fact needs to be recognized by -the student of history. - -This disposition on the part of Germans to “hang together” was promptly -discovered by American politicians and exploited for partisan and -personal ends. The outstanding fact of the political history of the -period under review is the attachment of the immigrant Germans to the -Democratic party. That relation was all but absolute and universal -during the 1840’s, though a gradual change took place in the last half -of the next decade. There was nothing mysterious about it. Germans -found the country, on their arrival, living under a Democratic -administration, to which they looked for favors and usually not in -vain. The Democratic party was liberal in the bestowal of lands; it -contended manfully against the principle of monopoly, especially in -banking and other corporate activities; and it emphasized the doctrine -of the equality of all men. The Germans, like the Irish and, in fact, -all immigrants, were strongly attracted by the principles professed -in Democratic platforms. The very word “democracy,” had its winning -appeal. “Democracy,” wrote the editor of the _Banner_ in 1850, “is a -glorious word. There are few other words, in any language, which can -be compared to it. To the poor man it is peculiarly precious since he -is aware that he owes to it his escape from the serfdom in which his -oppressors held him, and can now look up into heaven and thank his -God that he has ceased to be a serf. Democracy knows no distinctions -between man and man. She sets all upon the broad foundation of -equality.”[59] - -The enormous prestige gained by the Democratic party under Jackson’s -leadership easily floated the administrations of Van Buren and Polk. -But, as an influence toward captivating the foreign element in -Wisconsin, no other Democratic principle had quite the efficacy of the -liberal suffrage provision which the party in power adopted at the -beginning of our history as a state. - -In Michigan the makers of the state constitution had granted the -voting privilege to all aliens who were _bona fide_ residents and -who had declared their intention to become citizens. That clause in -her organic law drew the criticism of Whig members of Congress, but -she was admitted to the union in spite of their opposition, and thus -was established the principle that men might be voters without being -citizens. When, in 1846, the territorial legislature of Wisconsin -provided by law for the holding of a constitutional convention, a -similar proviso was made to govern the election of delegates to the -convention. - -In Milwaukee County the Democrats nominated eight candidates for -delegates. Dr. Franz Huebschmann was the sole German named. The -_Wisconsin Banner_, while remarking that Germans constituting one-third -of the population were to have but a single delegate, urged Germans to -vote as one man for him. He was needed, said the editor, especially -to contend for equality in the voting privilege, for which he had -striven manfully during the past three years. In the neighbor county -of Washington, Germans were urged to support two Irish candidates who -favored equality of the voting privilege and whom the Whigs (so it was -asserted) were trying to defeat by the same wiles they employed against -Huebschmann. The moral of the _Banner_ editorials was: “Don’t trust the -Whigs. They have always opposed the rights of the foreign born.”[60] In -preparation for the vote on delegates, Milwaukee Germans who had not -declared their intention were given every direction for completing that -formality, and the indications are that a large number of voters were -newly made for the occasion. - -Dr. Huebschmann, in the first convention, was a powerful advocate of -equality, giving as the chief ground in favor of the principle that -it would tend to bring Americans and foreigners into more harmonious -relations with one another. “The more distinctions you make between -them politically,” he said, “the more you delay this great end -[amalgamation], which is so essential to the future welfare of this -state. And, in fact, I regard only one measure equally important as the -political equality which I ask for, and that is a good common school -system.... Political equality and good schools will make the people of -Wisconsin an enlightened and happy people. They will make them one -people.”[61] - -On the educational question Huebschmann found the Yankee majority -of the convention eager to welcome his coöperation. On the subject -of suffrage their unity was less complete. While party lines were -not strictly drawn, the chief contenders for equality were leading -Democrats and the chief opponents leading Whigs. But both conventions -adopted the principle, the first not quite frankly, and with the -admission of Wisconsin into the union all foreign born persons who had -resided in the state one year prior to any election had the right to -vote, provided they had declared their intention to become citizens of -the United States. - -The adoption of such a liberal suffrage provision in the teeth of the -nativist movement which had affected all parts of the country more or -less, was considered a great triumph of Democratic principles. And -there is no doubt about the gratitude of adoptive citizens to the party -which secured them the boon. To the Germans it seemed thenceforward a -simple question of loyalty to support the Democratic party, through -thick and thin, through good report and evil report. Inasmuch as the -Democratic party also supported the Germans’ views on the subject of -temperance (prohibition), soon to become a burning issue,[62] and in -their contest with the more serious manifestations of Know-Nothingism, -which in this state reached its climax somewhat later, one almost -wonders how any of the Germans were able to detach themselves from -that party, despite its failure to represent them on the slavery and -free-soil issues. - -The temperance movement and nativism were the chief grounds of -political contention between Germans and Yankees during this period. -The first of these broke, in 1853-55, on the rock of German--which -meant Democratic--opposition. For, although a referendum vote had gone -in favor of the enactment of a “Maine Law,” the Democratic legislature -chosen at the same time refused to accept the result as mandatory, -and did not pass the law. And when the first Republican legislature -did pass such a law, in the early months of the year 1855, Barstow, -the Democratic governor, vetoed the bill. Never thereafter did the -temperance issue become as acute as it had been during the seven years -immediately following statehood, but it is not strange that their -record on that question was one of the standing arguments against -Republicanism among the German voters.[63] - -The Know-Nothing issue, which was supposed to be dying out at the -time of the Wisconsin constitutional conventions, 1846-1848, revived -after the Mexican War, figured prominently in the defeat of General -Scott in 1852, and in this state as well as in some other states rose -to dramatic and even tragic interest in 1855. Thereafter it declined, -to pass away for the time being with the election of Lincoln and the -engulfing of the nation in war. - -But the Know-Nothingism of 1855 was regarded by the Democratic party -as sinister because, as that party professed to believe, it had got -itself incorporated as an important if not controlling element in the -new Republican party. This the Republican leaders and organs denied -with vigor, but it is true that the general council of the _American_ -party in this state urged the support of the Republican candidates -and professed to have contributed 20,000 votes toward the election of -Bashford. The Republicans had no objection to Know-Nothing votes, but -they feared that the endorsement of their ticket by the Know-Nothings -would cost them more foreign born votes than it would gain them -nativists. It was tactically wise for the Democrats, and especially the -German Democratic press, to keep the “Republican-Know-Nothing” idea -before their people--and they made the best use of the opportunity. - -“Temperance,” after all, was regarded by the Germans as merely -a manifestation of Puritan fanaticism, which must be opposed in -the interest of personal liberty. Much as they disliked it, their -opposition does not seem to have developed excessive bitterness against -the believers in or practicers of temperance. But nativism, which -demanded that the suffrage be limited to citizens; that naturalization -be made more difficult; that in some departments, as in the army, -natives be favored to the exclusion of the foreign born, this they -felt to be a deliberate and vicious attack upon the rights of the -foreign born as a class. The advocacy of these principles involved -much discussion of the unfitness of foreigners, their ignorance, their -sordidness, their “un-American” habits and customs, in one important -respect their “anti-American” religion. - -All of this inevitably roused a bitter, fighting resentment on the -part of all foreigners, as it did among radical natives also, and it -is well known that many parts of the country suffered in consequence -from riots and other manifestations of a class war. In Wisconsin -there was less overt hostility than in some states where the foreign -elements were not so powerful.[64] The Know-Nothing party as such -functioned seriously only in the one year 1855, and its propaganda was -relatively mild-mannered.[65] Its chief objects of attack were the -foreign born Catholics, which class included a majority of the Irish -but only a fraction of the Germans, most of whom--probably--were either -Lutheran or Reformed, with an appreciable number of non-churchmen -or “free-thinkers.”[66] Nevertheless, nativism, as entangled in the -political psychology of this eventful year, had its full share in -producing a tragedy in this state also. - -It came in the form of a lynching, carried out with hideous barbarism -by a body of the ruder Germans of Washington County, in August, -1855. It seems that a sickly, weak witted boy of nineteen, named -George DeBar--a native of New York State--felt himself aggrieved by -a German farmer and proposed to administer a beating. This he partly -accomplished, at the farmer’s home, but his victim fled into the field, -where he found a hiding place. Meantime, DeBar ran amuck, and meeting -the man’s wife stabbed her severely but not fatally. He next pursued a -fifteen-year-old boy, Paul Winderling, who was living with the farmer, -attacked him with his pocketknife, and killed him. He then burned the -farmer’s cabin. DeBar afterwards solemnly assured his attorneys that -the only part of the transaction he could remember was striking the -farmer himself with a stone knotted in his handkerchief. The belief -was widespread that he became unbalanced mentally at this point, which -theory is really the simplest explanation of his horrible crime, -committed without assignable motive. - -Immediately on DeBar’s arrest a plan was hatched to storm the jail, -take him out, and hang him. The death penalty had been abolished at -the instance, as many felt, of the Yankee sentimentalists, and the -ignorance of some suggested that, since hanging was only justice in -a case like this, and the state refused to execute a criminal, the -people themselves had a right to take the matter into their own -hands. Unfortunately, a similar case had happened two weeks earlier at -Janesville, in which the avenging crowd was made up of Americans.[67] -It was suggested by some that DeBar was himself a Know-Nothing, or -at least trained with the Know-Nothing element, and there were dire -whispers about the trial judge, Charles H. Larrabee. Doubtless these -rumors were altogether wild. The nineteen-year-old DeBar, practically -_non compos mentis_, was of no possible political consequence, while -Judge Larrabee at the time was as sound a Democrat as could be -found.[68] But passions once fully aroused hurl reason from its throne, -and so it was in this case. The rowdies gathered at a drinking place in -West Bend, and decided on a lynching. - -Judge Larrabee convened a special session of court, impaneled a grand -jury, and having summoned two companies of militia--the Union Guards of -Ozaukee County, a German company, and the Washington Guards, another -German company, of Milwaukee--to come up for the protection of the -prisoner, had him conveyed to the courthouse and examined. The grand -jury brought in a true bill, charging murder in the first degree. -To this the prisoner, on the advice of his attorneys, pleaded “not -guilty.” The multitude which had been permitted to press into the -court room, despite the judge’s instruction to the militia to limit -the number to the seating capacity of the room, fairly raged when they -found a trial would be required, and before the prisoner took many -steps in the direction of the jail, they seized him and made way with -him. - -The severest censure was leveled against the militia companies and -their leaders. All the American writers whose statements appear in the -_Sentinel_ charge that these companies fraternized with the lynching -party, and practically assert that they had an understanding by which -the prisoner was to be given up to them. The captain of the Milwaukee -company, who was a veteran of the Mexican War--though a German -immigrant--insisted with vigor that his company did all it could to -prevent the lynching. He did not speak for the Union Guards of Ozaukee. -All witnesses agree that one of the Union Guard officers, Lieutenant -Beger, performed his duty manfully and heroically, but the weight of -the testimony condemns the companies as organizations, and especially -their captains. It would seem that two companies of militia, if well -led, ought to have been able with the butts of their guns to hold off a -rabble of three hundred men, and no witness puts the number higher than -that, while some declare the rush was made by not more than thirty-five -men. - -In the Milwaukee captain’s statement, as in the statements of other -German apologists for the militia, we come at once upon the political -note. They could not expect the “Know-Nothing American writers” to tell -the truth about the tragedy. In other words, they found in the politics -of the time an opportunity to charge prejudice against Americans, and -by that means to dodge the real issue. Two German writers of West Bend, -one of them the undersheriff, bitterly denounced both the militia -companies and the lynchers, and both more than hint that the passions -which led to the lynching were partly religious. Here, undoubtedly, we -come upon one of the signs of division among the Germans themselves. It -is possible that these two Germans were politically opposed to the main -body of their fellow-countrymen, for by this time a light minority had -already been attracted away from the Democratic party. However, we do -not know that this was true, and merely call attention to the several -psychological attitudes which, from the testimony, we know the case -disclosed. - -Of greatest interest is the attitude of English and German language -papers of Democratic and Republican proclivities. The _Sentinel_ -continued to admit contributions on the West Bend tragedy for -approximately two weeks. It also published the results of an -investigation made on the ground by one of its staff, and a petition to -the governor, said to have been signed by 186 residents of Washington -County, who asked for the disbandment of the two accused companies -and the withdrawal of their officers’ commissions. But the _Sentinel_ -does not appear to have tried by means of the incident to influence -the political situation which was about to become superheated. At all -events, what it published would all have been legitimate as news. On -the other hand, the _Banner und Volksfreund_,[69] while condemning the -lynching, made no demand for the punishment of the lynchers. It tried -to exculpate the militia companies (accepting the Milwaukee captain’s -testimony as against all other evidence), and deliberately charged -that the _Sentinel_, in publishing the above-mentioned petition, was -playing for political advantage. This charge was absurd on its face, -for the success of the new Republican movement which the _Sentinel_ had -espoused depended on its ability to detach Germans from the Democratic -party, which assuredly could not be done by playing into the hands of -the Know-Nothings, and the _Sentinel_ did not hesitate to declare the -Know-Nothing support a handicap to the party. - -Both American and German testimony discloses the existence in -Washington County of a strong German party of law and order. They -deplored the lynching and urged the apprehension and trial of the -ringleaders. They realized that the crime would put a stigma upon their -race as well as upon the county and the state. But, as a matter of -fact, although some of the lynchers were identified in the verdict of -the coroner’s jury, it must be recorded that no earnest effort was made -to punish them.[70] Nor was any step of an official character taken (so -far as I have been able to find) to determine the guilt or innocence of -the militia companies and their officers. In fact, the Democratic press -of the state, evidently fearful of sacrificing some German Democratic -votes, which that year were all needed, deliberately tried to darken -council by confounding this case in principle not only with the -Mayberry case, which it resembled, but also with another of an entirely -different nature, to which we must give passing attention. - -In the previous year, 1854, occurred at Milwaukee the famous Glover -rescue. Glover was a runaway slave who had been apprehended by his -self-styled owner, brutally man-handled, and confined in the Milwaukee -County jail for safekeeping. Sherman M. Booth, editor of the _Daily -Free Democrat_, one of the founders of the Republican party, a vigorous -free-soil and antislavery partisan, and the man in the state who was -perhaps most feared and hated by the Democracy, had argued hotly for -the protection of Glover’s rights against the man claiming him under -the “unconstitutional” compromise law of 1850. Booth called a public -meeting at the courthouse for the purpose, as he claimed, of concerting -measures for helping Glover without the use of force. But the upshot -was a rescue party which battered down the door of the jail, took -Glover out, and by various shifts and transfers on the underground -railway, carried him to Canada and freedom. Booth was then made to -suffer for all that had been done; he was tried in the federal court, -convicted, fined, and given a jail sentence. - -We cannot go into the details of the Booth case, a _cause célèbre_ in -ante-Civil War political history. But the Democratic papers, after the -DeBar lynching, ostentatiously bemoaned the fact that due to recent -events “neither national nor state laws” could hereafter be enforced -in Wisconsin. The beginning of the trouble was the setting at naught -of the national law for the rendition of slaves, in which the arch -Republican Booth was ringleader. The Mayberry lynching and the DeBar -lynching followed in natural sequence. These editors did not choose to -analyze the difference between the Glover case and the others--the fact -that the one was a rescue performed at their own risk by philanthropic -men, the others brutal killings committed by men crazed with the lust -of blood vengeance. In other words, the Democratic press, including -those papers printed in the German language, attempted the impossible -feat of arranging in the same straight line the “higher law” and the -lower law. - -Of course, the Republican press retorted handsomely, and probably -with considerable political effect, that if the apologists for mob -law in Kansas were “in favor of the execution of the fugitive slave -act in Wisconsin” they would like their avowal to that effect.[71] It -is well known that during the 1855 campaign, as in the previous year, -a good many Germans were converted from their old-time Democratic -allegiance.[72] But both parties were too intent on their immediate -political objects to risk pressing for an investigation of the West -Bend tragedy, which might have alienated a large section of the German -vote in three German counties. - -It is not impossible that politics was responsible for the severity of -the onslaught upon the militia companies, since the nativist propaganda -for an exclusively American militia would be quick to seize upon such -an opportunity, and it is not to be supposed that the politics of the -case was all on one side. Yet, unless the governor was in possession of -facts which were withheld from the public, the least that could be said -against the companies is that they exhibited criminal inefficiency. -From this distance, it looks as if politics affected the Republican -attitude as well as the Democratic; as if crime was condoned in the -interest of party success, since one party was intent on holding its -former German adherents and the other was determined to take as many of -them as possible into the opposition camp. - -Whether or not the incident leaves the stain of blood on the path -of Wisconsin politics, it marks the nearest approach to a race war -between Germans and Americans which this general period affords. And -by Americans we practically mean Yankees. For it was a truth which the -German press sensed instinctively, that the Republican party--made -up of “shreds and patches,” as was said,--embracing prohibitionists, -abolitionists, free-soilers, nativists, and Whigs, was dominated by -the “Puritan” element.[73] A glance at the history of its origin in -Wisconsin will at least convince the reader of its Yankee paternity.[74] - -However, the Republican party changed radically in character -during the next few years, and as the German population came to be -distributed between it and the Democratic party, a healthier social -tone was the result. The political campaign of 1856, when Frémont was -candidate for the presidency, was conducted with such enthusiasm by -Wisconsin Republicans, as to make serious inroads on the Democratic -German vote. A number of prominent German leaders took the stump -for Frémont, speaking in the German language to German audiences -with telling effect. Thereafter, in successive state campaigns and -in the presidential canvass of 1860, the Germans of Wisconsin were -electrified by the compelling oratory of their greatest campaigner, -Carl Schurz, to whom the success of the Lincoln ticket, both in -Wisconsin and other western states harboring many Germans, was largely -due. Such participation was doing much to justify the prophecy of Dr. -Huebschmann--that political equality would help to make the people of -Wisconsin “one people.” - - -[Illustration: - - _Photo by Edward C. Nelson_ - - WM. STEPHEN HAMILTON, FOUNDER OF MUSCODA] - - - - -MUSCODA, 1763-1856 - -JOSEPH SCHAFER - - -The light which local inquiry can shed upon general history is well -illustrated from a variety of viewpoints in the story of the Wisconsin -village which is the subject of this sketch. - -Muscoda as a present-day railway station is inconspicuously located on -the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul line, Prairie du Chien division, -at the distance of fifty-six miles almost due west from Madison, one -hundred and fifty-two from Milwaukee; it is forty-two miles east from -Prairie du Chien. The village was begun at the river bank on the south -side of Wisconsin River, in section 1, township 8 north, range 1 west -of the fourth principal meridian. It stretches south from the river -toward the flanking hills about three-fourths of a mile, the main -portion now clustering about the depot, whereas the “Old Town” lay -farther north and hugged the river bank. - -The ground on which Muscoda stands is a portion of the sandy plain, -the outwash of the erosion process by which the Wisconsin and its -larger tributaries worked their way through the sandstone stratum. The -upper courses of these tributaries and the smaller streams which feed -them have laid down flood bottoms of rich alluvium. Often, too, the -bench land of their valleys is a fertile limestone soil intermingled -with clayey patches and occasional streaks of sand. These are all -characteristics of the “Driftless Area,” as the geologists have named -this region, because the various primordial movements of glacial -ice, so influential in modifying the topography elsewhere, passed -around instead of over it, leaving no “drift” upon it. The terrain -is just what the eroding waters in the course of countless ages made -it--a system of regular valleys perfectly drained and bounded by -symmetrically sculptured hills or bluffs, which exhibit a level sky -line and decrease in altitude steadily till at the heads of the streams -they merge in the great plateau or “prairie” of southern Wisconsin. The -valleys make natural and not ill-graded highways from the prairie to -the Wisconsin River, while the ranges of bluffs separating them appear -like promontories running out fingerwise from the main plateau and -terminating either where two smaller streams converge or at the edge of -the lower plain laid down by the Wisconsin. - -The principal stream entering the Wisconsin from the south, in the -neighborhood of Muscoda, is Blue River--the “Riviere Bleu” of the -French traders. It has several head streams rising in township 6-1 E, -and a large affluent named the Fennimore rising in 6-1 W, the Six Mile -Creek, rising in 7-1 E and Sandy Branch which heads in 8-1 E. There are -also several small branches entering the Fennimore from 7-2 W. In its -lower course the Blue River swerves to the west, entering the Wisconsin -near Blue River Station, in Township 8-2 W, but its rich upper valleys -and those of its tributaries have always been mainly within the trade -area of Muscoda. North of the Wisconsin the valleys most intimately -associated with Muscoda are Indian Creek, Eagle Creek, and Knapp’s -Creek in Richland County. The “Sand Prairie,” by which name the sandy -plain along the Wisconsin on the south side has long been known, and a -narrow tract of shelving land between the river and the hills on the -north are also within the Muscoda area. - -Since the bluffs are mostly rough land, with only limited areas -on their summits where the soil is deep, free from stones, and -sufficiently even for cultivation, and the sand prairie comparatively -infertile, Muscoda as a trade center suffers from the low average -productivity of her territory. Still, from pioneer days the long -valleys beyond the sand prairie have yielded abundant harvests; -the roads through them from the high prairie to the south opened to -Muscoda’s merchants for some years a great trade in livestock and -grain beyond her legitimate boundaries; while the cross ranges which -run out from the high prairie northward approximately fifteen miles -forced the only rival railway,[75] when it came, back upon the great -ridge, leaving the north trending valleys still as a whole tributary to -Muscoda. - - -THE BACKGROUND - -According to Father Verwyst, a distinguished authority, the name -Muscoda is a corruption of the Chippewa word “Mashkodeng” which means -“prairie.” A similar corruption occurs in the name “Muscatine,” a town -in Iowa, and there was a tribe of Indians on the Upper Fox River called -Mascouten (prairie Indians). - -The earlier name of the place was English Prairie, and while it is -clear that geography suggested “Prairie” (or Savannah), there are -various traditions to explain the association of the word “English” -with it. One is that some English families were settled there as early -as 1812 and that they were massacred by the Indians. Another, that the -place was so named from the fact that Colonel McKay, who descended the -river in 1814 with a regiment of British troops to capture Prairie -du Chien, encamped at this place which thereafter was called English -Prairie. - -A more hopeful clue to the origin of the name occurs in the journal of -Willard Keyes, a young New Englander who passed down the river with a -party in 1817. He writes, under date of August 29, 1817: “pass a place -called ‘English meadow’ from an English trader and his son, said to -have been murdered there by the savages, 20 Leagues to Prairie du -Chien.”[76] Now, the fact of “an English trader and his son” being -murdered at some point on the Wisconsin River between the Portage and -Prairie du Chien is well established. In the journal of Lieut. James -Gorrell, the first English commandant at Green Bay after the ejection -of the French, we read, under date of June 14, 1763: “The traders came -down from the Sack [Sauk] country, and confirmed the news of Landsing -and his son being killed by the French.” When all the Sauk and Foxes -had arrived at Green Bay a few days later they told Gorrell that their -people were all in tears “for the loss of two English traders who were -killed by the French in their lands, and begged leave ... to cut them -[the French] in pieces.”[77] - -In the following summer, 1764, Garrit Roseboom testified, that “about -the latter end of April, 1763, he was going from the Bay [Green Bay] to -the Soaks [Sauk] to look for his Partner Abrah[a]m Lancing who had been -up there, being told that he was killed, that on his way he met some -Indians coming down with some Packs [of furs], which he knew to be his, -and which they said he could have for paying the carriage. That both -the French and Indians told him, Mr. Lancing and his son were killed -by two Frenchmen” who were servants of Mr. Lansing and who afterwards -escaped to the Illinois Indians.[78] - -When we reflect how persistent is the memory of great tragedies and -recall that some of the French traders and voyageurs who were on the -river when the murder took place remained there for many years and -handed down the traditions of the river to their successors, it is not -hard to believe that it was the story of Abraham Lansing and his son, -slightly altered, which Willard Keyes heard from the rivermen as his -boat drifted along the “English meadow” in 1817. The French traders -in whose company he was would not be likely to ascribe the murder to -their own people so long as there were “savages” who might just as -well serve as scapegoats. We may consider it almost certain, then, -that the place came to be called English Prairie from the gruesome -crime of 1763, which had occurred almost three-quarters of a century -before the postoffice of that name was established, and more than half -a century prior to the voyage of Willard Keyes. Jonathan Carver, who -visited a village of the Fox Indians at that place in 1766, does not -use the name; but neither does he mention the story of the murder which -occurred only three years before. - -No definite information about the fur trade at English Prairie, aside -from the record in Lansing’s case, has come down to us. Tradition -has it that Laurent Rolette, brother of the famous Prairie du Chien -trader, Joseph Rolette, traded there for some years, going later to the -Portage. It appears also that some time before the arrival of white -settlers a trader named Armstrong operated in that neighborhood. But -no details have been preserved and we can only infer from the fact -that Indians were still numerous when settlers came that the trade at -English Prairie in earlier times was probably important. - -It was the Black Hawk War and the treaties following it that produced -the revolutionary change in the life of the natives in this region. -From that time forward Indians could live south of the river only on -sufferance, though they were permitted to roam the forests to the -northward for about a quarter of a century longer. During the Black -Hawk War a detachment of Colonel Henry Dodge’s Mounted Volunteers -went to English Prairie, another detachment going at the same time to -Prairie du Chien. Between them these two bodies of troops scoured both -sides of the Wisconsin from the mouth to the Portage, dislodging all -natives. English Prairie was also the camping ground for a military -company composed of friendly Indians recruited at Green Bay and led to -Prairie du Chien by Samuel C. Stambaugh in July, 1832. The route of -march was from Green Bay to the Portage, thence to Sugar Creek (near -Blue Mounds), thence to Fort Dodge (Dodgeville), thence to English -Prairie, thence to Prairie du Chien “with one other camping between.” - - -RELATION TO THE LEAD MINES - -History repeats itself in making the Indian War of 1832 the impulse to -a great new expansion movement among American pioneers. Just as the -Pequod War of 1638 by familiarizing the coast settlers of Massachusetts -with the rich lands of the interior enticed them westward, and as the -Seven Years’ War destroyed the last obstacle to western and northern -expansion in New England, so in a very real sense this war made the -beginnings of the agricultural settlement in Wisconsin. Immediately -after the Black Hawk War the survey of the lands in southern Wisconsin -began. In the four years, 1832 to 1836, the entire region from the -Illinois line north to the Wisconsin, the Fox, and Green Bay, and from -the Mississippi to Lake Michigan, was checked off into townships and -sections. Hardy, resourceful government surveyors, with their crews -(usually two chainmen and one axman) traversed every square mile, -whether prairie, forest, valley, or bluff. In 1834 a land office was -opened at Mineral Point for the sale of lands in the western portion of -Michigan Territory (as it was then). - -The ranges of townships numbered 1 W and 1 E, of which the townships -numbered eight (Muscoda and Pulaski) bounded by the Wisconsin, were -for some years the northernmost, were surveyed by Sylvester Sibley in -1833. The next year those lands were offered for sale and some tracts -along the river were actually sold to private individuals. Among the -purchasers were Thomas Jefferson Parrish and Charles Bracken, who -were well-known lead miners and smelters living farther south. Others -among the early land owners of Township 8-1 W have been identified as -mining men. - -[Illustration: THE LEAD REGION - - After Owens’ Geological Chart, 1839; drawn by Mary Stuart Foster] - -The lead mines, while known and worked by Indians and a few traders -for many years, received the first large body of emigrants in 1828, -when several thousand came scattering out widely over the territory -which now constitutes Grant, Iowa, and Lafayette counties in Wisconsin, -together with adjacent parts of Iowa. These were the lead miners who -under Dodge and Hamilton fought the Black Hawk War. It was these hardy -pioneers who as troopers patrolled the Wisconsin River and who finally -delivered the coup de grace to Black Hawk’s band far to the north on -the banks of the Mississippi. - -Many of the lead miners were shrewd business men always on the lookout -for good financial prospects. With the knowledge of new regions -gained during the war, either from personal observation or from -reliable report, with the sense of a new era opening to settlement and -expansion in the region dependent for transportation facilities on the -Mississippi and Wisconsin rivers, it is not strange that some of them -should have been interested in river points lying as far outside the -mineral belt proper as did English Prairie. - - -A RIVER PORT - -For it is clear that it was water and not lead that the pioneers of -Muscoda sought. Surveyors and prospectors had found no hopeful signs of -mineral north of townships 6-1 W and 7-1 E. A few years later (1839) -Dr. David Dale Owen, the geologist, made his famous survey of the lead -region and excluded from it everything north of the heads of Blue River -in townships 6 and 7-1 E. When the lands in township 8-1 W were offered -for sale in November, 1834, it was precisely the river front lots and -subdivisions which were taken first. Parrish entered fractional lots -2 and 3 of section 1; Frederick Bronson the northeast fraction of the -southeast quarter of section 1; Isaac Bronson the south half of the -southeast fractional quarter; Garrit V. Denniston the southeast half -of the fractional southwest quarter; and Denniston and Charles Bracken -fraction No. 4 of fractional section 1. Other water front tracts in -section 2 were bought by Denniston at this time; between 1836 and 1841 -other tracts in the same sections were bought by others. All of these -lands were obviously deemed favorable locations for a prospective town -dependent on river transportation. - -The way in which the village was begun, by the erection of a smelting -furnace, is rather startling, in view of the absence of lead in the -region adjacent. The motives which induced Colonel William S. Hamilton -of Wiota to build a furnace at English Prairie can only be conjectured. - -Colonel Hamilton was the son of the great Alexander Hamilton, -Washington’s Secretary of the Treasury. As a lad of seventeen in 1814 -he entered West Point but resigned in 1817 to accept a commission as -deputy surveyor-general under Col. William Rector, surveyor-general -for Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas. From that time young Hamilton -was almost continuously in the West, though he made one trip east, on -horseback, to see his mother. He was in Wisconsin as early as 1825 and -in 1827 began his career as a lead miner and smelter in what is now -Lafayette County at Wiota or Hamilton’s Diggings. He took part in the -Indian troubles of 1827, and also in the Black Hawk War. - -It is not known with certainty when Hamilton established his furnace -at English Prairie. Tradition says it was in the year 1835. If the -furnace was operating then, it is strange that so careful an observer -as Featherstonhaugh, who dropped down the Wisconsin in August, 1835 -and stopped at English Prairie to draw a sketch of its landscape, -should have failed to note that fact.[79] We are probably justified -in asserting that the furnace was not there at that time. But we know -it was there in 1837, for Captain Frederick Marryat, a famous English -writer who descended the river in that year, saw “a small settlement -called the English prairie” where there was a “smelting-house and a -steam saw-mill.”[80] I incline to think the year 1836 was the date -of its beginning. In 1835 Hamilton was a candidate for member of the -Council from the western part of Michigan Territory. His canvass was -conducted in the lead mining region and his advertisement appeared -in the Galena papers. He was elected to and became president of the -so-called “Rump” Council which met at Green Bay January 1, 1836 and -sat for two weeks. During that session the town of Cassville, on the -Mississippi, was designated as the territorial capital, Hamilton making -the principal argument in favor of the movement. Much interest was -manifested in internal improvements designed to develop a through line -of transportation via the Wisconsin and Fox rivers.[81] The territory -of Wisconsin was just being organized by Congressional action and great -expectations were being awakened in consequence. - -The miners and smelters had theretofore sold their lead through the -commission merchants of Galena, by whom it was sent to St. Louis. -But as new mines were opened farther and farther north, the cost of -transportation to Galena--by means of the “sucker teams”[82]--steadily -increased. Moreover, in the year 1836-37 the price of lead declined -so alarmingly that little of it was made and the smelters had nearly -all ceased to operate. Yet, it was felt that prices would rise again -promptly in response to the demand for lead. In the same period, due -no doubt partly to the hardships of the miners and smelters, there was -widespread and loud dissatisfaction with the treatment accorded the -lead owners by the Galena middlemen. Efforts were made to establish -some other lead shipping port as a rival to Galena, which helps to -explain the rise of both Cassville and Potosi. - -The inference from these facts is that Hamilton probably thought he -saw in a smelter located at the steamboat landing at English Prairie a -possibility of immediate profit, even though margins were very narrow, -and a chance to build up a flourishing business. He could buy the -cheapest ore--that which was produced near the northern edge of the -lead region, Centerville, Wingville, and Highland. The haul from those -places would be short and all down grade and if the mineral were taken -direct from the mines there would be no rehandling until the bars of -pure lead were ready to be dumped from the furnace floor into the hold -of the steamer. The teams employed to bring down the raw mineral could -carry freight back the fifteen or twenty miles to the mines much more -cheaply than it could be transported from Galena or Cassville three -or four times as far. Finally, abundant supplies of wood were at hand -to feed the furnace, and French rivermen were a source from which to -recruit labor. - -To an enterprising, speculative, acquisitive character like Hamilton, -who had no family to tie him to a particular spot, such arguments would -appeal strongly, and there is no inherent reason why the venture should -not have succeeded. Hamilton operated the furnace, either personally or -by proxy, at least till 1838 and possibly longer, selling it finally to -Thomas Jefferson Parrish, whose principal mining and smelting business -was located at the head of Blue River, afterwards Montfort. - -The fact that Parrish owned the ground at the steamboat landing -and that in 1837 he was postmaster at English Prairie (then called -Savannah) suggests that he may have been a partner in the business from -the first and perhaps local manager of the furnace. At all events, -Hamilton continued his business at Wiota and very soon cut loose -entirely from the English Prairie venture.[83] That place, under the -name of Savannah or English Prairie, was a calling place for river -steamers as early as 1838 and is scheduled as forty-one miles from -the mouth of the Wisconsin.[84] It was said that the only boat which -regularly plied on the river in that year was the _Science_, piloted by -Captain Clark, who made his first voyage in June, 1838.[85] But there -were doubtless visits from steamers running to Fort Winnebago (Portage) -during that and earlier years. - -In one of the Milwaukee papers for 1841 is a statement that “four -sucker teams” had brought in lead from Thomas Parrish’s furnace “near -Muscoday in Grant County.” This reference has been taken as proof -that the Muscoda furnace was still in operation. I think it refers -not to the Muscoda furnace but to one of several furnaces Parrish was -conducting in the lead region near the heads of Blue River. The phrase -“near Muscoday” used as far from the lead region as Milwaukee may very -well mean some place fifteen or twenty miles from the Wisconsin; and -the word “near” instead of “at” certainly excludes Muscoda itself. -Setting this evidence aside, there is no proof that the Muscoda furnace -was operated as late as 1841. Nor, on the other hand, is there proof of -its earlier discontinuance. We simply do not know how long it was kept -alive or how large a business it developed at the “Landing.” - - -SIGNS OF HARD TIMES - -Two things suggest that the little village failed to develop a “boom” -or even to gain a basis for healthy growth. These are the land -entries in the territory adjacent and the story of the post office. -Practically, there were no new entries of land between the years -1841 and 1849. This is true for all the townships in the tributary -region--7, 8, and 9, range 1 W, and 7, 8, and 9, range 1 E. The post -office under the name of Savannah appears in the government list for -the first time in the report for 1837. At that time Thomas J. Parrish -was postmaster. In 1839 S. A. Holley was postmaster, the office then -being listed as English Prairie. The postmaster’s compensation was -$5.68. Charles Stephenson’s compensation in 1841 was even smaller, -$3.36, the net proceeds of the office amounting to only $7.55. In 1843, -for the first time, the post office was called Muscoda. The postmaster -was Levi J. D. Parrish, who received as compensation $9.29, the net -proceeds of the office having risen to $16.51. - -It is probable that most of the seeming prosperity of 1843 was due to -the presence of the land office, which had been removed from Mineral -Point to Muscoda in 1842. Some have charged that the change was brought -about through James D. Doty’s influence in order to save the town. -If so, the scheme failed, for the land office promptly went back to -Mineral Point in 1843, and May 16, 1845, the post office department -discontinued the office at Muscoda. Muscoda was not listed in the post -office report for 1847 or in the report for 1849. In 1851 it reappears, -with James Moore as postmaster. Now the compensation is $39.74 and the -net proceeds $53.09. The exact date of its restoration is not given -but it must have been as early as 1850, and possibly 1849 or even -1847.[86] - - -BEGINNINGS OF SETTLEMENT - -The reopening of the Muscoda post office, about 1850, synchronizes with -the first movement of pioneer farmers into the good lands tributary -to that place. A number of tracts of land were purchased by actual -settlers in this and adjoining townships in the years 1849 to 1851. -Indeed, Conrad Kircher’s purchase dates from 1847. Charles Miller and -Emanuel Dunston bought land in 1849; Isaac Dale and Moses Manlove in -1851. We know also that the Moore family owned land at Muscoda as early -as 1851. Across the river, in township 9-1 W, Robert Galloway, William -Pickering, William and Andrew Miller, and two or three others bought -in 1849; several in 1850; and a few others before 1854, when the great -rush came. - -A similar story can be told for township 9-1 E (now Orion) where -J. H. Schuermann and Daniel Mainwaring (settlers) bought lands in -1849; Albert C. Dooley in 1850; and Jacob Roggy in 1851. One of the -purchasers of 1848, John H. Siegrist, was probably the earliest actual -settler in the township. A half dozen families bought in township 8-1 -E as early as 1849; and a few others were added before 1854. A very -few settlers were to be found in township 7-1 W prior to 1854, and -while there were a good many settlers and miners in township 7-1 E, -the greater part of that township was served from Highland where a -post office was established as early at least as 1847 and where there -was much lead mining activity, and from Blue River which had a post -office from 1839. These mining centers doubtless drew their supplies -from the steamers unloading at Muscoda, for the road to the river -at that point had been open for many years, but settlement was more -numerous and local activity much more intense, as revealed by the post -office returns. The Highland post office led the Muscoda post office in -importance for just about ten years--from 1847 to 1856. With the coming -of the railroad, Muscoda drew ahead. - - -THE RAILROAD - -If one had no other evidence than the sales of land at the United -States Land Office, it would still be clear that in the years 1854 to -1856 something important was astir affecting the value of lands in -those townships (7, 8, and 9-1 W, and 7, 8, and 9-1 E) which pivot on -Muscoda as the trading point. For, while up to 1854 only scattering -tracts of land had been entered, and those largely by speculators using -military land warrants in making payment to the government, by 1856 -nearly every forty-acre subdivision of first-rate land and much of the -second-rate land also was under private ownership. And the state lands -in the townships had also been purchased to the same extent. Besides, -the vast majority of the purchasers of government land during those -years were actual settlers, with only an occasional speculator.[87] - -These facts challenge attention and call for an explanation. Wisconsin -had been in course of settlement for about two decades. The earliest -settlements were in the southeastern and eastern parts of the state -where the economic support was the market reached by the Great Lakes -and the Erie Canal; and in the southwestern section where the basis of -prosperity had been lead-mining. The lead found its market mainly down -the Mississippi, though increasingly the superiority of the route open -to the lake ports had impressed itself upon the people. - -At the legislative session of 1841-42 a bill was introduced for the -chartering of a railroad from Milwaukee, via Madison, to Potosi. -Despite continuous effort, the first railroad bill to pass, in 1847, -provided only for a railroad from Milwaukee to Waukesha. In 1848 this -was by law extended to the Mississippi. - -The agitation of plans for a railroad from Lake Michigan to the -Mississippi tended to give the lake route an overshadowing importance -in the popular mind. Actual construction work on the Milwaukee-Waukesha -section began in 1849; that portion of the road was completed by the -end of the year 1850, and in another year it was practically completed -to Whitewater on Rock River. It reached Madison in the year 1854. - -The intention of the company had been to build to the Wisconsin River -so as to intercept steamboat transportation at or near Arena. Thence -the road might run along the river to its mouth, or it might run along -the ridge between the Wisconsin and the south flowing streams, reaching -the Mississippi at some point, like Potosi, lower down. By the year -1853 it had been determined to follow the Wisconsin Valley route to -the Mississippi, and during that summer the line was surveyed from the -mouth of Black Earth Creek to Prairie du Chien. - -It can easily be imagined how the clangor of railway construction -echoed in the minds and hearts of intending settlers. That they should -have watched, with greedy eye, the reports of progress of the location -of the road and hurried away to the land office as soon as it was -definitely located, to buy the good lands adjacent to the right-of-way, -is a perfectly normal phenomenon. The township plats showing original -purchasers of the government land tell the story. In section 1, -township 7-1 W, four forty-acre tracts were bought in 1854; eleven in -1855; and one in 1856. In section 2, one in 1854; twelve in 1855; and -two in 1857. A single forty had been bought as early as 1847. The other -sections of that township show very similar dates and proportions in -the entries; the same is true of the other townships of the group. The -1854 entrymen were those who pursued the railway surveyors with keenest -determination. The slower ones came mainly in the two years following, -during which trains actually were put on the roadbed. In October, 1856, -the village of Muscoda, which had maintained a precarious existence -for twenty years, awoke to newness of life at the sound of the puffing -locomotive. And the beginning of permanent prosperity for the village -meant the beginning of prosperity for the rural neighborhood tributary -to it. - - - - -POPULAR CENSORSHIP OF HISTORY TEXTS - -JOSEPH SCHAFER - - -Wisconsin has now a unique law on the subject of school history texts. -That law provides, section 1: - - No history or other textbook shall be adopted for use or be in any - district school, city school, vocational school or high school - which falsifies the facts regarding the War of Independence or the - War of 1812 or which defames our nation’s founders or misrepresents - the ideals and cause for which they struggled and sacrificed, or - which contains propaganda favorable to any foreign government. - -The method provided in other sections of the law for banishing -textbooks which have been adopted but which are repugnant to the above -provision is as follows: Upon complaint of any five citizens, filed -with the state superintendent of public instruction, a hearing shall -be arranged, to be held before the state superintendent or his deputy, -in the county from which the complaint came. Previous notice must -have been given through the press to the public and by mail to the -complainants and to the publishers of the textbook complained of. A -decision must be rendered within ten days. If the book shall be found -obnoxious to the provisions of the law, that fact shall be noted by -the state superintendent in the list of books for schools which he -publishes annually. Thereafter the book so listed may be used only -during the remainder of the year in which the state superintendent -publishes it as proscribed. The penalty for retaining it beyond the -time limit, shall be the loss to the school or district concerned of -the state aid normally falling to its share. - -The passage of this bill in the senate with only one vote against it, -created a good deal of surprise, which changed to admiration for the -oratorical powers of its author and sponsor, Senator John Cashman of -Manitowoc County, when it was learned that his impassioned appeal to -patriotism figuratively swept senators “off their feet.” - -History students can have no quarrel with the motive assigned by -Senator Cashman for the passage of this law. He says: “The history -of a nation is its proudest asset. It includes the record of its -great men, their ideals, sacrifices, and achievements. To preserve -that history in all its original purity and teach it to the rising -generations is a nation’s first duty.” With every word in that stirring -exordium the historically minded man or woman will cordially agree. -Thoughtful persons, whether historians or not, will also sympathize -with Senator Cashman when he undertakes to rebuke anything approaching -levity in characterizing the fathers of the Republic or captiousness in -criticizing their policies, motives, and achievements. Unfortunately, -there always have been among writers some who display a certain air -of “smartness” or superciliousness which hardly comports with the -inherent dignity of the historian’s office, or with the aim of doing -equal and exact justice to all persons and to all causes discussed. -Yet it will probably be no light task to convince an impartial umpire -that writers of textbooks which have been adopted for use in the -schools, after careful scrutiny by boards of education and other school -officers responsible to the people, have been guilty of “treason -to the nation,” as Senator Cashman seems to think has often been -the case.[88] The framers of the constitution, with wise prevision, -limited the application of the word “treason” in such a way as to -exclude that indefinite class of crimes known elsewhere under the name -of _constructive treason_, which in England and other countries had -provided a favorable soil for plotters of revenge against individuals -and in times of high tension always yielded a sinister harvest of -oppression and suffering. So they defined treason against the United -States narrowly as consisting only in “levying war against them or -in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort,” and they -also provided that conviction under a charge of treason could be -secured only on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act or -confession in open court. - -This view of the fathers as relates to treason was of course lost sight -of during the Civil War, when in the North it used to be fashionable -for men to pillory as “fool” or “traitor” (with an emphatic expletive) -anyone who had the temerity to vote the Democratic ticket; it was -lost sight of in the recent war when men were called traitors because -they refused to buy liberty bonds or because they declared the draft -a violation of the rights of the individual; and it is likewise -lost sight of when we condemn under the term treason opinions on -history which we may regard as too favorable to our nation’s one-time -enemies, or too contemptuous of the characters or the acts of our own -distinguished men of a past age. It would be strange if the impulses -engendered by the war and the peace were not reflected more or less in -editions of books prepared since 1917. It is probably true that some -authors have overstressed the “hands across the sea” sentiment, while -others perhaps lean unduly in an opposite direction. But that any of -them have been guilty of treasonable acts or even intentions is what no -one who knows the historical profession can believe without the most -explicit proof. - -But this question of treason aside, the problem still remains to -determine what is the history of our country “in all its original -purity.” What shall be the test of purity inasmuch as, happily, there -is no established list of authorized books or records from which -writers must derive their facts? Are they not compelled either to -investigate each point for themselves or to accept as probably correct -the results of other men’s investigations? To be sure, every important -event creates its own legend or tradition, and such legends tend to -be preserved and to be handed down from generation to generation. But -legends are not history. No one worthy to rank as a careful historian -would presume to write the history of the Great War on the basis of -legends now crystallizing about it. No more can one write the history -of the Revolution on such a legendary basis. This view, that much -which once was thought to be history but was in fact mere legend, is -not in any sense new. James Russell Lowell, who ranks among the very -distinguished Americans of the last generation, wrote, in 1864, that -the early reports of the battle of Lexington claimed for the Yankee -minutemen a non-resistant attitude. - - The Anglo Saxon could not fight without the law on his side. But - later, when the battle became a matter of local pride, the muskets - that had been fired at the Red coats under Pitcairn almost rivalled - in number the pieces of furniture that came over in the Mayflower. - Indeed, whoever has talked much with Revolutionary pensioners knows - that those honored veterans were no less remarkable for imagination - than for patriotism. It should seem that there is nothing on - which so little reliance can be placed as facts, especially when - related by one who saw them. It is no slight help to our charity to - recollect that, in disputable matters, every man sees according to - his prejudices, and is stone blind to whatever he did not expect or - did not mean to see. Even where no personal bias can be suspected, - contemporary and popular evidence is to be taken with great - caution, so exceedingly careless are men as to exact truth, and - such poor observers, for the most part of what goes on under their - eyes.[89] - -It is hardly necessary at this late day to insist that no writer is -justified in building his narrative of events on unverified tradition. -He must try to penetrate to the truth that lies behind the legend -(which in some cases will differ very widely from the legend itself). -It is no easy task at best to perform a successful piece of historical -research, and the questions on which final agreements have been reached -are not numerous. Accordingly, if the law should be so construed -as to enforce banishment from the schools of any book which can be -proved incorrect in some of its alleged facts without regard to their -importance, no textbooks will be left in the schools, for none are -impeccable. True, the Cashman law would condemn only for falsifying -the history of the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, leaving four -other foreign wars in which our country has engaged, and the great -Civil War, to be treated without other restraint than that contained -in the last clause of section 1, denouncing propaganda in favor of any -foreign government. But under that sole provision it might still prove -embarrassing for a writer to tell the truth about the Mexican War and -possibly the others also, for the term propaganda--as the whole world -has learned lately--is a most elastic one. Presumably, the propaganda -test applies as well to other phases of history as to the military -phases, wherefore an author of a textbook is apt, under a strict -construction of this law, to be hauled into court on the charge of -propaganda if he should consider it his duty to say a single thing in -commendation of any other nation. For, will there not always be found, -in any school district, five citizens whose views collide with those of -the author; and if so, what is to prevent a case being called? Surely a -word in favor of France would be resented by some; a word in favor of -Great Britain would be resented by others; a word in favor of Germany -would offend still others; and so on through the list. In the present -mournful state of general unrest and want of confidence among nations, -an author would tread unsafely on any ground outside the “three-mile -limit.” - -It does not follow from the fact that under the law it is easy to -bring cases, that convictions would be equally easy. Presumably the -state superintendent has had knowledge of all books now in use in the -schools and, in effect if not in form, has approved them. This he would -not have done had he considered any of them purveyors of treason or -excessively faulty in statement. Moreover, as judge in cases that may -arise under this law, the superintendent will be bound to take judicial -notice of some things. For example, it is common knowledge that no -history text is perfect either on its factual side, in its literary -qualities, or in the author’s perspective of events; that few writers -display at all times perfect taste, and none perfect judgment, in -their criticisms of men and their comments on historical actions and -movements; that a given textbook may be valuable, despite minor defects -in all of the above points, by reason of its superior arrangement, its -psychological adaptation to children’s needs, and the success with -which it communicates to them the main features and the spirit of -American history. He will also be obliged to rule that the truth is not -malicious propaganda and he is bound to maintain an author’s right to -liberty of research. - -It goes without saying that if a book is palpably and grossly -inaccurate; if it gives the child a wholly erroneous view of history; -if it is crassly censorious of America’s great men; if it is written -in a spirit tending to destroy American ideals; if it tends to make -boys and girls ashamed of American character and achievements, not -in exceptional instances here and there, but generally; then there -would hardly be a question about the duty of getting rid of it with -all convenient promptness. But would it not be strange if, with the -superintendent and other educational experts on guard, such a book had -got itself adopted? On general principles one would expect that only -in the rarest cases would this law come into operation; for it ought -not to be easy for a thoroughly unworthy book to elude the critical -eyes of publishers, editors, school superintendents, teachers, and -school boards, to be finally detected and exposed by some school patron -or other private citizen. No doubt such cases are possible, but one -could hardly conceive them to be of common occurrence. Misgivings are -aroused, therefore, by the report that at the legislative hearing -Senator Cashman denounced, by name, five well known and widely used -textbooks. - -If the Senator’s historical views, as published in the _Senate Journal_ -under date of March 1, 1923, are intended to be made the platform in -a campaign to purify the history teaching of our schools, the upshot -may prove widely different from what is now anticipated; for among -those views, the derivation of which is not indicated, are some which -it would be difficult to find expressed in any existing textbook. For -example, Senator Cashman holds that our country is indebted to Holland -“for town and county representation in a legislature.” Americans -have long been taught that, in the picturesque phrase of John Fiske, -“self-government _broke out_ in Virginia” in 1619 by reason of the -fact that these people were English. We are aware of no investigations -which have brought forth evidence compelling the abandonment of that -view, though some very extravagant claims have been made for the -Dutch influence upon both colonial politics and colonial education. -He also holds that “our free public school system came from Prussia.” -If by this were meant merely that Prussian influence has been felt in -the creation of a system of state supervision of education, and in -the strengthening of a school system already in existence, we would -gladly concur. But the statement is too sweeping to admit of such an -interpretation. Wisconsin Germans ought to be very glad to assign to -New England colonies and states the chief influence in giving us the -public school system because, in the present state of research, that -appears to be where the credit belongs. To all that the Senator says -about the selection of immigrants for America, the development in the -colonies themselves of a new and vivid love of liberty which found -expression in the Declaration of Independence, the stupid tyranny of -George III, and the heroic sufferings and achievements of patriots in -the Revolution, we utter a hearty Amen; realizing, of course, that his -statement is necessarily a crowded summary, cast in oratorical mould, -and not designed as a complete exposition of his views. But, in thus -concurring we do not yield up our sympathy with the aphorism of Edmund -Burke, that in their reaction to tyranny the colonists “are descendants -of Englishmen.” - -The same reservations might be made with reference to Senator Cashman’s -statement on the constitution. And yet a fair interpretation of what -he says on that subject compels us to class him with those extreme -worshipers of that document who, like the authors of the New York -teachers’ test oath, would maintain the constitution, unchanged, at -any cost. Speaking of the fathers and their work, he says: “Then -they wrote and the states adopted the supreme law of the land, the -American constitution, the most sublime public document that ever -came forth from the mind and soul of man, establishing a system of -government based upon the consent of the governed, with religious -liberty protected, inherent rights guaranteed, _to be written in -indestructible letters into the pages of the nation’s laws_.” [Editor’s -italics.] It is a well known view of the present progressives, as -it was of the framers themselves, that, great as was the original -constitution, it was still far from being perfect. Also, most -progressives now accept in principle the conclusions of Charles A. -Beard, the historian whose recent investigations on this point are -now well known, that the constitution represents a partial reaction -from the democracy of the Revolution, and was designed in part to set -limitations upon the popular will. While venerating the constitution, -progressives in the main believe that such restrictions as the -legislative election of senators, the appointment and life tenure -of judges (some would include the mode of electing the president), -were intentionally anti-democratic, and that these and other defects -which time has revealed ought to be subject to modification whenever -the people desire the changes. The mode of amendment having been -designed to make changes difficult, or impossible (though in recent -years several changes have been adopted), leading progressives have -long held that that fundamental article ought to be amended first in -order to facilitate other changes. This was Justice John B. Winslow’s -opinion, put forth in 1912; it was the burden of an important plank -in the La Follette national platform the same year; that doctrine was -preached, at least in spirit, by the late President Roosevelt. In -short, it is a progressive principle that the constitution must cease -to be a fetish--a dead hand upon the present and the future--and must -be adjusted, from time to time, to existing social, economic, and -political conditions. The document represents, for the time, a mighty -triumph of constructive statesmanship, so progressive leaders believe, -and it should not be changed “for light or transient causes,” much less -revolutionized, but “it was designed for a rural or semi-rural state.” -The men who made it “however able could not anticipate or solve the new -problems of life and government which have come upon us in the last -half century.”[90] - -To follow Senator Cashman’s outline of American history into the -recent period to the all-engrossing event of the World War and -America’s participation therein would be fruitless. Not one of us can -conscientiously claim to be an impartial investigator with respect -to things which have wrenched our souls. We cannot abdicate our own -personalities. In treating the war, all that any historian at present -could hope to do would be to state his views with becoming restraint -and concede that those views may ultimately prove to be quite wrong. -A censorship law of fifty years hence (if our people shall then still -adhere to the censorship idea) would be sure to condemn the teaching -of what some of us now piously believe with reference to this feature -of history; just as a censorship law of today, if it included in its -scope the Civil War, would condemn the teaching of some things which -nearly one-half the voters of Wisconsin sincerely believed in 1864. -“Time is the great sifter and winnower of truth,” and we must consent -to leave these matters to the investigators of our grandchildren’s -generation. Yet the gravest danger to be feared from the law we are -now discussing lies in the psychological probability that every second -man’s opinion of a given history will be based not on what the author -says about the Revolution, or the Constitution, or the War of 1812, -but on what he says about the recent war and the League of Nations. In -other words, the reader who is prejudiced against an author on account -of his last chapter, which is almost sure to be unsatisfactory to many, -will find the first, the middle, and all other chapters reeking with -faults, and this even while personally he may be unconscious of having -imbibed a prejudice at all. - -There is a possibility that, as an engine for expelling books now -used, the law will become a dead letter, first, because it may prove -unexpectedly difficult for a dissatisfied citizen to persuade four -others to act with him in making complaint, which however is not -probable; second, because of the clamor of those in the district who -are not keen for or against the book, but who realize that if it is -thrown out all old copies will be worthless and they will have to pay -for new books at the opening of the next school year; third, because -the first cases brought may go against the complainants and discourage -others from multiplying complaints. But, the popular psychology -being what it is, there is an equal chance that the law may foster -a widespread disposition to attack history books, geography books, -civics books, and even readers; that it may keep educational matters -in a state of turmoil, engendering much social bitterness due to -the clashing of parties and interests over questions raised in the -school-book fights. In such controversies teachers would be the first -to suffer, because their opinions would be called for at once, which -would place them between two fires; and no surer way could be found -to degrade the social influence of our schools than by keeping the -teachers in a state of perpetual anxiety. - -We have reason to think that Senator Cashman, an acknowledged friend -and promoter of education, would deeply deplore such a result. If he -had anticipated anything of the kind, doubtless he would have refrained -from offering his bill. But laws, like children, when they get out of -hand, have a way of surprising their progenitors. However, we have the -law and must use it to the best ends. - -If every one in position of leadership or authority in relation -to it--and among those are members of this Society--shall feel a -responsibility for guiding discussion into proper channels; if debate -on school-book questions shall be kept not merely free but also -parliamentary in form and spirit; if we all insist that differences -of view must be treated tolerantly; if we can secure from the public -toward the arguments and facts in these cases a measure of that -openness of mind which characterizes the American juror sworn to try a -case fairly on the evidence, it may be possible to mitigate or prevent -the evils apprehended. - -And if, without discouraging research, the law shall merely enforce -through future adoptions the idea that good taste is as obligatory upon -the textbook maker as good manners are upon the private individual, -one point will have been gained. We trust this may not be won at the -expense of a disposition to whittle down the truth to fit a supposed -demand, or that it will result in substituting books written by -dishonest or spineless persons for those written by men and women of -real character and scholarship. - -In the midst of the late war the school supervisors of a western -state discovered what they believed to be propaganda favorable to one -of America’s enemies, and demanded the expulsion of the book from the -schools. The superintendent, being a wise and thoughtful man, prepared -and printed a page of corrective criticism, which all teachers were -asked to paste in the accused book and to teach to the children with -the regular text. By that simple device he saved the people of the -state many thousands of dollars which would have been paid for an -inferior text, if the book had been expelled. If the law shall permit -such a handling of the borderline cases, does it not seem that in a -time when we are at peace with all nations, we could act with equal -calmness, equal justice to authors or publishers, and equal regard for -the interests of the people who have to buy school books? - - - - -FOOTNOTES: - - -[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. - - - - -TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES: - - - Text in italics is surrounded by underscores: _italics_. - - Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been preserved from the original. - - Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Yankee and the Teuton in Wisconsin, by -Joseph Schafer - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE YANKEE AND THE TEUTON *** - -***** This file should be named 56012-0.txt or 56012-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/6/0/1/56012/ - -Produced by MFR, David E. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - -Title: The Yankee and the Teuton in Wisconsin - -Author: Joseph Schafer - -Release Date: November 20, 2017 [EBook #56012] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE YANKEE AND THE TEUTON *** - - - - -Produced by MFR, David E. Brown, and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/cover.jpg" alt="" /></div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="titlepage"> -<h1>THE YANKEE AND THE TEUTON<br /> -IN WISCONSIN</h1> - -<p><small>BY</small><br /> -JOSEPH SCHAFER</p> - -<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/title.jpg" alt="" /></div> - -<p>Reprinted from the <i>Wisconsin Magazine of History</i><br /> -Volume VI, No. 2, December, 1922</p></div> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<div class="chapter"> - -<p class="ph1">THE YANKEE AND THE TEUTON IN WISCONSIN<br /> -<span class="smcap">Joseph Schafer</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak">I. CHARACTERISTIC ATTITUDES TOWARD THE LAND</h2></div> - -<p>Wisconsin in its racial character is popularly known to -the country at large as a Teutonic state. That means the -state has a German element, original and derivative, which -numerically overshadows the American, English, Irish, -Scandinavian, and other stocks also represented in the -Badger blend. It is not necessary to quarrel with this -widely accepted theorem, though some of the corollaries -drawn from it can be shown to be unhistorical; and one can -demonstrate statistically that if Wisconsin now is, or at any -census period was, a Teutonic state she began her statehood -career in 1848 as a Yankee state and thus continued for -many years with consequences social, economic, political, -religious, and moral which no mere racial substitutions have -had power to obliterate. My purpose in the present paper -is to present, from local sources, some discussion of the relations -of Yankee and Teuton to the land—a theme which -ought to throw light on the process of substitution mentioned, -revealing how the Teuton came into possession of -vast agricultural areas once firmly held by the Yankee.</p> - -<p>The agricultural occupation of southern Wisconsin, -which brought the first tide of immigration from New -England, western New York, northern Pennsylvania, and -Ohio—the Yankee element—may be said roughly to have -been accomplished within the years 1835 and 1850. The -settlements which existed prior to 1835 were in the lead -region of the southwest, at Green Bay, and at Prairie du -Chien. The population of the lead mines was predominantly -of southern and southwestern origin; that of the two other -localities—the ancient seats of the Indian trade and more -recent centers of military defense—was mainly French-Canadian. -When, in 1836, a territorial census was taken, -it was found that the three areas named had an aggregate -population of nearly 9000, of which more than 5000 was in -the lead region included in the then county of Iowa. The -Green Bay region (Brown County) was next, and the -Prairie du Chien settlement (Crawford County) smallest.</p> - -<p>The census, however, recognized a new county, Milwaukee, -whose territory had been severed from the earlier -Brown County. It was bounded east by Lake Michigan, -south by Illinois, west by a line drawn due north from the -Illinois line to Wisconsin River at the Portage, and north -by a line drawn due east from the Portage to the lake. In -terms of present-day divisions, the Milwaukee County of -1836 embraced all of Kenosha, Racine, Walworth, Rock, -Jefferson, Waukesha, and Milwaukee counties, nearly all of -Ozaukee, Washington, and Dodge, a strip of eastern Green -County, and most of Dane and Columbia. In that imperial -domain the census takers found a grand total of 2900 persons, -or almost exactly one-fourth of the population of the -entire territory.</p> - -<p>Two significant facts distinguish the Milwaukee County -census list from the lists of Brown, Crawford, and Iowa -counties—the recency of the settlement and the distinctive -local origin of the settlers. These people had only just -arrived, most of them in the early months of 1836. One -could almost count on his ten fingers the individuals who -were there prior to the summer of 1835. In reality they were -not yet “settled,” for most of the rude claim huts—mere -shelters of the pre-log house stage—were haunted at night -and shadowed at noonday by men only, resident families -being still rare, though many were on the lakes, at the ports -of Milwaukee and Chicago, or on the overland trail which -was to end at the cabin door. It was the prophecy of new -communities, not the actuality, that the census taker -chronicled when he recorded the names of claim takers with -the number of persons, of each sex, comprising their households. -We have reason to believe that the numbers were -inscribed almost as cheerfully when the persons represented -by them were still biding in the old home or were en route -west, as when they were physically present in the settler’s -cabin or in the dooryard, eager to be counted.</p> - -<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_005.jpg" alt="WISCONSIN TERRITORY 1836" /></div> - -<p>Unlike the other populations of Wisconsin at that time, -the vast majority of Milwaukee County settlers were -Northeasterners. Such evidence as we have indicates that -New York supplied more than half, the New England states, -Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan nearly all of the balance.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> -New York’s title to primacy in peopling Wisconsin is exhibited, -most impressively, in the statistics of the 1850 census. -At that time native Americans constituted 63 per cent of -the total and New Yorkers had 36 per cent of the native -majority. Native Americans predominated in all but three -of the twenty-six counties, and in all but five those who were -natives of New York, added to the natives of Wisconsin, -were a majority of the American born. The exceptions were -the four lead mining counties of Grant, Iowa, Lafayette, -and Green, together with Richland, which, however, had so -few inhabitants that its case is divested of any significance.</p> - -<p>The three counties which, in 1850, showed a majority -of foreign born inhabitants were Manitowoc, Milwaukee, -and Washington (the last named including the present -Ozaukee County); and in each case Germans constituted -more than half of that majority. Together those three -counties had over 20,000, which was considerably more than -one-half of all the Germans (38,054) domiciled in Wisconsin -at that time. The other lake shore counties, together with -Calumet, Fond du Lac, Dodge, Jefferson, and Waukesha, -accounted for 15,000 of the balance, leaving about 3000 -scattered over the rest of the state. Thus the area embraced -by Lake Michigan, Lake Winnebago and lower Fox River, -the upper reaches of Rock River, and the south boundary -of Jefferson, Waukesha, and Milwaukee counties was all -strongly and in the main distinctively German.</p> - -<p>Investigating the causes which may have operated to -concentrate the German population within such clearly -defined geographic limits, our first inquiry concerns the -land on which settlement was taking place. And here we -find that the distinguishing fact marking off the region in -which Germans abounded from most of the other settled or -partially settled areas of the state was its originally thickly -wooded character. In a way almost startling, and superficially -conclusive, the German settlements coincided with -the great maple forest of southeastern Wisconsin, spreading -also through the included pine forest on Lake Michigan -south of Green Bay.</p> - -<p>Returning now to the Yankee element, we find that -although it was strong in all of the settled districts save the -five counties named, it was more completely dominant in -some districts than in others. For example, in Walworth -County the northeastern states furnished 96.5 per cent of -the American population, while 3.5 per cent was furnished -by sixteen other states. The foreign born constituted less -than 16 per cent of the total.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> Walworth County was a -section of the new “Yankee Land,” which included in its -boundaries also the counties of Racine and Kenosha, Rock, -and at that time parts of Waukesha and Jefferson. Nowhere -in that region were foreigners very numerous, and in many -localities non-English speaking foreigners were almost -scarce.</p> - -<p>Physically, this new Yankee Land comprised those portions -of the prairies and openings of southern Wisconsin -which lay not more than from sixty to seventy-five miles -from the lake ports at Milwaukee, Racine, and Kenosha. -The region was just as characteristically “open country” -as that occupied so extensively by Germans was forested. -One land type, the glacial marsh or swale—good for hay and -pasture—was common to the two districts of country. But -for the rest, the Yankee’s land was all ready for the plow if -it was prairie, and if oak openings the labor of felling the -scattered trees and dragging them away before the breaking -team was comparatively light.</p> - -<p>The German, on the other hand, in order to subdue his -land to the requirements of successful tillage, must attack -with ax, mattock, and firebrand each successive acre, -patiently slashing and burning, hewing and delving, till by -dint of unremitting toil extended over an indefinite number -of years his farm became “cleared.”</p> - -<p>Shall we therefore repeat, as the sober verdict of history, -the statement often heard, that in settling this new country -the Yankee showed a preference for open land, the German -for woodland? On the face of the census returns that seems -to be the case, and if our evidence were limited to the census -such a conclusion would be well nigh inescapable. Fortunately, -he who deals with culture history problems of the -American West has this advantage over the Greenes and the -Lamprechts of Europe, that on such matters his evidence is -minutely particular, while theirs is general to the point of -vagueness. No one will doubt that the Yankee staked his -claim in the open lands because he preferred those lands on -account of the ease with which a farm could be made. The -question is, whether the German’s presence in the woods -rather than in the openings or on the prairies was with him a -matter of preference so far as land selection in itself was -concerned.</p> - -<p>Timber for shelter, fuel, building, and fencing was an -important consideration to all settlers, including the Yankees. -In another connection I have shown, from the records -of land entries, that the Yankee settlers in a prevailingly -prairie township of Racine County took up first every acre -of forested land, together with the prairie lands and marsh -lands adjoining the woods, while they shunned for some -years the big, open, unsheltered prairie where farms would -be out of immediate touch with woods.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> Rather than take -treeless lands near the lake shore, these settlers preferred to -go farther inland where inviting combinations of groves, -meadows, and dry prairie lands, or openings, could still be -found in the public domain. Only gradually did American -settlers overcome their natural repugnance to a shelterless, -timberless farm home—a repugnance justified by common -sense, but springing from the habit of generations. When, -for economic reasons, they began to settle on the open -prairies, the planting of quick-growing trees about the farmsteads -was always esteemed a work of fundamental utility.</p> - -<p>Yankee agricultural settlers found special inducements -for going inland in search of ideal farm locations, in the glowing -advertisements of Yankee speculators who early pioneered -the open country far and wide. These speculators -concerned themselves primarily with water powers for -sawmill and gristmill sites and town sites. Yet power and -town sites both depended for their development on the -agricultural occupation of the surrounding country, and -this made the speculators careful to locate their claims in -areas of desirable lands which would soon be wanted. It -also made them doubly active in proclaiming to immigrants -the agricultural advantages of their chosen localities.</p> - -<p>One may take up at random the land office records of -townships in the older Wisconsin, and in practically every -case find proof that the speculator was abroad in the land -before the arrival of the farmer. Along the banks of navigable -rivers he took up, early, such tracts as seemed to afford good -steamboat landings, which might mean towns or villages -also. Along smaller streams he engrossed potential water -powers. In the prairie regions he seized the timbered tracts -which commonly lay along the streams. And wherever -nature seemed to have sketched the physical basis for a -future town, there he drove his stakes and entered an area -large enough at least for a municipal center.</p> - -<p>In some portions, particularly of the earliest surveys, the -speculator also absorbed a goodly share of the best farm -land, which he held for an advance when the immigration of -farmers became heavy. Other Americans, aside from -Yankees, participated in these speculations, but the records -show that the Yankee’s reputation for alertness and sagacity -in that line is not unmerited. For illustration, the plats of -Dane County townships disclose among the original entrymen -who bought their lands early, the names of well known -speculators like James D. Doty, Lucius Lyon, the Bronsons, -Cyrus Woodman, Hazen Cheney, and C. C. Washburn—all -Yankees. In addition, we have distinguished New Englanders -who probably never came west but invested through -the agency of their Yankee correspondents. Among them -are Daniel Webster, Edward Everett, Ralph Waldo Emerson, -and Caleb Cushing.</p> - -<p>To a considerable extent these speculators, in paying for -government lands, employed military land warrants, usually -purchased at a heavy discount. “Scripping” by this means -became more common after the Mexican War. A German -immigration leader wrote at the close of 1848: “There is a -man living in Sheboygan who has already placed 344 of these -warrants [each good for 160 acres] on government lands and -intends next spring to place 200 more on tracts lying north -of Fox River.”<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> He did not say the man was a Yankee; -possibly he deemed that information unnecessary. For, -although the German sometimes bought warrants of the -brokers in order to save the difference between the price of -such warrants and the land office price of government land, -he did not in the early years of the immigration speculate -in farm lands.</p> - -<p>Therein was one of the outstanding differences between -him and the Yankee. The German could not be tolled -into the interior by golden promises of unearned increments -from the sale of city lots, of mill sites, or of choice farm -lands which were going rapidly. His caution and his -phlegm were a protection. He was not particularly responsive -to the optimistic prophecies of the development of this -region or that region in which this company or that prominent -individual had interests. For these reasons, the German’s -motives as a land seeker were more legitimately -economic and social than were those of the Yankee, and on -the basis of such motives we can explain his settlement in -the woods.</p> - -<p>In his homeland the German villager loved the forest for -its shelter, its recreational hospitality, and the benefits it -conferred in necessary fuel, timber, bedding, and forage. -A large proportion of the early German immigrants came -from south German provinces dominated by such famous -old forests as the Schwartzwald and the Odenwald. From -considerations both of habit and of economy it was natural -that in the New World they should make sure of an abundance -of timber on the lands they sought for future homes. -Yet, there is no reason to assume that the German, any more -than the Yankee, courted the grilling labor of clearing -heavily forested land—a labor to him the more formidable -for the want of the Yankee’s training in axmanship and his -almost unbroken tradition of winning fields from forests. -Some German pioneers who were self-helpful struck for the -openings and the prairies, and like the Yankee chose for -their farms the ideal combination of wood, marsh, and open -land whenever such a combination could be found within -easy reach of the market.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p> - -<p>But Germans were less venturesome than Yankees, or -more prudent, depending on the point of view. In the old -home they were accustomed to haul their farm produce -many miles in going to the markets and fairs. But there the -roads were passable at all seasons. In the New World, -where all was in the making, the roads were often impassable -and always—except in winter—so rough and troublesome -as to daunt those who were not to the manner born.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> -Hence the German settler’s idea of what constituted a safe -distance from the lake ports within which to open a farm -differed from the Yankee’s idea. There is one striking illustration -of that difference. Along the Illinois boundary from -Lake Michigan westward was the strip of prairie and openings -twenty-four miles wide and seventy-eight long which -was divided into Racine and Kenosha counties (on the -lake), Walworth, and Rock. We have already called that -region the new Yankee Land and have seen the Yankee -farmers spread over it with seeming disregard to distance -from the lake ports, each being intent rather on finding an -ideal combination of desirable kinds of land. The three -divisions of the strip contained almost equal numbers of -Yankees—these people evidently believing that canals, -roads, plank roads, and railways would come to them when -needed, while a good farm location once lost was gone -forever; and being willing also, until such improvements -should come, to haul their crops sixty or seventy-five miles -to market. Not so the few Germans who entered this -Yankee Land prior to 1850. More than four-fifths of them -were in the section nearest the lake (Racine and Kenosha -counties), and less than one-thirtieth in Rock County, the -farthest west of the strip.</p> - -<p>The movement into the prairies and openings of the -southeast had been going on for about four years before -the Germans began coming to Wisconsin, and so many -selections of first choice, second choice, and even third -choice land had been made that newcomers were already -at a disadvantage in that region, especially if a number of -them desired to settle near together in a body, which was -the case of Old Lutheran congregations who made up the -earliest German immigrations. Moreover, most of the -Yankees were business-like farmers who generally planned -for fairly large farms, in order to make money by raising -wheat. They were mainly men who had sold small farms -in the East in order to secure larger, or sons of large farmers. -Most of them had money or credit to enable them to acquire -land, construct buildings and fences, buy stock, and begin -farming operations. Having found good land by canvassing -the whole region, they were not to be dislodged until, -with the failure of wheat crops at a later time, the spirit of -emigration sent numbers of them to fresh wheat lands -farther west, thus making opportunity for well-to-do -Germans to buy their improved farms, which they did to -a great extent.</p> - -<p>Meantime, the forested lands pivoting on Milwaukee, -the most promising of the lake ports, were open to entry at -the land office or to purchase at private sale on easy terms. -The Yankee had not altogether shunned those lands. There, -as elsewhere, he had been looking for good investments, -and the project for the Milwaukee and Rock River Canal, -which was to traverse a portion of the forested area through -the present Milwaukee, Waukesha, and Jefferson counties, -favored speculation in farm lands as well as in mill sites -and town sites. Besides, there is evidence that some of -the poorer Yankee immigrants who felt unable at once to -maintain themselves on open land farms, often settled -first in the woods, where they began making improvements -with ax and fire, only to sell out promptly at an advance -and go to the prairie or openings to establish permanent -farms. But most of the forested land was still “Congress -land” when the Germans began coming to Wisconsin.</p> - -<p>The German “Pilgrims,” as the first colony was called, -arrived at Milwaukee early in October, 1839, their leader -being Henry von Rohr. Within a month they had decided -on a location, in the western part of township 9, range 21 -east (the town of Mequon, Ozaukee County), and had -made numerous purchases of government land. They -selected a tract of high, rolling land, heavily timbered, well -watered, and with an extensive marsh near by in the public -domain which would furnish free hay and pasture.<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> The -situation was similar to that which was chosen, near Watertown -(in the town of Lebanon), a few years later by a -German colony from the same region. They also took a -tract of heavily timbered upland neighbored by an extensive -marsh. “Here,” said their leader, “we have both wood and -hay” (“<i>Holz und Heu</i>”).<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p> - -<p>Many of the colonists in these two congregations were -very poor. Those who had means lent to the indigent to -enable them to emigrate. For them it would have been -madness to go to the prairies, where such absolute necessities -as fuel, building material, and fencing might cost ready -money and at best would be difficult to procure. In the -woods trees cut on the spot were used to build cabin and -log house, stable, garden and field enclosure. Some of the -German families were months without draft ox or even -cow. All work was performed by hand, including the carrying -of logs from the spot where the trees were felled to the -place where they were to be rolled up to make the cabin -wall. To such settlers, bringing timber from a distance -would have been among the impossibilities. Their place -was in the forest, where labor alone was required for making -the beginnings of a self-sustaining home.</p> - -<p>In thousands of later instances, Germans who came to -Wisconsin on their own slender means were in a similar -case to these early seekers of religious freedom. An immigrant -of 1848, J. F. Diederichs, has left a diary and -letters from which the process of home making in the -woods can be reconstructed.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> Diederichs, after considerable -search, found eighty acres of good government land -nine miles from Manitowoc, where early in winter he settled -down to work alongside of several other Germans who -were as poor as himself. The location was favorable, being -near a port. “What good is there,” he writes, “to possess -the finest land and be 6, 8 or 10 days journey from market.”<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> -The first step was to build a cabin, the next to bring his -family from Milwaukee and with a few dollars borrowed for -the purpose to lay in supplies for them. Then he erected a -comfortable log house and continued clearing till, by the -middle of May, he had two acres ready partly for garden -and partly for potatoes, corn, and beans to provide the -family with food. Diederichs realized that “to begin such -work at the age of 44 is some job,” and recognized that not -he and his wife but the children would be the chief beneficiaries. -Nevertheless, the joy of creation was not wholly -denied him. He had, he said, the “prettiest” location; -house set on a commanding knoll, with a pure limpid stream -flowing within a few yards of it, along whose course was -some open land, making a “layout for the finest pastures.” -And there was timber enough on his eighty to be worth -$30,000 in the home town of Elberfelt. Of this, he would -gladly make his friends in Germany a present of about -$20,000 worth!</p> - -<p>The question of nearness to market was a determinant -also in the cases of Germans who were well enough off to -take open lands. William Dames found, for himself and -associates, a favorable tract near Ripon. It contained 160 -acres prairie, 320 acres openings, and 160 acres of low -prairie or meadow land. The advantages of that neighborhood, -he wrote, were these: first, the prospectively near -market, by way of the Fox River Canal to be completed -the following spring; second, the excellence of the soil; -third, the ease with which the land could be made into -productive farms. There one need not subject himself to -the murderous toil incident to farm making in the woods. -And, fourth, the healthfulness of the climate and the superb -drinking water.</p> - -<p>One bit of information which Dames conveyed to his -fellow Germans who were contemplating immigration to -Wisconsin, was that the Yankees (by which term he -described all native Americans) and the Scotch settlers of -that neighborhood were becoming eager to sell their partly -improved farms, preparatory to moving into the newer -region north of Fox River. He advised Germans able to do -so to buy such farms, which were to be had in plenty not -only in Fond du Lac County but near Watertown, near -Delafield, and even near Milwaukee—prices varying with -the improvements, nearness to the city, etc. He seemed to -think the Germans but ill adapted to pioneering. Let the -German immigrant, he said, buy a partly cleared farm; then -he could follow his calling in ways to which he was accustomed. -Moreover, since such farms produced fairly well -even under the indifferent treatment accorded them by -the Yankee farmers, the German farmer need have no fear -of failure.</p> - -<p>The advice to purchase farms already begun was widely -followed by the financially competent German immigrants. -Ownership records of one Milwaukee County township show -that the lands were originally taken mainly by Irish and -Americans, yet in 1850 nearly one-half of the settlers were -Germans; and there is no reason to regard that case as -singular. Probably the Germans who bought improved -farms were as numerous as those who bought Congress -land. Many poor men worked as farm hands for some -years and then bought small improved farms in preference -to buying Congress land.</p> - -<p>The experience of an 1849 immigrant, Johannes Kerler, -illustrates the less common case of Germans who arrived -with considerable means. Kerler brought with him to -Milwaukee a sum, derived from the sale of a profitable -business, which would have enabled him to buy scores of -mill sites and town sites in the public domain. Instead, he -limited his investment to a 200-acre farm seven miles from -the city, paying for the land, including all crops and livestock, -$17 per acre. The buildings consisted of a log house -and a cabin. One-half the farm was divided between plow -land and meadow; the balance—100 acres—supported a -dense forest growth. Kerler at once erected a barn for his -cattle, and a good two-story frame house for the family. -Then he went to farming and quickly transformed the -earlier crude homestead into a fruitful and beautiful farm, -the show place of the neighborhood.<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p> - -<p>Social forces are among the imponderables, and yet -their influence in controlling the distribution of immigration -must have been considerable. The fact that nearly all -incoming Germans landed in Milwaukee, where were -acquaintances and often friends, tended in a hundred subtle -ways to attach the newcomers to that community. Before -1850 Milwaukee had come to be looked upon as a German -city. “There,” said one immigrant, “more German than -English is spoken.” It had its German churches, schools, -clubs, societies, and recreational features, all of which -constituted powerful attractions. It was the most important -industrial center of the state, with a relatively large -demand for the labor which with farm work was the poorer -immigrant’s sole means of getting a financial start. In -addition, it was the commercial metropolis, and that the -German was firmly tethered to his market has already become -clear.</p> - -<p>The construction of the Milwaukee and Mississippi -Railroad, begun in 1849 and completed to Prairie du Chien -in 1857, partially freed the German immigrant from his -dread of being marooned in the interior. Desirable government -lands accessible to the proposed railroad were generally -taken up several years before the completion of the road, -and among the entrymen in certain districts were many -newly arrived Germans. This was true to some extent in -Dane County, but more noticeably so farther west. In Iowa -County and in Grant were sheltered pleasant and fertile -valleys, opening toward the Wisconsin, which would be -served by the railroad when completed, and which had long -been in touch with the world by means of steamers plying -on the Wisconsin. In those valleys, and on the wider ridges -between them, the Germans competed with others for the -choicest locations on government and state lands. Land -entry records for two townships in Blue River valley show, -by 1860, out of an aggregate of 122 foreign born families 59 -of German origin, while the American families numbered -93. A similar proportion doubtless obtained in other towns -south of the river.</p> - -<p>Directly opposite these townships, in the same survey -range but lying on the north side of Wisconsin River, was -the town of Eagle, whose settlement was almost exactly -contemporaneous with that of the Blue River valley. But -Eagle, in 1860, had 20 foreign born families to 108 American, -and of the 20 only 13 were German.</p> - -<p>Inasmuch as the people on the two banks of the river -had a common market—Muscoda, which was a station on -the railroad—and the lands of Eagle were more fertile and -quite as well watered, the question why the Germans avoided -that town and made homes south of the river is surely -interesting, and possibly significant.</p> - -<p>There were two important differences between the two -districts. In Blue River the valley land, to use the surveyor’s -phrase, was “thinly timbered with oak,” while in -the valley of Mill Creek, or Eagle Creek, opposite was a -dense forest dominated by the sugar maple but containing -big timber of several varieties, and dense undergrowth. -In a word, it was a heavily timbered area. Now the Germans -near Lake Michigan had given ample proof of gallantry -in attacking forest covered farms, yet when the -choice was before them of taking such land in Richland -County or easily cleared land of poorer quality in Grant, -almost with one accord they selected the latter.</p> - -<p>We cannot be certain that the difference in the timbered -character of the land was the sole motive determining the -choice, though doubtless it was the most important. The -railroad ran on the south side of the river and the principal -trading center was on that side. Settlers in Blue River -valley could therefore reach the market by a direct, unbroken -haul with teams over public roads. Those in Eagle -at first were obliged to use the ferry in crossing the river, -and later they had to cross on a toll bridge except in midwinter, -if the river was frozen to a safe depth, when they -crossed on the ice. These transportation conditions might -have deterred some Germans from settling north of the -river, even if the lands there had been as lightly timbered -as those on the south side. Taken together, the two causes -virtually served to blockade that district against settlers of -their type.</p> - -<p>But if the Germans declined the rle of foresters, by -refusing to settle in a partially isolated town like Eagle, -the Yankees did the same. New Yorkers and New Englanders -were scarcer there than Prussians or Hanoverians. The -town was occupied mainly by families from Ohio, Kentucky, -Missouri, Indiana—with a few from Virginia and North -Carolina; in short, by men who had enjoyed or endured -a recent experience as frontiersmen in heavily wooded -regions. So many belonged to the class described by Eggleston -in <i>The Circuit Rider</i>, <i>The Hoosier Schoolmaster</i>, and <i>The -Graysons</i>, that the name “Hoosier Hollow,” applied to one -of the coulees, seems perfectly normal.</p> - -<p>To the Yankee, we may be sure, the heavy woods in the -town of Eagle were a sufficient deterrent to settlement -there. The Germans shunned it either because they disliked -heavy clearing when it could be avoided and when no -compensating advantages offered, as was the case near the -lake shore; or because they disliked the risk and the expense -of crossing the river to market; or for both of these reasons -combined. Probably either reason, singly, would have -sufficed.</p> - -<p>By way of summary, we may say that as a land seeker the -Yankee’s range exceeded that of the German. Both clung to -the lake ports as their market base. But the Yankee’s -optimism painted for him a roseate future based on an -experimental knowledge of material development for which -the German’s imagination was largely unprepared. The -New Yorker had witnessed, in his home state, the almost -miraculous transformation of rural conditions through the -construction of a system of canals; and canal building -affected Vermont, Pennsylvania, and Ohio only less profoundly -than the Empire State. To the Yankee, therefore, -who cast his lot in the favored lands of Wisconsin it seemed -that nothing could halt the march of improvement. The -chief point was to obtain prompt possession of the right kind -of farm. Having this, he could count on doing a big agricultural -business as a wheat grower, which promised generous -financial rewards. But if for any reason he failed to get -the right kind of farm, if improvements were unexpectedly -dilatory, or if the land ceased to respond to his demand for -wheat and more wheat, he “sold out” with slight compunction -and went elsewhere, confident of success on a new -frontier, especially the great wheat plains. To him land was -a desirable commodity, but by no means a sacred trust.</p> - -<p>The German, on the other hand, came from a land of -very gradual change. Although agricultural conditions -there were actually considerably modified in the first half -of the nineteenth century, he still, for the most part, looked -upon his dwindling patrimony as the basis, not of a money -making business, but of a livelihood. If, by the combined -labor of all members of the household, the family -could be fed, clothed, and sheltered, the heavy obligations -to church and state redeemed, and a few <i>gulden</i> sequestered -for times of emergency, the peasant was content. -His land was his home. It had been his father’s, grandfather’s, -great-grandfather’s. The original estate was -parted into ever more and smaller divisions, as generation -succeeded generation, until the tracts of many holders were -at last too small to support the families. These had no -choice but to sell and go to the city, or go to America. This -condition was one of the most general economic causes of the -large German immigration to this and other states. When -the German farmer, or other German, came to Wisconsin -and bought a piece of land, one purpose dominated his -mind—to make a farm for a home, and establish a family -estate. In the beginning it did not occur to him to speculate -in land, although in this as in other things he proved an apt -pupil. Accustomed to a very limited acreage, he was not -like the Yankee ambitious to secure a large domain. Habituated -to intensive tillage, a partly made farm having ten -or twelve acres of cleared land was to him an ample equipment -for making a living in agriculture. Enlarging fields -meant a surplus and mounting prosperity. If he took raw -land, he could count on clearing enough in a couple of -winters with his own hands to raise food crops, and he -looked upon the prospect of spending ten, twenty, or -twenty-five years in fully subduing his 80- or 100-acre farm -with no unreasoning dread or carking impatience. The remark -of Diederichs characterized the German premptor: -“If I once have land enough under cultivation to raise our -food supplies, I will win through.” Whereas the Yankee -wanted to break 40, 60, 80, or 100 acres of prairie or openings -the first year, the German contemplated the possession of a -similar acreage of tillable land in ten, fifteen, or twenty -years.</p> - -<p>But once in possession of a tract of land, the German -tended to hold on, through good years and bad years, as if -his farm were the one piece of land in the world for him and -his. The Yankee, already given to change in the East, -tended in the West, under the stimulus of machine-aided -wheat culture, to regard land lightly, and to abandon one -tract for another on the principle that the supply was -inexhaustible and that one social environment was apt to -be as satisfactory as another. He had before him the great -wheat plains, the Pacific coast, the inland empire and the -parks of the Rocky Mountains. Latterly his range has -widened to include the plains of the Assiniboin, the Saskatchewan, -and Peace River. For more than half a century he -was free to roam, to pick and choose land even as he picked -and chose in southern Wisconsin—the slower, more cautious, -or more timid German buying his farm when he was ready to -sell.</p> - -<p>It was peaceful penetration, involving no sabre rattling -but much canny bargaining, sober casting up of accounts, -and cheerful jingling of specie. The Yankees, more speculative -to the last, more imaginative and space-free, pressed -ever toward the borders of the primitive, drawn by the same -lure of wealth quickly and easily acquired which brought so -many of them to the prairies of Wisconsin in the earlier -days. The Germans, fearing distance more than debt, confident -in their ability to make grain crops grow and farm -stock fatten if only they had a sure market for cattle and for -crops, remained behind to till the abandoned fields and -occupy the deserted homes. Thus, so far as Wisconsin’s -farming areas are concerned, the shadow of the Yankee has -grown less in the land, while the tribe of the Teuton has -increased.</p> - -<p>What tendencies may have been induced by the passing -of the frontier and the resurgence of a population deprived -of its former temptation to expand into new regions; what -social changes were implied in the agricultural revolution -which compels the daily application of science to the business -of farming; what readjustments in relationships were -involved in the modification of the Teutonic type with the -coming upon the stage of the second and third generations -of Germans; how the Germans in turn have reacted to the -competition of groups having their origin in other foreign -countries, like the Scandinavians, Bohemians, and Poles—all -these are questions the answers to which would aid us to -determine “where we are and whither we are tending.” -But their discussion will have to be postponed to later issues -of this magazine.</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<div class="chapter"> -<p class="ph1">THE YANKEE AND THE TEUTON IN WISCONSIN<br /> -<span class="smcap">Joseph Schafer</span></p> - - -<h2 class="nobreak">II. DISTINCTIVE TRAITS AS FARMERS</h2></div> - -<p>The agricultural traits and peculiarities of the nineteenth -century Yankees were the resultant of partly contradictory -forces, some of them evolutionary, others devolutionary. -In England the period of the Puritan migration to America -and the half-century antecedent thereto was a time of -vigorous agricultural change marked by many improvements -in cultivation and in land management. The agrarian -revolution introduced by the transfer of church properties to -laymen was accompanied by enclosures and a widespread -tendency to shift from an uneconomical crop economy to an -agriculture governed by business principles. In this new -system the production of farm animals—especially sheep—the -fertilization of the soil, rotation of crops, and livestock -improvement were main factors. Forces and interests were -set in motion at this time which, a century or so later, made -farming the concern of many of England’s leading minds, -whose wise and persistent experimentation benefited the -whole civilized world.</p> - -<p>The few thousand immigrants to the New England colonies, -founders of America’s Yankeedom, were not all farmers. -Some were fishermen, some were small tradesmen, others -craftsmen; a few were professional men and soldiers. But a -goodly proportion were land owners and peasants, and all -had a more or less direct knowledge of the principles and -processes which governed English agriculture. The influence -of habit, always a determining factor in the transfer -of civilization from an old land to a new, caused the occasional -reproduction in New England of some features of -English farming, especially under village conditions. The -common field system in Old Salem reflected a disappearing -element in English farm life, while the commons of hay, -commons of pasture, commons of wood, and commons of -mast, with their administrative “hay reeve,” “hog reeve,” -“wood reeve,” herdsmen, and shepherds, mark a natural -imitating of the ways of parish life at home.</p> - -<p>But there were differences in the conditions “at home” -and in America as wide as those symbolized by the terms -“insular,” and “continental,” applied to the geography of -the two countries. Chief among these differences were the -generally forested character of the new-world land, the -necessity of adapting tillage to an unfamiliar climate, in -part to new food cereals, especially Indian corn, and the -absolute dependence upon markets which could be created -or opened by the colonists themselves. It was in fact the -problem of a market which so long subordinated farming -proper in New England to a species of country living in -which small patches of arable supplied most of the family’s -food, while forest and stream were the objects of exploitation -for marketable furs, for medicinal plants, and for timber -products. Yankee ingenuity, which justly became proverbial, -had an assignable cause. It was not an inherited -quality, or one which was imported and conserved; it was a -distinctively American product, explained by the situation -of the average New England farmer—who was, by force of -circumstances, more of a mechanic and woods worker -than a cultivator of the soil. His house, especially in winter, -was a busy workshop where clapboards, staves, hoops, -heading, ax handles, and a variety of other articles of -utility and salability were always in course of manufacture. -All the farm “tinkering” was additional thereto.</p> - -<p>In his contest with the forest for a livelihood, the Yankee -farmer was gradually changed from the eastern New England -village type to that of the American “pioneer.” His -axmanship was unrivaled, his skill in woodscraft, his resourcefulness -in the face of untried situations were equal to -the best. When the time came for taking agricultural possession -of broad spaces in the northern and western interior, -the Yankee was the instrument, shaped by four generations -of American history, to achieve that object.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p> - -<p>This general “handiness” was gained not without a -partial loss of such acquired knowledge and skill in agriculture -proper as the first immigrants brought from England. -Close, careful cultivation was impossible among the stumps -and girdled trees of new clearings; the amplitude of natural -meadows and the superabundance of “browse” relieved -settlers from the sharp necessity of providing artificially -for the winter feeding of cattle; the mast of oak trees and -the wealth of nuts, supplementing summer “greens,” roots, -grass, and wild apples, supplied most of the requisites for -finishing off pork. Under these conditions farming even -at best was an entirely different thing from what it had -been at home. At its worst, it was a crude process, affording -a vegetative kind of existence, but nothing more. In -fact, farming in the New England states hardly attained the -status of a business until the nineteenth century, though -in some portions it gave the farmer and his family a generous -living and afforded a few luxuries. It made thousands of -persons independent proprietors who could not have reached -that station at home; it gave the farmers as a class a commanding -influence in politics and society; “embattled,” it -enabled them to wrest their country’s independence from -the awkward hands of a bungling monarchy. In short, it -contributed incalculably to their importance as men in -history. The indications are, however, that as farmers the -fourth generation of <i>Mayflower</i> descendants were decidedly -inferior to the original Pilgrims and Puritans.</p> - -<p>The third generation were probably less skillful than the -fourth. For, by the time of the Revolution there were -farming areas in southern New England that were looking -up. Timothy Dwight, near the end of the century, found -and recorded some of the evidences of a movement to improve -cultivation, to fertilize the soil, to better the character -of farm livestock—a movement which had been going forward -under impulses communicated from England, where -the eighteenth century was peculiarly fruitful in agricultural -development. Dwight was enough of an idealist to appreciate -the limits of the improvement thus far reached. -Yet he did insist, with evident justice, that the farming of -the Connecticut valley and of eastern Massachusetts was at -least respectable. Fields were well cleared and carefully -cultivated, clover began to be used as a feeding and green -manure crop, the beginnings had been made of a system of -rotation of crops, livestock was of relatively good quality—especially -in certain Connecticut towns which were already -noted for the weight of the bullocks they furnished to the -commissary department of Washington’s army. By that -time, also, leading men in New England lent their influence -toward the building up of the agricultural interest; agricultural -societies were organized and essays on agriculture came -to have considerable vogue. Some importations of purebred -livestock from England took place. The first merino -sheep were brought in from France, then larger numbers -from Spain by Consul William Jarvis. In 1810 Elkanah -Watson established his Berkshire County Agricultural -Society, with the county fair which became the model for -subsequent county and state fairs the country over.</p> - -<p>When Tom Paine predicted in 1776 that an independent -America would prosper “as long as eating continues to be -the custom of Europe,”<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> he assumed one point about which -some doubt might in future arise: Would Europe always -have the wherewithal to purchase American foodstuffs at -prices which would compensate our people for growing -them and delivering them to the market? During the -continuance of the long revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, -Europe managed to make good Paine’s prophecy, and -prices at the close of the wars ruled high. There followed -the great expansion era which spread American farmers -over the New West, both south and north, into which -Yankees entered to a large extent.</p> - -<p>The good prices did not hold. Food could be raised -cheaply, but markets were costly to reach, even with the -new wizardry of the steamboat, and something gigantic -was called for in the way of internal improvements. The -answer was at first canals, afterwards railroads. At the -same time, something had to be done by the farmer himself -if the entire structure of American agriculture, now becoming -conscious of its own embarrassments, was not to go -down. The answer to this was <i>better farming</i>. It was in -1819, the panic year, that John S. Skinner founded at -Baltimore the <i>American Farmer</i>, first of the distinctively -farm journals which almost immediately had a small group -of successors. Among them were the <i>New England Farmer</i>, -the <i>Albany Cultivator</i>, the <i>Pennsylvania Farmer</i>, the <i>Rural -New Yorker</i>, the <i>Vermont Farmer</i>, the <i>Ohio Farmer</i>, etc.</p> - -<p>Yankeedom was a good social soil for these journals. -The all but universal literacy of the people, their curiosity, -their love of argument and disputation, their habit of -experimentation, all tended both to give currency to the -new ideas presented and to sift the practical and valuable -from the merely theoretic and futile. Thus was introduced, -in a period of prevailing “hard times,” a meliorating -influence destined to reach a very large proportion of the -settlers in those sections, particularly Vermont, western -New York, northern Pennsylvania and Ohio, from which -the bulk of the Yankee pioneers of Wisconsin were drawn a -quarter of a century later. The effect of county and state -fairs was to deepen and fructify the influence of the new -agricultural press.</p> - -<p>It will be understood that the actual “shoring up” of -agricultural practice came about with relative slowness. -Yet, it soon began here and there, and by a kind of mild infection -spread gradually over wide areas. Only in crisis -periods, with the introduction of new methods to suit new -market conditions, was progress ever very rapid. To -illustrate, as early as 1820 Josiah Quincy was advocating -and practising the summer soiling of cattle, especially -milch cows, and demonstrating the profitableness of the -system for the region near Boston. It was a long time -before soiling became common even in that district, but -this experiment engendered better care of livestock. The -same careful, experimental farmer demonstrated the economy -of using good-sized whole potatoes for seed, as against -the practice of planting seed ends and small tubers; other -farmers were slow to adopt the idea, which is not yet universally -followed, yet some improvement doubtless came -from the publication of Quincy’s findings.</p> - -<p>What, then, were the general farming habits of the -Yankees who form the background of Wisconsin’s pioneer -age? First of all, they lived in decent houses which were -usually of lumber. Dwight contended that not one New -England village in a hundred was disfigured with the presence -of even one log house. He also gives the result of a -count made in 1810 of the log houses along the road from -New Haven to Windsor in Vermont, thence across the -Green Mountains to Middlebury, and back by a direct -route to New Haven, a distance of over 460 miles, much of -it through new settlements. It showed only fifteen to -Middlebury and thirty-two on the return route. It seems -to have been a matter of pride with the Yankee to desert -his pioneer log house as quickly as possible. His personal -skill with tools, and abundance of saw timber, made the -construction of a frame house a family undertaking calling -for labor indeed, but only a minimum of hired skill; and -for little material involving the outlay of actual money. So -the frame houses rose wherever the Yankees settled. Along -the great road from Albany to Buffalo, in western New -York, they began to spring up before the settlements were -ten years old. When, about twenty-five years later, -travelers passed that way they saw many houses of squared, -framed timbers, covered over neatly with boards at the -sides and ends, and roofed with shingles.<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> These common -frame houses were sufficiently inartistic, no doubt. Perhaps, -as one traveler remarks, they did look like “huge -packing boxes.” Similar architectural designs can be -seen scattered over the West—and the East, too—at this -late date. Still, they were more commodious than the -log houses, and improved the families’ living conditions. -The next stage was likely to mark a very distinct advance. -“In the more cleared and longer settled parts of the country,” -says a none too sympathetic English traveler, “we -saw many detached houses, which might almost be called -villas, very neatly got up, with rows of wooden columns in -front, aided by trees and tall shrubs running round and -across the garden which was prettily fenced in, and embellished -with a profusion of flowers.” Yankees had the -habit of building by the roadside, whatever the economic -disadvantages of such a situation, because it enabled them -to keep in touch with the world—a reason which is by no -means frivolous, and for them highly characteristic.</p> - -<p>We have no such definite account of the Yankee farmers’ -barns as of those of Pennsylvania Germans. It is true that -Dwight, speaking for the older New England, suggests -that the barn was apt to be a much better structure than -the house. The custom, however, noted by travelers in -New York and elsewhere, of letting cattle run at large all -winter without shelter other than trees and brush, and perhaps -the straw pile or rick of marsh hay, argues that stabling -was furnished for only a minimum number of work oxen, -horses—if such there were—and perhaps in some cases cows -in milk. It undoubtedly was not the practice to house stock -cattle, or even—except in isolated cases—to feed them in -sheds. The advocates of careful sheltering who wrote for -the agricultural journals recognized that the weight of -opinion was against sheltering stock. They compromised -with that opinion by recommending sheds for young stock -and dry cows, and warm barns only for milking cows and -work animals.<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> Yet, some of the leading cattle feeders -of the Genesee valley, as late as the year 1842, were content -to scatter loads of hay over meadows and through brush -patches for the hundreds of beef cattle they were wintering.<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a></p> - -<p>The livestock, except sheep and pigs, was still by 1840 -prevailingly of no breed. Nevertheless, Durhams and -Devons were coming into use. The Patroon stock of -shorthorns, introduced in 1824 from England by Stephen -Van Rensellaer, of Albany, gained its first customers apparently -among the English farmers of western New York, -but gradually made its way among the Yankees as well. -Other importations were soon made, so that by 1840 there -were several prominent herds of purebreds in that section -of the state. In 1842 it was said of the Genesee County Fair -that “with the exception of some working oxen and one -cow not a single animal of native cattle was in the yard. -All were either pure or grade Durhams or Devons.... -Bulls were shown by some six or seven competitors. Among -them were four thoroughbred ones and one of those imported.”<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> -It is clear that by the time emigration to Wisconsin -began to take place, actual progress had been made -and the entire body of Yankee farmers had been indoctrinated -with the idea of better livestock. Sheep and pigs -were already largely improved, the former prevailingly -through the cross with the merinos, the latter with Berkshires -and other English breeds. The Morgan horse, a -Vermont product, was gaining wide popularity.</p> - -<p>From what has been said of the care of livestock, it -follows that the possibilities of the farm for the manufacture -of fertilizer were generally neglected. English travelers -were apt to insist that this neglect was universal, but there -were, of course, numerous exceptions. Farming was extensive, -not intensive. Lands were cleared by chopping or -“slashing” the timber, burning brush and logs, then harrowing -among the stumps to cover the first-sown wheat seed. -In a few years, with the rotting of the smaller stumps and -the roots, the plow could be used, though always with embarrassment -on account of the large stumps which thickly -studded the fields. These disappeared gradually, being allowed -to stand till so fully decayed that a few strokes with -ax or mattock would dislodge them. As late as 1830 many -fields in western New York were stump infested.</p> - -<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_270.jpg" alt="A FARM NEAR ROCHESTER, NEW YORK, IN 1827" /></div> -<p class="caption">A FARM NEAR ROCHESTER, NEW YORK, IN 1827<br /> - -<small>From Captain Basil Hall’s <i>Forty Etchings from Sketches Made with the Camera Lucida</i>. London, 1829</small></p> - -<p>Wheat was the great, almost the sole, market crop, -and it was grown year after year till the soil ceased to -respond. From bumper yields of twenty-five or thirty -bushels per acre the returns fell off to twenty, fifteen, and -then twelve, ten, or even eight. The process of decline was -well under way when the immigration to Wisconsin set in, -and already the turn had come toward a more definite -livestock economy, which in large portions of New York -soon gave rise to a system of factory cheese making. A -main reason for the removal to the West, on the part of -farmers whose holdings were too small to make successful -stock farms, or who refused to abandon wheat raising as a -business, was that lands in the West could be had already -cleared by nature. Many half-cleared farms, with customary -buildings and fences, could in the forties be purchased in -western New York for from four to eight dollars per acre. -Instead of buying these farms, the young men preferred -going to Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, or Wisconsin, those having -such farms for sale doing likewise after selling out to neighbors, -usually the larger farmers, who elected to remain -and change their system of farming. In Vermont we have -a similar story, in Ohio the same. The Yankee farmers who -came to Wisconsin were generally at home either small -farmers or the sons of farmers large or small; while a certain -proportion of the larger farmers, by reason of debt or desire -to extend their business, also sold out and came west to buy -cheap lands on the prairies or in the openings.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>An agriculture which dates from before the time of -Tacitus, and which acquired permanent characteristics from -the influence of Roman merchants, monastics, and feudatories -in Roman and medieval times, was bound to differ -widely and even fundamentally from the agriculture of a far -flung American frontier. The Germans who met the -Yankee immigrants in primitive Wisconsin brought an -inheritance of habit and training analogous to that of the -English Puritan emigrants to New England, but with the -difference that the Germans’ training had continued two -hundred years longer, on similar lines. They were old-world -cultivators, the Yankees new-world cultivators.</p> - -<p>Tacitus says in one place: “The Germans live scattered -and apart, as a spring, a hill, or a wood entices them.”<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> -Nineteenth century German economists complained that -German farmsteads were seated often most inconveniently -with reference to the management of the farm lands pertaining -to them. They had been established, in the days -of long ago, by lakeside, brook, or river under conditions -in which access to water was the most important single -consideration. They had never been moved, although -gradually the arable stretched far back from the dwelling, -and the pasture perhaps was located in a wholly detached -area.<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> This description applies to portions of northern -Germany where farms were large and farming had the status -of a regular and dignified business.</p> - -<p>Many individuals and families came to Wisconsin from -districts like Mecklenburg, Prussia, Pomerania, though in -the emigrations of the 1840’s and fifties the great majority -were from southern and central German states. It will be -one of the interesting inquiries in connection with our study -of local influences in Wisconsin towns (<i>Domesday Book -Studies</i>), how far the special regional inheritances of foreign -born settlers manifested themselves in Wisconsin communities. -The presumption, about the north German, -would be that his farming operations would tend to be on -a large scale, under a business system which—in this new -land—would slough off such anachronisms as the dislocated -farmstead, and present the features of an ideal establishment. -But it may be that the forest was such a powerful -leveler as to obliterate most of the regional distinctions -among immigrants. Our chief concern, at all events, is -with that great body of German farmers, and intending -farmers, who came from the southwestern states of the recent -Empire, especially Alsace, Baden, Wrttemberg, -Rhine Palatinate, Rhenish Prussia, Hesse, Nassau, Westphalia—to -some extent Bavaria and Saxony.</p> - -<p>The fundamental facts about the home conditions of these -people, so far as they were farmers at home, were the smallness -of their holdings, their intensive cultivation, and the -almost universal village type of life. Travelers of about -1840 describe the typical middle Rhine country as a highly -cultivated plain without division hedges or fences other -than the tree-bordered roads, with no separate farm dwellings -and with no livestock in sight. The crops of several -kinds being arranged in various shaped fields, patches, and -strips, the plain looked like the proverbial “crazy-quilt.” -Villages were huddled at the edges of woods, and occasionally -in the midst of the cultivated area. Their houses, -which were not arranged on a regular plan, were usually -large stone structures, the farm yard, with tools, implements, -manure and compost heaps, occupying a kind of -court at the rear.</p> - -<p>As a rule, all animals were housed winter and summer. -Here was an important difference to the farming of the -north, where large herds of cattle could be seen pasturing -ample meadows, or ruminating in the shade of buildings -or of woods. The soiling system was universally practiced -in summer. Grass land being scarce and precious, feed -for the cows was laboriously gathered along the brookside, in -the open spaces of the forest, along all the roads, in the -cemeteries, and the greens before the houses. The weeds -and thinnings from the growing crops went to the same -object. Vegetable tops were a great resource in late summer -and fall, and patches of clover, while insuring green feed, -furnished hay as well. In places the growing of sugar -beets for the market was a leading agricultural enterprise, -and the tops of the beets were carefully cured for winter -feed.</p> - -<p>The cultivation was intensive both in that it aimed at -the maximum produce from given areas, and in that the -crops raised included some which called for very special -care. Some sections grew tobacco, in connection with -which much hand work was indispensable. This crop -also called for care in seed selection, in germinating, and in -preparing the ground for the reception of the young plants. -Beet culture for sugar making involved perhaps not less -care, and doubtless more hand labor. Of similar but less -particularity was the growing of root crops for stock feed, -the orcharding, which was general, and the vine dressing, -incident to the business of special districts.</p> - -<p>There were, of course, many farmers and farms in the -region indicated and in other contributory regions, which were -not so widely different from the average of those in America. -Yet, on the whole, it can be said that the German husbandman, -in training and habit, was analogous to our modern -truck farmer or orchardist, rather than to our general -farmer. He was a specialist in soils, in fertilizing and preparing -them for different crops, in planting, stirring, weeding, -irrigating; in defending plants against insect pests, seasonal -irregularities, and soil peculiarities; he throve by hoeing, -dragging, trimming, pruning, sprouting; by curing and conserving -plants, roots, grasses, grains, and fruits. His livestock -economy was incidental, yet very important. It -supplied the necessary fertilizer to maintain soil productivity; -it afforded milk, beef, pork, butter, cheese, wool. -It gave him his draft animals, often cows instead of oxen, -and economized every bit of grass and forage which his situation -produced.</p> - -<p>Improvement of livestock appears to have affected -southwestern Germany prior to 1850 very little as compared -with the pastoral countries of England, Holland, Friesland, -and north Germany. The animals kept by the village -farmers were therefore not remarkable for quality. But -they were usually well housed, and the feed and care they -received made up in considerable measure for the absence of -superior blood.</p> - -<p>The various states of Germany, by 1840, were maintaining -schools of agriculture, a species of experiment stations -for the dissemination of such scientific agricultural information -as was then available. To some extent, therefore, -farming was beginning to be scientific. But, prevailingly -it was intensely practical, the appropriate art connected -with the growing of every distinct crop being handed on -from father to son, from farmer to laborer.</p> - -<p>One could almost predict how farmers thus trained -would react to the new environment of the Wisconsin -wilderness. Taking up a tract of forested land or buying -a farm with a small clearing upon it, their impulse would be, -with the least possible delay, to get a few acres thoroughly -cleared, subdued to the plow, and in a high state of tilth. -Exceptions there were, to be sure, but on the whole the -German pioneers were not content to slash and burn their -timber. After the timber was off, the stumps must come -out, forthwith, to make the tract fit for decent cultivation. -Was it the Germans who introduced in land clearing the -custom of “grubbing” instead of “slashing”? This meant -felling the tree by undermining it, chopping off roots underground -at a safe depth, taking out grub and all, instead of -cutting it off above ground. In timber of moderate growth -this practice proved fairly expeditious and highly successful, -for once a tract was grubbed, the breaking plow encountered -no serious obstruction. A good “grubber” -among later immigrants could always count on getting jobs -from established German farmers.<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a></p> - -<p>To the American, who was content to plow around his -stumps every year for a decade, to cultivate around them, -cradle or reap around them, it seemed that his German -neighbor was using some kind of magic to exorcise his -stumps. The magic was merely human muscle, motivated -by a psychology which inhibited rest so long as a single -stump remained in the field.</p> - -<p>The German not only used the heaps of farm yard -fertilizer which, on buying out the original entryman, he -commonly found on the premises, but he conserved all -that his livestock produced, and frequently, if not too -distant from town or village, became a purchaser of the -commodity of which liverymen, stock yard keepers, and -private owners of cow or horse were anxious to be relieved. -The manufacture of fertilizer was a prime reason for stabling -his livestock. The other was his fixed habit of affording -animals such care. Not all Germans built barns at once, -but the majority always tried to provide warm sheds, at -least, whereas Yankee and Southwesterner alike were very -prone to allow their animals to huddle, humped and shivering, -all winter on the leeward side of house or granary, or in -clumps of sheltering brush or trees.<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> The German was -willing to occupy his log house longer, if necessary, in order -to gain the means for constructing adequate barns and -sheds.</p> - -<p>Germans were not one-crop farmers. The lands they -occupied, usually forested, could not be cleared fast enough -at best to enable them to raise wheat on a grand scale, as -the Yankees did in the open lands of the southeast and -west. Their arable was extended only a few acres per -year, and while that was being done the German farmers -grew a little of everything—wheat, rye, corn, oats, barley, -potatoes, roots. Clover was to them a favorite forage, hay, -and green manure crop. In growing it, they used gypsum -freely. This policy of clover growing, adopted gradually -by all farmers, was one of the means finally relied on by -the wheat farmers to restore the productivity of their -abused soils.</p> - -<p>In ways such as the above, German farmers helped to -save Wisconsin agriculture in the period of stress when -wheat growing failed and before coperative dairying -entered. They were not the chief influence in popularizing -improved livestock. Credit for that innovation must be -awarded to the Yankees. They had resumed in the eastern -states the English tradition of breeding, and brought it into -Wisconsin where, by means of state and county fairs and an -active agricultural press, it was ultimately borne in upon -the minds of all farmers, Germans among the rest.<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a></p> - -<p>Neither did the Germans lead in developing the new -agriculture, of which coperative dairying was the keystone. -Yankee leadership therein, too, was the dominant -influence. Yet, it was the Germans, Scandinavians, and -other foreigners—and numerically Germans were in the -majority—who, by virtue of their agricultural morale, -their steadiness in carrying out plans, their patience and -perseverance, have made the dairy business of Wisconsin the -great industry it has become.</p> - -<p>Above all, the Germans persisted as farmers. They -prospered not dramatically, like some of the more successful -of the Yankee farmers, but by little and little they saved -money, bought more land, better stock, and built better -homes. When Yankee farmers, discouraged or impoverished -by the failure of wheat, offered their farms for sale -preparatory to “going west,” Germans who had managed -their smaller farms more carefully stood ready to buy; when -Yankees who were tired of being “tied to a cow” wanted to -go to Montana, Oregon, or Wyoming to raise steers by -wholesale, on the ranching plan, they sold out to Germans -who made the dairy farms pay larger dividends year by -year. When Yankee farmers retired to the city, or went -into business, which in recent decades they have done by -thousands, Germans were among those who were the keenest -bidders for their farm properties. In a word, the German -has succeeded agriculturally through the more and more -perfect functioning, in this new land, of qualities imparted -by the training and inheritance which he brought with -him from the old world. On the whole, Germans have kept -clear of speculation, preferring to invest their savings in -neighboring lands with which they were intimately familiar, -or to lend to neighboring farmers on farm mortgage security. -In the aggregate, German farmers in Wisconsin have long -had vast sums at interest. The Institute for Research in -Land Economics (University of Wisconsin) has completed -investigations which show that the nation’s area of lowest -farm mortgage interest rates (5.2 per cent or less) coincides -very closely with the great maple forest of eastern Wisconsin, -which has been held, from the first, predominantly by -German farmers.</p> - -<p>We have no desire to minimize the factor contributed to -Wisconsin’s agriculture by the Yankees. They were the -prophets and the organizers of the farmers’ movement. -Their inherent optimism, their speculative bent, their -genius for organization were indispensable to its success. -“Anything is possible to the American people,” shouted the -mid-century American orator from a thousand Fourth of -July rostrums, therein merely reflecting what the mass of -his hearers religiously believed. When agriculture had to -be remade in Wisconsin, the Yankee’s intelligence told him -in what ways it must be improved, and his tact, courage, -and address enabled him to enlist and organize the means -for remaking it. When the Yankee was convinced, by his -farm paper or by the exhibitions, that a purebred animal -was a good investment, his speculative spirit sent him to his -banker to borrow a thousand dollars, and to a distant -breeder to make what his more timid German neighbor -would call a “mighty risky investment”—for the animal -might die! Finally, when local organization was required -to secure a cheese factory, a creamery, or a dairy board of -trade, the Yankee by virtue of his community leadership -was usually able to effect the desired result.</p> - -<p>Wisconsin’s almost unique success in agriculture is due to -no single or even dual factor. But among the human elements -which have been most potent in producing the result, -none is of more significance than the fortunate blend in her -population of the Yankee and the Teuton.</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<div class="chapter"> -<p class="ph1">THE YANKEE AND THE TEUTON IN WISCONSIN<br /> - -<span class="smcap">Joseph Schafer</span></p> - - -<h2 class="nobreak">III. SOME SOCIAL TRAITS OF YANKEES</h2></div> - -<p>Harriet Martineau, the English traveler who in 1837 -published a book entitled <i>Society in America</i>, was deeply -impressed with New England’s concern for education. -“All young people in these villages,” she says, “are more -or less instructed. <i>Schooling is considered a necessary of -life.</i><a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> I happened to be looking over an old almanac one -day, when I found, among the directions relating to the -preparations for winter on a farm, the following: ‘Secure -your cellars from frost. Fasten loose clapboards and -shingles. Secure a good schoolmaster.’”</p> - -<p>We do not know what almanac Miss Martineau consulted. -But a glance at a file of the <i>Farmer’s Almanack</i>, -begun in 1793 by Robert B. Thomas and circulated by -him for more than half a century all over New England, -shows her quotation to be fully justified in spirit if not in -letter. As early at least as the year 1804, Mr. Thomas -included in his directions for the month of November, the -indispensable item of education in connection with other -activities: “Now let the noise of your flail awake your -drowsy neighbors. Bank up your cellars. Now hire a good -schoolmaster and send your children to school as much as -possible.”</p> - -<p>The nation was young in 1804. Parts of it were new and -for that reason had made but meager educational progress; -other parts were backward for different reasons. But in -the older states of New England popular education had -flourished for one hundred and fifty years. This point, -stressed by a score of writers, illustrated by legal enactments, -court decrees, town records, and anniversary sermons, -cannot be over-emphasized in a summary of the social -contributions which the Yankees made to the new western -societies they helped to build. Notwithstanding all that -has been written to prove the priority, in this or that -feature of American educational progress, of other social -strains or geographical areas, history may confidently -assign to the Yankee priority in the attainment of universal -literacy on an extensive scale.</p> - -<p>Once the Puritan had convinced himself that the -temptation to ignorance came from “ye old deluder Satan,” -whose fell purpose was to keep men from a knowledge of the -Scriptures and thus the more readily win them for his own, -he hesitated not to require the maintenance of schools in -all towns and neighborhoods under his jurisdiction. He -was also concerned to recruit an “able and orthodox ministry” -to take the places of the aging pastors who had -come from England and to supply the needs of new settlements. -Harvard College could turn out the ministers, if -it had properly prepared young men to work upon. So -the larger towns were required to maintain grammar -schools in addition to the common schools. Thus we have, -as early as 1647, provision for schooling from the lowest -rudiments up through the college course.</p> - -<p>The original religious motive for maintaining these -schools persisted. But other motives were added as the -Puritans perceived how notably secular interests, as well -as religious, were served by schooling. For one thing, young -persons who could read, write, and cipher had a distinct -advantage in worldly matters over those who could not. -Cheats and “humbugs,” of whom every community had -its share, made victims of the ignorant, while they fled from -the instructed even as their master, Satan, was supposed -to flee from them. Many New England stories were -designed to carry the lesson, especially to parents, that -the best legacy children could receive was good schooling, -without which wealth and property would quickly melt -away.<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a></p> - -<p>Apart, also, from such negative worldly advantages as -we have named, one who had enjoyed good schooling might -thereby hope to share in many special social privileges -from which the unlettered were debarred. New England -life on the religious side centered in the church, on the -civic side in the town. Each of the two institutions required -a full set of elective officers, ranked according to -the importance of the offices filled, and all of these were -chosen from the instructed portion of the community. To -be a deacon in the church or a selectman on the town -board might not be financially remunerative, but it imparted -a dignity to the individual and a social status to the family -which caused these offices to be highly prized. The older -theory was that only good churchmen could fill either -type of office. Gradually, the town offices, which paid -something in cash and yielded considerable political power, -came to be sought with increasing frequency by men who -might have no interest in the church. “Jethro Bass” -was typical, not unique, in his scheming to be chosen -selectman, and the training offered by the district school -was looked upon as a minimum basis for such preferment. -Said the <i>Farmer’s Almanack</i> for November, 1810: “Send -your children to school. Every boy should have a chance -to prepare himself to do common town business.”</p> - -<p>The great majority were satisfied with the elementary -training afforded by the district schools, kept for a few -months in winter. But the presence of learned men in -every community and the existence of secondary schools -and colleges tolled a good many on the way to advanced -instruction who had no plans for professional careers. From -farm, factory, and counting-room, even from among those -before the mast, went boys to academy and college, while -female seminaries springing up here and there took care of -the educational interests of selected groups of girls. Such -schools were not free, but their benefits were easy to attain, -the principal requisite being pluck and a willingness to -work both at earning money and at the studies. Girls -and boys alike could usually earn their way by teaching -in the common schools. Thus the educational system -propagated itself, with the result that men and women of -intelligence, culture, and refinement became widely dispersed -through Yankeedom, and learning was recognized -as an aid to the good life as well as a guarantee of the successful -life. This was a fundamental condition of that literary -flowering which marked the middle decades of the nineteenth -century. It insured the poets, historians, orators, -and novelists an audience which waxed ever larger as -province after province in the West was added to New -England’s spiritual empire.</p> - -<p>Let us not, however, picture to ourselves a Yankee -society wholly suffused with intellectual and spiritual light. -The Yankees had no such illusions about themselves. -Listen to Timothy Dwight’s description of a class of New -Englanders who could not live “in regular society. They -are too idle, too talkative, too passionate, too prodigal, -and too shiftless to acquire either property or character. -They are impatient of the restraints of law, religion and -morality, grumble about the taxes by which rulers, ministers -and schoolmasters are supported—at the same time -they are usually possessed, in their own view, of uncommon -wisdom; understand medical science, politics, and religion -better than those who have studied them through life....” -He represents the type as the pioneering or <i>forester</i> class, -who had “already straggled onward from New England” -to far distant settlements, and whose going he was not -disposed to lament. “In mercy,” he says, “to the sober, -industrious, and well disposed inhabitants, Providence -has opened in the vast western wilderness a retreat sufficiently -alluring to draw them from the land of their nativity. -We have many troubles even now, but we should have -many more if this body of foresters had remained at home.”<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a></p> - -<p>The above citation doubtless contains an element of -exaggeration, due to Dwight’s ingrained conservatism. -He was outraged by the radical views no less than by the -erratic and ignorant harangues he heard “by many a kitchen -fire, in every blacksmith’s shop, and in every corner of -the streets....” Yet we must not lose sight of the fact -that he here sketches for us some Yankee social traits -of rather extended application which were important in -the building of the West. These people belonged to the -outstandingly non-conformist type. They were sufficiently -independent—contemptuous, one might say—of -established customs and institutions to be willing, with -what ignorance or awkwardness soever, to bring about -changes, some of which were sadly needed. Religiously -they were apt to be <i>come-outers</i>. It was largely among -this class that were recruited the Millerites, Millennialists, -and original Latter Day Saints, together with many other -minor sects and factions. In politics, when all orthodox -New England was Whig, they were mainly Democratic; -many, however, backed the program of Nativism; in the -person of John Brown they exemplified the principle of -direct action as applied to slavery. The social innovator, -the medical quack, and the political demagogue found -among them welcome and encouragement, sometimes -to the temporary distress of society, often to its ultimate -benefit. Not unlike the original Puritans who represented -“the dissidence of dissent and the protestantism of the -protestant religion,”<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> they constituted a dynamic social -element although wanting in the intellectual and religious -training, the political morale, and perhaps the heroism -which distinguished the original planters of Massachusetts -Bay. They had the spirit of the revolutionary New Englanders, -who were described, not inaptly, as “hard, stubborn, -and indomitably intractable.” They were the backbone -of Shays’s rebellion. In many ways they illustrate the -qualities which, at various times in our later history, have -served as the fulcrum of revolutionary change.</p> - -<p>Dwight’s <i>foresters</i> were merely the extreme manifestation, -the caricature, of a much larger class of heady, self -sufficient, opinionated, and troublesome persons who equally -with the sober, church going, instructed, conformist type -were the product of New England conditions. The cords -of restraint were drawn so taut in the parishes and towns, -that the person who was determinedly “different” was -compelled to break them and become a kind of social -pariah in order to gain the freedom his soul craved. It -was not an accident that so large a proportion of that class -went to the frontier. They found there a less rigorous -church discipline, freedom from taxes for the support of the -established church, and a more flexible state of society in -the midst of which they might hope to function. In western -Massachusetts and Connecticut, in Vermont, New Hampshire, -and Maine, they were numerous at the opening of -the National period. Soon large numbers emigrated to -western New York, to northern Pennsylvania, to Ohio, -thence throughout the West. They made up an appreciable -part of the thronging Yankee immigration which seized -upon Wisconsin’s prairies and oak openings between 1835 -and 1850, and their presence has left its impress upon our -social history. Still the experiences of older frontiers, such -as western New York, had already modified the type.</p> - -<p>When all necessary deductions have been made, however, -the church remained equally with the school a dominant -note in the Yankee’s social landscape. His “meeting -house,” not infrequently in New England a gem of ecclesiastical -architecture, fulfilled his artistic ideal; the congregation -was the “household of faith” which claimed his -undeviating loyalty; the pastor was “guest and philosopher” -in his home whenever he chose to honor it with his presence. -To men and women alike, attendance upon the church -services was the principal Sabbath day duty and the -chief physical and mental diversion of the whole week. -It was an old custom to linger after the morning sermon -for a social chat either in the church yard, when the weather -permitted, or else at a near-by tavern; and while the talk -was ostensibly about the sermon, gossip, bits of practical -information, and even a shy kind of love making were often -interwoven, tending to make this a genuine community -social hour.</p> - -<p>The tradition that the minister must be a man of -learning was of incalculable social importance. His advice -was called for under every conceivable circumstance of -individual and community need. He assisted about the -employment of schoolmasters and was the unofficial -supervisor of the school. He enjoined upon negligent -parents the duty of sending their children, and he had -an eye for the promising boys—lads o’pairts, as the Scotch -say—whom he encouraged to prepare for professional life. -He fitted boys to enter the academy and sometimes tutored -college students. In the rural parish the minister occupied -the church glebe, which made him a farmer with the rest. -He was apt to read more widely and closely in the agricultural -press, or in books on husbandry, than his neighbors, -thereby gaining the right to offer practical suggestions -about many everyday matters. Some ministers were -writers for agricultural journals. Many contributed to -local newspapers items of news or discussions of public -questions in which their parishioners were interested with -themselves.</p> - -<p>The home missionary idea was inherent in the New -England system both as respects religion and education. -Older, better established communities always felt some -responsibility for the newer. Since settlement proceeded -largely by the method of planting new townships of which -the raw land was purchased by companies from the colonial -and state governments, it was possible for the larger community -to give an impetus to religion and education under -the terms of township grants. This was accomplished -by reserving in each grant three shares of the land—“one -for the first settled minister, one for the ministry forever, -and one for the school.” Other grants of raw land were -made for the support of academies. Here we have the -origin of the system of land grants in aid both of the common -schools and of state universities, in the western states. -The grants for religion necessarily were discontinued after -the adoption of the national constitution.<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a></p> - -<p>The religious unity established by the Puritans, and -maintained for a time by the simple method of rigorously -excluding those holding peculiar doctrines, gave way to -considerable diversity in the late eighteenth and early -nineteenth centuries. Episcopalianism made some progress -in the older settlements, and Unitarianism created a great -upheaval, while toward the frontiers the Methodists and -Baptists flourished more and more. These several elements, -by 1820, were powerful enough politically to secure the -abolition of the ancient tax for the support of the established -(Congregational or Presbyterian) church—a tax which had -long caused ill feeling between West and East, and no -doubt had contributed to the growth of dissenting churches. -These frontier churches had the characteristics of the -frontier populations. Their ministers were less learned, -their morale less exacting, their religion less formal and -ritualistic, their ordinances less regularly and habitually -enforced. But there was an emotionalism which in a -measure compensated for defects of training, for looseness -of habit and negligence in the practice of religion. In a -word, the camp meeting type of Christianity prevailed -widely along the frontier, and that type entered Wisconsin -Territory with the numerous Methodist and Baptist settlers -from New York and New England. As early as August, -1838, such a camp meeting was held under Methodist -leadership in the woods near Racine; it was attended by -hundreds of pioneer families drawn from the sparsely -settled neighborhoods for many miles around. Its appointments -were of the typical frontier kind, though one would -expect less boisterousness in the manifestations of emotion -among those people than seems to have accompanied -similar gatherings in the Southwest.<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a></p> - -<p>The stated religious services in early Wisconsin, as in -every frontier region, were apt to be less frequent than in -older communities. Ministers were too few in number and -neighborhoods too impecunious to justify each locality in -supporting a minister. The circuit riding custom prevailed -generally among all denominations. One preacher traveled, -on foot, six hundred miles, making the round in six weeks. -Each group of churches also had its conferences, which -were occasions for planning missionary effort, for unitedly -attacking special religious or social abuses, and for promoting -constructive community effort. The ablest speakers -addressed such gatherings; the membership of the churches -concerned and others attended, in addition to the delegates; -and important religious, social, or moral results sometimes -flowed from them.</p> - -<p>Another peculiar Yankee institution allied at once to -the school and the church, was the lyceum or local coperative -organization for bringing lecturers to the community. -The settlements in southeastern Wisconsin had -their lyceums at an early date, and many distinguished -public men from the East had occasion to visit this new -Yankeeland in the capacity of lecturer. Among them were -Horace Greeley, Bayard Taylor, and James Russell Lowell.</p> - -<p>Reform movements, however, though usually receiving -valuable aid from churches, lyceums, mechanics’ institutes, -and other permanent organizations of men for public -discussion, had a way of creating special organizations to -propagate themselves. That was true of the temperance -movement, which by the time of the Yankee immigration -into Wisconsin was under vigorous headway. Beginning, -in serious form, about 1820, the intervening years witnessed -the creation of hundreds of local temperance societies in -New England and New York, and the federation of these -societies into state societies. These central organizations -stimulated the movement by sending out lecturers, conducting -a newspaper propaganda, and issuing special -publications. Some of their tracts are said to have been -scattered “like the leaves of autumn,” all over New England -and New York.</p> - -<p>One of these tracts affected the social history of Wisconsin -very directly. It is known, traditionally, as “The Ox -Discourse,” because it was based on Exodus 21:28-29: -“If an ox gore a man or woman, that they die: then the -ox shall be surely stoned, and his flesh shall not be eaten; -but the owner of the ox shall be quit. But if the ox were -wont to push with his horn in time past, and it hath been -testified to his owner, and he hath not kept him in, but -that he hath killed a man or a woman; the ox shall be -stoned, and his owner also shall be put to death.” The -sermon on this text produced a great sensation and gained -many new adherents to the temperance cause. Among -these were two brothers, Samuel F. and Henry Phoenix, -who were storekeepers in a New York village and sold -much whisky. They publicly destroyed all the liquor -they had on hand and became crusaders in the temperance -cause. In the spring of 1836 Colonel Samuel F. Phoenix -selected in Wisconsin a “Temperance Colony claim,” on -which he settled that summer. Then he rode to Belmont -and induced the first territorial legislature to set off from -Milwaukee County a county to be known as Walworth, -in honor of the chancellor of the state of New York, who -was a noted temperance leader. He named the village -begun by him Delavan, in honor of E. C. Delavan, pioneer -temperance editor and at that time chairman of the executive -committee of the New York State Temperance Society. -Colonel Phoenix lectured on temperance, helped to organize -early temperance societies, rebuked his neighbors—especially -the New Yorkers—for employing whisky at raisings, -and, before his death in 1840, had succeeded in giving -a powerful impulse to the movement in southeastern -Wisconsin.</p> - -<p>Another dramatic figure in early temperance annals -was Charles M. Goodsell, who in 1838 settled at Lake -Geneva and built the first mill operated in Walworth -County. He was of Connecticut birth, and his father -owned and managed, among other properties, a whisky -distillery. Goodsell, however, when he came west from -New York State, was a most determined opponent of the -traffic in intoxicants. Soon after opening his mill a local -company erected in Lake Geneva a distillery for making -corn whisky. Goodsell warned them, he says, not to -expect him to grind their grain and they installed a grinding -apparatus of their own. But, their machinery proving -inadequate, they finally sent a grist of corn to Goodsell’s -mill, demanding, as under the law they had a right to do, -that it be “ground in turn.” Goodsell refused, thereby -producing a tense situation, for the pioneer farmers looked -to the distillery as a cash market for their grain. Finally, -the distillers brought suit, won a verdict, and Goodsell -appealed. But meantime, he rode to Madison, where the -legislature was sitting, and procured the adoption of an -amendment to the law regulating milling, to the effect: -“Nothing in this section contained shall be construed to -compel the owners or occupiers of mills to grind for distilling, -or for sale or merchant work.” This proviso, adopted in -1841, remained a feature of the statute for many years.<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a></p> - -<p>It must not be supposed that pioneer Yankee society, -even in Walworth County, was prevailingly of the temperance -variety. All testimony, both of the reformers and of -others, tends to show that a large majority was at first in -the opposition. Frontier history would indicate that -excessive indulgence in whisky was apt to be more common -during the primitive phase of settlement than later, due -perhaps to the looser social and religious organization.</p> - -<p>Wisconsin may be said to have been born to the temperance -agitation which, in a few years’ time, produced -societies pledged to total abstinence all over the southeastern -part of the state and in many other localities. In March, -1843, a legislative temperance society was organized with a -list of twenty-four signers. The house of representatives -at the time had twenty-six members, the council thirteen, -or a total of thirty-nine. So a decided majority was aligned -with the movement. Moses M. Strong was chosen president, -which was considered a triumph for the cause, and -much interest was aroused by the adherence of William S. -Hamilton, who is reported to have addressed one of the -society’s meetings.<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a></p> - -<p>The temperance agitation everywhere received a notable -impetus from the adoption in 1851 of the prohibition law -by the state of Maine. Immediately other states moved -for the same objective, and in Wisconsin a referendum vote -was taken in 1853 which resulted favorably to prohibition, -though no enactment followed.<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> In that election the -southeastern counties were overwhelmingly for the Maine -law. Walworth gave 1906 votes for it and 733 against, -Rock 2494-432, Racine 1456-927. Milwaukee at the same -time voted against prohibition by 4381 to 1243. This -shows where was to be found the powerful opposition to -legislation of this nature, which was destined to increase -rather than diminish with the strengthening of the German -element already very numerous.</p> - -<p>From the time of the Maine law agitation the communities -dominated by Yankees were generally found -arrayed in favor of any proposal for limiting or suppressing -the liquor traffic, although, as we shall see in later articles, -no large proportion of their voters ever joined the Prohibition -party. They did not succeed in abolishing drunkenness, -though it became very unfashionable to indulge heavily -in spirituous liquors and the proportion of total abstainers -among the younger generation steadily increased. Yankees -furnished a very small per cent of those who gained their -livelihood through occupations connected directly with -intoxicating liquors, except as such traffic was carried on -incidentally as a feature of the drug business. The disfavor -with which saloon keeping, brewing, and distilling have -long been regarded among that class of the population is -explained by the fervor and thoroughness of the early -temperance campaigns.</p> - -<p>Because of their attitude on the liquor question, on -Sunday laws, and other matters pertaining to the regulation -of conduct, the Yankees have always been looked upon -by other social strains as straight-laced and gloomy. In -this judgment men have been influenced more than they -are aware by the traditions of Puritanism which it was -supposed the Yankees inherited. They recalled the story -of how Bradford stopped Christmas revelers and sent them -to work; they pictured Puritan children as forbidden to -laugh and talk on the Sabbath day; and some may have -heard the story of how Washington, while president, was -once stopped by a Connecticut tithing man who must be -informed why His Excellency fared forth on the Lord’s -Day instead of resting at his inn or attending public worship.<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a></p> - -<p>Two remarks may be made on this point. First, while -Puritanism unquestionably had a somber discipline, there -was not lacking even among Puritans the play instinct -which persisted in cropping out despite all efforts of the -authorities at repression. Second, the nineteenth century -Yankees register a wide departure from early Puritanism -in their social proclivities, and the difference was particularly -marked in the West. Even church services were -modified to fit the needs of the less resolute souls. Music -became an important feature and it was adapted more or -less to special occasions.<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> Sunday Blue Laws were gradually -relaxed, though never abandoned in principle. Well-to-do -city people allowed themselves vacation trips, visits to watering -places, and to scenic wonders like Niagara Falls.<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> In town -and country alike dancing became an amusement of almost -universal vogue, though protested by some religionists, -and rural neighborhoods found bowling such a fascinating -game for men and boys that the almanac maker thought -well to caution his readers against over-indulgence therein.<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> -Ball playing, picnicing, sleighing, coasting, skating were -among the outdoor sports much indulged in by Yankees, -while family and neighborhood visiting, the quilting bee, -donation parties, church socials, and the like furnished -indoor recreation. The circus and the “cattle show” were -events in the western Yankeeland equal in social significance -to Artillery Day in Boston.</p> - -<p>Thus, while it is true that Yankees were a sober people, -of prevailingly serious mien and purpose, they were not -averse to the relaxations of play and recreation. The -question whether or not the Yankees were fun loving -cannot be answered by yes or no. If we mean by fun the -rollicking joviality characteristic of irresponsible, carefree -folk, the answer is no. Many Yankees found their best -fun in work or business. To the David Harum type, which -was fairly numerous, a horse trade was more fun than a -picnic. Some Boston merchants were so immersed in their -business that, though very pious, they nevertheless spent -Sunday afternoon going over their books and writing -business letters.<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> Being serious minded, they tended to -make their chief concern an obsession, and could hardly -be happy away from it. But the majority were quite as -ready to amuse themselves out of working hours, as are -the Italians or other social stocks that have a reputation -for fun and frolic.</p> - -<p>The Yankees also found intellectual enjoyment in cultivating -quickness of retort, in giving utterance to clever -if homely aphorisms, and in a kind of whimsical humor. -These traits emerge in their vernacular literature like -“Major Jack Downing’s” <i>Thirty Years out of the Senate</i>, -and especially Lowell’s <i>Biglow Papers</i>. “The squire’ll have -a parson in his barn a preachin’ to his cattle one o’ these -days, see if he don’t,” said one of “Tim Bunker’s” shiftless -neighbors by way of summarizing the squire’s over-niceness -in caring for his Jersey cows. “Ez big ez wat hogs dream -on when they’re most too fat to snore”; “that man is mean -enough to steal acorns from a blind hog”; “the coppers -ain’t all tails”; “pop’lar as a hen with one chicken”; “quicker’n -greased lightnin’”; “a hen’s time ain’t much”; “handy -as a pocket in a shirt”; “he’s a whole team and the dog -under the wagon”; “so thievish they had to take in their -stone walls at night”; “so black that charcoal made a -chalk mark on him”; “painted so like marble that it sank -in water”—the above are all Yankeeisms of approved -lineage and illustrate a characteristic type of Yankee humor. -The example below is of a rarer sort. “Pretty heavy thunder -you have here,” said the English Captain Basil Hall to a -lounger in front of a Massachusetts tavern. “Waal, we do,” -came the drawling reply, “considerin’ the number of the -inhabitants.”</p> - -<p>About the time that Yankees began to emigrate to -Wisconsin a talented French writer, Michel Chevalier, gave -the world a brilliant and on the whole favorable characterization -of them. “The Yankee,” he says, “is reserved, -cautious, distrustful; he is thoughtful and pensive, but -equable; his manners are without grace, modest but dignified, -cold, and often unprepossessing; he is narrow in his -ideas, but practical, and possessing the idea of the proper, -he never rises to the grand. He has nothing chivalric -about him and yet he is adventurous, and he loves a roving -life. His imagination is active and original, producing, -however, not poetry but drollery. The Yankee is the -laborious ant; he is industrious and sober and, on the -sterile soil of New England, niggardly; transplanted to -the promised land in the west he continues moderate in -his habits, but less inclined to count the cents. In New -England he has a large share of prudence, but once thrown -into the midst of the treasures of the west he becomes a -speculator, a gambler even, although he has a great horror -of cards, dice, and all games of chance and even of skill -except the innocent game of bowls.” Chevalier also says: -“The fusion of the European with the Yankee takes place -but slowly, even on the new soil of the west; for the Yankee -is not a man of promiscuous society; he believes that -Adam’s oldest son was a Yankee.”</p> - -<p>The Yankee was not more boastful than other types of -Americans, though his talent for exaggerative description -was marked. Yet he had a pronounced national obsession -and was uncompromising in his patriotism: “This land -o’ourn, I tell ye’s got to be a better country than man ever -see,” was put into a Yankee’s mouth by one of their own -spokesmen and represents the Yankee type of mild jingoism. -It is full cousin to that other sentiment which also this writer -assigns to him:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="verse">Resolved, that other nations all, if set longside of us,</div> -<div class="verse">For vartoo, larnin, chiverlry, aint noways wuth a cuss.<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a></div> -</div></div> - -<p>These are but cruder expressions of ideas dating from the -Revolutionary War, and of which Timothy Dwight, who -was not a poet by predestination, gave us in verse a noble -example:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="verse">Columbia, Columbia, to glory arise,</div> -<div class="verse">The queen of the world, and child of the skies!</div> -<div class="verse">Thy genius commands thee; with rapture behold,</div> -<div class="verse">While ages on ages thy splendors unfold.</div> -<div class="verse">Thy reign is the last, and the noblest of time,</div> -<div class="verse">Most fruitful thy soil, most inviting thy clime;</div> -<div class="verse">Let the crimes of the east ne’er encrimson thy name,</div> -<div class="verse">Be freedom, and science, and virtue, thy fame.</div> -</div></div> - -<p>It need not be supposed that all Yankees who came to -Wisconsin or other western states were familiar with these -glowing lines. But it is almost certain that, in the common -schools of Yankeedom, most of them had thrilled to the -matchless cadences of Webster’s reply to Hayne. What -more was needed, by way of literary support, to a pride -of country which, if a trifle ungenerous to others, was based -on facts all had experienced.</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<div class="chapter"> -<p class="ph1">THE YANKEE AND THE TEUTON IN WISCONSIN<br /> - -<span class="smcap">Joseph Schafer</span></p> - - -<h2 class="nobreak">IV. SOME SOCIAL TRAITS OF TEUTONS</h2></div> - -<p>The year 1832, celebrated in Wisconsin history as the -time when the lead miners and other pioneers destroyed the -power of the Rock River Indians, was remembered by later-coming -German immigrants for a very different reason. It -was toward the end of March in that year, the place Trier -(Treves), the ancient capital of the western “Csars,” a city -which is still rich in the massive ruins of its Roman foretime. -As the story goes, the boys of one form in the old <i>Gymnasium</i> -were being entertained at the house of a professor, where, -boy-like, they were playing indoor games accompanied with -much laughter and general hilarity. Suddenly one of their -younger classmates rushed breathless into the room, exclaiming: -“Goethe is dead!”<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> During the balance of the evening, -the less serious of the youngsters having returned to their -interrupted play, this boy engaged with his instructors in -eager discussion of Goethe’s life and writings.</p> - -<p>The youth in question was Karl Marx, whose later history -exhibits a wide divergence from the exclusively literary career -prophesied by his boyhood scholastic interests. The classmate -who is authority for this incident continued in Marx’s company -the <i>Gymnasium</i> studies; he then performed his one year -minimum of military service, and having secured some business -experience sailed away as an immigrant to the new world, -settling on a Wisconsin farm. In the course of a long life he -often reverted to the story of Goethe, whose works, as well as -those of Schiller and Lessing, made a part of his home library. -These great names never failed to kindle his pride in the -intellectual achievements of the German people, whose -governments at the time of his emigration in 1841 seemed to -him a compound of despotism and inefficiency.<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a></p> - -<p>Doubtless there were Germans of the immigration to Wisconsin -who knew not Goethe, or if in a hazy way they did -know who he was, had no intellectual right to judge his -merits. But the more intelligent were sure to possess some -knowledge of the writings of their greatest poet and of lesser -men who still were great in the world’s estimation. Hence it -was that Germans who at that period went to the new world, -while acknowledging by their flight the political, economic, -and social obstacles to a successful life in Prussia, Bavaria, -Baden, Westphalia, or Luxemburg, were always able to -maintain a self-respecting attitude when confronted with the -pretensions of those Americans who were unsympathetic, -jingoistic, or boastful. German immigrants might grant -much to superior cleverness, to the stupendous achievements -of a liberty loving race, domiciled in a peaceful continent and -dowered with free lands and boundless opportunity; but they -remembered that <i>William Tell</i> and <i>Faust</i> and <i>The Laocon</i> -were written by Germans.</p> - -<p>Though many immigrants were far from being literary, -they doubtless possessed, on the average, a knowledge of -German masterpieces fully equivalent to the knowledge -which Americans possessed of the English Classics. For education -was looking up, and while most of the immigrants -from German states, like those from other European countries, -were of the peasant class, which was usually the most -backward, still by 1840 nearly all were sure to have enjoyed -some systematic schooling. At an earlier period this might -have been otherwise. The condition of limited serfdom, removed -but a generation earlier, operated powerfully to neutralize -such benevolent plans for universal instruction as kings -and ministers proclaimed. For the peasants were directly -subordinate to the local lords, who often felt “that an ignorant -labor supply was less likely to seek to better its condition -by demands upon them....”<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> The great national reform -movement which came to fruition after the close of the Napoleonic -wars swept away many of the disabilities of the common -people, and developed in Prussia and other states a -system of universal education as the surest means of national -upbuilding.</p> - -<p>The excellencies of the Prussian school system prior to -1840 became the theme of flattering reports on the part of -educators in many lands. The celebrated philosopher Victor -Cousin made it the basis for his plan of educational reform in -France; the Scotch, English, and Irish discussed it; Horace -Mann proclaimed it to the school authorities of Massachusetts, -and Calvin E. Stowe recommended it to the legislature -of Ohio. That system may not have possessed all of the -virtues which the ordinances quoted by Cousin imply.<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a> Yet -it had the one excellence to which educationally all others are -subsidiary—a well-trained teaching force. Indeed, if there -is anything which seems miraculous in the swift and thoroughgoing -transformation of school conditions in Prussia during -the first forty years of the nineteenth century, it is explained -by the provision which the state made for normal schools and -the supply, through their agency, of teachers enough to man -all the schools. “In the lowest school in the smallest and obscurest -village,” says Horace Mann, “or for the poorest class -in overcrowded cities; in the schools connected with pauper -establishments, with houses of correction or with prisons—in -all these there was a teacher of mature age, of simple, unaffected -and decorous manners.” Mann also made it clear -that every such teacher was possessed of adequate scholarship -and special training for the work of the schoolroom.<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> Such a -statement could not be made at that time about Massachusetts, -where popular education was already two hundred years -old, nor could it be made with equal confidence of other -German countries, though several of these approximated the -Prussian standard and most of them were earnestly promoting -education along the same lines and by the use of similar -means.</p> - -<p>We must therefore regard the generation of the German -exodus from which Wisconsin profited so largely in the later -1840’s and the 1850’s, as almost universally literate and usually -well grounded in the rudiments of an education. The -intelligent, reading, writing, and slow but careful figuring -German peasant immigrants constituted the best testimonial -to the efficacy of German systems of instruction for the common -people. The <i>Gymnasia</i>, the <i>real Schule</i>, the universities, -sent forth representatives of the highest German culture to -honor the learned professions, the literary, philosophical, and -scientific circles of America.</p> - -<p>On the basis of formal school instruction alone, the historian -of early Wisconsin would be compelled to assign first -place in social fitness to the immigrants from Germany. -Neither the Irish, the English, nor even the Yankee pioneers -on the average had enjoyed as thorough a training as had -Prussians, Saxons, Hessians, or Badeners. Yet, school training -is never all there is of education, and it may constitute but -a small portion of it. No one questions that the social character -of Prussian and other German peasants was far higher in -1840 than it had been in 1800, and this was due to a variety of -causes, of which schooling was only one. In part it was due -to the abolition of serfdom, in part to the reorganization of -municipal life; also, largely to the religious agitation of the -period, to the movements for political reform, and especially -to the widespread, momentous, and gripping spirit of nationalism.</p> - -<p>Nevertheless, despite their superb educational equipment -plus other incentives, the Prussians still seemed to intelligent -American observers in a very retarded social condition. -Horace Mann, who wrote most enthusiastically of their -schools and was sympathetic toward the Germans in every -respect, in a passage of almost classic force and beauty written -in 1843, tells us why education in Prussia accomplished -for the people so much less than one might expect. For one -thing, he says, the pupils left school too early—at the age of -fourteen, which was their time for beginning regular and -heavy work. Then, too, books for further self-instruction -were lacking. There was in Prussia nothing analogous to the -Massachusetts district school libraries. “But,” he continues, -“the most potent cause of Prussian backwardness and incompetency -is this—when the children come out from the school -they have little use either for the faculties that have been -developed, or for the knowledge that has been acquired. -Their resources have not been brought into demand; their -powers are not roused or strengthened by exercise. Our -common phrases, ‘the active duties of life’; ‘the responsibilities -of citizenship’; ‘the stage, the career, of action’; ‘the -obligations to posterity’;—would be strange sounding words -in the Prussian ear.... Now, although there is a sleeping -ocean in the bosom of every child that is born into the world, -yet if no freshening, life-giving breeze ever sweeps across its -surface, why should it not repose in dark stagnation forever.” -The bill of particulars with which the great educator clinches -his indictment of the Prussian system, while it aims to describe -accurately only the then existing condition in Prussia, -might be equally applicable to almost any other absolutist, -paternalistic state. All responsibility for the people’s welfare -was assumed by the monarch, who in turn was actively -aided by a hierarchy of officials in state and church, in the -central government and the local administrative areas.</p> - -<p>Of this officialdom, particularly in its military and civil -aspects, the nobility was not merely the corner stone but the -essential part of the structure. The church, loyal to its traditions, -was much more democratic, men of every class being -found in each of its official grades. The newly developed -educational system gave to the common man another significant -opportunity, since teaching candidates were drawn in -large numbers from the middle and lower classes, and were -given at public expense the training necessary to fit them for -permanent positions in the various types of schools. On the -whole, however, life beyond the school, which among Americans -of that day commonly yielded the major part of education, -was in Prussia far less fruitful. For, the American, -whose formal schooling had been limited, was sure to multiply -its efficacy many times through the intensely original character -of his activities. In these he was apt to employ everything -he had learned, and constantly to learn more for the -sake of applying the new knowledge to challenging situations.</p> - -<p>The contrast between the average Prussian’s life and the -average American’s life was sharp and decisive. The boy -leaving school at fourteen in Frederick William’s country -was thrust at once into a routine of severe labor, controlled by -others. Either he might be on a farm, where his duties were -fixed by custom and minutely directed by parent or employer; -or he might be apprenticed to a trade which would give him -seven years under an exacting master. Assuming that he -remained in his native region, his career thenceforth would be -determined with the minimum of personal effort. The -American boy whose schooling stopped at an early age might -go west and start a new farm home in a new environment, -with every incentive toward employing his best powers to -win unusual success; he might go to the city and engage in -some business; attend school to prepare for a profession; or -settle down on the ancestral acres under social and economic -conditions which called for almost continuous readjustments, -and kept his mind on the stretch to bring these about.</p> - -<p>The governmental arrangements in America were inherently -educational; in Prussia they were the reverse, save -when, with revolutionary fury, the people rose to seek their -destruction or reform. In Prussia, says Horace Mann, “the -subject has no officers to choose, no inquiry into the character -or eligibility of candidates to make, no vote to give. He -has no laws to enact or abolish. He has no questions about -peace or war, finance, taxes, tariffs, post office, or internal -improvements to decide or discuss. He is not asked where -a road shall be laid, or how a bridge shall be built, although -in the one case he has to perform the labor and in the other -to supply the materials.... The tax gatherer tells him how -much he is to pay, the ecclesiastical authority plans a church -which he must build; and his spiritual guide, who has been set -over him by another, prepares a creed and a confession of -faith all ready for his signature. He is directed alike how -he must obey his King and worship his God.”</p> - -<p>The schools of Prussia inculcated religion and morality as -sedulously as they taught geography, singing, and writing, -the methods used being highly praised by American pedagogical -experts. This universal insistence on the ethical content -of life could not fail to produce results more or less in -harmony with the aims of great ethical philosophers, like Kant -of Knigsberg, a teacher of the learned whose “categorical -imperative,” popularized in that epoch, has not yet gone into -the philosophical discard. The average German immigrants -of the 1840’s knew little of Kant or the Kantian school of -ethics. But of honesty, truthfulness, and fidelity to the -plighted word they knew much, because those were practical -virtues with which in school if not at home all were indoctrinated. -Thrift and industry were additional but fundamental -virtues which were widely diffused. It is hard for an -empty sack to stand upright. The reason why in America -a German’s note was more often worth face value than that -of some other classes was because the German usually labored -unceasingly and saved what he earned, thus enabling him to -meet his obligation.<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a></p> - -<p>They were not all saints, these Germans, and in the matter -of personal morality the Prussians particularly seem in those -days to have deserved much of the criticism directed against -them.<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> However, it is not necessary to regard even the -Prussians as more lax than most other continentals, and their -character is always explainable as a vulgarized aping of the -low if gilded immoralities of court and aristocracy. Matters -of this sort do not lend themselves readily to statistical inquiry. -But it can hardly be doubted that in France, Prussia, -Austria, or any other country of continental Europe the -private morals of the common people were better on the -whole than those of the upper classes. In America, where immigrants -from those countries came into contact with a self-governing -people of simple habits and prevailingly high -ideals of personal conduct, though with numerous individual -divergences from the type, sharp attention was bound to be -directed to this feature in the character of foreigners, and -the Germans attracted their full share of suspicion and disfavor -from the stricter sort of Americans.</p> - -<p>Such suspicions were heightened by certain social customs -of the Germans to which Americans reacted adversely. Sunday -amusements were all but universal among them. Travelers -in Germany dwell upon the gaiety observed in the -villages, or in the city parks and the beer gardens, the distinctive -costumes of different localities lending color and interest -to the scenes. Music was cultivated in every German community; -all Germans could sing and a large proportion could -perform on musical instruments. One was “as certain to see -a violin as a blackboard in every schoolroom.”<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a> Wherever -Germans gathered together—and Sunday, since it was the -weekly holiday, was their day for assembling—there was singing -and dancing, usually accompanied by the drinking of -beer or wine to stimulate hilarity. This drinking was not -necessarily excessive, because most Germans were moderate -in their appetites for alcohol, some were unable to spend -much, and all were economical (<i>sparsam</i>). The dances differed -from those favored in this country, being mainly “round -dances,” and the standards of decorum in the relations of the -sexes were different also. No wonder that, when German -families settled in groups near our own people, Yankee -fathers and mothers often shook their heads doubtfully in -contemplating the influence upon their children of these unfamiliar -social customs.</p> - -<p>It is probable that the vigor with which among this resilient -people amusements were carried on had a definite relation -to the intensity, monotony, and sordidness of the labor -from which they were a recoil. At all events, with more -leisure on week days and an opportunity to do his work under -pleasanter conditions, the German readily adapted himself -to a type of relaxation which was less boisterous and more -genteel. His work and his living being what they were, it is -doubtful if anything better in the form of amusements could -have been expected of him. Travelers from England and -America, on their visits to Germany, were impressed with -the wholesomeness of the Sunday picnics, the rambles through -the forests, the frolics on the village greens and in the parks -adjacent to the towns and cities.<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a></p> - -<p>With all his sociability, joviality, and occasional levity, -the German was not devoid of an element of austerity. This -was one secret of his ability to achieve. Whatever the work -might be, he settled himself to its performance with a grim -determination expressive of century-long training. The -mechanic, from his apprentice years, was habituated to long -hours of unremitting but improving toil. The farmer -(<i>bauer</i>) was a traditional daylight-saver and a night-worker -besides, such excessive labor being compulsory under the system -of serfdom, when the peasant’s time was levied upon to -a very large extent by the lord. The German schools inculcated -similar habits of relentless application to the work in -hand, and even the government bureaus, under rigorous task-masters -like old Friedrich Wilhelm and his son Frederick -the Great, enforced compliance with the ideal of a patient, -steady “grind” which not inaptly typified the German in the -eyes of other peoples. The German often performed less -work in the time consumed than an alert Yankee would have -performed in a shorter day; his tools and implements were -generally awkward and inefficacious; even in scholarship he -not infrequently took the long way around to reach his goal—but -he usually reached it because he had no notion of turning -back or of stopping at a halfway point on his job. Persistent -rather than brilliant, more industrious than inventive, the -German toiled on, content if he always had something to show -for his labor. The contrast, in that generation, between the -German at work and the German at play is the contrast between -a man governed by an intense purpose to accomplish -a given task, whether interesting or not, and the same man -intent on accomplishing nothing with every physical, intellectual, -and emotional evidence of enjoying the process. -Some men carry into their play the morale which governs -them in their work; others import into their work the spirit -of their play. In the case of the mid-nineteenth century German -the two aspects of his existence, work and play, differed -in spirit quite as much as in content.</p> - -<p>The Germans had their Puritan sects, like the Moravians -and other pietists, whose attitude was distinctly other-worldly, -to whom play was a sedate if not a solemn activity. Such -people disapproved of dancing and beer drinking Germans -quite as heartily as of profane whiskey drinking and quarrelsome -Americans or Irish. Individuals and colonies of the -pietistic classes passed into the emigrations, and thus Wisconsin’s -German population contained most of the elements to be -found at the same time in the German states. This illustrates -one difficulty in generalizing about social characteristics; -there are so many exceptions to be noted that the generalization -loses much of its validity.</p> - -<p>Craftsmanship was a prevalent accomplishment among -the Germans of the early emigration. Every shipload of -emigrants of which we have a social analysis had a large -proportion of craftsmen, who were either established members -of the city and village industrial class, or else belonged -to the peasantry and had learned a craft in order to improve -their status. Trades were learned exclusively under the apprenticeship -system, the candidate usually living in the -master’s home and giving service at the master’s will. When -he reached the journeyman stage he was privileged to find -work for himself, a quest which though usually fruitful in -educational results often proved disappointing from a monetary -point of view. In those cases the journeyman was -peculiarly open to the temptation to emigrate. Arrived in -this country, the chances of finding employment in the line -of his training varied. Sometimes they were excellent, at -other times poor, depending mainly upon the craft represented. -Carpenters were in great demand, as were also -blacksmiths, wheelwrights, millwrights, masons, bricklayers, -plasterers, and in general all representatives of the building -trades and of trades ministering to farmers. Others were in -occasional demand. But, if a dyer, or a slater, or a cabinet -maker, or a silversmith, or a tile maker, or a weaver, or a -wood carver happened to find himself in America without a -market for his peculiar skill, he always had the resource of -taking land and commencing as a farmer. Many craftsmen, -indeed, came with the set purpose of doing that immediately -upon their arrival; others contemplated a farming career -after a period devoted to their specialty. In some or all of -these ways Germans trained as craftsmen came to be widely -distributed over the farming areas of Wisconsin as well as -among the cities, towns, and villages.</p> - -<p>The possession of special skill in any line, like the possession -of special scientific knowledge, raises a man in social estimation, -and every trained worker properly regards himself -with satisfaction as being not quite “as other men are.” In -addition to the social training which came to him as an incident -of his apprenticeship and journeyman’s experience, the German -craftsman often was able to challenge the respect and -admiration of his American neighbors by making articles of -cunning workmanship which to them seemed wonderful because -they did not understand the processes involved. -Agriculture being regarded as an unskilled occupation, the -artisan farmer also was very apt to lord it over the peasant -farmer of his own nationality. Craftsmanship, in a word, -established a kind of rank among Germans in this country -because it was a recognized means of personal and social -progress at home.</p> - -<p>Statistics are impossible to procure, but the testimony of -men and women familiar with early conditions in Wisconsin -proves that the German population of the state in early days -varied quite as widely in social characteristics as did the -American population, though America had no distinctive -peasant class. Accordingly, although in the beginnings of -American contacts with their Prussian or Westphalian -neighbors these were lumped together indiscriminately as -“Dutchmen,” differences soon began to emerge. In the -course of a few years a class of “fine old Germans” was recognized -in almost every community to supplement the well-known -type of “fine old Yankee gentlemen.” These select -Germans were very apt to be men who had been trained as -craftsmen, or men who had enjoyed the advanced scientific or -literary instruction afforded in the higher schools and the -universities of the homeland. In the cities, especially Milwaukee, -were many Germans who had been prominent in -business lines as well as in the professions.</p> - -<p>The question has sometimes arisen why so many of the -second-generation Germans appear inferior in social character -to their immigrant parents. A hint of the reason is -found in what has just been said. Whatever elements of -superiority were shown by the immigrant artisan-farmers or -the highly educated Germans, the social advantages accruing -therefrom were personal, and in a slightly developed -western society could not be handed on to the next generation. -In the cities it frequently was possible for men of high -ideals and fine social status to provide equivalent opportunities -for their children. But not so on frontier farms. There it -was a rare case when an education or training like that -received by the father in the old country could be supplied. -Accordingly, the sons of the most intelligent, dignified, and -worthy German farmer, if they became farmers in succession, -might perhaps turn out mere farmers, with none of the -graces or exceptional social virtues of the parents, and -little except the memory of a parent’s high respectability to -distinguish them from the farmer sons of the clumsiest -peasant.</p> - -<p>However, this is but half the story. If the superior Germans -reared families incapable of remaining on their own -social plane, other types of Germans, who in their own -persons counted for less, frequently had the happiness to see -their children advance to a position perceptibly higher than -their own. Natural gifts, industry, the social opportunities -which yield to the key of economic success availed much. -Sometimes the presence of a good school, a wise and helpful -pastor or some other worthy friend gave the necessary impulse. -The process, in fact, does not differ essentially from -that which, throughout American pioneer history, has enabled -the deserving to press forward and permitted the weak, -indolent, or vicious to fall behind in the social competition. -It is impossible to say how many German families made a -step, or several steps, upward, and how many others slipped -back. The delinquents may perhaps exceed the meritorious -in number, but probably not, and the impression that the -children of German immigrants shame their parents is almost -certainly an illusion which would be likely to disappear if -the facts were fully known.</p> - -<p>The social institutions of Wisconsin, based on the earlier -Yankee and southwestern immigrations, were profoundly -influenced by the German immigration of the late forties and -the fifties of last century. Milwaukee, the center of German -influence (the <i>Deutsche Athen</i>), became a city in which -the German language was spoken and read by many English -speaking persons, in order to facilitate communication and -trade with the numerically dominant German element. The -Germans maintained advanced schools for instruction in both -English and German; their parochial schools were conducted -mainly in German; the immigrants themselves felt no compulsion -to learn English, and their children, in many cases, -however well educated, spoke the language of the country -with very imperfect accent.</p> - -<p>The universal respect in which the German language was -held, and the extent to which it was affected by others than -Germans, provided an admirable social soil for the development -of German music and the cultivation of German literature. -Hardly had the immigrants established themselves -when, in 1847, they founded at Milwaukee their first singing -society, which was followed three years later by the famous -and far-reaching <i>Musikverein</i>. A German theater followed -promptly, and became a permanent feature of Milwaukee’s -intellectual life.<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a> The <i>Turnverein</i> fostered in America Father -Jahn’s conception of athletics, while restaurants and beer -gardens gave an old world, continental atmosphere to public -recreation. Holidays assumed a German aspect. The <i>Christ -Child</i> displaced <i>St. Nicholas</i> not alone in Milwaukee, but in -scores of towns, villages, and hamlets, and innumerable farm -homes scattered over Wisconsin. The joyous German <i>Weinacht</i> -made way easily against the more somber Puritan -Christmas, which, however, had already brightened a good -deal in its progress from the seventeenth century to the nineteenth -century.</p> - -<p>In general, Germans did not insist with extreme pertinacity -upon the retention of their own social customs, and -wherever people of that nationality were intermingled with a -larger number of Americans, the process by which they assimilated -American habits of living, American social usages, -and even ways of acting, speaking, and thinking was very -rapid. In the schools of a Yankee neighborhood the children -of German settlers, in many cases, could not be distinguished -by their manner of speech from the Yankee children. On -the other hand, in communities made up wholly or mainly of -Germans, the grandchildren continue to have trouble with -the <i>th</i> sound in English words, and manifest other linguistic -peculiarities. And this difference is merely symptomatic. -To this day, it is easy to reconstruct, in case of the average -person of German descent, the atmosphere in which he was -brought up. If he comes from Milwaukee, or from some -rural “Dutch settlement,” that fact is usually clear from a -hundred trifling intimations. If he was brought up in a non-German -community (so adaptable is the race), a change of -name from the German <i>Weiss</i> to the English <i>White</i>, or from -<i>Schwartz</i> to <i>Black</i>, would ordinarily suffice to disguise the -fact that he is of German descent at all. Germans thus -brought up are apt to have made their religious affiliations -and their intimate social relationships harmonize with those -of the leading American element of the community, so that -these quite as much as their speech would tend to conceal their -racial origin.</p> - -<p>Wisconsin writers have made much of the fact that emigrating -German revolutionists came to this state largely in -1848 and the years following. That fact, significant as -bringing to Wisconsin Carl Schurz, who became the most -noted liberal American statesman and publicist of German -birth, has perhaps been overstressed. At least, it can safely -be said that for every revolutionist disembarked at Milwaukee -or Sheboygan or Manitowoc, probably a full score of -plain, everyday, conventional Germans filtered into the state’s -population during the same time. The important point about -the revolutionists is not their relative numbers, but their character -and the leadership they helped to supply in the affairs -of the new commonwealth. Newspaper editors who possessed -exceptional literary and scholastic attainments came from -that class; some found their way into the legislature, and -many served the cause of liberal government on the local -plane.</p> - -<p>The name of Schurz was one to conjure with, as American -politicians were quick to discover. He figured prominently -in Wisconsin state politics only a few years, but as a -national leader his influence in attaching the Germans to the -causes he advocated was especially strong in this state, which -claimed him as her own. Schurz’s high character and attainments, -coupled with his political successes in this country, -were a source of pride to thousands of Wisconsin Germans -who shared not at all his revolutionary views. Enough that, -like Goethe, he was a great German, and that he had gained -the respect and confidence of large sections of the American -people. It ministered to the self-respect of the average -German settler to feel that his people had contributed something -of value to the life of the nation and state.</p> - -<p>Later arrivals from Germany, and especially from Prussia, -brought with them an intense pride of nationalism and -enthusiasm for German achievement in the wars against -Austria and against France. The difference in attitude between -immigrants of 1880 and those of forty years earlier -was antipodal. Many of the former had served in the victorious -wars and abounded in military incidents and in stories -of Bismarck, of Kaiser Wilhelm I, and Crown Prince -Frederick William (<i>Unser Fritz</i>). These men obviously -belonged to a new generation of Germans, and they have -exerted a powerful influence upon our recent history. But -the Germans who deserve special recognition along with the -Yankees, as founders of the commonwealth and its institutions, -are those of the earlier immigrations from a Fatherland -which as yet was united only in culture, while politically its -states remained dissevered.</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<div class="chapter"> -<p class="ph1">THE YANKEE AND THE TEUTON IN WISCONSIN<br /> - -<span class="smcap">Joseph Schafer</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak">V. SOCIAL HARMONIES AND DISCORDS</h2></div> - - -<p>The “Sons of the Pilgrims” of Milwaukee held in -December, 1850, their customary banquet to celebrate the -historic landing on Plymouth Rock. The occasion was one -which stimulated the flow of oratory and the display of -quaint Yankee humor and sparkling wit. Among the toasts, -some of which embodied genuine wisdom, was the following: -“Our adopted state. She has gathered her sons from -many lands and given them all a home amid her bounty -and her beauty. May the elements of strength and greatness -peculiar to each be here transplanted and united to form -a perfect commonwealth.”<a name="FNanchor_48_48" id="FNanchor_48_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a></p> - -<p>The sentiment was notably generous, voiced as it was -by one out of the many and diverse population elements, -and we now see that it was also prophetic. But the attainment -of the ideal here advanced was not to result from an -effortless, unconscious process. Much history is involved -in the relations of Yankee and Teuton—to say nothing of -other stocks—which reveals a general tendency to helpful -coperation, but presents, on the other hand, episodes -marked by animosity, jealousy, and social estrangement. -If there were social harmonies, there were also discords.</p> - -<p>As early as 1850 Milwaukee contained more Germans -than Yankees. Out of an aggregate population of 20,059 -the census taker had designated 3880 as natives of the -New England states and New York, while 5958 were born -in Germany. The entire American element (aside from -natives of Wisconsin, who were children of the foreign -born as well as of the American born) amounted to 5113, -while the number of foreigners was 12,036. Of these, more -than 3000 were Irish and about 1300 English. Thus the -German was numerically the dominant social factor in -the city.</p> - -<p>Nevertheless, in all but numbers the Yankee element -remained, as it had been from the beginning of the town’s -growth, in a position of acknowledged leadership. There -would be no difficulty in proving that socially, industrially, -and commercially the places of power were occupied by the -“down-easters,” while in politics, although their control was -being challenged from one side or another, they were still -far from recognizing a master.</p> - -<p>Yankees were the promoters of those far-reaching -improvements, like the various plank roads, and especially -the railroads, which were destined to unite the extensive -new settlements with Milwaukee and thus guarantee the -future greatness of the city. They were largely engaged -in the carrying trade on the Lakes. They controlled the -flour milling business, the leading industry of the city, in -which was concentrated probably more capital than was -invested in all other lines of manufacturing carried on at -that time. They were also prominent in wholesale merchandising -and owned the most pretentious retail stores.</p> - -<p>Their general preminence in the professions was undisputed. -They had most of the lawyers, a large proportion -of the physicians, the editors of English language papers, -the Protestant clergymen, the teachers. Public opinion, -with a reservation to be stated presently, was mainly of -their making, both in the city itself and—through the agency -of a widely read newspaper press—in the state at large. -On all questions affecting public education, social morality, -health, and recreation, as well as business or industry, the -American portion of the community was very apt to mass -behind Yankee leadership; and the English speaking -section of the foreign population was not averse to doing -the same, at least under ordinary circumstances. Often, -indeed, such was the prestige of the Yankees, their initiative -was followed unquestioningly by American and foreigner -alike.</p> - -<p>But the weight of numbers being with the Germans, -the bulk of whom did not speak or read English—though -there were numerous exceptions,—it was natural that -there should have developed a community leadership within -their own group, and such leadership would be determinative -in cases of divergence from American ideas. The presence -of this great body of non-English speaking persons, clothed -with political power and wielding also a goodly share of -economic power, especially as manifested in consumption, -tended in itself to generate a more amiable attitude and -more moderate policies on the part of the dominant class.</p> - -<p>For the Germans were a coherent, prosperous, and growing -element in the city. They began coming in 1839, and -during the succeeding decade the annual accretions waxed -gradually larger. After the revolution of 1848 the tide of -emigration, especially from the countries and provinces -along the Rhine, was swollen to unprecedented proportions, -Milwaukee and the whole state profiting largely therefrom. -But, already before 1850 Milwaukee’s streets, business -places, and homes were so habituated to German speech, -that most visitors unhesitatingly described it as a German -city. “In the colony of Herman alone,” wrote Carl de Haas -in 1848, “among all the United States is the population so -preponderantly German.”<a name="FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a> This writer also says, as do -other chroniclers of his race, that not alone the speech of -his country, but also the national habits and customs -prevailed exceedingly in Milwaukee; that the Americans -made many concessions to the Germanism of the environment—merchants, -for example, learning the language -themselves, or at least keeping clerks in their establishments -who could speak it, in order to attract German trade.</p> - -<p>The emigration which began in 1839 as a religious -movement, a congregation of Old Lutherans fleeing the -pressure of the illiberal policy of Prussia’s king, was continued -thereafter mainly from economic and social motives. -An examination of the census schedules of 1850 for Milwaukee -reveals its general character better than volumes -of reminiscent testimony. The census shows that, among -the 5958 Germans in the city, 1165 (if the count is accurate) -were craftsmen. There were house carpenters, ship carpenters, -smiths, wheelwrights, millwrights, cabinet makers, -masons, plasterers, painters, brickmakers, tailors, shoemakers, -saddlers, watchmakers, coppersmiths, silversmiths -and goldsmiths, barbers, bakers, brewers, cigar makers, -musicians, sailors, and many more. In contrast to the -large number of craftsmen, those employed at common -labor numbered only 461, while the aggregate of those who -may be described as business men was 248. A total of -45 persons fall in the class of professional men. Many, even -of the laborers, possessed some property, thus showing that -they were of a substantial, home-making type. A good -many of the craftsmen owned homes, some of the business -men were possessed of real estate to an appreciable extent, -and there were a very few capitalists whose properties were -valued at from $20,000 to $50,000.</p> - -<p>The significance to the city of having among the population -so large a body of thoroughly trained and skilled artisans -cannot readily be overstated. It toned up all building operations -and enabled them to keep pace with the city’s rapidly -growing needs; it facilitated the establishment and expansion -of industries depending upon a full supply of -skilled labor; it gave the city a fine body of industrious, well -paid residents as homemakers and citizens—at a time -when American artisans were very prone to seek land -and raise farm produce. American business and industrial -leaders in Milwaukee appreciated the German craftsmen -who contributed largely to the prosperity of the city; and -the same may be said of the common laborers.</p> - -<p>The appearance of Germans with capital which sought -investment in lines of business already pursued by Americans -was no doubt less welcome, and to some it may have seemed -like an intrusion. Generally, however, Germans began their -business enterprises on so modest a scale, and built them -up so gradually, that no serious economic dislocations could -have been felt in consequence. In some cases the German -business men merely undertook to meet demands created -by the presence of their own people, which demands were -not fully cared for by existing American enterprise. Perhaps -no better illustration of this tendency can be found than the -local tobacco trade. “Groceries,” of course, carried the -“plug tobacco” used so widely in those days by Americans -of all classes, while drug stores handled cigars. But smoking -was more nearly universal among European immigrants -than among Americans. Germans accordingly set up -tobacco shops, which usually included a department for -the manufacture of cigars. The investments were all -small, ranging from $50 to $4000, but the payroll was of some -consequence to the city and the output considerable. It -is believed that all firms of tobacconists or cigar manufacturers -listed by the census takers in 1850 were Germans.</p> - -<p>Another industry in which Germans were prominent in -1850 was tanning. This they did not monopolize, for -several non-German tanners were operating at the same -time. But G. Pfister and Company, Tanners, had an -investment of $35,000 and, employing thirty-five men, -manufactured an annual product valued at $45,000, while -all other tanneries taken together had an aggregate investment -of less than $7500.</p> - -<p>In boot and shoe manufacturing one American firm -was far in the lead.<a name="FNanchor_50_50" id="FNanchor_50_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a> Yet, on a smaller scale, German firms -were participating in the business actively, while German -craftsmen were an important element in the success of -all shoe manufacturers. A similar statement will hold -true in the department of brickmaking. A large number -of Germans worked in the brickyards as experts, and -several had small plants of their own. But the big brickyard -of the city was not managed by Germans.<a name="FNanchor_51_51" id="FNanchor_51_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> There -was one single rope maker, who was a German, and also one -glove and mitten manufacturer, who was also German. -Both of these industries were small.</p> - -<p>There remains the historically important Milwaukee -industry of beer-brewing, popularly supposed to have been -introduced by immigrants from Munich and other centers -of beer manufacture in the fatherland. The census lists -a total of ten establishments designated as breweries. Of -these, seven were owned by Germans and three by non-Germans. -The investments by the latter aggregated -$27,000, those of the former $20,900. But the sum of the -annual products of the German breweries was $41,062, -while the aggregate product of the others was $32,425. -The non-German brewery which had the largest investment -was doing an annual business valued at less than the -investment, while one of the German breweries having only -$3000 invested reported a product valued at $18,000.<a name="FNanchor_52_52" id="FNanchor_52_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a></p> - -<p>When we consider mercantile lines as distinguished from -the industrial, Germans were prominent in those which -called for moderate investments. They had many small -grocery stores scattered through the city, a number of -meat markets, and of course a goodly proportion of liquor -saloons. There were also several German clothing stores, -confectioneries, and bakeries. That their business men -expected to sell almost exclusively to Germans is indicated -by the fact that for the most part they advertised -only in the German language papers—the <i>Wisconsin Banner</i> -and the <i>Volksfreund</i>,—not in the English papers. On the -other hand, the American merchants, as we have already -seen, catered to the German trade by providing German -salesmen,<a name="FNanchor_53_53" id="FNanchor_53_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a> and they also advertised extensively in the -German papers.</p> - -<p>There were German taverns which did a thriving trade; -the restaurants made the sojourner from Berlin feel at home; -and the German beer gardens were the despair of the -pious Yankee mothers of boys. So indispensable did -German musicians become, that when the Sons of the -Pilgrims banqueted, a brass band directed by a German -bandmaster discoursed “martial as well as festive” music.</p> - -<p>One other form of coperation between Yankee and -Teuton deserves to be mentioned—the employment of -German girls in Yankee homes. This custom, testified to -by German writers and indicated unmistakably by the -census, was widespread. Such service was an immediate -resource to the poorer immigrant families, and a boon to -the American families as well. By that means numbers of -future German homemakers came promptly into possession -of the manners and customs of the Yankees, acquired their -speech, and gained some insight into their distinctive -views of life.</p> - -<p>The least numerous of the special classes into which we -have analyzed the German population of Milwaukee, in -1850, was the professional class. Yet it is not for that -reason least important, for the little group of forty-five<a name="FNanchor_54_54" id="FNanchor_54_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_54_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a> -persons contained most of the individuals whose views -swayed public opinion among the 6000 Milwaukee Germans. -Among them were two newspaper editors, each in charge -of a German language paper. There were six lawyers, nine -teachers, and eleven clergymen and preachers. Four of -the preachers are described as German Lutheran, one was -Evangelical, and one Methodist.<a name="FNanchor_55_55" id="FNanchor_55_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_55_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a> Two, Joseph Salzman -and Franz Fusseden, were Catholic priests. One, F. W. -Helfer, was called a “rationalist preacher.” Two, John -Mhlhauser and G. Klgel, were merely called preachers.</p> - -<p>It is not strange that medicine, among all the professions, -should have had the strongest representation. A physician, -wherever trained, is equipped to practice anywhere, while -a lawyer, clergyman, editor, or teacher is obliged to prepare -for service by first fitting himself into the community he is -to serve. German medical education was far superior to -American at that time, and, in the western states at least, -the supply of trained physicians was below the requirements. -There were communities in Wisconsin where not -one-fourth of the practitioners were graduates of medical -schools or had honestly earned the title of “doctor.”<a name="FNanchor_56_56" id="FNanchor_56_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_56_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a> -This condition made a splendid opportunity for German -physicians, who could hope to win the patronage of Americans -as well as Germans. That the prospect was alluring -to them is shown by the fact that Milwaukee at the census -date in 1850 had seventeen German physicians, some of -them already men of note in the community.</p> - -<p>The Yankees and the Germans came into such close -and intimate contacts in Milwaukee, that it is easier to -study their normal attitudes there than in the outlying -portions of the state. On the whole those relations, in the -period terminating with the Civil War, appear to have been -marked by mutual respect, if not active friendship. At all -events, if there were differences causing ill will on one side -or the other, these—so far as they were the outgrowth of the -social, economic, or commercial interplay of the two groups—rarely -became serious enough to be reflected in the -public press. The prosperity of the city, providing usually -full employment and adequate returns to all who wanted -to work, made the bond between capitalist and employees -satisfactory, and this solved one important aspect of the -class problem. The absence of any decided public interest -in the immigrant problem as affecting the city—other than -politically—is a fact which obtrudes itself upon one who -canvasses the Milwaukee papers, English and German, -during the fourteen years which intervened between the -first constitutional convention and the election of Abraham -Lincoln to the presidency.</p> - -<p>Yet, there are not wanting evidences that the two -groups were quite distinct and that the Germans, as a -foreign group, were sensitively class conscious. This is -shown, for example, by the race appeals in their business -advertisements. To call attention to one’s nationality when -offering services of a personal nature, like those of the -physician, or the dentist, or even the druggist, is reasonable -and correct. But there is no good ground for assuming -that nationality makes a difference to the purchaser of -lime. Why then the advertisement of a <i>Deutsche Kalk Haus</i> -(German lime house), unless there was a feeling that the -German dealer would be favored by German buyers simply -because he was German? This is a typical example which -goes to show the existence of a city within a city, a German -Milwaukee which tended to live its own group life, for which, -as already explained, it possessed, within itself, great -facilities.</p> - -<p>Occasionally some relatively minor happening threw -this feeling of separateness into strong relief, as when, in -1850, a German scholar published in the Milwaukee papers -of his language the story of his relations with the chancellor -and board of regents of the University. He thought they -had promised him a chair, but afterwards they made it -plain that no contract had been closed with him. He may -or may not have had cause of complaint. But what he -professed to do was to lay the whole matter before the -Germans of Wisconsin, in order that they might know how -the board of regents “flouts the wishes of the German -citizens,” how it keeps its promises “to Germans,” and -how little it regards the rules of ordinary courtesy “in -dealing with Germans.”<a name="FNanchor_57_57" id="FNanchor_57_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_57_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a> No doubt the design was to -bring political pressure to bear on the regents, but the -device would not have been resorted to had not the recognized -racial unity among the Germans rendered that a hopeful -plan.</p> - -<p>In a society like the present Milwaukee, where inter-racial -marriages are a daily occurrence, and one is rarely -conscious of race in cases of that kind, the condition of -seventy years ago seems almost incomprehensible. For, a -close scrutiny of the entire census record for Milwaukee -in 1850 reveals that marriages between Germans and Americans -of all derivations at that time were excessively rare. -The aggregate number of such unions was twelve. But of -marriages between Yankees and Germans I can provisionally -identify only six, as follows: Margaret, twenty-six years -of age, born in Germany, was the wife of John H. Butler, a -livery-stable keeper, born in New York. Hiram Brooks, -twenty-seven, born in New York, was married to Mary, -twenty-three, born in Hesse Darmstadt. James Ridgeway, -thirty, a cooper, native of New York, was married to Mary, -born in Prussia. Abram Davis, twenty-five, a cooper, born -in New York, was married to C—, twenty-three, native of -Bavaria. Joseph Stadter, thirty-three, physician, rated -at $2000, who was born in Bavaria, was married to Sarah -Ann, nineteen, born in New York (but a female who was a -member of the family, and may have been this woman’s -mother, bore a German name). Finally, William Stamm, -thirty-two, painter, native of Bremen, was married to -Lucy, twenty-eight, a native of Massachusetts.</p> - -<p>It is not possible to determine how many of the American -born persons represented in the six cases may have belonged -to German families, but doubtless some did. At all events, -we can assert that in Milwaukee at that time, with its nearly -6000 Germans and nearly 4000 Yankees, not more than six -cases can be found of marriages between them. No commentary -is needed to establish the fact of the virtual -segregation of the two great population groups.<a name="FNanchor_58_58" id="FNanchor_58_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_58_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a> If Chevalier, -the French philosopher, was right in his conviction -that “the Yankee is not a man of promiscuous society,” -it is equally true that the German at that time was excessively -clannish. His clannishness was due, no doubt, to -natural and inevitable causes, but the fact needs to be recognized -by the student of history.</p> - -<p>This disposition on the part of Germans to “hang -together” was promptly discovered by American politicians -and exploited for partisan and personal ends. The outstanding -fact of the political history of the period under -review is the attachment of the immigrant Germans to the -Democratic party. That relation was all but absolute -and universal during the 1840’s, though a gradual change -took place in the last half of the next decade. There was -nothing mysterious about it. Germans found the country, -on their arrival, living under a Democratic administration, -to which they looked for favors and usually not in vain. The -Democratic party was liberal in the bestowal of lands; it -contended manfully against the principle of monopoly, -especially in banking and other corporate activities; and -it emphasized the doctrine of the equality of all men. The -Germans, like the Irish and, in fact, all immigrants, were -strongly attracted by the principles professed in Democratic -platforms. The very word “democracy,” had its winning -appeal. “Democracy,” wrote the editor of the <i>Banner</i> in -1850, “is a glorious word. There are few other words, in -any language, which can be compared to it. To the poor -man it is peculiarly precious since he is aware that he owes -to it his escape from the serfdom in which his oppressors -held him, and can now look up into heaven and thank his -God that he has ceased to be a serf. Democracy knows -no distinctions between man and man. She sets all upon -the broad foundation of equality.”<a name="FNanchor_59_59" id="FNanchor_59_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_59_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a></p> - -<p>The enormous prestige gained by the Democratic party -under Jackson’s leadership easily floated the administrations -of Van Buren and Polk. But, as an influence toward captivating -the foreign element in Wisconsin, no other Democratic -principle had quite the efficacy of the liberal suffrage -provision which the party in power adopted at the beginning -of our history as a state.</p> - -<p>In Michigan the makers of the state constitution had -granted the voting privilege to all aliens who were <i>bona -fide</i> residents and who had declared their intention to become -citizens. That clause in her organic law drew the criticism -of Whig members of Congress, but she was admitted to the -union in spite of their opposition, and thus was established -the principle that men might be voters without being -citizens. When, in 1846, the territorial legislature of -Wisconsin provided by law for the holding of a constitutional -convention, a similar proviso was made to govern the election -of delegates to the convention.</p> - -<p>In Milwaukee County the Democrats nominated eight -candidates for delegates. Dr. Franz Huebschmann was the -sole German named. The <i>Wisconsin Banner</i>, while remarking -that Germans constituting one-third of the population -were to have but a single delegate, urged Germans to vote -as one man for him. He was needed, said the editor, -especially to contend for equality in the voting privilege, for -which he had striven manfully during the past three years. -In the neighbor county of Washington, Germans were -urged to support two Irish candidates who favored equality -of the voting privilege and whom the Whigs (so it was -asserted) were trying to defeat by the same wiles they -employed against Huebschmann. The moral of the <i>Banner</i> -editorials was: “Don’t trust the Whigs. They have always -opposed the rights of the foreign born.”<a name="FNanchor_60_60" id="FNanchor_60_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_60_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a> In preparation -for the vote on delegates, Milwaukee Germans who had not -declared their intention were given every direction for -completing that formality, and the indications are that a -large number of voters were newly made for the occasion.</p> - -<p>Dr. Huebschmann, in the first convention, was a powerful -advocate of equality, giving as the chief ground in favor -of the principle that it would tend to bring Americans and -foreigners into more harmonious relations with one another. -“The more distinctions you make between them politically,” -he said, “the more you delay this great end [amalgamation], -which is so essential to the future welfare of this -state. And, in fact, I regard only one measure equally -important as the political equality which I ask for, and that -is a good common school system.... Political equality -and good schools will make the people of Wisconsin an enlightened -and happy people. They will make them one -people.”<a name="FNanchor_61_61" id="FNanchor_61_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_61_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a></p> - -<p>On the educational question Huebschmann found the -Yankee majority of the convention eager to welcome his -coperation. On the subject of suffrage their unity was less -complete. While party lines were not strictly drawn, the -chief contenders for equality were leading Democrats and -the chief opponents leading Whigs. But both conventions -adopted the principle, the first not quite frankly, and -with the admission of Wisconsin into the union all foreign -born persons who had resided in the state one year prior -to any election had the right to vote, provided they had -declared their intention to become citizens of the United -States.</p> - -<p>The adoption of such a liberal suffrage provision in the -teeth of the nativist movement which had affected all parts -of the country more or less, was considered a great triumph -of Democratic principles. And there is no doubt about the -gratitude of adoptive citizens to the party which secured -them the boon. To the Germans it seemed thenceforward -a simple question of loyalty to support the Democratic -party, through thick and thin, through good report and evil -report. Inasmuch as the Democratic party also supported -the Germans’ views on the subject of temperance (prohibition), -soon to become a burning issue,<a name="FNanchor_62_62" id="FNanchor_62_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_62_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a> and in their contest -with the more serious manifestations of Know-Nothingism, -which in this state reached its climax somewhat later, one -almost wonders how any of the Germans were able to detach -themselves from that party, despite its failure to represent -them on the slavery and free-soil issues.</p> - -<p>The temperance movement and nativism were the chief -grounds of political contention between Germans and -Yankees during this period. The first of these broke, in -1853-55, on the rock of German—which meant Democratic—opposition. -For, although a referendum vote had gone -in favor of the enactment of a “Maine Law,” the Democratic -legislature chosen at the same time refused to accept -the result as mandatory, and did not pass the law. And -when the first Republican legislature did pass such a law, in -the early months of the year 1855, Barstow, the Democratic -governor, vetoed the bill. Never thereafter did the temperance -issue become as acute as it had been during the seven -years immediately following statehood, but it is not strange -that their record on that question was one of the standing -arguments against Republicanism among the German -voters.<a name="FNanchor_63_63" id="FNanchor_63_63"></a><a href="#Footnote_63_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a></p> - -<p>The Know-Nothing issue, which was supposed to be dying -out at the time of the Wisconsin constitutional conventions, -1846-1848, revived after the Mexican War, figured prominently -in the defeat of General Scott in 1852, and in this -state as well as in some other states rose to dramatic and -even tragic interest in 1855. Thereafter it declined, to pass -away for the time being with the election of Lincoln and the -engulfing of the nation in war.</p> - -<p>But the Know-Nothingism of 1855 was regarded by the -Democratic party as sinister because, as that party professed -to believe, it had got itself incorporated as an important if -not controlling element in the new Republican party. This -the Republican leaders and organs denied with vigor, but -it is true that the general council of the <i>American</i> party in -this state urged the support of the Republican candidates -and professed to have contributed 20,000 votes toward the -election of Bashford. The Republicans had no objection to -Know-Nothing votes, but they feared that the endorsement -of their ticket by the Know-Nothings would cost them -more foreign born votes than it would gain them nativists. -It was tactically wise for the Democrats, and especially the -German Democratic press, to keep the “Republican-Know-Nothing” -idea before their people—and they made the best -use of the opportunity.</p> - -<p>“Temperance,” after all, was regarded by the Germans as -merely a manifestation of Puritan fanaticism, which must -be opposed in the interest of personal liberty. Much as -they disliked it, their opposition does not seem to have -developed excessive bitterness against the believers in or -practicers of temperance. But nativism, which demanded -that the suffrage be limited to citizens; that naturalization be -made more difficult; that in some departments, as in the -army, natives be favored to the exclusion of the foreign -born, this they felt to be a deliberate and vicious attack -upon the rights of the foreign born as a class. The advocacy -of these principles involved much discussion of the unfitness -of foreigners, their ignorance, their sordidness, their “un-American” -habits and customs, in one important respect -their “anti-American” religion.</p> - -<p>All of this inevitably roused a bitter, fighting resentment -on the part of all foreigners, as it did among radical natives -also, and it is well known that many parts of the country -suffered in consequence from riots and other manifestations -of a class war. In Wisconsin there was less overt hostility -than in some states where the foreign elements were not so -powerful.<a name="FNanchor_64_64" id="FNanchor_64_64"></a><a href="#Footnote_64_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a> The Know-Nothing party as such functioned -seriously only in the one year 1855, and its propaganda -was relatively mild-mannered.<a name="FNanchor_65_65" id="FNanchor_65_65"></a><a href="#Footnote_65_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a> Its chief objects of -attack were the foreign born Catholics, which class included -a majority of the Irish but only a fraction of the Germans, -most of whom—probably—were either Lutheran or Reformed, -with an appreciable number of non-churchmen -or “free-thinkers.”<a name="FNanchor_66_66" id="FNanchor_66_66"></a><a href="#Footnote_66_66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a> Nevertheless, nativism, as entangled -in the political psychology of this eventful year, had its full -share in producing a tragedy in this state also.</p> - -<p>It came in the form of a lynching, carried out with hideous -barbarism by a body of the ruder Germans of Washington -County, in August, 1855. It seems that a sickly, weak -witted boy of nineteen, named George DeBar—a native of -New York State—felt himself aggrieved by a German farmer -and proposed to administer a beating. This he partly -accomplished, at the farmer’s home, but his victim fled -into the field, where he found a hiding place. Meantime, -DeBar ran amuck, and meeting the man’s wife stabbed her -severely but not fatally. He next pursued a fifteen-year-old -boy, Paul Winderling, who was living with the farmer, -attacked him with his pocketknife, and killed him. He -then burned the farmer’s cabin. DeBar afterwards solemnly -assured his attorneys that the only part of the transaction he -could remember was striking the farmer himself with a stone -knotted in his handkerchief. The belief was widespread that -he became unbalanced mentally at this point, which theory -is really the simplest explanation of his horrible crime, committed -without assignable motive.</p> - -<p>Immediately on DeBar’s arrest a plan was hatched to -storm the jail, take him out, and hang him. The death -penalty had been abolished at the instance, as many felt, -of the Yankee sentimentalists, and the ignorance of some -suggested that, since hanging was only justice in a case like -this, and the state refused to execute a criminal, the people -themselves had a right to take the matter into their own -hands. Unfortunately, a similar case had happened two -weeks earlier at Janesville, in which the avenging crowd was -made up of Americans.<a name="FNanchor_67_67" id="FNanchor_67_67"></a><a href="#Footnote_67_67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a> It was suggested by some that -DeBar was himself a Know-Nothing, or at least trained with -the Know-Nothing element, and there were dire whispers -about the trial judge, Charles H. Larrabee. Doubtless -these rumors were altogether wild. The nineteen-year-old -DeBar, practically <i>non compos mentis</i>, was of no possible -political consequence, while Judge Larrabee at the time was -as sound a Democrat as could be found.<a name="FNanchor_68_68" id="FNanchor_68_68"></a><a href="#Footnote_68_68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a> But passions -once fully aroused hurl reason from its throne, and so it was -in this case. The rowdies gathered at a drinking place in -West Bend, and decided on a lynching.</p> - -<p>Judge Larrabee convened a special session of court, -impaneled a grand jury, and having summoned two companies -of militia—the Union Guards of Ozaukee County, a -German company, and the Washington Guards, another -German company, of Milwaukee—to come up for the protection -of the prisoner, had him conveyed to the courthouse -and examined. The grand jury brought in a true bill, -charging murder in the first degree. To this the prisoner, on -the advice of his attorneys, pleaded “not guilty.” The -multitude which had been permitted to press into the court -room, despite the judge’s instruction to the militia to limit -the number to the seating capacity of the room, fairly raged -when they found a trial would be required, and before -the prisoner took many steps in the direction of the jail, -they seized him and made way with him.</p> - -<p>The severest censure was leveled against the militia -companies and their leaders. All the American writers -whose statements appear in the <i>Sentinel</i> charge that these -companies fraternized with the lynching party, and practically -assert that they had an understanding by which the -prisoner was to be given up to them. The captain of the -Milwaukee company, who was a veteran of the Mexican -War—though a German immigrant—insisted with vigor -that his company did all it could to prevent the lynching. -He did not speak for the Union Guards of Ozaukee. All -witnesses agree that one of the Union Guard officers, -Lieutenant Beger, performed his duty manfully and heroically, -but the weight of the testimony condemns the companies -as organizations, and especially their captains. It -would seem that two companies of militia, if well led, ought -to have been able with the butts of their guns to hold off a -rabble of three hundred men, and no witness puts the number -higher than that, while some declare the rush was -made by not more than thirty-five men.</p> - -<p>In the Milwaukee captain’s statement, as in the statements -of other German apologists for the militia, we come at -once upon the political note. They could not expect the -“Know-Nothing American writers” to tell the truth about -the tragedy. In other words, they found in the politics of -the time an opportunity to charge prejudice against Americans, -and by that means to dodge the real issue. Two German -writers of West Bend, one of them the undersheriff, -bitterly denounced both the militia companies and the -lynchers, and both more than hint that the passions which -led to the lynching were partly religious. Here, undoubtedly, -we come upon one of the signs of division among the -Germans themselves. It is possible that these two Germans -were politically opposed to the main body of their fellow-countrymen, -for by this time a light minority had already -been attracted away from the Democratic party. However, -we do not know that this was true, and merely call attention -to the several psychological attitudes which, from the -testimony, we know the case disclosed.</p> - -<p>Of greatest interest is the attitude of English and German -language papers of Democratic and Republican proclivities. -The <i>Sentinel</i> continued to admit contributions on the West -Bend tragedy for approximately two weeks. It also published -the results of an investigation made on the ground by -one of its staff, and a petition to the governor, said to have -been signed by 186 residents of Washington County, who -asked for the disbandment of the two accused companies -and the withdrawal of their officers’ commissions. But the -<i>Sentinel</i> does not appear to have tried by means of the -incident to influence the political situation which was about -to become superheated. At all events, what it published -would all have been legitimate as news. On the other hand, -the <i>Banner und Volksfreund</i>,<a name="FNanchor_69_69" id="FNanchor_69_69"></a><a href="#Footnote_69_69" class="fnanchor">[69]</a> while condemning the -lynching, made no demand for the punishment of the -lynchers. It tried to exculpate the militia companies -(accepting the Milwaukee captain’s testimony as against -all other evidence), and deliberately charged that the -<i>Sentinel</i>, in publishing the above-mentioned petition, was -playing for political advantage. This charge was absurd -on its face, for the success of the new Republican movement -which the <i>Sentinel</i> had espoused depended on its ability to -detach Germans from the Democratic party, which assuredly -could not be done by playing into the hands of the -Know-Nothings, and the <i>Sentinel</i> did not hesitate to declare -the Know-Nothing support a handicap to the party.</p> - -<p>Both American and German testimony discloses the existence -in Washington County of a strong German party of -law and order. They deplored the lynching and urged the -apprehension and trial of the ringleaders. They realized -that the crime would put a stigma upon their race as well -as upon the county and the state. But, as a matter of fact, -although some of the lynchers were identified in the verdict -of the coroner’s jury, it must be recorded that no earnest -effort was made to punish them.<a name="FNanchor_70_70" id="FNanchor_70_70"></a><a href="#Footnote_70_70" class="fnanchor">[70]</a> Nor was any step of an -official character taken (so far as I have been able to find) -to determine the guilt or innocence of the militia companies -and their officers. In fact, the Democratic press of the -state, evidently fearful of sacrificing some German Democratic -votes, which that year were all needed, deliberately -tried to darken council by confounding this case in principle -not only with the Mayberry case, which it resembled, but -also with another of an entirely different nature, to which -we must give passing attention.</p> - -<p>In the previous year, 1854, occurred at Milwaukee the -famous Glover rescue. Glover was a runaway slave who -had been apprehended by his self-styled owner, brutally -man-handled, and confined in the Milwaukee County -jail for safekeeping. Sherman M. Booth, editor of the -<i>Daily Free Democrat</i>, one of the founders of the Republican -party, a vigorous free-soil and antislavery partisan, and -the man in the state who was perhaps most feared and hated -by the Democracy, had argued hotly for the protection of -Glover’s rights against the man claiming him under the -“unconstitutional” compromise law of 1850. Booth called -a public meeting at the courthouse for the purpose, as he -claimed, of concerting measures for helping Glover without -the use of force. But the upshot was a rescue party which -battered down the door of the jail, took Glover out, and by -various shifts and transfers on the underground railway, -carried him to Canada and freedom. Booth was then made -to suffer for all that had been done; he was tried in the -federal court, convicted, fined, and given a jail sentence.</p> - -<p>We cannot go into the details of the Booth case, a -<i>cause clbre</i> in ante-Civil War political history. But the -Democratic papers, after the DeBar lynching, ostentatiously -bemoaned the fact that due to recent events “neither -national nor state laws” could hereafter be enforced in -Wisconsin. The beginning of the trouble was the setting -at naught of the national law for the rendition of slaves, in -which the arch Republican Booth was ringleader. The -Mayberry lynching and the DeBar lynching followed in -natural sequence. These editors did not choose to analyze -the difference between the Glover case and the others—the -fact that the one was a rescue performed at their own -risk by philanthropic men, the others brutal killings committed -by men crazed with the lust of blood vengeance. In -other words, the Democratic press, including those papers -printed in the German language, attempted the impossible -feat of arranging in the same straight line the “higher law” -and the lower law.</p> - -<p>Of course, the Republican press retorted handsomely, -and probably with considerable political effect, that if the -apologists for mob law in Kansas were “in favor of the execution -of the fugitive slave act in Wisconsin” they would -like their avowal to that effect.<a name="FNanchor_71_71" id="FNanchor_71_71"></a><a href="#Footnote_71_71" class="fnanchor">[71]</a> It is well known that -during the 1855 campaign, as in the previous year, a good -many Germans were converted from their old-time Democratic -allegiance.<a name="FNanchor_72_72" id="FNanchor_72_72"></a><a href="#Footnote_72_72" class="fnanchor">[72]</a> But both parties were too intent on their -immediate political objects to risk pressing for an investigation -of the West Bend tragedy, which might have alienated -a large section of the German vote in three German counties.</p> - -<p>It is not impossible that politics was responsible for the -severity of the onslaught upon the militia companies, since -the nativist propaganda for an exclusively American -militia would be quick to seize upon such an opportunity, -and it is not to be supposed that the politics of the case -was all on one side. Yet, unless the governor was in possession -of facts which were withheld from the public, the -least that could be said against the companies is that they -exhibited criminal inefficiency. From this distance, it looks -as if politics affected the Republican attitude as well as -the Democratic; as if crime was condoned in the interest of -party success, since one party was intent on holding its -former German adherents and the other was determined -to take as many of them as possible into the opposition -camp.</p> - -<p>Whether or not the incident leaves the stain of blood on -the path of Wisconsin politics, it marks the nearest approach -to a race war between Germans and Americans -which this general period affords. And by Americans we -practically mean Yankees. For it was a truth which the -German press sensed instinctively, that the Republican -party—made up of “shreds and patches,” as was said,—embracing -prohibitionists, abolitionists, free-soilers, nativists, -and Whigs, was dominated by the “Puritan” element.<a name="FNanchor_73_73" id="FNanchor_73_73"></a><a href="#Footnote_73_73" class="fnanchor">[73]</a> -A glance at the history of its origin in Wisconsin will at -least convince the reader of its Yankee paternity.<a name="FNanchor_74_74" id="FNanchor_74_74"></a><a href="#Footnote_74_74" class="fnanchor">[74]</a></p> - -<p>However, the Republican party changed radically in -character during the next few years, and as the German -population came to be distributed between it and the Democratic -party, a healthier social tone was the result. The -political campaign of 1856, when Frmont was candidate -for the presidency, was conducted with such enthusiasm -by Wisconsin Republicans, as to make serious inroads on -the Democratic German vote. A number of prominent -German leaders took the stump for Frmont, speaking in -the German language to German audiences with telling -effect. Thereafter, in successive state campaigns and in -the presidential canvass of 1860, the Germans of Wisconsin -were electrified by the compelling oratory of their greatest -campaigner, Carl Schurz, to whom the success of the -Lincoln ticket, both in Wisconsin and other western states -harboring many Germans, was largely due. Such participation -was doing much to justify the prophecy of Dr. -Huebschmann—that political equality would help to make -the people of Wisconsin “one people.”</p> - - - -<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_b002.jpg" alt="WM. STEPHEN HAMILTON, FOUNDER OF MUSCODA" /></div> - -<p class="center"><small><i>Photo by Edward C. Nelson</i></small></p> - -<p class="caption">WM. STEPHEN HAMILTON, FOUNDER OF MUSCODA</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak">MUSCODA, 1763-1856</h2> - -<p class="ph1"><span class="smcap">Joseph Schafer</span></p></div> - - -<p>The light which local inquiry can shed upon general -history is well illustrated from a variety of viewpoints in the -story of the Wisconsin village which is the subject of this -sketch.</p> - -<p>Muscoda as a present-day railway station is inconspicuously -located on the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul -line, Prairie du Chien division, at the distance of fifty-six -miles almost due west from Madison, one hundred and -fifty-two from Milwaukee; it is forty-two miles east from -Prairie du Chien. The village was begun at the river bank -on the south side of Wisconsin River, in section 1, township -8 north, range 1 west of the fourth principal meridian. It -stretches south from the river toward the flanking hills -about three-fourths of a mile, the main portion now clustering -about the depot, whereas the “Old Town” lay farther -north and hugged the river bank.</p> - -<p>The ground on which Muscoda stands is a portion of the -sandy plain, the outwash of the erosion process by which the -Wisconsin and its larger tributaries worked their way -through the sandstone stratum. The upper courses of these -tributaries and the smaller streams which feed them have -laid down flood bottoms of rich alluvium. Often, too, the -bench land of their valleys is a fertile limestone soil intermingled -with clayey patches and occasional streaks of sand. -These are all characteristics of the “Driftless Area,” as the -geologists have named this region, because the various -primordial movements of glacial ice, so influential in modifying -the topography elsewhere, passed around instead of -over it, leaving no “drift” upon it. The terrain is just what -the eroding waters in the course of countless ages made it—a -system of regular valleys perfectly drained and bounded -by symmetrically sculptured hills or bluffs, which exhibit -a level sky line and decrease in altitude steadily till at the -heads of the streams they merge in the great plateau or -“prairie” of southern Wisconsin. The valleys make natural -and not ill-graded highways from the prairie to the Wisconsin -River, while the ranges of bluffs separating them appear -like promontories running out fingerwise from the main -plateau and terminating either where two smaller streams -converge or at the edge of the lower plain laid down by the -Wisconsin.</p> - -<p>The principal stream entering the Wisconsin from the -south, in the neighborhood of Muscoda, is Blue River—the -“Riviere Bleu” of the French traders. It has several head -streams rising in township 6-1 E, and a large affluent named -the Fennimore rising in 6-1 W, the Six Mile Creek, rising in -7-1 E and Sandy Branch which heads in 8-1 E. There -are also several small branches entering the Fennimore from -7-2 W. In its lower course the Blue River swerves to the -west, entering the Wisconsin near Blue River Station, in -Township 8-2 W, but its rich upper valleys and those of its -tributaries have always been mainly within the trade area of -Muscoda. North of the Wisconsin the valleys most intimately -associated with Muscoda are Indian Creek, Eagle -Creek, and Knapp’s Creek in Richland County. The -“Sand Prairie,” by which name the sandy plain along the -Wisconsin on the south side has long been known, and a -narrow tract of shelving land between the river and the hills -on the north are also within the Muscoda area.</p> - -<p>Since the bluffs are mostly rough land, with only limited -areas on their summits where the soil is deep, free from -stones, and sufficiently even for cultivation, and the sand -prairie comparatively infertile, Muscoda as a trade center -suffers from the low average productivity of her territory. -Still, from pioneer days the long valleys beyond the sand -prairie have yielded abundant harvests; the roads through -them from the high prairie to the south opened to Muscoda’s -merchants for some years a great trade in livestock and grain -beyond her legitimate boundaries; while the cross ranges -which run out from the high prairie northward approximately -fifteen miles forced the only rival railway,<a name="FNanchor_75_75" id="FNanchor_75_75"></a><a href="#Footnote_75_75" class="fnanchor">[75]</a> when it came, -back upon the great ridge, leaving the north trending valleys -still as a whole tributary to Muscoda.</p> - - -<h3>THE BACKGROUND</h3> - -<p>According to Father Verwyst, a distinguished authority, -the name Muscoda is a corruption of the Chippewa word -“Mashkodeng” which means “prairie.” A similar corruption -occurs in the name “Muscatine,” a town in Iowa, and -there was a tribe of Indians on the Upper Fox River called -Mascouten (prairie Indians).</p> - -<p>The earlier name of the place was English Prairie, and -while it is clear that geography suggested “Prairie” (or -Savannah), there are various traditions to explain the association -of the word “English” with it. One is that some -English families were settled there as early as 1812 and that -they were massacred by the Indians. Another, that the place -was so named from the fact that Colonel McKay, who -descended the river in 1814 with a regiment of British -troops to capture Prairie du Chien, encamped at this place -which thereafter was called English Prairie.</p> - -<p>A more hopeful clue to the origin of the name occurs in -the journal of Willard Keyes, a young New Englander who -passed down the river with a party in 1817. He writes, -under date of August 29, 1817: “pass a place called ‘English -meadow’ from an English trader and his son, said to have -been murdered there by the savages, 20 Leagues to Prairie -du Chien.”<a name="FNanchor_76_76" id="FNanchor_76_76"></a><a href="#Footnote_76_76" class="fnanchor">[76]</a> Now, the fact of “an English trader and his -son” being murdered at some point on the Wisconsin River -between the Portage and Prairie du Chien is well established. -In the journal of Lieut. James Gorrell, the first English -commandant at Green Bay after the ejection of the French, -we read, under date of June 14, 1763: “The traders came -down from the Sack [Sauk] country, and confirmed the -news of Landsing and his son being killed by the French.” -When all the Sauk and Foxes had arrived at Green Bay a -few days later they told Gorrell that their people were all in -tears “for the loss of two English traders who were killed -by the French in their lands, and begged leave ... to -cut them [the French] in pieces.”<a name="FNanchor_77_77" id="FNanchor_77_77"></a><a href="#Footnote_77_77" class="fnanchor">[77]</a></p> - -<p>In the following summer, 1764, Garrit Roseboom testified, -that “about the latter end of April, 1763, he was going -from the Bay [Green Bay] to the Soaks [Sauk] to look for -his Partner Abrah[a]m Lancing who had been up there, -being told that he was killed, that on his way he met some -Indians coming down with some Packs [of furs], which he -knew to be his, and which they said he could have for paying -the carriage. That both the French and Indians told him, -Mr. Lancing and his son were killed by two Frenchmen” -who were servants of Mr. Lansing and who afterwards -escaped to the Illinois Indians.<a name="FNanchor_78_78" id="FNanchor_78_78"></a><a href="#Footnote_78_78" class="fnanchor">[78]</a></p> - -<p>When we reflect how persistent is the memory of great -tragedies and recall that some of the French traders and -voyageurs who were on the river when the murder took -place remained there for many years and handed down the -traditions of the river to their successors, it is not hard to -believe that it was the story of Abraham Lansing and his -son, slightly altered, which Willard Keyes heard from the -rivermen as his boat drifted along the “English meadow” in -1817. The French traders in whose company he was would -not be likely to ascribe the murder to their own people so -long as there were “savages” who might just as well serve -as scapegoats. We may consider it almost certain, then, -that the place came to be called English Prairie from the -gruesome crime of 1763, which had occurred almost three-quarters -of a century before the postoffice of that name was -established, and more than half a century prior to the voyage -of Willard Keyes. Jonathan Carver, who visited a village -of the Fox Indians at that place in 1766, does not use the -name; but neither does he mention the story of the murder -which occurred only three years before.</p> - -<p>No definite information about the fur trade at English -Prairie, aside from the record in Lansing’s case, has come -down to us. Tradition has it that Laurent Rolette, brother -of the famous Prairie du Chien trader, Joseph Rolette, -traded there for some years, going later to the Portage. It -appears also that some time before the arrival of white settlers -a trader named Armstrong operated in that neighborhood. -But no details have been preserved and we can only -infer from the fact that Indians were still numerous when -settlers came that the trade at English Prairie in earlier -times was probably important.</p> - -<p>It was the Black Hawk War and the treaties following it -that produced the revolutionary change in the life of the -natives in this region. From that time forward Indians -could live south of the river only on sufferance, though they -were permitted to roam the forests to the northward for -about a quarter of a century longer. During the Black -Hawk War a detachment of Colonel Henry Dodge’s -Mounted Volunteers went to English Prairie, another detachment -going at the same time to Prairie du Chien. -Between them these two bodies of troops scoured both sides -of the Wisconsin from the mouth to the Portage, dislodging -all natives. English Prairie was also the camping ground for -a military company composed of friendly Indians recruited -at Green Bay and led to Prairie du Chien by Samuel C. -Stambaugh in July, 1832. The route of march was from -Green Bay to the Portage, thence to Sugar Creek (near -Blue Mounds), thence to Fort Dodge (Dodgeville), thence -to English Prairie, thence to Prairie du Chien “with one -other camping between.”</p> - - -<h3>RELATION TO THE LEAD MINES</h3> - -<p>History repeats itself in making the Indian War of -1832 the impulse to a great new expansion movement -among American pioneers. Just as the Pequod War of -1638 by familiarizing the coast settlers of Massachusetts -with the rich lands of the interior enticed them westward, -and as the Seven Years’ War destroyed the last obstacle -to western and northern expansion in New England, so in a -very real sense this war made the beginnings of the agricultural -settlement in Wisconsin. Immediately after the Black -Hawk War the survey of the lands in southern Wisconsin -began. In the four years, 1832 to 1836, the entire region -from the Illinois line north to the Wisconsin, the Fox, and -Green Bay, and from the Mississippi to Lake Michigan, -was checked off into townships and sections. Hardy, resourceful -government surveyors, with their crews (usually -two chainmen and one axman) traversed every square mile, -whether prairie, forest, valley, or bluff. In 1834 a land -office was opened at Mineral Point for the sale of lands in -the western portion of Michigan Territory (as it was then).</p> - -<p>The ranges of townships numbered 1 W and 1 E, of -which the townships numbered eight (Muscoda and -Pulaski) bounded by the Wisconsin, were for some years the -northernmost, were surveyed by Sylvester Sibley in 1833. -The next year those lands were offered for sale and some -tracts along the river were actually sold to private individuals. -Among the purchasers were Thomas Jefferson Parrish -and Charles Bracken, who were well-known lead miners -and smelters living farther south. Others among the early -land owners of Township 8-1 W have been identified as -mining men.</p> - -<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_b009.jpg" alt="THE LEAD REGION" /></div> - -<p class="caption">THE LEAD REGION<br /> - -<small>After Owens’ Geological Chart, 1839; drawn by Mary Stuart Foster</small></p> - -<p>The lead mines, while known and worked by Indians and -a few traders for many years, received the first large body -of emigrants in 1828, when several thousand came scattering -out widely over the territory which now constitutes Grant, -Iowa, and Lafayette counties in Wisconsin, together with -adjacent parts of Iowa. These were the lead miners who -under Dodge and Hamilton fought the Black Hawk War. -It was these hardy pioneers who as troopers patrolled the -Wisconsin River and who finally delivered the coup de -grace to Black Hawk’s band far to the north on the banks of -the Mississippi.</p> - -<p>Many of the lead miners were shrewd business men -always on the lookout for good financial prospects. With -the knowledge of new regions gained during the war, either -from personal observation or from reliable report, with the -sense of a new era opening to settlement and expansion in -the region dependent for transportation facilities on the -Mississippi and Wisconsin rivers, it is not strange that some -of them should have been interested in river points lying -as far outside the mineral belt proper as did English Prairie.</p> - - -<h3>A RIVER PORT</h3> - -<p>For it is clear that it was water and not lead that the -pioneers of Muscoda sought. Surveyors and prospectors -had found no hopeful signs of mineral north of townships -6-1 W and 7-1 E. A few years later (1839) Dr. David Dale -Owen, the geologist, made his famous survey of the lead -region and excluded from it everything north of the heads -of Blue River in townships 6 and 7-1 E. When the lands -in township 8-1 W were offered for sale in November, 1834, -it was precisely the river front lots and subdivisions which -were taken first. Parrish entered fractional lots 2 and 3 -of section 1; Frederick Bronson the northeast fraction of -the southeast quarter of section 1; Isaac Bronson the south -half of the southeast fractional quarter; Garrit V. Denniston -the southeast half of the fractional southwest quarter; and -Denniston and Charles Bracken fraction No. 4 of fractional -section 1. Other water front tracts in section 2 were bought -by Denniston at this time; between 1836 and 1841 other -tracts in the same sections were bought by others. All of -these lands were obviously deemed favorable locations for a -prospective town dependent on river transportation.</p> - -<p>The way in which the village was begun, by the erection -of a smelting furnace, is rather startling, in view of the -absence of lead in the region adjacent. The motives which -induced Colonel William S. Hamilton of Wiota to build a -furnace at English Prairie can only be conjectured.</p> - -<p>Colonel Hamilton was the son of the great Alexander -Hamilton, Washington’s Secretary of the Treasury. As a -lad of seventeen in 1814 he entered West Point but resigned -in 1817 to accept a commission as deputy surveyor-general -under Col. William Rector, surveyor-general for Illinois, -Missouri, and Arkansas. From that time young Hamilton -was almost continuously in the West, though he made one -trip east, on horseback, to see his mother. He was in -Wisconsin as early as 1825 and in 1827 began his career as a -lead miner and smelter in what is now Lafayette County -at Wiota or Hamilton’s Diggings. He took part in the -Indian troubles of 1827, and also in the Black Hawk War.</p> - -<p>It is not known with certainty when Hamilton established -his furnace at English Prairie. Tradition says it was -in the year 1835. If the furnace was operating then, it is -strange that so careful an observer as Featherstonhaugh, -who dropped down the Wisconsin in August, 1835 and -stopped at English Prairie to draw a sketch of its landscape, -should have failed to note that fact.<a name="FNanchor_79_79" id="FNanchor_79_79"></a><a href="#Footnote_79_79" class="fnanchor">[79]</a> We are probably -justified in asserting that the furnace was not there at that -time. But we know it was there in 1837, for Captain -Frederick Marryat, a famous English writer who descended -the river in that year, saw “a small settlement called the -English prairie” where there was a “smelting-house and a -steam saw-mill.”<a name="FNanchor_80_80" id="FNanchor_80_80"></a><a href="#Footnote_80_80" class="fnanchor">[80]</a> I incline to think the year 1836 was the -date of its beginning. In 1835 Hamilton was a candidate for -member of the Council from the western part of Michigan -Territory. His canvass was conducted in the lead mining -region and his advertisement appeared in the Galena -papers. He was elected to and became president of the -so-called “Rump” Council which met at Green Bay January -1, 1836 and sat for two weeks. During that session -the town of Cassville, on the Mississippi, was designated -as the territorial capital, Hamilton making the principal -argument in favor of the movement. Much interest was -manifested in internal improvements designed to develop a -through line of transportation via the Wisconsin and Fox -rivers.<a name="FNanchor_81_81" id="FNanchor_81_81"></a><a href="#Footnote_81_81" class="fnanchor">[81]</a> The territory of Wisconsin was just being organized -by Congressional action and great expectations were -being awakened in consequence.</p> - -<p>The miners and smelters had theretofore sold their lead -through the commission merchants of Galena, by whom it -was sent to St. Louis. But as new mines were opened farther -and farther north, the cost of transportation to Galena—by -means of the “sucker teams”<a name="FNanchor_82_82" id="FNanchor_82_82"></a><a href="#Footnote_82_82" class="fnanchor">[82]</a>—steadily increased. Moreover, -in the year 1836-37 the price of lead declined so -alarmingly that little of it was made and the smelters had -nearly all ceased to operate. Yet, it was felt that prices -would rise again promptly in response to the demand for -lead. In the same period, due no doubt partly to the hardships -of the miners and smelters, there was widespread and -loud dissatisfaction with the treatment accorded the lead -owners by the Galena middlemen. Efforts were made to -establish some other lead shipping port as a rival to Galena, -which helps to explain the rise of both Cassville and Potosi.</p> - -<p>The inference from these facts is that Hamilton probably -thought he saw in a smelter located at the steamboat -landing at English Prairie a possibility of immediate profit, -even though margins were very narrow, and a chance to -build up a flourishing business. He could buy the cheapest -ore—that which was produced near the northern edge of -the lead region, Centerville, Wingville, and Highland. The -haul from those places would be short and all down grade -and if the mineral were taken direct from the mines there -would be no rehandling until the bars of pure lead were -ready to be dumped from the furnace floor into the hold -of the steamer. The teams employed to bring down the raw -mineral could carry freight back the fifteen or twenty miles -to the mines much more cheaply than it could be transported -from Galena or Cassville three or four times as far. -Finally, abundant supplies of wood were at hand to feed -the furnace, and French rivermen were a source from which -to recruit labor.</p> - -<p>To an enterprising, speculative, acquisitive character -like Hamilton, who had no family to tie him to a particular -spot, such arguments would appeal strongly, and there is no -inherent reason why the venture should not have succeeded. -Hamilton operated the furnace, either personally -or by proxy, at least till 1838 and possibly longer, selling it -finally to Thomas Jefferson Parrish, whose principal mining -and smelting business was located at the head of Blue -River, afterwards Montfort.</p> - -<p>The fact that Parrish owned the ground at the steamboat -landing and that in 1837 he was postmaster at English -Prairie (then called Savannah) suggests that he may have -been a partner in the business from the first and perhaps -local manager of the furnace. At all events, Hamilton -continued his business at Wiota and very soon cut loose -entirely from the English Prairie venture.<a name="FNanchor_83_83" id="FNanchor_83_83"></a><a href="#Footnote_83_83" class="fnanchor">[83]</a> That place, -under the name of Savannah or English Prairie, was a -calling place for river steamers as early as 1838 and is -scheduled as forty-one miles from the mouth of the Wisconsin.<a name="FNanchor_84_84" id="FNanchor_84_84"></a><a href="#Footnote_84_84" class="fnanchor">[84]</a> -It was said that the only boat which regularly plied -on the river in that year was the <i>Science</i>, piloted by Captain -Clark, who made his first voyage in June, 1838.<a name="FNanchor_85_85" id="FNanchor_85_85"></a><a href="#Footnote_85_85" class="fnanchor">[85]</a> But there -were doubtless visits from steamers running to Fort Winnebago -(Portage) during that and earlier years.</p> - -<p>In one of the Milwaukee papers for 1841 is a statement -that “four sucker teams” had brought in lead from Thomas -Parrish’s furnace “near Muscoday in Grant County.” This -reference has been taken as proof that the Muscoda furnace -was still in operation. I think it refers not to the Muscoda -furnace but to one of several furnaces Parrish was conducting -in the lead region near the heads of Blue River. The -phrase “near Muscoday” used as far from the lead region -as Milwaukee may very well mean some place fifteen or -twenty miles from the Wisconsin; and the word “near” -instead of “at” certainly excludes Muscoda itself. Setting -this evidence aside, there is no proof that the Muscoda furnace -was operated as late as 1841. Nor, on the other hand, -is there proof of its earlier discontinuance. We simply do -not know how long it was kept alive or how large a business -it developed at the “Landing.”</p> - - -<h3>SIGNS OF HARD TIMES</h3> - -<p>Two things suggest that the little village failed to develop -a “boom” or even to gain a basis for healthy growth. These -are the land entries in the territory adjacent and the story -of the post office. Practically, there were no new entries of -land between the years 1841 and 1849. This is true for all -the townships in the tributary region—7, 8, and 9, range -1 W, and 7, 8, and 9, range 1 E. The post office under the -name of Savannah appears in the government list for the -first time in the report for 1837. At that time Thomas J. -Parrish was postmaster. In 1839 S. A. Holley was postmaster, -the office then being listed as English Prairie. The -postmaster’s compensation was $5.68. Charles Stephenson’s -compensation in 1841 was even smaller, $3.36, the net -proceeds of the office amounting to only $7.55. In 1843, -for the first time, the post office was called Muscoda. The -postmaster was Levi J. D. Parrish, who received as compensation -$9.29, the net proceeds of the office having risen -to $16.51.</p> - -<p>It is probable that most of the seeming prosperity of -1843 was due to the presence of the land office, which had -been removed from Mineral Point to Muscoda in 1842. -Some have charged that the change was brought about -through James D. Doty’s influence in order to save the -town. If so, the scheme failed, for the land office promptly -went back to Mineral Point in 1843, and May 16, 1845, the -post office department discontinued the office at Muscoda. -Muscoda was not listed in the post office report for 1847 or -in the report for 1849. In 1851 it reappears, with James -Moore as postmaster. Now the compensation is $39.74 and -the net proceeds $53.09. The exact date of its restoration -is not given but it must have been as early as 1850, and -possibly 1849 or even 1847.<a name="FNanchor_86_86" id="FNanchor_86_86"></a><a href="#Footnote_86_86" class="fnanchor">[86]</a></p> - - -<h3>BEGINNINGS OF SETTLEMENT</h3> - -<p>The reopening of the Muscoda post office, about 1850, -synchronizes with the first movement of pioneer farmers -into the good lands tributary to that place. A number of -tracts of land were purchased by actual settlers in this and -adjoining townships in the years 1849 to 1851. Indeed, -Conrad Kircher’s purchase dates from 1847. Charles Miller -and Emanuel Dunston bought land in 1849; Isaac Dale and -Moses Manlove in 1851. We know also that the Moore -family owned land at Muscoda as early as 1851. Across -the river, in township 9-1 W, Robert Galloway, William -Pickering, William and Andrew Miller, and two or three -others bought in 1849; several in 1850; and a few others before -1854, when the great rush came.</p> - -<p>A similar story can be told for township 9-1 E (now -Orion) where J. H. Schuermann and Daniel Mainwaring -(settlers) bought lands in 1849; Albert C. Dooley in 1850; -and Jacob Roggy in 1851. One of the purchasers of 1848, -John H. Siegrist, was probably the earliest actual settler in -the township. A half dozen families bought in township -8-1 E as early as 1849; and a few others were added before -1854. A very few settlers were to be found in township -7-1 W prior to 1854, and while there were a good many -settlers and miners in township 7-1 E, the greater part of -that township was served from Highland where a post -office was established as early at least as 1847 and where -there was much lead mining activity, and from Blue River -which had a post office from 1839. These mining centers -doubtless drew their supplies from the steamers unloading at -Muscoda, for the road to the river at that point had been -open for many years, but settlement was more numerous -and local activity much more intense, as revealed by the -post office returns. The Highland post office led the Muscoda -post office in importance for just about ten years—from -1847 to 1856. With the coming of the railroad, Muscoda -drew ahead.</p> - - -<h3>THE RAILROAD</h3> - -<p>If one had no other evidence than the sales of land at the -United States Land Office, it would still be clear that in the -years 1854 to 1856 something important was astir affecting -the value of lands in those townships (7, 8, and 9-1 -W, and 7, 8, and 9-1 E) which pivot on Muscoda -as the trading point. For, while up to 1854 only scattering -tracts of land had been entered, and those largely by speculators -using military land warrants in making payment to the -government, by 1856 nearly every forty-acre subdivision of -first-rate land and much of the second-rate land also was -under private ownership. And the state lands in the townships -had also been purchased to the same extent. Besides, -the vast majority of the purchasers of government land -during those years were actual settlers, with only an occasional -speculator.<a name="FNanchor_87_87" id="FNanchor_87_87"></a><a href="#Footnote_87_87" class="fnanchor">[87]</a></p> - -<p>These facts challenge attention and call for an explanation. -Wisconsin had been in course of settlement for about -two decades. The earliest settlements were in the southeastern -and eastern parts of the state where the economic -support was the market reached by the Great Lakes and -the Erie Canal; and in the southwestern section where the -basis of prosperity had been lead-mining. The lead found -its market mainly down the Mississippi, though increasingly -the superiority of the route open to the lake ports had -impressed itself upon the people.</p> - -<p>At the legislative session of 1841-42 a bill was introduced -for the chartering of a railroad from Milwaukee, via -Madison, to Potosi. Despite continuous effort, the first -railroad bill to pass, in 1847, provided only for a railroad -from Milwaukee to Waukesha. In 1848 this was by law -extended to the Mississippi.</p> - -<p>The agitation of plans for a railroad from Lake Michigan -to the Mississippi tended to give the lake route an overshadowing -importance in the popular mind. Actual construction -work on the Milwaukee-Waukesha section began -in 1849; that portion of the road was completed by the end -of the year 1850, and in another year it was practically -completed to Whitewater on Rock River. It reached Madison -in the year 1854.</p> - -<p>The intention of the company had been to build to the -Wisconsin River so as to intercept steamboat transportation -at or near Arena. Thence the road might run along the -river to its mouth, or it might run along the ridge between -the Wisconsin and the south flowing streams, reaching the -Mississippi at some point, like Potosi, lower down. By -the year 1853 it had been determined to follow the Wisconsin -Valley route to the Mississippi, and during that summer -the line was surveyed from the mouth of Black Earth Creek -to Prairie du Chien.</p> - -<p>It can easily be imagined how the clangor of railway -construction echoed in the minds and hearts of intending -settlers. That they should have watched, with greedy eye, -the reports of progress of the location of the road and -hurried away to the land office as soon as it was definitely -located, to buy the good lands adjacent to the right-of-way, -is a perfectly normal phenomenon. The township plats -showing original purchasers of the government land tell the -story. In section 1, township 7-1 W, four forty-acre tracts -were bought in 1854; eleven in 1855; and one in 1856. In -section 2, one in 1854; twelve in 1855; and two in 1857. A -single forty had been bought as early as 1847. The other -sections of that township show very similar dates and proportions -in the entries; the same is true of the other townships -of the group. The 1854 entrymen were those who -pursued the railway surveyors with keenest determination. -The slower ones came mainly in the two years following, -during which trains actually were put on the roadbed. In -October, 1856, the village of Muscoda, which had maintained -a precarious existence for twenty years, awoke to -newness of life at the sound of the puffing locomotive. And -the beginning of permanent prosperity for the village meant -the beginning of prosperity for the rural neighborhood -tributary to it.</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak">POPULAR CENSORSHIP OF HISTORY TEXTS</h2> - -<p class="ph1"><span class="smcap">Joseph Schafer</span></p></div> - - -<p>Wisconsin has now a unique law on the subject of -school history texts. That law provides, section 1:</p> - -<blockquote> - -<p>No history or other textbook shall be adopted for use or be in any -district school, city school, vocational school or high school which -falsifies the facts regarding the War of Independence or the War of 1812 -or which defames our nation’s founders or misrepresents the ideals and -cause for which they struggled and sacrificed, or which contains propaganda -favorable to any foreign government.</p></blockquote> - -<p>The method provided in other sections of the law for -banishing textbooks which have been adopted but which -are repugnant to the above provision is as follows: Upon -complaint of any five citizens, filed with the state superintendent -of public instruction, a hearing shall be arranged, -to be held before the state superintendent or his deputy, -in the county from which the complaint came. Previous -notice must have been given through the press to the -public and by mail to the complainants and to the publishers -of the textbook complained of. A decision must -be rendered within ten days. If the book shall be found -obnoxious to the provisions of the law, that fact shall be -noted by the state superintendent in the list of books for -schools which he publishes annually. Thereafter the -book so listed may be used only during the remainder of -the year in which the state superintendent publishes it as -proscribed. The penalty for retaining it beyond the time -limit, shall be the loss to the school or district concerned -of the state aid normally falling to its share.</p> - -<p>The passage of this bill in the senate with only one vote -against it, created a good deal of surprise, which changed -to admiration for the oratorical powers of its author and -sponsor, Senator John Cashman of Manitowoc County, -when it was learned that his impassioned appeal to patriotism -figuratively swept senators “off their feet.”</p> - -<p>History students can have no quarrel with the motive -assigned by Senator Cashman for the passage of this law. -He says: “The history of a nation is its proudest asset. -It includes the record of its great men, their ideals, sacrifices, -and achievements. To preserve that history in all its -original purity and teach it to the rising generations is a -nation’s first duty.” With every word in that stirring -exordium the historically minded man or woman will -cordially agree. Thoughtful persons, whether historians -or not, will also sympathize with Senator Cashman when -he undertakes to rebuke anything approaching levity in -characterizing the fathers of the Republic or captiousness -in criticizing their policies, motives, and achievements. -Unfortunately, there always have been among writers -some who display a certain air of “smartness” or superciliousness -which hardly comports with the inherent dignity -of the historian’s office, or with the aim of doing equal and -exact justice to all persons and to all causes discussed. -Yet it will probably be no light task to convince an impartial -umpire that writers of textbooks which have been adopted -for use in the schools, after careful scrutiny by boards of -education and other school officers responsible to the -people, have been guilty of “treason to the nation,” as -Senator Cashman seems to think has often been the case.<a name="FNanchor_88_88" id="FNanchor_88_88"></a><a href="#Footnote_88_88" class="fnanchor">[88]</a> -The framers of the constitution, with wise prevision, -limited the application of the word “treason” in such a -way as to exclude that indefinite class of crimes known -elsewhere under the name of <i>constructive treason</i>, which -in England and other countries had provided a favorable -soil for plotters of revenge against individuals and in times -of high tension always yielded a sinister harvest of oppression -and suffering. So they defined treason against the -United States narrowly as consisting only in “levying -war against them or in adhering to their enemies, giving -them aid and comfort,” and they also provided that conviction -under a charge of treason could be secured only -on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act -or confession in open court.</p> - -<p>This view of the fathers as relates to treason was of -course lost sight of during the Civil War, when in the -North it used to be fashionable for men to pillory as “fool” -or “traitor” (with an emphatic expletive) anyone who had -the temerity to vote the Democratic ticket; it was lost -sight of in the recent war when men were called traitors -because they refused to buy liberty bonds or because they -declared the draft a violation of the rights of the individual; -and it is likewise lost sight of when we condemn under -the term treason opinions on history which we may regard -as too favorable to our nation’s one-time enemies, or too -contemptuous of the characters or the acts of our own -distinguished men of a past age. It would be strange if -the impulses engendered by the war and the peace were -not reflected more or less in editions of books prepared -since 1917. It is probably true that some authors have -overstressed the “hands across the sea” sentiment, while -others perhaps lean unduly in an opposite direction. But -that any of them have been guilty of treasonable acts or -even intentions is what no one who knows the historical -profession can believe without the most explicit proof.</p> - -<p>But this question of treason aside, the problem still -remains to determine what is the history of our country -“in all its original purity.” What shall be the test of purity -inasmuch as, happily, there is no established list of authorized -books or records from which writers must derive their -facts? Are they not compelled either to investigate each -point for themselves or to accept as probably correct the -results of other men’s investigations? To be sure, every -important event creates its own legend or tradition, and -such legends tend to be preserved and to be handed down -from generation to generation. But legends are not history. -No one worthy to rank as a careful historian would presume -to write the history of the Great War on the basis of legends -now crystallizing about it. No more can one write the history -of the Revolution on such a legendary basis. This view, -that much which once was thought to be history but was in -fact mere legend, is not in any sense new. James Russell -Lowell, who ranks among the very distinguished Americans -of the last generation, wrote, in 1864, that the early reports -of the battle of Lexington claimed for the Yankee minutemen -a non-resistant attitude.</p> - -<blockquote> - -<p>The Anglo Saxon could not fight without the law on his side. But -later, when the battle became a matter of local pride, the muskets that -had been fired at the Red coats under Pitcairn almost rivalled in number -the pieces of furniture that came over in the Mayflower. Indeed, whoever -has talked much with Revolutionary pensioners knows that those -honored veterans were no less remarkable for imagination than for -patriotism. It should seem that there is nothing on which so little -reliance can be placed as facts, especially when related by one who saw -them. It is no slight help to our charity to recollect that, in disputable -matters, every man sees according to his prejudices, and is stone blind -to whatever he did not expect or did not mean to see. Even where no -personal bias can be suspected, contemporary and popular evidence -is to be taken with great caution, so exceedingly careless are men as -to exact truth, and such poor observers, for the most part of what goes -on under their eyes.<a name="FNanchor_89_89" id="FNanchor_89_89"></a><a href="#Footnote_89_89" class="fnanchor">[89]</a></p></blockquote> - -<p>It is hardly necessary at this late day to insist that no -writer is justified in building his narrative of events on -unverified tradition. He must try to penetrate to the -truth that lies behind the legend (which in some cases -will differ very widely from the legend itself). It is no easy -task at best to perform a successful piece of historical -research, and the questions on which final agreements -have been reached are not numerous. Accordingly, if -the law should be so construed as to enforce banishment -from the schools of any book which can be proved incorrect -in some of its alleged facts without regard to their importance, -no textbooks will be left in the schools, for none are -impeccable. True, the Cashman law would condemn only -for falsifying the history of the Revolutionary War and -the War of 1812, leaving four other foreign wars in which -our country has engaged, and the great Civil War, to be -treated without other restraint than that contained in the -last clause of section 1, denouncing propaganda in favor -of any foreign government. But under that sole provision -it might still prove embarrassing for a writer to tell the -truth about the Mexican War and possibly the others also, -for the term propaganda—as the whole world has learned -lately—is a most elastic one. Presumably, the propaganda -test applies as well to other phases of history as to the -military phases, wherefore an author of a textbook is apt, -under a strict construction of this law, to be hauled into court -on the charge of propaganda if he should consider it his -duty to say a single thing in commendation of any other -nation. For, will there not always be found, in any school -district, five citizens whose views collide with those of the -author; and if so, what is to prevent a case being called? -Surely a word in favor of France would be resented by -some; a word in favor of Great Britain would be resented -by others; a word in favor of Germany would offend still -others; and so on through the list. In the present mournful -state of general unrest and want of confidence among -nations, an author would tread unsafely on any ground outside -the “three-mile limit.”</p> - -<p>It does not follow from the fact that under the law it is -easy to bring cases, that convictions would be equally easy. -Presumably the state superintendent has had knowledge -of all books now in use in the schools and, in effect if not -in form, has approved them. This he would not have done -had he considered any of them purveyors of treason or -excessively faulty in statement. Moreover, as judge in -cases that may arise under this law, the superintendent -will be bound to take judicial notice of some things. For -example, it is common knowledge that no history text -is perfect either on its factual side, in its literary qualities, -or in the author’s perspective of events; that few writers -display at all times perfect taste, and none perfect judgment, -in their criticisms of men and their comments on -historical actions and movements; that a given textbook -may be valuable, despite minor defects in all of the above -points, by reason of its superior arrangement, its psychological -adaptation to children’s needs, and the success -with which it communicates to them the main features -and the spirit of American history. He will also be obliged -to rule that the truth is not malicious propaganda and he -is bound to maintain an author’s right to liberty of research.</p> - -<p>It goes without saying that if a book is palpably and -grossly inaccurate; if it gives the child a wholly erroneous -view of history; if it is crassly censorious of America’s -great men; if it is written in a spirit tending to destroy -American ideals; if it tends to make boys and girls ashamed -of American character and achievements, not in exceptional -instances here and there, but generally; then there would -hardly be a question about the duty of getting rid of it -with all convenient promptness. But would it not be -strange if, with the superintendent and other educational -experts on guard, such a book had got itself adopted? -On general principles one would expect that only in the -rarest cases would this law come into operation; for it -ought not to be easy for a thoroughly unworthy book to -elude the critical eyes of publishers, editors, school superintendents, -teachers, and school boards, to be finally -detected and exposed by some school patron or other -private citizen. No doubt such cases are possible, but -one could hardly conceive them to be of common occurrence. -Misgivings are aroused, therefore, by the report that at the -legislative hearing Senator Cashman denounced, by name, -five well known and widely used textbooks.</p> - -<p>If the Senator’s historical views, as published in the -<i>Senate Journal</i> under date of March 1, 1923, are intended -to be made the platform in a campaign to purify the history -teaching of our schools, the upshot may prove widely -different from what is now anticipated; for among those -views, the derivation of which is not indicated, are some -which it would be difficult to find expressed in any existing -textbook. For example, Senator Cashman holds that -our country is indebted to Holland “for town and county -representation in a legislature.” Americans have long -been taught that, in the picturesque phrase of John Fiske, -“self-government <i>broke out</i> in Virginia” in 1619 by reason -of the fact that these people were English. We are aware -of no investigations which have brought forth evidence -compelling the abandonment of that view, though some -very extravagant claims have been made for the Dutch -influence upon both colonial politics and colonial education. -He also holds that “our free public school system came -from Prussia.” If by this were meant merely that Prussian -influence has been felt in the creation of a system of state -supervision of education, and in the strengthening of a -school system already in existence, we would gladly concur. -But the statement is too sweeping to admit of such an interpretation. -Wisconsin Germans ought to be very glad to -assign to New England colonies and states the chief influence -in giving us the public school system because, in the present -state of research, that appears to be where the credit belongs. -To all that the Senator says about the selection of immigrants -for America, the development in the colonies themselves -of a new and vivid love of liberty which found -expression in the Declaration of Independence, the stupid -tyranny of George III, and the heroic sufferings and -achievements of patriots in the Revolution, we utter a -hearty Amen; realizing, of course, that his statement -is necessarily a crowded summary, cast in oratorical mould, -and not designed as a complete exposition of his views. -But, in thus concurring we do not yield up our sympathy -with the aphorism of Edmund Burke, that in their reaction -to tyranny the colonists “are descendants of Englishmen.”</p> - -<p>The same reservations might be made with reference -to Senator Cashman’s statement on the constitution. And -yet a fair interpretation of what he says on that subject -compels us to class him with those extreme worshipers of -that document who, like the authors of the New York -teachers’ test oath, would maintain the constitution, -unchanged, at any cost. Speaking of the fathers and -their work, he says: “Then they wrote and the states -adopted the supreme law of the land, the American constitution, -the most sublime public document that ever came -forth from the mind and soul of man, establishing a system -of government based upon the consent of the governed, -with religious liberty protected, inherent rights guaranteed, -<i>to be written in indestructible letters into the pages of the -nation’s laws</i>.” [Editor’s italics.] It is a well known -view of the present progressives, as it was of the framers -themselves, that, great as was the original constitution, -it was still far from being perfect. Also, most progressives -now accept in principle the conclusions of Charles A. -Beard, the historian whose recent investigations on this -point are now well known, that the constitution represents -a partial reaction from the democracy of the Revolution, -and was designed in part to set limitations upon the popular -will. While venerating the constitution, progressives in -the main believe that such restrictions as the legislative -election of senators, the appointment and life tenure of -judges (some would include the mode of electing the -president), were intentionally anti-democratic, and that -these and other defects which time has revealed ought to -be subject to modification whenever the people desire the -changes. The mode of amendment having been designed -to make changes difficult, or impossible (though in recent -years several changes have been adopted), leading progressives -have long held that that fundamental article -ought to be amended first in order to facilitate other -changes. This was Justice John B. Winslow’s opinion, -put forth in 1912; it was the burden of an important plank -in the La Follette national platform the same year; that -doctrine was preached, at least in spirit, by the late President -Roosevelt. In short, it is a progressive principle that the -constitution must cease to be a fetish—a dead hand upon -the present and the future—and must be adjusted, from -time to time, to existing social, economic, and political -conditions. The document represents, for the time, a -mighty triumph of constructive statesmanship, so progressive -leaders believe, and it should not be changed “for -light or transient causes,” much less revolutionized, but -“it was designed for a rural or semi-rural state.” The -men who made it “however able could not anticipate or -solve the new problems of life and government which have -come upon us in the last half century.”<a name="FNanchor_90_90" id="FNanchor_90_90"></a><a href="#Footnote_90_90" class="fnanchor">[90]</a></p> - -<p>To follow Senator Cashman’s outline of American -history into the recent period to the all-engrossing event -of the World War and America’s participation therein -would be fruitless. Not one of us can conscientiously -claim to be an impartial investigator with respect to things -which have wrenched our souls. We cannot abdicate our -own personalities. In treating the war, all that any historian -at present could hope to do would be to state his -views with becoming restraint and concede that those -views may ultimately prove to be quite wrong. A censorship -law of fifty years hence (if our people shall then still adhere -to the censorship idea) would be sure to condemn the -teaching of what some of us now piously believe with reference -to this feature of history; just as a censorship law of -today, if it included in its scope the Civil War, would condemn -the teaching of some things which nearly one-half -the voters of Wisconsin sincerely believed in 1864. “Time -is the great sifter and winnower of truth,” and we must -consent to leave these matters to the investigators of our -grandchildren’s generation. Yet the gravest danger to be -feared from the law we are now discussing lies in the psychological -probability that every second man’s opinion of a -given history will be based not on what the author says -about the Revolution, or the Constitution, or the War of -1812, but on what he says about the recent war and the -League of Nations. In other words, the reader who is -prejudiced against an author on account of his last chapter, -which is almost sure to be unsatisfactory to many, will -find the first, the middle, and all other chapters reeking -with faults, and this even while personally he may be -unconscious of having imbibed a prejudice at all.</p> - -<p>There is a possibility that, as an engine for expelling -books now used, the law will become a dead letter, first, -because it may prove unexpectedly difficult for a dissatisfied -citizen to persuade four others to act with him in making -complaint, which however is not probable; second, because -of the clamor of those in the district who are not keen for -or against the book, but who realize that if it is thrown out -all old copies will be worthless and they will have to pay -for new books at the opening of the next school year; third, -because the first cases brought may go against the complainants -and discourage others from multiplying complaints. -But, the popular psychology being what it is, -there is an equal chance that the law may foster a widespread -disposition to attack history books, geography books, -civics books, and even readers; that it may keep educational -matters in a state of turmoil, engendering much social -bitterness due to the clashing of parties and interests -over questions raised in the school-book fights. In such -controversies teachers would be the first to suffer, because -their opinions would be called for at once, which would -place them between two fires; and no surer way could be -found to degrade the social influence of our schools than -by keeping the teachers in a state of perpetual anxiety.</p> - -<p>We have reason to think that Senator Cashman, an -acknowledged friend and promoter of education, would -deeply deplore such a result. If he had anticipated anything -of the kind, doubtless he would have refrained from offering -his bill. But laws, like children, when they get out of hand, -have a way of surprising their progenitors. However, -we have the law and must use it to the best ends.</p> - -<p>If every one in position of leadership or authority in -relation to it—and among those are members of this Society—shall -feel a responsibility for guiding discussion into -proper channels; if debate on school-book questions shall -be kept not merely free but also parliamentary in form and -spirit; if we all insist that differences of view must be -treated tolerantly; if we can secure from the public toward -the arguments and facts in these cases a measure of that -openness of mind which characterizes the American juror -sworn to try a case fairly on the evidence, it may be possible -to mitigate or prevent the evils apprehended.</p> - -<p>And if, without discouraging research, the law shall -merely enforce through future adoptions the idea that good -taste is as obligatory upon the textbook maker as good -manners are upon the private individual, one point will -have been gained. We trust this may not be won at the -expense of a disposition to whittle down the truth to fit a -supposed demand, or that it will result in substituting -books written by dishonest or spineless persons for those -written by men and women of real character and scholarship.</p> - -<p>In the midst of the late war the school supervisors of -a western state discovered what they believed to be propaganda -favorable to one of America’s enemies, and demanded -the expulsion of the book from the schools. The superintendent, -being a wise and thoughtful man, prepared and -printed a page of corrective criticism, which all teachers -were asked to paste in the accused book and to teach to the -children with the regular text. By that simple device he -saved the people of the state many thousands of dollars -which would have been paid for an inferior text, if the -book had been expelled. If the law shall permit such a -handling of the borderline cases, does it not seem that in a -time when we are at peace with all nations, we could act -with equal calmness, equal justice to authors or publishers, -and equal regard for the interests of the people who have to -buy school books?</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak">FOOTNOTES:</h2></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> 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.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Of whom England, Ireland, Scotland, and Canada combined furnished 1920, -Germany 460, and Norway 340.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> <i>Wisconsin Domesday Book, General Studies</i>, I. <i>History of Agriculture in Wisconsin</i>, -chap. 2.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> William Dames, <i>Wie Sieht Es in Wiskonsin Aus</i> (Meurs, 1849).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> For example, see William Dames, <i>Wie Sieht Es in Wiskonsin Aus</i>.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> See J. F. Diederichs, <i>Diary</i>. Translated by Emil Baensch. Account of a trip from -Milwaukee to Manitowoc.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> 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.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> William F. Whyte, “Settlement of Lebanon,” in Wisconsin Historical Society, -<i>Proceedings</i>, 1915, 105.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> MS. translation by Emil Baensch.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Page 29 in printed German edition.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> 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, <i>Pioneer Jahre</i> (Milwaukee, 1911).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Michel Chevalier, <i>Society, Manners, and Politics in the United States</i> (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.”</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> See his <i>Common Sense</i> (Philadelphia, 1791).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> See Captain Basil Hall, <i>Travels in North America in the Years 1827 and 1828</i> (Edinburgh, -1829), i, 130.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> <i>American Agriculturist</i>, i, (1842), 115 ff.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Captain Robert Barclay, <i>Agricultural Tour in the United States</i> ... (London, -1842), 41.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> <i>American Agriculturist</i>, i, 311.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> <i>Germania</i> (translated slightly differently in University of Pennsylvania <i>Translations -and Reprints</i>), 11.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> J. H. von Thnen, <i>Der Isolierte Staat</i> (Berlin, 1875), 103 ff., “Ueber die Lage der -Hfe in Mecklenburg.”</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> 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.”</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> 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.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> See the author’s <i>History of Agriculture in Wisconsin</i> (Madison, 1922), <i>passim</i>.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> Editor’s italics.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> An example is in Abram E. Brown, <i>Legends of Old Bedford</i> (Boston, 1892).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> Timothy Dwight, <i>Travels in New England and New York</i> (New Haven, Conn., -1821), ii, 459, 462.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> Edmund Burke, <i>On Conciliation</i>.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> The Ohio Company’s grant, 1787, contained a reservation for religion as well as -grants for education. Joseph Schafer, <i>Origin of the System of Land Grants in Aid of Education</i>, -Wisconsin University <i>Bulletin</i>, History Series, Vol. 1, No. 1 (Madison, 1902).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> See Edward Eggleston, <i>The Circuit Rider</i> and <i>The Graysons</i>.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> 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.) <i>Free Press</i>, December 24, 1874.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> <i>Madison City Express</i>, March 14, March 23, and April 27, 1843. Strong and Hamilton -are not reputed to have been total abstainers.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> The vote stood, for prohibition, 27,519; against, 24,109.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> The story was printed in the <i>Columbian Centinel</i>, Boston, December, 1789.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> See <i>Diary of Sarah Connell Ayer</i> (Portland, Me., 1910), 227.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> See <i>Almon Danforth Hodges and His Neighbors</i> (Boston, 1909), 217-218.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> “At sun two hours high,” says the <i>Farmer’s Almanack</i>, 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.”</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> See <i>Hodges and His Neighbors</i>, 94.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> J. R. Lowell, <i>Biglow Papers</i>.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> The death of Goethe occurred on the twenty-second of March. The news -must have taken several days in travel.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> 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 <i>Der Alte Fritz</i>.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> Guy Stanton Ford, <i>Stein and the Era of Reform in Prussia, 1807-1815</i> -(Princeton, N. J., 1922), 185.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> Victor Cousin, <i>Report on the State of Public Instruction in Prussia</i>. Translated -by Sarah Austin. London, 1834.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> See <i>Life and Works of Horace Mann</i> (Boston, 1891), iii, 346 ff.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> Cf. Franklin’s views on the comparative thrift of English and of German -laborers, and note his tentative explanation of the difference. <i>The Complete -Works of Benjamin Franklin</i> (compiled and edited by John Bigelow, New York -and London, 1887), ii, 291 ff. Letter to Peter Collinson, dated Philadelphia, 9 May, -1753.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> By writers like Samuel Laing, in his <i>Notes of a Traveller on the Social and -Political State of France, Prussia, Switzerland, Italy, and Other Parts of Europe</i> -(London, 1854), especially 108-115.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> <i>Life and Works of Horace Mann</i> (Boston, 1891), iii, 346 ff. See also -<i>Reminiscences of Carl Schurz</i> (New York, 1907), i, 40.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> See William Howitt, <i>Rural and Domestic Life of Germany</i> (London, 1842), -<i>passim</i>. That portion of Carl Schurz’s work (see note 8 <i>ante</i>) 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 Schtzenfest, or marksmanship -contest, on pages 45-48 and pages 81-83.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> Albert Bernhard Faust, <i>The German Element in the United States</i> (Boston, -1909), ii, 472.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_48_48" id="Footnote_48_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> <i>Daily Free Democrat</i>, December 27, 1850.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_49_49" id="Footnote_49_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> <i>Nordamerika, Wisconsin, Calumet. Winke fr Auswanderer</i> (edition of 1849), 64.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_50_50" id="Footnote_50_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> Bradley and Metcalf.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_51_51" id="Footnote_51_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> It was managed by G. and J. Burnham, who had an investment of $10,000.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_52_52" id="Footnote_52_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> 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.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_53_53" id="Footnote_53_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> If our count is correct, the 1850 census lists as “clerks” fifty-one Germans. Doubtless -many of these were serving in American stores.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_54_54" id="Footnote_54_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_54_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> Or thirty-six, if we omit the teachers, some of whom at least were probably not -liberally educated.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_55_55" id="Footnote_55_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_55_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> The Lutherans included a Fr. Lachner, C. Eisenmeyer, and Ludwig Dulitz; the -Evangelical preacher was Christian Holl, and the Methodist, Christian Barth.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_56_56" id="Footnote_56_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_56_56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> 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.” -<i>Daily Free Democrat</i>, January 8, 1850.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_57_57" id="Footnote_57_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_57_57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> “The University and the Germans,” <i>Daily Wisconsin Banner</i>, August 23, 1850.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_58_58" id="Footnote_58_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor_58_58"><span class="label">[58]</span></a> 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.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_59_59" id="Footnote_59_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor_59_59"><span class="label">[59]</span></a> <i>Daily Wisconsin Banner</i>, August 1, 1850 (translation).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_60_60" id="Footnote_60_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor_60_60"><span class="label">[60]</span></a> <i>Wisconsin Banner</i>, August 29, 1846.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_61_61" id="Footnote_61_61"></a><a href="#FNanchor_61_61"><span class="label">[61]</span></a> <i>Wis. Hist. Colls.</i>, xxvii, 235.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_62_62" id="Footnote_62_62"></a><a href="#FNanchor_62_62"><span class="label">[62]</span></a> See this magazine, vi, 395-398 (June, 1923).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_63_63" id="Footnote_63_63"></a><a href="#FNanchor_63_63"><span class="label">[63]</span></a> “Events teach us,” said the <i>Banner und Volksfreund</i>, 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.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_64_64" id="Footnote_64_64"></a><a href="#FNanchor_64_64"><span class="label">[64]</span></a> 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 <i>Argus and Democrat</i> (Madison), August 29, 1855.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_65_65" id="Footnote_65_65"></a><a href="#FNanchor_65_65"><span class="label">[65]</span></a> See the <i>Milwaukee American</i>, 1855-1856, which was the party organ.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_66_66" id="Footnote_66_66"></a><a href="#FNanchor_66_66"><span class="label">[66]</span></a> Those belonging to the Turner Society are generally classified as “free thinkers.” -The <i>Turner Zeitung</i>, national organ of the Society in 1855, was Republican in its politics, -which probably influenced the result in Wisconsin.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_67_67" id="Footnote_67_67"></a><a href="#FNanchor_67_67"><span class="label">[67]</span></a> The Mayberry lynching. The lynchers were loggers from an up-river camp -belonging to the murdered man.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_68_68" id="Footnote_68_68"></a><a href="#FNanchor_68_68"><span class="label">[68]</span></a> See his letter, MS, to Lyman Draper, August 28, 1855.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_69_69" id="Footnote_69_69"></a><a href="#FNanchor_69_69"><span class="label">[69]</span></a> In the year 1855 the <i>Wisconsin Banner</i> and the <i>Volksfreund</i> were united and became -the <i>Wisconsin Banner und Volksfreund</i>.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_70_70" id="Footnote_70_70"></a><a href="#FNanchor_70_70"><span class="label">[70]</span></a> “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,’ <i>there being a reasonable doubt as to his being -alive when he was hung the last time</i>.” <i>History of Washington and Ozaukee Counties</i> (1881), -358. Editor’s italics.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_71_71" id="Footnote_71_71"></a><a href="#FNanchor_71_71"><span class="label">[71]</span></a> See a brilliant editorial by Colonel David Atwood, in the <i>Daily State Journal</i> at -Madison, for August 13, 1855.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_72_72" id="Footnote_72_72"></a><a href="#FNanchor_72_72"><span class="label">[72]</span></a> See the article in <i>Banner und Volksfreund</i>, July 28, 1855, entitled “The So-Called -Republicans:” “We encounter in the <i>Watertown Anzeiger</i> 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.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_73_73" id="Footnote_73_73"></a><a href="#FNanchor_73_73"><span class="label">[73]</span></a> “The temperance swindle,” says <i>Banner und Volksfreund</i>, 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.”</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_74_74" id="Footnote_74_74"></a><a href="#FNanchor_74_74"><span class="label">[74]</span></a> Success was to render it practically as cosmopolitan as a protracted career of -triumphs had long since rendered the Democratic party.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_75_75" id="Footnote_75_75"></a><a href="#FNanchor_75_75"><span class="label">[75]</span></a> 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.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_76_76" id="Footnote_76_76"></a><a href="#FNanchor_76_76"><span class="label">[76]</span></a> <i>Wisconsin Magazine of History</i>, III, 352.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_77_77" id="Footnote_77_77"></a><a href="#FNanchor_77_77"><span class="label">[77]</span></a> <i>Wisconsin Historical Collections</i>, I, 38, 41.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_78_78" id="Footnote_78_78"></a><a href="#FNanchor_78_78"><span class="label">[78]</span></a> <i>Wis. Hist. Colls.</i> XVIII, 263-64.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_79_79" id="Footnote_79_79"></a><a href="#FNanchor_79_79"><span class="label">[79]</span></a> 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 <i>A Canoe Voyage -on the Minnay Sotor</i>, I, 199-201.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_80_80" id="Footnote_80_80"></a><a href="#FNanchor_80_80"><span class="label">[80]</span></a> <i>Wis. Hist. Colls.</i> XIV, 147.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_81_81" id="Footnote_81_81"></a><a href="#FNanchor_81_81"><span class="label">[81]</span></a> 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.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_82_82" id="Footnote_82_82"></a><a href="#FNanchor_82_82"><span class="label">[82]</span></a> Ox-teams owned by Illinois farmers.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_83_83" id="Footnote_83_83"></a><a href="#FNanchor_83_83"><span class="label">[83]</span></a> Hamilton went to California during the gold rush, finding, however, not a fortune -but an untimely grave.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_84_84" id="Footnote_84_84"></a><a href="#FNanchor_84_84"><span class="label">[84]</span></a> 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.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_85_85" id="Footnote_85_85"></a><a href="#FNanchor_85_85"><span class="label">[85]</span></a> Smith, William R., <i>Observations</i>, 44.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_86_86" id="Footnote_86_86"></a><a href="#FNanchor_86_86"><span class="label">[86]</span></a> If the office was not open in 1847 it is hard to explain the language used by a -correspondent of the Prairie du Chien <i>Patriot</i>, 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.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_87_87" id="Footnote_87_87"></a><a href="#FNanchor_87_87"><span class="label">[87]</span></a> This is not true of the state lands, which went mainly to speculators first, then to -settlers.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_88_88" id="Footnote_88_88"></a><a href="#FNanchor_88_88"><span class="label">[88]</span></a> Speech of Senator Cashman, <i>Wisconsin Magazine of History</i>, vi, 444-449 (June, 1923).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_89_89" id="Footnote_89_89"></a><a href="#FNanchor_89_89"><span class="label">[89]</span></a> Essay on <i>The Rebellion</i>.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_90_90" id="Footnote_90_90"></a><a href="#FNanchor_90_90"><span class="label">[90]</span></a> John B. Winslow, quoted in <i>La Follette’s Magazine</i>, vol. iv, no. 20, p. 6.</p></div> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<div class="transnote"> -<h2>TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:</h2> - - -<p>Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been preserved from the original.</p> - -<p>Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.</p> - -<p>Page numbers in the original are irrelevant and have been eliminated from this eBook.</p> - -</div> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Yankee and the Teuton in Wisconsin, by -Joseph Schafer - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE YANKEE AND THE TEUTON *** - -***** This file should be named 56012-h.htm or 56012-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/6/0/1/56012/ - -Produced by MFR, David E. 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