Innholdsfortegnelse for Summer 2019 i Wisconsin Magazine of History

Woman suffrage is coming, but it is not coming as the light follows the darkness or the summer follows the winter. It is coming as the harvest follows the patient.” So said Theodora Winton Youmans in her 1917 president’s address to the Wisconsin Woman Suffrage Association. She was speaking from painful experience. In 1912, a referendum for statewide women’s suffrage that had passed handily in the state assembly was put down by male voters, to the shock and dismay of many who believed the time was right for this landmark legislation. It would take seven long years of continued campaigning, educating, organizing, and speechmaking for the nation to be brought to the same crossroads—this time with success—as Congress passed the Nineteenth Amendment on June 4, 1919, and sent it on…

Letters I enjoyed the “Rejoicing Everywhere” article in the Spring 2019 issue. Dr. Cordasco briefly mentioned the Wisconsin troops who served in the Archangel area of Russia. Longtime readers may remember an article in the Winter 2001–2002 issue, “The Strange, Sad Death of Sergeant Kenney.” The article discussed the trials and privations of the men of the 339th Infantry Regiment who served in that cold, desolate country. The 339th was comprised mainly of men from Wisconsin and Michigan. They were some of the last troops to return to the US, almost a year after the Armistice of November 1918. Let us never forget the brave men and women who served our great country in all wars and in peacetime. We need more articles like Dr. Cordasco’s. John E. KosobuckiColonel, US…

A QUICK GLANCE AT THE COAT OF ARMS OF WISCONSIN (ABOVE) ILLUSTRATES the surprising significance of lead mining and slavery in Wisconsin’s history. The figure on the left is a white Great Lakes sailor. The figure on the right is a white lead miner; he stands holding a pickaxe next to a pyramid of thirteen seventy-pound ingots of lead. The abundant natural resources and fertile land in the Great Lakes region attracted enough settlers from the Northeast, the upper South, and Europe for its citizens to propose statehood in 1848. This is a familiar story in Wisconsin. The fact that the lead miner could have been black and enslaved is not. The story of Wisconsin statehood is incomplete without considering the contributions of dozens of free and enslaved African American…

While Ellen worked on getting their home in order, Proxmire began his first full term as a United States senator by challenging two powerful Washington figures: secretary of agriculture Ezra Taft Benson and Senate majority leader Lyndon Johnson. That he began his second term challenging Benson surprised no one. His next target, though, surprised just about everyone. Over the past several years, Johnson had assumed unprecedented influence over the Democratic caucus and thus the entire Senate. As majority leader, chair of the Democratic conference, chair of the Democratic Policy Committee, and chair of the Democratic Steering Committee, Johnson could dole out committee assignments, office spaces, campaign funds, and special assignments to his supporters. He had an uncanny knack for gathering intelligence about the opinions of his fellow senators, and through…

The image of a dredging machine on this watch fob tells us both about the man who owned it and the history of his adopted city of Milwaukee. Joel Kimball Hoffman, a dedicated Mason originally from Niagara County, New York, trained as an engineer and apparently had experience with dredging machines. Such equipment was invaluable when, in 1856, Milwaukee’s leaders decided to reorient the city’s lakeshore and rivers so that large ships could come into a protected harbor. This meant a harbor had to be dredged. On July 18, 1856, the editors of the Milwaukee Daily News announced, “It is with pleasure that we learn that R. P. Cady & Co. have purchased the right of Carmichael & Osgood’s Patent Dredging machine for this city and harbor . . . and expect to have…