Part 11

[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.