Caroline Quarlls and the Underground Railroad

By Julia Pferdehirt

On July 4th, 1842, Caroline Quarlls left family, friends, and the only life she'd known behind in St. Louis, Missouri. As the child of a slave mother and a slave-owner father, her young life was one of drudgery and obedience until that fateful Independence Day when she illegally took a steamboat across the Mississippi River from St. Louis to Alton, Illinois, in the hope of reaching freedom.

With the help of abolitionists, the sixteen-year-old traveled through Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Michigan on the Underground Railroad, enduring long, bumpy rides in the bottom of a wagon and taking cover in everything...

Casper Jaggi: Master Swiss Cheese Maker

by Jerry Apps

Have you ever wondered why Swiss cheese has holes? You'll find out in this story about a Swiss cheese maker named Casper Jaggi.

Casper Jaggi was only 6 years old when his father taught him how to make cheese in the Swiss Alps. In 1913, Jaggi left Switzerland in search...

Mountain Wolf Woman: A Ho-Chunk Girlhood

by Diane Holliday

With the seasons of the year as a backdrop, author Diane Holliday describes what life was like for a Ho-Chunk girl who lived in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Central to the story is the movement of Mountain Wolf Woman and her family in and around Wisconsin. Like...