March 2004 Odd Wisconsin
Dateline: Madison, Oct. 16, 1899. President William McKinley visited the Badger state during his brief tenure in office more than a century ago. A unique perspective on his visit comes from the barber who shaved him, and a more typical one from the local press. For more on presidents who...
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Posted in Curiosities on March 29, 2004
Dateline: New Glarus, Wis., March 1, 1923. A long-lost son given up for dead three decades earlier suddenly re-appears in this southern Wisconsin town. Fabian Strife (whose name suggests George Bernard Shaw and Sidney Webb locked in mortal combat) disappeared into a Green County cave when Queen Victoria was in...
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Posted in Odd Lives on March 25, 2004
Dateline: Madison, 1848. Not only are some of Gov. Thompson's archives gone forever but so, too, is the hand-written manuscript of our state contitution! That crucial document, the foundation of our legal system and government, resides like the missing Thompson papers in historical oblivion. This catastrophe was apparently first reported...
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Posted in Curiosities on March 17, 2004
Dateline: Milwaukee, Feb. 11, 1955. We know it's supposed to be a winter sport, but we thought that James Nasmith intended it to be an indoor activity. Of course, when kids grow up playing it under these conditions they're bound to defeat less hardy rivals from states to the south....
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Posted in Bizarre Events on March 15, 2004
Dateline: Madison, March 13, 1848. Both houses of our legislature recently voted to begin amending our constitution, to define marriage. 156 years ago this week Wisconsin residents voted to adopt that constitution in the first place, and detailed recollections of how it was written are given here (including pigs in...
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Posted in Curiosities on March 12, 2004
Dateline: Up North, ca. 1959? This unidentified model prepares to club the largest muskie known to science on a sparkling summer day long ago. If you know who this is, where the fish came to rest, or why the photo was taken, please click the Feedback button below and let...
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Posted in Animals on March 10, 2004
Dateline: Alma, Wis., 1889. In honor of women's history month, Odd Wisconsin will run a few curiosities from Wisconsin women's lives. These three Victorian ladies (sisters, perhaps?) would be considered armed and dangerous if it weren't for those hats. See who they were and what kind of guns they carried...
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Posted in Curiosities on March 5, 2004
Dateline: Ripon, Wis., 1844. Ripon can claim fame as the birthplace of the Republican Party (see below), but only four years earlier it had been home to a utopian socialist commune. See photos and learn about idealist Francois Charles Marie Fourier, whose vision lay behind not just the experiment in...
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Posted in Odd Lives on March 3, 2004
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