|
Our Motto: Strange but true.
Our Mission: Amuse, surprise, perplex, astonish, and otherwise connect you with your past.
Our Method: Lower a bucket into the depths of Wisconsin history and bring to light curious fragments of forgotten lives.
Odd Wisconsin
Madison architect Herb DeLevie grew up in Stadtskanaal, Holland, where his father ran a successful business. Their large household was home to a number of pets, including an enormous black cat that adopted them. "Before the war," DeLevie recalled, "before my father went into hiding, we had a great big black cat that appeared one day... This cat was a...
read the rest.
Posted in Animals on January 31, 2010
Judge William C. Frazier arrived in Milwaukee on a Sunday night in June of 1837. Newly appointed to the Eastern Judicial District of Wisconsin, he had time on his hands that evening and joined a friendly game of poker at his inn. The stakes were small at first, but the wagers increased over the course of the night until "small...
read the rest.
Posted in Odd Lives on January 23, 2010
Jan. 24th is the birthday of Coles Bashford, the leading actor in a bizarre political drama of the 1850s. Democrats had controlled the state for years, so when incumbent Democrat William Barstow ran for re-election as governor in 1855, he expected an easy ride. The only serious opposition came from Coles Bashford of Oshkosh. He was the candidate of a...
read the rest.
Posted in Odd Lives on January 18, 2010
This weekend we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day to commemorate his life-long struggle to secure "liberty and justice for all" in segregated America. Our own state was no exception to the rule of racial injustice, but the process by which civil rights were guaranted to all Wisconsin children is perhaps unique. When the residents of Wisconsin decided they were...
read the rest.
Posted in Curiosities on January 14, 2010
Thomas Bowen (1808-1883) settled on the border of Wisconsin and Illinois, just south of Monroe, in 1836. He had such a prosperous farm that five years later he raised 4,000 bushels of corn. This flooded the market, and corn became almost worthless, bringing only 10 cents a bushel. In frustration Bowen swore that he wouldn't take less than 25 cents...
read the rest.
Posted in Curiosities on January 4, 2010
As 2009 comes to its close, Odd Wisconsin's staff are hunkering down far from the office on the annual mid-winter break. It's time for reruns. Because we know there are loyal readers who can't do without a weekly dose of historical distraction, we offer this selection of strange stories from the previous 12 months: So Cold Their Noses Fell Off...
read the rest.
Posted in on December 28, 2009
We may never know exactly what Americans understood by the refrain "and a partridge in a pear tree" since the word partridge was used for an amazingly wide variety of birds in America. Here in Wisconsin it was haphazardly applied to any small game bird, but especially to the spruce grouse and the ruffed grouse. Two unusual gifts of partridges...
read the rest.
Posted in Animals on December 21, 2009
As you celebrate your family's traditions this week, consider how the people who lived here before you celebrated theirs. This memoir of pioneer Green Bay recalls how bear, sturgeon, and venision were on the dining room table for Christmas dinner in 1836, with the faces of Indians dressed in their finery pressed to the window. While staid Yankees from New...
read the rest.
Posted in Curiosities on December 17, 2009
By the summer of 1827, Ho-Chunk leaders had become alarmed at the number of white squatters on their lands. An 1825 treaty had drawn boundaries to keep settlers and native peoples apart, but for two years lead miners had ignored it and streamed into territory reserved for the tribe. The Commissioner of Indian Affairs estimated that by 1827 2,000 whites...
read the rest.
Posted in Children on December 14, 2009
Each winter people across the state zip-up their Ski-doo jackets, strap on their helmets, and rev up for a season of snowmobiling. We wonder how many of them know that the snowmobile was invented here in Wisconsin in 1924. Slowed by an injured foot, Carl Eliason sought an alternative way to get around during the harsh winters up north....
read the rest.
Posted in Curiosities on December 10, 2009
Did You Know?
The Wisconsin Historical Museum is currently featuring Odd Wisconsin objects in the latest exhibit: Odd Wisconsin. And don't miss the Odd Wisconsin book by author Erika Janik published by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press.
|
