Richard N. Current - The Civil War Era, 1848-1873: History of Wisconsin, Volume II

THE HISTORY OF
WISCONSIN

THE HISTORY OF WISCONSIN
in six volumes

William Fletcher Thompson
General Editor

VOLUME I:
From Exploration to Statehood
By Alice E. Smith
VOLUME II:
The Civil War Era, 18481873
By Richard N. Current
VOLUME III:
Urbanization & Industrialization, 18731893
By Robert C. Nesbit
VOLUME IV:
The Progressive Era, 18931914
By John D. Buenker
VOLUME V:
War, a New Era, and Depression, 19141940
By Paul W. Glad
VOLUME VI:
Continuity and Change, 19401965
By William F. Thompson

THE HISTORY OF
WISCONSIN

VOLUME II

The Civil War Era, 18481873

RICHARD N. CURRENT

WILLIAM FLETCHER THOMPSON
General Editor

WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY PRESS

THE HISTORY OF WISCONSIN is a contribution of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin to the American Revolution Bicentennial celebration.

Copyright 1976 by
THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN

E-book edition 2013

Second Printing, 1996

For permission to reuse material from The History of Wisconsin, Volume II: The Civil War Era, 1848-1873 (ISBN 978-0-87020-160-8, e-book ISBN 978-0-87020-629-0), please access www.copyright.com or contact the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. (CCC), 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400. CCC is a not-for-profit organization that provides licenses and registration for a variety of users.

www.wisconsin history .org

The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
Smith, Alice Elizabeth, 1896
The history of Wisconsin.
Vol. 2 by R. N. Current.
Bibliography: v. 1, p. 685-731; v. 2, p. 601-632
CONTENTS: v. 1. From exploration to statehood.v. 2. The Civil War era, 1848-1873.
1. WisconsinHistory. I. Current, Richard Nelson, joint author.

F581.S64 977.5 72-12941

ISBN 0-87020-122-0

To the memory of my mothers mother

INDIANA CHRISTIANSEN, nee OLSEN (1864-1922)

Who was brought from Norway in 1865

And who lies buried in Bruce, Wisconsin.

Her given name reflects the America-dreaming that led

her parents to emigrate the year after she was born.

And to the future of my daughters daughter

MARIA RINTZ

Who was born in Milwaukee in 1965

And who is very much alive in Racine.

She inherits the aspirations of her Norwegian, English,

Scottish, Irish, German, and Polish ancestors.

PREFACE

THOSE WHO KNOW Wisconsin and its history can hardly avoid having both a respectful and an affectionate regard for the state. They are not likely to be put off by an account that undertakes to tell the story wie es eigentlich gewesen ist as it actually happened. Wisconsin during the period this volume covers, the first generation of statehood, was still largely in a frontier stage of development. More than almost any other state at the time, it had an ethnically diverse and divided society. The central theme of the book, insofar as it has one, must be the struggle to subdue and civilize the wilderness, with the bad as well as the good implications of the civilizing process. A related theme is that of antagonism and adjustment among the various elements of the population. In telling the story, it has been necessary to touch upon scandals in business and politics (even a sex scandal), prejudice and discrimination, unpatriotic acts, instances of mob violence resulting from social tensions, and other such unedifying matters. But it has also been a pleasant duty to record the much more numerous cases of public spirit, of heroism and sacrifice, of hard work and achievement. The emphasis is on the positive, the constructive, simply because that is the essential truth of the story.

A fairly thick volume such as this one might seem like more than enough paper and ink for only a quarter-century of the history of but a single state. Yet in writing it I have been acutely conscious all along that I have been relating merely a small part of the rich and varied life of the people of Wisconsin during the period. For lack of space, I have had to forgo even so much as a reference to many men and women and many events that are interesting and important in themselves. The frequency of mention of names is not necessarily a measure of their intrinsic importance in my sight; often a person is cited or quoted because the person well represents the point of view or the activity of a large number of others.

When referring to members of foreign nationality groups I use the terms German, Irish, Norwegian, and the likerather than German-American, Irish-American, Norwegian-American, etc.and reserve the term American for the people of older native stock. There are two reasons for this: it is less cumbersome, and it conforms to the actual usage of the time. It is not intended to be invidious. When I deal with ethnic groups, I consider the settlers from New England, New York, and other states as constituting one of the groups, no less than the immigrants from any of the European countries. I am aware of my own biases of birth and upbringing, and I have certainly tried to counteract them.

To some extent the book is derived from original sources, and it contains information not to be found in other writings on Wisconsin history. For the most part, however, it is based upon the previous studies of a large number of scholars, as the footnotes and the bibliographical essay indicate. I am beholden to all those writers. More immediately, I am deeply obligated to those who served at one time or another as my research assistants and who made it feasible to exploit the vast array of primary and secondary materialsMargaret Walsh, David McLeod, and especially John O. Holzhueter. Above all, I am indebted to the general editor of the series, William Fletcher Thompson, for his overall encouragement and guidance and for the rigorous standards of historical scholarship that he imposed. I join him in thanking the members of his staffDale Treleven, Jeanne Delgado, and George Roederwho assisted him in the meticulous checking of every quotation and every fact. Without his and their prodigious efforts to rid the manuscript of error, the book would have contained misstatements too numerous and too horrendous to contemplate.

RICHARD N. CURRENT

Lake Delton, Wisconsin

CONTRIBUTORS

THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN

THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN

WESTERN PUBLISHING COMPANY, INC.

FIRST WISCONSIN FOUNDATION, INC.

THE JOURNAL COMPANY

THE NORTHWESTERN MUTUAL LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY

PABST BREWERIES FOUNDATION

SCHLITZ FOUNDATION, INC.

APPLETON COATED FOUNDATION, INC.

APPLETON WIRE WORKS CORP.

BANTA COMPANY FOUNDATION, INC.

BERGSTROM FOUNDATION

THE FALK CORPORATION

FOX RIVER PAPER CO.

KIMBERLY-CLARK FOUNDATION, INC.

THE MARINE FOUNDATION, INC.

MARSHALL & ILSLEY BANK FOUNDATION, INC.

THILMANY PULP AND PAPER COMPANY

WISCONSIN ELECTRIC POWER COMPANY

THE JOHNSONS WAX FUND, INC.

MILLER HIGH LIFE FOUNDATION, INC.

NEKOOSA-EDWARDS FOUNDATION INCORPORATED

WISCONSIN MICHIGAN POWER COMPANY

WISCONSIN NATURAL GAS COMPANY

WISCONSIN PUBLIC SERVICE CORPORATION

CHARLES W. WRIGHT FOUNDATION OF BADGER METER, INC.