Search the Wisconsin Historical Society's collections
Filter: Categories of Odd Wisconsin Stories
Filter: Year of 1800-1899
Filter: Year of 1880-1889
| Beyond Beer and Brats |
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| Explore the history of Labor Day celebrations in Wisconsin. |
| 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. |
| Defining Sundaes |
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| Was the first ice cream sundae made in Wisconsin or New York? Give this whimsical story a read and come to your own conclusion. |
| 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 Brief Stay of Rutherford B. Hayes |
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| Discover the visits US presidents have paid to 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 Tragedy of January 10, 1883 |
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| Read about the tragic fire that burned down Milwaukee landmark, the Newhall House Hotel, leaving 76 dead. |
| 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. |
| From Whaling to Coal Burning |
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| Discover how man-made lighting has become a common part of our everyday lives. |
| A History of Disease in Wisconsin |
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| Read this informative collection of all the outbreaks and epidemics in Wisconsin's history. |
| 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 |
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