Search the Wisconsin Historical Society's collections
Filter: Categories of Odd Wisconsin Stories
Filter: Year of 1800-1899
Filter: Year of 1860-1869
| Civil War Battle Summary |
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| Discover the role that Wisconsin troops, including Menominee warriors and our only unit of Black soldiers, played in a dramatic Civil War battle. |
| A Disappointment that Created a Community |
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| Learn about the most successful Utopian community in Wisconsin, born of a failed doomsday prediction. |
| 3,000 Dam the Red River |
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| Read this wild story about a Wisconsin Dells lumberjack applying his knowledge of dams to help Union forces escape a Confederate attack. |
| A Good Mother, a Good Friend and a Good Woman |
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| Discover Juliet Severance, the free-thinking Whitewater physician who was involved with the anti-slavery movement, temperance and women's rights. |
| The Amusing History of the Scots Influence on Wisconsin |
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| Discover the rich history of the sport of curling in Wisconsin. |
| Madison's Oldest Resident |
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| Born into slavery, Hettie Pierce lived 115 years and was able to fully experience both life before and after emancipation. |
| The Midwestern Heritage of One of the 20th Century's Greatest Poetic Innovators |
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| Discover literary giant Ezra Pound's connection to the frontier wilds of Wisconsin. |
| From Sacred Calumets to Ashtrays |
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| Discover the important role that tobacco and the Peace Pipe have played throughout Wisconsin's history. |
| An Old Man's Tall Tale |
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| Wisconsin pioneer Joseph Crelie was said to be 139 years old when he was exhibited to spectators in 1864. But how old was he really? |
| How One Woman Changed Wisconsin During the Civil War |
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| Discover how Cordelia Harvey's mission to reform hospitals during the Civil War would change Wisconsin forever. |
| A History of Disease in Wisconsin |
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| Read this informative collection of all the outbreaks and epidemics in Wisconsin's history. |
| A Strange Man's Strange Dwelling |
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| Discover the bizarre story of a castle built on the shore of Lake Mendota in the 1800's. |
| Spirits Lead a Woman to Fortune |
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| Morris Pratt was a well known psychic medium whose legacy is his eponymous spiritualist institution in Whitewater, known locally as "Pratt's Folly." |
| An Ordinary Woman has an Extraordinary Encounter |
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| The story of Mary Hayes-Chynoweth, one of Wisconsin's most famous mystics who also predicted the future on a number of occasions. |
| First Woman Notary Public |
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| Discover the story of Wisconsin's first woman notary public Louise Williams who provided legal counsel for southern Wisconsin after the Civil War. |
| The Remarkable History of the Telephone |
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| Learn how Wisconsin resident Richard Valentine's invention would change the world |
| Two Lawyers Spur Abolitionist Reform and Universal Voting Rights |
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| Learn how Byron Paine and Halbert E. Paine used the power of law for radical abolitionist reform in mid-19th century Wisconsin. |
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