Considered the most successful fund-raising cookbook in American history, The Settlement Cookbook has been revised into 34 editions and sold more than 2 million copies. For countless brides, the book became standard as they entered married life.

And, in the same vein as the oft seen touristy saying, "my grandma went to [insert: fun place] and all I got was this crappy t-shirt," Berger, upon retiring from the Socialist national executive committee remarked, "I have been a member of the committee since the party was organized and all I ever got out of it was a 20 year prison sentence."

Despite its origin as a health food for infants and invalids, Horlick's malted milk found several unexpected markets--the most unusual probably being that of explorers like Admiral Byrd.

Today, Wisconsin not only produces the most fruit, but also has the world's largest festival devoted to the tart red berry each fall in Warrens, Wisconsin. In 2004, Governor Doyle declared the cranberry Wisconsin's official state fruit, and nationally, October is National Cranberry Month.

Although most people associate food rationing with World War II, state and federal ration programs were actually first implemented as a show of homefront patriotism during the first World War. In fact, Wisconsin pioneered many of the programs that formed the foundation for federal Food Administration policies. Wisconsin became the first state to organize both state and county-level Councils of Defense which helped to educate citizens about wartime sacrifices. As an agricultural state, Wisconsin's State Council of Defense was particularly interested in the national food crisis that developed once the U.S. entered the war in 1917. Council chairman Magnus Swenson began vigorously promoting food conservation through the cultivation of home gardens and the institution of meatless and wheatless days. Anyone for some steamed barley pudding?

In this short reminiscence, Grace Lindsley recalls a visit to Muir's dorm room at the University of Wisconsin in the early 1860s, where she encountered his combination bed/alarm clock that tipped him onto the floor at the appointed time each morning. At the same time, another mechanism would strike a match and light a candle at the foot of the bed. Muir's room was full of innovative gadgets to help him maximize his college experience, many of which could still prove quite useful today.

In Wisconsin, Wadham's Oil Company used the intrigue of the East to create an ornate pagoda-inspired chain of stations across the state. Over 100 stations were constructed betwen 1917 and 1930, and though varying in floor plan, all featured the red-stamped metal roof with flared eaves. The Wadhams pagoda represented a pioneering effort to tie architecture to corporate image, a move that would soon become a staple of fast-food architecture.

Despite the passage of national prohibition in 1919, alcohol use remained fairly widespread. Fueled by media coverage of the gang wars in Chicago, public concern over crime and lawlessness throughout the U.S. grew in the 1920s, leading to the creation of a commission charged with investigating law enforcement efforts across the country. Popularly known as the Wickersham Commission after its chairperson, George W. Wickersham, the National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement took surveys of virtually every state. More "wet" than "dry" it seems from this survey, prohibition in Wisconsin appeared doomed to fail.

The children's time was carefully monitored, with boys receiving instruction in agriculture or trade skills and girls in the domestic arts. This particular guide was designed for Indian girls who were expected to return home after school rather than enter a career. While it was certainly not unusual for boys and girls, white or Indian, to receive different classwork, the standards of what constitutes proper homemaking reveal much about the imposition of mainstream values on indigenous peoples in the early 20th century. To white policy makers and teachers, these efforts appeared to be a helpful act of kindness, while to Indians, they often seemed an act of aggression; as one Stockbridge woman recalled, "They tried to erase us."

Opportunities for women to attend college increased throughout the United States in the 19th century. Wisconsin was home to several female colleges (as well as co-ed universities), including Fannie's school, the Wisconsin Female College, which opened its doors in 1855. In 1895, the Wisconsin Female College joined with Downer College and the Milwaukee Female College to become Milwaukee-Downer College.

Porlier's memoir quotes at length from a famous elder named Souligny (1785-1864), who relates a speech that the famous Ottawa resistance leader Pontiac (ca. 1720-1769) gave in Milwaukee in 1763, when trying to enlist Wisconsin Indians in his war of resistance against white settlers.

For the Menominee view of these events and their role in Wisconsin history (as well as much more information), visit the Menominee Nation home page at http://www.menominee-nsn.gov/

Many more documents and accounts of Indian-white relations in Wisconsin are at Turning Points pages on the following topics:
Arrival of the First Europeans
Colonialism Transforms Indian Life
The French Fur Trade
The Black Hawk War
Treaty Councils
Americanization
and
Indians in the 20th Century

]]> /turningpoints/new/archives/2005/08/why_dont_he_go.asp /turningpoints/new/archives/2005/08/why_dont_he_go.asp 18th century Fri, 26 Aug 2005 08:51:44 -0600 Meeting secretly in the home of Laura B. James (mother of future suffrage leader Ada James) on a June afternoon in 1882, a group of Richland Center women formed Wisconsin's first woman suffrage club. As the wives of prominent businessmen and professionals, these women felt that their husbands might not approve of their activities, so they operated publicly as a social, philanthropic, and intellectual club-- neglecting to mention the exact intellectual topic that brought them together.

Woman suffrage had little popular support in 19th century Wisconsin. Bills to grant women full suffrage were introduced in 1855 and 1867 but both failed. Many women's suffrage activists were also leaders in the temperance movement which generated hostility toward both causes from Wisconsin's powerful brewing industry and from German Americans. By the 1890s, a new generation of suffrage activists led by, among others, Ada James of Richland Center began relying heavily on women's clubs (like this secret one) to promote suffrage as one part of a broader platform of reforms.