Puritan Influence in Wisconsin

Citation preview

352 PURITAN INFLUENCE

ELLIS Editor of

[

From Proceedings

of

B.

"The La

The

IN

WISCONSIN

USHER Crosse Chronicle'

State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1898]

MADISON State Historical Society of Wisconsin 1899

"

PURITAN INFLUENCE

BY ELLIS

IN WISCONSIN.'

USHER.

B.

In 1876 the late George William Curtis began an address be-

New England

fore the

Society of

New York by

recalling the re-

mark, attributed by Tzaak Walton to Dr. Botelier,

God might have made

less

but doubtless he never did, less there

New

"

that doubt-

a better berry than the strawberry, "

with the application that

"

might have been a better place

to be

doubt-

born in than

England, but doubtless no such place exists."

In the same happy vein he said: "

The Mayflower,

sir,

brought seed, not a harvest.

In a cen-

tury and a half the religious restrictions of the Puritans had

grown

into absolute religious liberty, and in

had burst beyond the limits of

the

New

of

two centuries

it

England, and John Carver

Mayflower had ripened into Abraham Lincoln

of

the

Illinois prairie.

This

The

is

the historical epitome of the settlement of the West.

fact, also

alluded to by Mr. Curtis, that every American

"Yankee" to knowledgment

the

European,

of the

is

the

is

a

wide testimonial and ac-

pregnant Puritan influence upon our na-

tional character.

The tendency of emigration to follow latitude in the westward march of empire has been noticed and commented upon, as applying quite as well to emigrants of American birth as to those

who come here from marked

movement

of the

Perhaps there

the old world.

illustration of this natural

is

no more

tendency than the westward

Puritan stock.

The Northern Yankee from Maine,

mont has followed the pine

trees

New Hampshire and VerNew York to Puget

from

'Address deliveied before the State Historical Convention, at Madison,

February

22, 1899.

WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

Il8

The Connecticut and Massachusetts Yankees followed

Sound.

the Connecticut grant, scattering through Northern Pennsyl-

New York to some extent, but making their main lodgment with General Cleveland and his successors, in

vania and Southern

"Western Reserve"

the

This emigration extended to

of Ohio.

Iowa, and was to some extent diverted below

normal line by

its

the anti-slavery troubles of Kansas. Ill

these general statements

think there

I

enough

is

to furnish suggestions for the lover of investigation.

purpose

with

of this

its

tracted

little

attention

and

so apparent

— the State

two years after

contained

to 755,881. tion,

is

its

But the influence

mi-rits.

that

I

am tempted

manifestations in a State where

Wisconsin, 1850,

paper to go into their

emigration

of this

of truth

It is not the

it

to deal

has hitherto at-

Wisconsin.

of

admission to the Union, in

but 305,391 peopb.

In

1860

had grown

it

This inci'ease was largely due to foreign immigra-

of the

for the union,

91,000 troops sent to the

more than

per

fifty

found to have been foreign born.

during the war

field

cent

would,

be

think,

I

Foreign blood has dominated

the population from the beginning of her statehood, and the

census of 74.14

jDer

1890 shows that of Wisconsin's 1,686,880 people, cent have one or both parents

25.86 per cent

ai'e

who were born

aliens,

native born with native parents, and more

than half the voters are

aliens

still

by

In this foreign

birth.

blood the Teutonic predominates, the major part of

it is

German,

and, as our free institutions are a development from the spirit of the old frei-mark of find that

Germany, and the Hanseatic

cities,

v

we

no foreigner makes a more jealous and independent

free-man than the German immigrant.

The average

New

Englander

this statement of the strength

he

is

is

of

likely to raise his

eyebrows at

our foreign-born element, for

quite often oblivious to the fact that Boston has a bigger

Irish population than Dublin,

ing to the census of 1890, while Wisconsin had

mainly to be found

but

in the

and that Massachusetts, accord-

had 29.35 per cent 30.75

"

per

native born

cent. "

of

foreigners

The dilference

population.

majority of the natives in Wisconsin are of the

first

generations in descent from foreign immigrants.

is

The great and second

Not

to

ex-

PURITAN INFLUENCE IN WISCONSIN.

II9

ceed 15,000 such natives could trace an ancestry in this country, reachino- to or back of the

mixture This

and

without ad-

revolutionary period,

of foreign blood.

the fact that

is

it is

is

most astonishing

in this

examination,

quite remarkable, in this aspect of the growth of the

State, to find the great influence that the little leaven of Puritan

blood has exerted from the very beginning. this testimony to the strength

Thinking that of the

most American

value, as well as of interest,

I

of use

and

have been tempted into writing

with the hope that the subject

paper, more

this

and endurance

American influences may be

of

may prove

inviting to some more capable hand, than with the expectation that

I

can here do

it justice.

There were two constitutional conventions held in Wisconsin

The

Territory.

fii'st,

whose constitution was

1846, contained 134 delegates.

were known to be

New England

New England

men, and ten others were of

parentage, and of the forty-two natives of

York, who were then strong and

rejected, held in

Of those delegates twenty-nine

dominant, there

Puritan origin.

New

and have ever since been numerically were many

names that suggest.

In the second constitutional convention held in

1847, there were sixty-nine delegates; twenty-four of these were

from

New England

and

five

were known to be

of

New England

Of the thirty-two men who were members

parentage.

conventions,

who

New England

of these

held positions of prominence, fourteen were of

birth or stock.

Brief mention of them will be of

interest.

Louis Powell Harvey, a member of the convention of 1847,

was born

in

movement

East Haddam, Conn.

to the

college education at the Western

In 1841

His family early joined the

Western Reserve, where Louis got part

he located in

what

is

of a

Reserve College, at Hudson.

now Kenosha, Wisconsin, and

opened a school; then edited a Whig paper, and was postmaster of

the place under

President Tyler.

Afterwards he lived in

Clinton, then settled in Waterloo, whence he served two terms in the state senate, one of

He

the state university

term as secretary and,

in

1861,

of state,

was a regent

was elected governor.

had served only about four months as governor when he was

WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

I20

drowned by accidentally

falling

from a steamboat deck into the

He had gone South

Tennessee river at Savannah.

to look after

His untimely end inter-

the welfare of the Wisconsin troops.

rupted a most useful and promising career.

Harrison Reed, of the State,

held

Mass., one of the early editors

of Littlefield,

was governor

of

Florida

five years,

186S-73, and

minor public positions.

The most distinguished career was that

New York, but the son He was twenty-seven,

dall, a native of

Massachusetts.

Alexander W. Ran-

of

of in

Phineas Randall, 1846,

He

elected to the constitutional convention.

of

when he was

distinguished him-

by introducing a resolution requiring the question of

self there

colored suffrage to be separately submitted to vote of the people.

The resolution was adopted

vote of fifty-three to forty-six.

term as circuit judge.

after an exciting debate,

He was governor

1858 to 1862, and was most

of the State four years,

efficient in raising troops early in

In 1862 he was appointed minister to Rome.

the war.

by a

Mr. Randall served part of a

Resign-

ing in 1863 he sought a military appointment, but was induced

by the president to accept the position general, which

he

until

filled

assistant postmaster

of

1865, wlien

he was

made

post-

master general. Exjierience Estabrook, a native of

New

Hampshire, was

at-

torney general of the State.

Wm.

M. Denis, of Rhode Island, was State bank comptroller.

Edward

Whiton,

V.

Massachusetts,

served

ture and was a

convention.

adoption

of

Revolutionary stock,

several

member

terms

in the

of the judiciary

He was elected

of the constitution; the circuit

When

filled

committee

of the first

judges sitting together

supreme court, over which he

the separate organization of the

court was made, in 1852, position he

Lee,

in

a circuit judge immediately after the

en banc then constituted the

season presided.

born

territorial legisla-

he

was elected chief

for a

supreme

justice,

which

with great ability and dignity until his death

in 1859.

George Gale, a native

of

Vermont, held minor positions and

served nine years as circuit judge.

He

helped organize Trem-

pealeau county and founded the village of Galesville, and Gale

:

rURITAN INFLUENCE IN WISCONSIN.

121

endowment of ,^10,000. He wrote a book on the "Upper Mississippi" that is already one of the

College, for which he left an

rare and sought for books of Americana. J.

Allen Barber, of Vermont, served one term in the territo-

and

rial legislature

He

was speaker.

In 1863 he

the State organized.

five since

served two terms in the State senate, and two

terms as representative

congress.

in

John H. Tweedy, a native

of Connecticut,

was a delegate

in

congress.

Frederick

Vermont, .was a colonel

Lovell, of

S.

The natives

of

New York who

were

of

of volunteers.

New England

ancestry

held positions as follows Charles H. Larrabee was a congressman, circuit judge, and colonel of volunteers.

A. Hyatt Smith and G-eorge B. Smith were attorneys general. Eleazer Root was the State's

He was

struction.

To go on with

of

this investigation

stitutional convention

superintendent of public

first

in-

Connecticut ancestry.

to

development

of the State,

force of this

New England

the

from the members

men

it is

of

prominence

of the con-

in the

later

apparent that the activity and

element

in public

affairs

has been

maintained with a record quite disproportionate to the smallness of its numbers, as

compared with the

rest of our population.

To look over our list of governors, who, including Gov. Edward Scofield, number eighteen, one is first struck with the fact that the only aliens Lieut.

days office;

office

G-ov.

by birth who have ever held

the office

were

Arthur Mc Arthur, a Scotchman, who served four

in 1856,

during a contest between rival claimants for the

Edward Salomon, but succeeded to

it

a

German, who was not elected

to the

from the lieutenant governorship upon

the death of Governor Harvey, and Gov. William E. Smith, a

Scotchman, the only foreign-born citizen who ever held the

by election. The list, in

order, with nativity,

is

office

as follows:

Nelson Dewey

1848-1852

Leonard

1852-1854

New York

1854-1856

Connecticut

1856-4 days

Scotland

Wm.

J.

Farwell

A. Barstow

Arthur McArthur

Connecticut

WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

122

W. Randall

Louis P. Harvey

T.

New York New York

1862-3 mos.

Connecticut-

Germany

April, 1862-1864

Edward Salomon James

1858-1862

1856-1858

Coles Bashford Alex.

Lewis

1864-1866

New York

1866-1872

Ohio

C. C.

Washburn

1872-1874

Maine

Wm.

R. Taylor

1874-1876

Connecticut

Harrison Ludington

1876-1878

New York

Lucius Fairchild

Wm.

1878-1882

Scotland

1882-1889

Ohio

Hoard

1889-1891

W. Peck

1891-1895

New York New York

E. Smith

Jeremiah M. Rusk

Wm.

D.

G-eorge

H.

Upham

1895-1897

Massachusetts

Edward

Scofield

1897-

Pennsylvania

Wm.

Beo'inning with Governor Dewey, who was born in the "Nut-

meg

State," five of the

birth, while

eighteen

mander

New England men by civil

Massachusetts parents.

He

and military career, was born

was Consul

were

Governor Fairchild, who had a distinguished to

of the

Liverpool,

Grand Army

of

Minister to Spain, of the Republic,

National Com-

and also

of the

Loyal

Legion.

Governor Rusk's name suggests the Yankee

filtered

through

the Western Reserve.

Randall and Peck are known to have a like origin, and other names suggest the same lineage. Of all these men, probably the ablest and the most distinguished was Cadwallader Golden Washburn, who was one of a

remarkable

three

family,

brothers

of

which

simultaneously

represented three different States in congress for several terms

during the

civil

war, and

United States senator.

a

younger brother has since been

He -settled

in

Wisconsin in 1842, at

Mineral Point, where he formed a partnership with Cyrus Wood-

man, also a native

of

Maine, that lasted for eleven years, and

laid the ground- work for large fortunes for both of them.

They

practiced law to some extent, but the development of the country drew them into the land and banking business and resulted

PURITAN INFLUENCE IN WISCONSIN. ownership

in a lai'o-e

grew

of

2^

pine in Northern Wisconsin, that later

Mr.

to great value.

I

Washburn was

elected to congress in

1854 and this partnership was dissolved, though the two men

were forever after devoted friends and frequently interested in each other's enterprises.

Mr. Washburn served

terms in

five

congress, and his civil career was supplemented by three years' the time with the rank of major

service in the army, most of

His business operations after the war were mainly

general.

devoted to his large flouring industry at Minneapolis, though he retained his Wisconsin residence and interest in lumbering

He was

to the last.

a

man

large abilities, great force and

of

perfect rectitude. It is a

notable fact that in the supreme court the two justices

who were

of foreign birth,

both of them jurists of great

ability,^

James G. Ryan and Samuel Crawford, were natives

of

Ireland,

and that notwithstanding our large preponderance

of

German

blood, it has

made few conspicuous successes

in the law.

The

State has never had a justice of the supreme court, nor, until recently, a circuit judge of

Like the

list of

court begins with a alluded, Chief

German

governors, the

New England

Justice

birth.

list of justices of

name, to which

Luther

Whiton.

S.

Vermont, was another distinguished chief

ized, until the

justice.

her credit who must go to

as

These and

was organ-

Dodge; but

New

the seventeen, has several ta

New England

The same conditions obtain as

of

alreadj'-

New England

justices since the separate court

recent appointment of Justice

York, which has furnished ten

New York

the supreme-

have

Dixon, a native of

Jason Downer, also a Vermonter, are the only

men who have been

I

to

for a pedigree.

the circuit bench, where

has continued to furnish a large share of the judges,,

such names as Doolittle,

Larrabee and Wentworth would

plainly suggest.

Of the men circuit bench,

of

New England

Timothy O. Howe,

and G. W. Washburn, sachusetts; O. B.

L.

Wyman,

S.

of

all

Dixon,

of

who have occupied the nephew James H. Howe^

birth his

Maine;

Wyman

Spooner, of Mas-

George Gale, George W. Gate and

Vermont, are the principal names.

Of these

WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

•124

James H. Howe, who was Luther

S.

Dixoii,

easily lead the

Wyman

also a

United States district judge,

Spooner, and G-eorge W. Gate would

list.

Wisconsin has had, including the present incumbents, eleven United States senators whose average has been remarkably high.

Four

of ability

of these

and influence

men, Charles Durkee,

Mathew Hale Carpenter, Philetus Sawyer and William Freeman Vermont; Timothy O. Howe, already alwas from Maine; Mr. Doolittle's ancestry runs back to Connecticut; John C. Spooner's father was born in MassaVilas, were natives of

luded

to,

chusetts, though he was himself born in the

and John L. Mitchell's mother

Throughout the

field

of

is

Yankee and his dethem among the State witness the names of Josiah L.

public

scendants have held this prestige.

superintendents of schools, as Pickard,

Western Reserve,

a native of Massachusetts. life

the

I find

Edward Searing, Lyman C. Draper, Wm. C. Whitford, Emery; while a suggestion of the

Jesse B. Thayer and Jolin Q.

source of our educational inspiration

is

found in the names of

the Rev. A. L. Chapin, of Beloit College; Rev. William ness Sampson, of Lawrence University;

Amos

Hark-

A. Lawrence, of

Boston, who endowed the university that bears ward Cooke, of Boston, its first president; Rev.

his J.

name; Ed-

W. Walcott,

president of Ripon College in 1853; Rev. C. Whitford, presi-

dent of Milton College; Simeon Mills, who, as one of the

first

regents, bought the site and superintended the erection of the first

building for the State University; John H. Lathrop,

chancellor,

Henry Barnard,

the

second chancellor,

the

first

Rev.

Bascom and the present incumbent, Charles Kendall Adams, of its later presidents, and many other men of New England origin, have had great influence in this field. It is an interesting fact that when the civil war began in

John

1861, the roster of every early regiment, and the earlj'^

names on every

subscription paper, bore testimony to the patriotism of

among the Wisconsin men who won distinction in the field they bore a noble part. Of the commanders of the famous "Iron Brigade," General Lysander Cutler was a native of Massachusetts, while General Edward S. the descendants of the Pilgrims, and

PURITAN INFLUENCE IN WISCONSIN.

1

25

Bragg, who has since served in congress and made a national reputation in

civil

life,

is

the grandson of

under the stern old fellow who

would win the

or leave Molly Stark

fight

Fairchild's ancestry

Kellogg's in Connecticut.

guished command In special

fields,

is

widow.

a

General

Massachusetts, and General John A.

in

is

man who fought

a

Bennington, that he

said, at

This brief allusion to a most distin-

typical of the Wisconsin record in that war.

two

Wisconsin's most famous citizens, Ly-

of

man C. Draper and Increase A. Lapham, are to be counted among the descendants of New England. The former helped to form the school system

of the State and did a wonderful work in making the Wisconsin State Historical Society one of the greatest depositories of Americana in this country, a shrine that •every historian of the West must visit. The latter, as a geolo-

gist and student of anthropology, gave an early impulse to the

study of the natural wonders

of

State and

the

enduring

left

monuments to his own patient research. From the days of 1767, when John Carver of Connecticut first put Yankee foot on Wisconsin soil, the forests have been the temptation to many of the new Pilgrims from the East. Eveiy township

of

pine in the State will bear testimony to their vis-

At Green Bay the

itations.

lirst

lumberman (1827) was

Col.

Ebenezer Childs. Daniel Whitney was the of the

Wisconsin river

was sawing lumber of

in

first

man

in 1827-8.

to invade

H.

S.

pine forests

the

Allen, a

•

Maine Yankee,

Dunn county in 1835. And the long line has many who have been known in other

New England names

fields: Jr.,

Philetus Sawyer,

C.

C.

Washbui-n and Daniel Wells,

served in congress, while the Cranes

and Libbys

kosh: the Shaws, Randalls, Marstons, and Eastons,

Hixons.

Eau

of

Osh-

Claire;

Colmans, Pettibones, Hohvays, Bussells, Withees,

Crosse, and dozens of other ^^I'ominent

names

La

be found in

to

every lumber district of the State, attest the activity and success

of the

New Englander

in

this chosen

field

of

industrial

•enterprise.

Among

the merchants

metropolis of the State,

and manufacturers T.

of

Milwaukee, the

A, Chapman, of Maine,

fortune and led the trade in dry goods.

amassed a

WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

126

Edward

P. Allis, of Massachusetts, led not merely the State,,

but the Northwest, in

and

mill

the

manufacture

of

steam engines and

machinery; while such men as

other

H.

J.

Mead

(Vermont), of Sheboygan, banker and manufacturer; Abel Keyes (Vermont), lumberman

and miner

Menasha: Lucius Blake

of

(Vermont), manufacturer, of Racine; Arabut Ludlow (Vermont), of

Monroe, banker and businessman; Rufus B. Kellogg (Massa-

chusetts), banker, Oshkosh and Green Bay;

Smith

Appleton;

(Connecticut),

and Levi H.

Augustus Ledyard

West

H.

H.

(Connecticut),

Wheeler (Vermont), Charles H. Larkin (Connecticut), Abner Kirby (Maine), and Franklin J. Kellogg,

A.

L.

(Massachusetts), prominent Milwaukee merchants, sug-

Blair

gest the general dift'usion of the enterprising Yankee through-

out

the pioneer mercantile enterprises.

all

In another important field of development, that of railroads,

New England days

the

of

Kilbourn

blood has been

of Connecticut,

were leading

much

spirits.

S.

in evidence.

&

Chicago, Milwaukee

St.

and E. D. Hoi ton S.

C.

Atkins.

of

who came

Merrill,

New Hampshire Wm. R. Sill one

manager, was another ant, H.

Paul

In the early

railway,

Byron

New Hampshire, to be its general

man, as was his assistof the

early chief engi-

neers,

and his assistant H.

H.

Dodge, one of the later engineers, was from Connecticut,

C.

and Don

J.

Vermont.

I.

Bliss,

were both from Connecticut.

Whittemore, the present chief engineer, was born John Catlin, who was one

president of

Milwaukee

the

&

Prairie du Chien division of the

of the

Mississippi

C, M. &

St.

moving

spirits,

in

and

the present

road,

P. road,

was a Ver-

Perry H. Smith, James H. Howe, and other leading

monter.

the Chicago

spirits of

from the East.

& Northwestern

David M. Kelley,

of

system, were likewise

Massachusetts, built the

Green Bay road; D. A. Baldwin, H. H. Porter (Maine), John C. Spooner and Edwin E. Woodman, a descendant of Edward

Woodman, the

Omaha

of

Newbury, Mass., are among the leading names

Gardiner Colby, his son Charles L. and the Abbots, ,

In

no

of

system, while the Wisconsin Central was built by

field

has

the

influence

of

potent in forming Wisconsin than in pioneer editors

are

General

all

New England the

Rufus King

press.

Yankees.

been more

Among

the

(Massachusetts an-

PURITAN INFLUENCE IN WISCONSIN. cestry,

his

Gen. Chas. King, soldier and

father of Brig.

General Albert

Ellis (Massachusetts

G.

brother Charles Latham Sholes

Ballou

1

stock),

C.

(Vermont), Maj. L. H. Drury

writer),

C.

Sholes,

W.

Daniel

(Connecticut),

27

(Vermont), Sterling P.

Rounds (Vermont), Henry Leach Devereaux (Massachusetts), S. Benton (Maine), Chas. Seymour (Vermont), Harrison Reed (Massachusetts), David Atwood (New Hampshire), George H. Paul (Vermont), Levi Alden (Vermont), and a host of

Chas.

others, are on this

sin

General Ellis started the

roll.

newspaper at Green Bay,

first

Wiscon-

in 1822.

The ministers among the pioneers were many of them of New England stock or ancestry. The names of Cutting Marsh, Brunson, Irish, Colman, Chapin, Sherwin, Clapp, Goodenough, McClellan and Kidder, are a suggestive supplement to those

ready mentioned among the promoters

al-

schools and col-

of the

leges.

There

is

no need to multiply names or suggest

The Yankee was a pioneer

vestigation.

consin.

He

has linked his

fields for in-

in every part of

name with every important

Wis-

industry,

except that of brewing, and with every section of the State.

Though few

in

New England men

numbers, the

have been a

potent factor in shaping this commonwealth, and however the foreign blood

has or

may

predominate, theirs

the pattern

is

that has been set and must be folio w^ed.

sometimes been a matter

It has

overwhelmingly foreign

so

tinctively its

Am.rican

in

of

wonder that Wisconsin, should be so dis-

in its population,

all

its

educational impulse and

its

institutions of

progress.

I

government,

in

have endeavored to

solve the question in these inquiries, incomplete and hasty as I

have been

compelled to make them.

have been dominated by Americans

Wisconsin

of the

institutions

Puritan seed from the

beginning. In this exposition of

what

will to

some be

a

new

idea as to

the dominant influence in the upbuilding of this great

wealth,

there has

common-

been no intention or desire to belittle the

character, ability, or influence of any of its other worthy

habitants. their

own

It is

in-

not less their privilege to enjoy glorification of

nativity, nor less their right to be proud of the fact

128

WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

that they wei-e nurtured

New England skies, own importance.

under other than

because the Yankee cheerfully admits his

In truth, the principal points in the Yankee's favor seems to

be his large influence in proportion to numbers, his force, and his ubiquity.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

016 091 088 4

7^:t ^^bHAIH

•N^ %r.

vA

M Ur'rr

h

'w/n*