Dane County, Wisconsin - Chapter with an unread heading (no. 9 of those read), 1880 (part 2 of 2)

The first call toward organizing this society was extended to all Englishmen residing in Madison and vicinity, to meet at the old Fairchild Hall, on August 30, 1856. When the meeting was convened, representatives of Great Britain from Milwaukee, and other distant localties in the State, were present, as well as home residents. The society was organized with thirty-five members. Dr. Joseph Hobbins, being called to the chair, and committees were appointed to nominate officers, draft a constitution, and secure a charter. The officers nominated and elected were : Joseph Hobbins, President ; J. W. Mayhew and William Wallace, Recording and Corresponding Secretaries ; Henry Wright, Treasurer ; William B. Jarvis, First Vice President; Richard Shorrocks, Second Vice President ; Dr. William Hobbins, Physician, and Rev. David Keene, Rector of St. John's, Milwaukee, Chaplain. The society was incorporated by act of the Legislature, passed October 13, 1856, as follows :

Section. 1. Joseph Hobbins, William B. Jarvis, George H. Barwise, Joseph W. Mayhew and Edward Thompson, together with such other persons as may become associated with them under this charter, are hereby ooDslituted a body corporate, located in the city of Madison, "by the name of the St. George's Society.

Sec. 3. Such corporation shall have power to establish for its government a constitution and by-laws, to elect its officers and prescribe their duties, to have and use a common seal, to expel any of its members, and to possess all the powers and privileges necessary to carry out and fulfill the objects of this corporation.

Sec. 4. The said corporation may purchase and hold real and personal estate ; but the annual income of the said real and personal estate which the said corporation may at one time hold, shall not exceed five thousand dollars.

Sec. 5. The said corporation shall possess the general powers, and be subject to the general restrictions and prescribed by the Revised Statutes of the State of Wisconsin.

According to the constitution of the society, none but Englishmen can be members, and they must hold four regular meetings each year, besides the annual fete to be held on St. George s -day, April 23. In other respects, the constitution is similar to those usually adopted by benevolent societies.

This society has always done what it could for distressed countrymen. One act particularly -worthy of note, was the sending, in February, 1863, of fifty-three barrels of flour to the unemployed and starving manufacturing operatives of Manchester, England.

Early in the rebellion the members unanimously pledged themselves to support the Government and when Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, they voted to, and did, defer their annual -dinner and attended the obsequies of that great man in a body. They also sent condolences to Secretary Seward, from whom they received a very appreciative reply, and a published volume of the condolences received from various parts of the world.

On their tenth anniversary, a very flattering testimonial, an edition of Addison's complete works was presented to Dr. Joseph Hobbins, who had been President up to that time. The society is the oldest of its kind in the State, and is the only one that has an independent charter. They have a room in Brown's Block, suitably fitted up and adorned with British emblems, and are in » reasonably prosperous condition.

Madison Institute

The Madison Institute was incorporated by act of Legislature, approved July 13, 1853. Its object was " for the purpose of establishing and sustaining at Madison a reading room and library, and for providing for and instituting literary and scientific lectures, and other means of moral and intellectual improvement. ^

The officers were John H. Lathrop, President ; Frank H. Firman, Recording Secretary ; Benjamin F. Hopkins, Corresponding Secretary ; Johnson J. Starks, Treasurer.

The first lecture given under direction of the society was by Josiah Quincy, Jr., on Monday evening, December 11, 1854; subject, " The Mormons and their Prophet."

From the time of its incorporation till 1860, the institute prospered, but during the war the society had few regular meetings, the library being kept in a law office in the city. In 1866, through the exertions of J. C. Ford and others, the interest in the institute revived. In 1867, the society accepted the offer made by the Common Council, of rooms in the city hall ; the library consisting at that time of over 800 volumes.

The institute library remained in the city hall till May, 1875, when the society donated the use of their entire library of over 3,000 volumes to the Madison Free Library.

Water Supply

In the month of February, 1855, the Madison Hydraulic Company was chartered, and afterward fully organized. Its object was to furnish the inhabitants a full and certain supply at all times of pure fresh water. In doing so, arrangements were to be perfected to take water from Lake Mendota of a depth of at least twenty feet, and, by steam or other power, force it into a reservoir upon a hill in the rear of the university buildings - this hill being about forty teet higher than the capitol park. A six or eight inch pipe was to convey the water east - the whole length of State street - sending off smaller branches at the intersection of streets. It was supposed that water could be conveyed into the third stories of every building about the park, and much higher on the lower grounds. It was also proposed to have two or more fountains in San grounds, and four within the capitol park. The whole expense was not to exceed PU.OOO. The officers of the company were H. A. Tenney, President ; William A. White, Secreyi and Leonard J. Farwell, Treasurer. The company did not succeed in carrying out their pans. There was not a sufficient amount of stock subscribed to warrant the undertaking, and the project was abandoned.

Th R ^ ^sgislature of 1878 passed an appropriation for a water supply for the State house, in 187fi^^°i^ of the University of Wisconsin had constructed a supply for the university buildings dunli t "^ which the State now took advantage by enlarging the works and placing a p icate pump of large capacity to assist the one already in place. The water was obtained i^ase Mendota, through a pipe extending down 300 feet into the lake, where the water is deep and pure. From here it is elevated to a large iron supply tank in the dome of university hall ; thence, by means of a system of pipes, it is distributed to the various buildings and hydrants upon the university grounds. Proper connections being made, a ten-inch pipe wa» laid along State street to the State house. At the several depressions and elevations along the line the pipe was tapped for blow-offs of mud and air, and the same terminated in fire hydrants, In the Capitol there is a stand-pipe extending ten feet above the roof, which gives sufficient pressure for fire streams. The line is nearly one mile long and is susceptible of extension at any time that necessity calls for it. Provisions were made for branch pipes at important points. The State house is provided with a very complete system of fire protection from basement to attic. The latter can be deluged by spray at a moment's notice by the tank pressure from the university, so as to extinguish any fire that may there originate. The water is soft, and there has been no complaint from scaling of the heating-boilers since its use began. A number of hydrants about the capitol and park are abundantly provided with water ; also the Centennial fountain, which was erected in 1878, and throws off its cooling spray during the sultry season of the year. The city has no water works. Most of the private business houses are abundantly supplied from wells of very pure water.

Health Of Madison

Of the almost perfect salubrity of Madison there can be no question. It has but little endemic disease, such as bilious fever or typhoid fever, or fully developed ague, and the epidemics which have occasionally visited it have been of a very mild type as compared with those of other and less healthy places. This has been particularly observable with measles and scarlet fever, the latter so fatal, and the former so subject to more or less serious complications in the Eastern cities.

People generally, residents of Madison, are healthy looking. This applies particularly to children and young people, thus affording the best indication of all others of the salubrity of our location. The mortality among little children, so fearfully great in the cities on the Atlantic borders and of older countries, we are altogether free from, and our death rate for all ages only fractional as compared with very many other places.

For that large class of persons on the Eastern coast and elsewhere who suffer from that peculiar and inveterate form of dyspepsia, best known as nervous dyspepsia, as well as for those thousand and one cases of chronic bronchitis and "ministerial throat ail" so rife in the places referred to, Madison offers a salutary and safe resort. Such affections are here almost unknown, save as cases of importation. Its comparatively dry atmosphere, equable climate and high and inland situation, together with the more simple and regular habits of living of its inhabitants, their out-door exercise in hunting, fishing and boating, furnish them at once with the best restorative and preventive.

The most noticeable feature, however, of the influence of the climate of Madison over disease is in the progress of phthisis pulmonalis, or ordinary consumption. Cases far advanced in this disease, progressing with a fatal rapidity on the sea-coast and in the cities of the East, are, on coming here, checked in their course, and life that seemed not worth more than a few weeks' miserable lease lengthened out to eighteen months or two years or longer, the acute cases becoming chronic.

Very numerous, indeed, are the instances met with in Madison of consumptive persons coming from Europe and from the East in the first stages of phthisis who have regained their health under the happy influence of the climate and of the more natural mode of living, and this, too, with but little medical aid.

A remarkable, distinctive and self-evident fact confirmatory of the correctness of the opinion before expressed as to the comparatively perfect salubrity of Madison, is to be found in the healthy appearance of the foreigners who throng our streets. They not only retain their native clear and healthy complexion but maintain their flesh, increasing and prospering. Whether German, English, ^rish, Scotch, Dutch or Norwegian, there is no falling-off,,froni their good physical condition.