Oconomowoc City (part 1 of 3)

Oconomowoc City

Thus, the county expenses, not insluding means expended in permanent buildings, was only 35,000 in 1846. In 1848, the Board voted $6,500 should be raised by taxation, exclusive of State tax. And, in that year, Talbot 0. Dousman made out the tax roll, taxes to be collected in January, 1849, as follows :

The equalized value per acre of land in 1848 was $3.12 ; the total amount of taxes, $9,416.22, and the rate of taxation, 6.9 mills on the dollar. It will be noticed in the above table that some towns returned but very little personal property, and some no improvements. It may also be stated that, for years since 1848, the Assessors of the town of Muskego have made solemn oath that no watches were owned by any of its residents, while other towns have made similar returns as to carriages, horses and musical instruments.

Some idea of the growth of property, as well as of county expenses, made be had from the following table, which is the apportionment of taxes made in November, 1879 :

Thus, while the county tax was $6,561.87 for building expenses and all in 1848, as will be seen by the first table, it had become only four and a half times greater in 1879, or $28,043.22. And while the total value of all property in the county subject to county taxation in 1848 was |928,753, it had increased in 1879 to $12,148,426, or more than thirteen-fold. This is a rare showing, and one which should be a source of gratification and pride to the citizens of the county. However, what has just been shown to be true of the county tax is not true of the State tax ; for, while in 1848 Waukesha County paid only $2,854.35 to the support of the State Government, in 1879 the apportionment was $17,489.61, a six-fold increase.

With this tax, the county has nothing to do, and she has only to rejoice over the excellent management of her own domestic affairs. The County Treasurer's report, rendered November 11, 1879, for the fiscal year ending at that time, shows the following details as to receipts :

Amount paid John Stephens forrecording certificates of marriages, births and deaths. ..$ 15 00 Amount paid John Stephens for certified copy of marriages, births and deaths, to Secretary of State 41 60

Wisconsin Industrial School Fob Boys

The Wisconsin Industrial School for Boys, in the midst of a beautiful artificial park on one side, and a natural one on the other, on the banks of the Fox River and near the Prairie du Chien Division of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway, on Section 9, in the town and county of Waukesha, consists of ten buildings of brick and Waukesha limestone - mostly the latter ; two of wood and stone, besides various barns, sheds and out-buildings. It is, in one view, the most important of our many State charitable, penal and reformatory institutions, and certainly has the most beautiful situation and surroundings. It is not the largest, or costliest, or oldest ; but as it is a place for the molding of the character and habits of a large number of those who are to have the various affairs of the future in charge, it is, so far as it reaches, decidedly the most important of our State institutions.

Those committed to its charge are largely unfortunates. Some of them are born with malformations of mental faculties, with vicious tempers and low, brutal tendencies. These are the most unfortunate class with which the school has to deal. They are not responsible for their vicious tempers and evil dispositions any more than for their existence or physical appearance. They have defects which no reformatory school, be it never so strict or liberal, kind or harsh in its course of training, can wipe out, or completely bring into subjugation. iSTone of them, however, leave the institution in as deplorable a condition as that in which they entered, and many of them are so thoroughly taught in the art of self-government that they become the best of citizens ; but others, returning with their unfortunate natural viciousness to their old haunts, overcome and forget all the influence of the Industrial School, and rapidly fall to ruin or cells in the State Prison. Some are the victims of unfortunate marriages, quarreling, drinking, thieving, slothful parents ; others are merely bright, intelligent boys with an extra amount of spirit and mischievousness, and others are wg,ndfiring orphans who come within the scope of the law governing the commitment of children to the institution. Of all such a good account can be given. They rapidly yield to the beneficial influences brought to bear in the schools, workshop and chapel, and become, in a reasonably short time, good boys, and ultimately the very best of citizens. In fact, the good, dispositioned boys of intelligence sent out from the Industrial School are, as a general thing, much better prepared to cope single-handed with the affairs of the world, than those of equal ability who have not received such training.

Having all these peculiarities of the subjects to be dealt with in view, and also the beneficial results to them and the community at large, the State Industrial School for Boys must be considered the most important of all the State institutions.

The existence of the Industrial School is due in a great measure to the labors of the Sentinel and Free Democrat newspapers, of Milwaukee, neither of which, for many months, lost any opportunity of urging the necessity and benefits of a reformatory institution of this character. The first law looking to its establishment was passed March 7, 1857, for " a house of refuge for juvenile delinquents in the State of Wisconsin." The buildings were to be erected under the supervision of three Commissioners, who should, on the completion of them, certify the fact to each County Clerk in the State. Under this law the Governor appointed W. D. Bacon, of Waukesha, Edwin Palmer, of Milwaukee, and Martin Mitchell, of Oshkosh, Commissioners to locate and erect a building suitable for such purpose.

The Commissioners at once organized and entered upon the discharge of their duties. Houses of refuge to reform youth, separate from prisoners, were then in th^r infancy. The first one erected in this country was built in New York City but thirty-two years before, and not until May, 1857, had the subject of juvenile reform elicited among its friends sufiicient interest to cause them to meet in convention for consultation and discussion as to improved plans of building, government and classification.

Such convention assembled in New York City on the 12th, 13th and 14th days of May, 1857. Seventeen institutions were represented, ten having the name and title of " House of

Refuge;" three, " State Reform School;" two, "Reform School;" one, " Asylum and Farm School," and one, " State Industrial School for Girls."

The Commissioners sought the advice and experience of the most devoted philanthropists connected with this new work, and from William R. Lincoln, Superintendent of the Maine State Reform School, obtained the outlines of a plan of building which they adopted, having regard to the division of its inmates into families (of thirty-six boys ia each), and so planned that each boy would have a separate room to himself. Each room, whether large or small, had separate ventilating flues, both for the admission of pure and escape of foul air.

The plan of the first buildings consisted of three detached parallel buildings, each fifty feet distant from the other, and united by a corridor nine feet wide, extending crosswise through the center of each building, adapting all, in their internal accommodation and external view, to one building.

But one building was erected, that being of suSicient capacity for the State at that time. Each building was planned to furnish complete accommodation for officers, schoolroom, hospital, living rooms for family of Superintendent, kitchen, dining-room, wash-room, and bedrooms for officers, servants and inmates, both boys and girls (the law at that time sent girls also to the House of Refuge), and eighty separate rooms for inmates. The three buildings, if built, would have furnished rooms for Superintendent and his family, officers and servants, and four hundred rooms for inmates.

The building erected was 57x94 feet, and three stories high above basement, which, from the window sills of the basement, was above ground. Its location was determined, after due examination of various places in the State, to be at Waukesha, the citizens of Waukesha voting to tax the town for $6,000, with which they purchased sixty acres of land for a site. The buildings were to be of stone. Stone being abundant at Waukesha, could be furnished much cheaper than at any other city desiring its location, and would save, in cost of building at Waukesha, several thousand dollars to the State in the price of stone. This more than overbalanced ofi"ers of a pecuniary consideration proposed by any other corporation. The act to establish a House of Refuge, required it to be " located where the citizens shall contribute the largest sum toward the erection," and "said Commissioners shall take into consideration any materials or money to aid in the erection thereof." Thus the matter of material alone would have secured the location of the institution at Waukesha.

But there were other things favorable to Waukesha. The soil of the site was a superior, rich garden mold, well watered, the Fox River flowing through diagonally. The original site also included the now famous Bethesda mineral spring, which the Commissioners reported "was of pure limpid water, discharging a large stream, forming a pond six rods in diameter, often full of pickerel, bass, and other fish common in Wisconsin streams." Before Bethesda was discovered to be medicinal, sixteen acres of land, of the original site, including the spring, were exchanged, by the State of Wisconsin, for an equal quantity. of other land.

After erecting one building, the Commissioners, according to the act providing for the " House of Refuge," certified to the fact, and the Governor issued a formal proclamation to the public.

The school was formally opened on Wednesday, July 23, 1860, by the various State officials. Board of Managers, and a large congregation of the inhabitants of the State. The dedicatory address was made by J. B. D. Cogswell, of Milwaukee. After giving a full history of the workings of reformatory schools in other States and countries, he closed as follows :

" With such cheering precedents to encourage us, we dedicate this building to the uses of the State Reform School of Wisconsin. No more eligible or attractive site could have been selected for the purpose. It is easy of access, yet sufficiently removed from the great town and the bustling village, full of temptations to the weak and unsettled boy. We are an agricultural community, and the institution is fitly established among these pleasant fields, suitable for successful tillage. The sturdy boy shall here learn the rudiments of agriculture, to be thereafter practiced for his own benefit upon the generous prairies or amid the virgin forests of Wisconsin. Here shall he be taught to love labor for its own sake, and in the pleasing alternative of toil and play, his wild spirit shall grow calm and peaceful. In these spacious and convenient halls he shall find everything necessary for his comfort and instruction. The site of his home is beautiful as well as eligible. Brought up yonder grassy slope at first a careless and wayward vagrant, he shall go away in due, time, manly and free, self reliant, yet impressed with a sense of moral responsibility. No longer the juvenile delinquent, he shall leave the reform school to assume and discharge the duties of an American freeman and citizen.

" Permit me, your Excellency [Gov. A. W. Randall], to congratulate you upon your good fortune, that you are enabled, during your administration, to inaugurate . so many useful and memorable charities of the State. Hereafter, doubtless, you will recur to such occasions as the present as among the most pleasing reminiscences of your official career. We congratulate you, gentlemen of the building commission, upon the auspicious termination of your faithful and protracted labors. Long as these firm walls shall stand, they shall bear witness of your patient skill, foresight and fidelity. Finally, fellow-citizens, philanthropists, fathers and mothers, who guard your little ones in cheerful homes with tender solicitude, let us felicitate each other that to-day we witness a home opened for orphaned and homeless children. * * * Hereafter, upon this spot, shall be sown seed which shall ripen into a nobler fruitage than all the golden grain the husbandmen garner to-day. Some seed, it is true, shall fall by the wayside, and the unclean birds shall devour it up. * * * g^j. Qt^gj. ggg^ shall fall into good ground and bring forth fruit. Happy he who, in the providence of God, shall be privileged to plant and nourish the germ of goodness in the fruitful but desolate heart of the orphan and vagrant child. May he ever hope to hear, hereafter, those inspiring words of Divine commendation : ' For inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, ye have done it unto me.' "

Remarks were also made by Lieut. Gov. Butler G. Noble, Secretary of State Louis P. Harvey, and others, after which Gov. Alexander W. Randall, a citizen of Waukesha, formally proclaimed the institution open for the purposes contemplated in the act creating it. He further said :

"I will not attempt to add anything to what has been said as to the objects of these buildings, but will simply say that this is an institution which has long been needed by the State. That we have it now, is mainly due to the efforts of a few men who have long since pressed its necessity. Among the newspapers of the State which have urged its establishment, I may name the Milwaukee Sentinel and Free Democrat, and their editors, who, in the columns of their papers, lost no occasion of urging the utility of an institution of this character. I desire particularly at this time to speak of the services of a humble man in this connection, who labored efficiently, in season and out of season, to this end. I refer to John W. Hinton, of Milwaukee, formerly connected with the reportorial corps of the Milwaukee Sentinel. I will say only one word more. It is hoped that this school will be productive of great good ; that it will make the boys who are sent here good men ; that they will learn here that utility is the great object of life, and that it is better to be very good, than very wise or very great. If they learn these things here, they will have learned what it is the object of this school to inculcate."

Sec. 12. The said managers and Superintendent shall receive and take into said House of Refuge all male children under the age of eighteen years, and all female children under the age of seventeen, who shall be legally committed to said House of Refuge as vagrants, or on conviction of any criminal oflFense by any court having authority to make such commitments; and the said managers shall have power to place the said children committed to their care during the minority of said children, at such employments and cause them to be instructed in such branches of useful knowledge as shall be suited to their years and capacities ; and they shall have power, in their discretion, to bind out said children, with their consent or the consent of their parents or guardians, if they have any, as apprentices or servants, during their minority, to such persons and at such places, to learn such proper trades and employments as, in their judgment, will be most for their information and amendment and the future benefit and advantage of such children ; Provided, That the charge and power of said managers upon and over the said children shall not extend, in the case of females, beyond the age of twenty-one years : and provided, also, that the religious opinions of the inmates shall not be interfered with.

The law also required the managers to publish the names of the inmates; but this was never done, their first report declaring that, in their opinion, " good policy and the interests of the inmates forbade such publication." The managers furnished this reason for disobeying that portion of the enactment: "If that was the intention of the law, it was certainly, we think, a mistake ; for, while more or less of a stigma will, in the public mind, attach to those who are inmates of the Reform School, there should be as little publicity as possible of their names in that connection. They should be taught to look forward to the future with hope ; to blot out, as much as possible, the past, which is beyond their control ; and when reformed, as we trust many of them will be, and become useful citizens, far from the scenes of their early errors, they ought not to be confronted by their names in a report like this, to cause them injury and good to none."

The first inmates were three juveniles from the city of Milwaukee, who were committed, or received at the institution, August 1, 1860. Several girls were also committed that year - nearly all from Milwaukee - and female delinquents continued to be sent until 1871 ; but the plan was not a good one, as will be seen by the first report, which said :

" Of the seven girls committed, five had been connected with low dance-houses, or 'houses of ill- fame. The chapter of our statutes on the subject of vagrancy, in my opinion, needs a careful review. Surely, it was never intended that this school should be the receptacle of abandoned females, nor that the denizens of every low brothel should be thrown into our family circle. Vice is a contagion of the most terrible virulence, and when concentrated in minds matured in the pathway of criminal indulgence, it will overleap all barriers and fasten its deadly fangs upon the comparatively innocent and unsuspecting. No human efforts can control the contaminating influence."

At first there was no provision for discharging inmates ; that is, nothing could be done but open the doors of the institution and let those whose terms had expired wander whither they would, no funds being available to transport them home or to any place where employment could be obtained. This was soon after remedied, and now each one, on his discharge, is given a good suit of clothes and transportation to his former or any new home.

A system of manual labor was instituted at once, and all inmates in good health were required to devote a certain number of hours to whatever was necessary to be done. Farm labor and putting the grounds about the buildings into shape were first in order ; on the 1st of September, 1860, the shoe-shop was opened ; in October, of the same year, the tailor-shop ; and the girls were at once put at sewing and knitting. These departments are still in active operation and turn out all the shoes, boots, mittens, socks, pantaloons, coats, caps and all other wearing apparel necessary for the inmates. The " repairing room " turns out all necessary mending and repairing. The laundry, kitchen and carpenter-shop are necessary adjuncts of the institution, but turn out no work that is a source of income to the State. They aiford practical instruction to the boys connected with them. The business of manufacturing as a source of profit, and at the same time as a means of thorough instruction to the inmates, is in the boot and shoe shop and sock and mitten factory. The first year nothing of profit to the State was turned out, except 100 pairs of button shoes. The school then contained but comparatively few inmates and all of them were ragged and unskilled. Their own personal wants, therefore, demanded most of their attention. A broom-factory was run for about ten years, but was never a source of much profit, and has been discontinued. The same is true of the business of chairmaking. The manufacture of boots, shoes, socks, mittens and suspenders, however, not only is a means of teaching the boys useful trades, but is now a source of profit. During 1879, about 40,000 pairs of socks and mittens were knit, and the shoe-shop turns out fifty cases of the best quality of hand-made boots and shoes per week. These are of a superior quality, and therefore the demand still exceeds the supply, at good prices. In fact the demand exceeds the products in all the manufacturing departments of the Industrial School.

The C. M. & St. Paul Railway has provided a side-track near the school buildings, thus making shipping facilities of more than ordinary convenience.

On the farm, which consists of 233 acres of good land, are twenty-nine milch cows, twentyone horses and numerous calves, poultry and pigs. Its products are oats, corn, beans, potatoes, and all the vegetables and other cereals (except wheat), common to the climate. These products, as food, are valued at $5,000 per year, or more, at wholesale rates.

The inmates have an abundance of good, wholesome food. Meats are generally served to them in limited quantities, but they may have all the bread and vegetables they desire. All food is of the best quality, purchased by the Superintendent at such favorable bargains as he can make. The report for 1879 shows some of the items of subsistence as follows: Flour, barrels, 860; beef, pounds, 35,500; potatoes, bushels, 1,175; cheese, pounds, 1,032 ; butter, pounds, 10,139 ; eggs, dozens, 1,429 ; sugar, pounds, 9,326 ; sirup, gallons, 1,165. This subsistence is furnished at a cost of 7 cents per day per capita for the inmates ; but as all employes have their subsistence from the common store, it would reduce the cost per inmate, per day, to about 5 cents. The total cost for salaries, fuel, subsistence, and all other items, is $100.86 per capita per year, for the inmates, or 27 3-6 cents per day per capita.

A complete history of each inmate is kept at the school in a book prepared for the purpose, as well as birthplace, age, occupation, habits, and conditions of parents. This record of the history of the parents nearly always discloses some good reason why a reformatory school of the kind under consideration is necessary ; and it is due to a majority of the boys confined in it to state that their parents are often actually more deserving of prison discipline than the children. As a general thing the parents of vicious and depraved boys are drunkards and loafers.

A most perfect system of labor record is in force, as well as a similar system of records of the conduct, health, proficiency, behavior and progress of each inmate. The Superintendent knows precisely where his watchmen were at any particular hour of any day or night, also where any particular inmate was ; knows how many pairs of socks have been washed during the year ; how many repaired, and the same with any and all other articles. He can tell, also, how many loaves of bread are baked, consumed or wasted ; and has the same accurate knowledge of all other matters, even to the number of quarts of milk produced on the farm and how consumed.

A temperance society, called the Band of Hope, existed in the school for many years. It was not of any practical use in the institution, as the boys have neither liquors nor tobacco ; but they took a strong pledge and were taught that when they left the school the obligation was to go with them all through life.

A cornet band, with good instruments, is maintained in the school, and once each week a good teacher furnishes them with instruction. To belong to this band a good record in the school is necessary, as well as some musical genius. The boys take great pride in their band, and frequently make proficient musicians. Applications to become members of the band are frequent, thus showing their appreciation of it.

The first main building was destroyed by fire on the night of the 10th of January, 1866. Although of stone, every part of the building was so intimately connected with every other part, that it was wrapt in flames in an almost incredibly short space of time. The fire was set by an inmate who had in some manner obtained a match with which he lighted shavings cut from his bedstead, starting the blaze in the opening of the ventilator in his room. All the inmates and employes escaped unharmed, though with little time to spare.

His object was to escape, but he failed. He was sent to the county jail, to which he set fire for the same purpose, a few days later, and had it not been for the accidental and fortunate discovery of the fire at 2 o'clock in the morning, by Mrs. Dewey K. Warren, wife of the Sherifi", he would have burned the jail also. Later, he was sent to the State Prison.

A small wooden building, used as a boot and shoe shop, and the wooden portion of what is now " No. 10," did not burn. Into these and some board barracks, hastily built for the purpose, the inmates were crowded. The weather was severe and these barracks, consisting only of inch boards, afforded but little protection, and for the balance of the winter all connected with the school had a hard time of it.

In the spring of 1866, the present main building (which was enlarged to twice its original size in 1873), and Nos. 1 and 2, all of Waukesha limestone, were erected. Afterward as the number of inmates increased, other buildings were erected as follows : No. 3, in 1868 ; No. 4, in 1871 ; Nos. 5, 7 and 10, in 1873 ; No. 6, in 1875 ; Nos. 8 and 9, in 1879 ; the shoe factory in 1871, and the crrection house in 1877. These are all of the splendid Waukesha limestone, three and four stories high, except the upper stories of the two which escaped the fire of 1866, which are wood. The stone for Nos. 8 and 9, for the large correction house and for the horse-barn and two or three additions, were all dressed by inmates, and make by far the best-looking buildings of the group. All have slate roofs, good ventilation and ample furnaces. The different buildings not used for shops, kitchen, laundry and similar purposes, are called " family buildings," and are used as schoolrooms, playrooms, sleeping dormitories, dining and bath rooms for the several "families," into which all the inmates are divided. Each family is in charge of a man and woman who are, to a certain extent, responsible for the conduct and progress of those under their charge. In these buildings, all the branches usually taught in common schools are thoroughly pursued under competent teachers ; light, innocent games and amusements are permitted, and every Saturday bathing and a change of clothing are required.

Boys are required to aid in cooking, washing, ironing, cleaning the rooms and doing all the work necessary about an institution of this kind and size. They thus learn to do all kinds of labor in the best possible manner.

The chapel exercises on Sunday are exceedingly interesting. All inmates assemble to listen to regular services by some of the local ministers, who serve free of charge, at 3 o'clock. The reform school choir, composed of rich, melodious and well-trained voices, furnishes the music, though every inmate is provided with a song-book, and a majority of the school join in the singing with apparent earnestness and pleasure. Behavior on these occasions is betteis, no doubt, than it would be on the part of the same number of boys taken at random from the wealthiest community in the State.

A good library is provided in the main building, which contains 800 volumes of books and various Wisconsin newspapers and other periodicals. Books can be taken from the library on Saturday and kept one week. The reading-room contains 275 volumes of books and various newspapers. All inmates are allowed to receive papers, books and letters from their friends, after careful inspection, to see that nothing objectionable enters. They are allowed to write once each month to parents or friends at the expense of the State, and also once each month at their own expense.

There has always been a system of advancement for good, and punishment for bad behavior. It is rigid but just. When necessary, incorrigible boys are, in addition to various other punishments, put into a building called the House of Correction. Such as are confined in this building have no play hours, cannot communicate with each other in any manner ; are required to sleep separately in locked and grated cells ; but they have the same privileges of the school and library as all others. The idea of a House of Correction originated with A. D, Hendrickson, when he was Superintendent.

On entering the institution, each boy is washed, furnished with a new uniform, and given some good advice - told that if he is studious, industrious and obedient, he will be well treated, and can the sooner be released. On leaving, he is clothed and transported, at State expense, to his former or any new home.

" Section 13. All accounts for the supplies of the institution, for contracts of the Superintendent, and for salaries of ofiicers and employes, must be indorsed as correct by the Superintendent before the same will be audited and allowed by the Board of Managers,

" Sec. 14. The salary of the Superintendent shall be at the rate of $1,200 per year, and of the Matron $400 per year, and of the Assistant Superintendent $1,000 per year, to be paid quarterly ; and they shall reside in the institution, and devote all their time and labor to the service thereof.

" Sec. 15. The officers and employes are expected to board in the institution, at the expense of the State, but, with the exception of the family of the Superintendent and the person in charge of the farmhouse, no person not an officer or employe shall board in the institution ; provided, however, that this rule may be suspended by a majority of the board, in extra-, ordinary contingencies.

" Sec. 16. The Superintendent shall enter in a book, to be provided for that purpose, the name, age, birthplace, whence and by whom committed, the time of reception, and obtain, as nearly as possible, a brief, correct history and description of the person of each individual committed to the institution, the delinquency for which committed, when discharged and, if apprenticed, the name and place of residence of the person to whom apprenticed, and, in case of death, the time and cause thereof, and such record shall be, at all times, open to the inspection of each member of the board.

''- Sec. 17. The Superintendent shall present to the Board of Managers, at the regular October meeting, a report showing the number of inmates at the beginning of the year, the number received and discharged during the year, the number remaining at the date of the report, and what disposition has been made of those sent from the institution during the year. He shall also cause to be kept in books provided for that purpose a correct account of expenditures, and on what account made ; and also a correct account of receipts from any source, show-. ing from what source, under appropriate heads, and present an abstract of the same with his annual report, together with such suggestions as he may deem beneficial.

'^ Sec. 18. No cruel or unnecessary punishment shall be inflicted upon any inmate, and no corporal punishment shall be administered in any case, except by the Superintendent, or by his express instruction.

" Sec. 19. The average length of time inmates shall remain in the institution shall not be less than two years, and no inmate shall be sent out on ticket before that period, without the concurrence of the Superintendent and at least two members of the Board of Managers."

" Rule 6. The man in charge of a family is expected to be with the family at all times when the boys are in the family building or yard, and especially when in the playroom yard or dormitory, and he will be held responsible for the condition of their clothing, the cleanliness of their persons, and their general good behavior. In addition to his duties as a family officer, he will be required to fill the position of teacher, overseer of shop, or such other position as may assigned him by the Superintendent.

" Rule 7. The woman in charge of the family building is expected (with the assistance of the boys detailed for that purpose) to keep the whole building, its furniture, beds and bedding, clean and in order ; to be present in the dining-room at each meal, to preserve order, and to see that the food is of a suitable quality, properly prepared and properly served, and to report to the Matron anything objectionable in reference to the food. When not engaged in the per^. formance of the duties mentioned, she is expected to make and repair the bedding and the boys' clothing (except their woolen outside garments). The man and woman in charge of a family are expected, as far as they may be able, to supply the place of father and mother to the boys in their charge, and their government shall be parental in all respects.

" Rule 8. Visitors will be received at the school from 9 to 12 A. M. and from 2 to 5 P-. M., on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays only. Visitors will first record their names at the reception room, when they will be furnished with on escort. It is not expected that persons will stroll over the grounds unattended, or indulge in conversation with the inmates,

In view of the large number of inmates, employes and of their friends, it is not expected that visits will be frequent or prolonged, as no provision is made for entertainment.

" Rule 9. All donations intended for the inmates, from whatever source, must be placed directly in charge of the Matron, to be delivered or disbursed by her for their use and benefit. No inmate is permitted to have the custody of money, or to deposit the same with any one but the Matron.

" Rule 10. Innocent games, amusements and sports are to be encouraged and may be freely indulged in by the inmates, but all profane and indecent language, all obscene books or papers, the use of intoxicating drinks or tobacco, every species of gambling, and all disorderly and immoral practices are prohibited, and this rule is intended to be obligatory upon all persons connected with the institution.

" Rule 13. No visits will be received on Sunday, except from those in attendance upon the moral and religious exercises. A general invitation is extended to persons desirous of imparting moral and religious instruction to the inmates, either on Sunday, or at the daily evening exercises ; provided, the rule excluding everything of a sectarian character, and any interference with the religious opinions of the inmates, shall be strictly adhered to."

The legislative enactments authorizing and governing the Wisconsin Industrial School for Boys have been amended and repealed so often that no little misapprehension has existed in Various counties as to the scope, benefits and object of the institution. The important statutes at present are these :

" Sec. 1,543. All idle persons who, not having visible means to maintain themselves, live without employment ; all persons wandering abroad and lodging in groceries, beer-houses, outhouses, market places, sheds or barns, or in the open air, and not giving a good account of themselves ; all common drunkards ; all lewd, wanton, lascivious persons in speech or behavior ; all persons wandering abroad or begging, or who go about from door to door, or place themselves in the streets, highways, passages or other public places, to beg or receive alms, shall be deemed vagrants.

" Sec. 1,547. Any male child under the age of ten years, and any female child under the age of sixteen years, besides such as are included in Section 1,543, who shall be found begging or receiving alms, either directly or under pretense of selling or offering anything for sale in any public street or place, for that purpose, or wandering in public places as one of the class known as rag-pickers, or wandering without having any home, abode or proper guardianship, or destitute because an orphan, or having a parent undergoing imprisonment or otherwise, or who frequent the company of reputed theives, or of lewd, wanton or lascivious persons in speech or behavior, or notorious resorts of bad characters, or is an inmate of any house of ill-fame or poorhouse, whether in company with a parent or otherwise, or has been abandoned in any way by parents or guardians, and any child within the ages aforesaid, upon petition of his parents, guardian, or, if none, those having him in charge, showing that the welfare and best interests of the child require it, may be brought before any Judge of a Court of Record of the county and committed to an industrial school, in the manner and for the time before provided in this chapter, and subject to like appeal. If for any reason the commitment of any such child cannot be executed at the school designated, the Judge may afterward amend the judgment or commitment by substituting some other such schqol, and in case of boys so committed, who shall remain in any such school after arriving at the age of ten years, the commitment may be amended by the Judge making the same, by substituting the Wisconsin Industrial School for Boys. If the commitment be made on the petition of parents, guardians or persons having the child in charge, the Judge may, in his discretion, require them to pay the whole or any part of the expense of his maintenance, according to their ability.

" Sec. 4,961. The Wisconsin Industrial School for Boys, at Waukesha, shall be the place of confinement and instruction of all male children, between the ages of ten and sixteen years, who shall be legally committed to the said Wisconsin Industrial School for Boys, as vagrants, or on the conviction of any criminal oflFense, or for incorrigible or vicious conduct, by any court having competent authority to make said commitment.

" Sec. 4,962. The managers of said school are hereby clothed with the sole authority to discli arge any child or children from said Industrial School who shall have been legally committed thereto; and such power shall rest solely with said Board of Managers, subject to the power of the Executive to grant pardons, and they shall have power to return to the court, justice or other authorities ordering or directing said child to be committed, when, in the judgment of said managers, they may deem said child an improper subject for their care and management, or who shall be found incorrigible, or whose continuance in the school they may deem prejudicial to the management and discipline thereof, or who, in their judgment, ought to be removed from the school for any cause.

" Sec. 4,963. The Superintendent of said school shall charge to each of the several counties in the State, in a book provided by him for that purpose, the sum of $1 per week for the care and maintenance of each person in said school who has been committed thereto as a vagrant, or by reason of incorrigible or vicious conduct, from each of such counties respectively ;* and the cost of the original commitment of all persons to said school shall be chargeable to the county from which the person committed to said school is sent ; and the Superintendent of said school shall procure the arrest and return of any person therefrom ; and any Justice of the Peace, Marshal or Constable, upon information of such escape, shall arrest and return any such fugitive as above mentioned.

" Sec. 4,964. The Superintendent of said school shall keep an accurate account of the amount due from each county for the support of persons therefrom, and shall annually, on or before the 10th of October in each year, report to the Secretary of the State the amount which may then be due fron each county for the year ending on the 1st day of October preceding; which report shall state the name of each person for whom such account is rendered, the number of weeks which such person has been in said school during said year, and the amount charged for each of said persons, respectively; and such report shall be verified by the oath of said Superintendent as to its correctness. The Secretary of State shall add the amount due from any county in this State, for the support of such persons, to the State tax apportioned to said county, and such amount shall be collected and paid into the State treasury for the use of said school.

" Sec. 4,968. The courts and several magistrates in any county in the State may, at their discretion, sentence to the school any such male child who may be convicted of any petit larceny or misdemeanor, and the several courts may, in their discretion, send to the said school any such male child who shall be convicted before them of any offense, which, under existing laws, would be punishable by imprisonment in the State prison, and the County Judge and Judges of municipal courts in any county in this State may, in their discretion, commit to the said school any male child having a legal residence in said county, and being between the ages of ten and sixteen years, which, upon complaint and due proof, is found to be a vagrant, or so incorrigible and vicious that a due regard for the morals and welfare of such child manifestly requires that he shall be committed to said school ; but, in all cases, the terms of commitment shall not be less than to the age of twenty-one years.

" Sec. 4,969. The managers of the said school shall have power, in their discretion, to restore any person duly committed to said school to the care of his parents or guardian before the expiration of his minority, if, in their judgment, it would be most for the future benefit and advantage of such person."

When any inmate is allowed to leave the school to- resume his home with parents, or apprentice himself to farmers or others, he only receives a ticket- of-leave ; and, whenever his conduct

* This law has not been regarded with favor always at the Industrial School, thoygh it has always been in force. The tirst report referred to it in this wise; "The whole law is often rendered inoperatiTe by those sections taxing counties. Courts and magistrates refuse to commit to the school because of the expense incurred to the county. Reform schools should most certainly be public institutions. Two boys ran away from Doflge and Columbia Counties and found their way to Milwaukee, where they were arrested as vagrants and sent to the reform school by the municipal court. Under the law, Milwaukee is taxed for their support." This early protest was of no avail, the law being still in force.

is not what that ticket-of-leave requires, he is claimed by the officers of the institution, and returned to it without process of law, to serve again until he shall again have earned such a record as will entitle him to another trial discharge.

has been received as an inmate of this school, to remain until twenty-one years of age, unless sooner discharged by the board. This school is not a place of punishment, nor a prison, but a reformatory, where the inmates are trained to industrious and virtuous habits, and instructed in those branches of useful knowledge usually taught in our public schools. They are provided with a pleasant home, with suitable labor, such as will enable them to earn an honest living after they leave the school. They have their regular hours for rest and recreation. They are well fed and clothed, and carefully nursed in sickness. A competent physician is prepared to attend upon them when needed. They are furnished such moral and religious instruction as is suited to their capacities and circumstances. In order to reform their characters and establish correct principles and habits of industry, inmates must remain here a suflBcient length of time, and what is sufficient is wisely left to the discretion of the managers. In the exercise of this discretion, the previous history of the inmate, the character of the delinquency, the conduct of the inmate while here, and the influences of the home to which he is to be returned, are all to be taken into consideration.

" The inmates are permitted to write to their friends once a month, or once a fortnight, if postage stamps are furnished them. It is not expected that presents of food or clothing will be sent to inmates, as they are supplied with both by the State. Nothing unsuited to the health or condition of the boy will be delivered to him. All articles are examined, and it is a useless expense and trouble to send anything deemed injurious or unnecessary. In all cases of serious illness, the friends of inmates are proffiptly notified. It is not intended to prohibit visits fropa friends, but no provision is made for entertainment, and they cannot be frequent or prolonged. The best way to shorten the period of a boy's detention in the school is to observe carefully the foregoing suggestions, to abstain from any eflfort to release him until his conduct and standing justify it, and, in the mean time, to let him understand that upon his own efforts and advancement he must mainly rely for his discharge. Avoid saying or doing anything to render a boy restless or uneasy, and you may hasten rather than delay his release.

" The rule adopted by the board provides, ' The average length of time inmates shall remain in the institution shall not be less than two years.' The observance of this will save trouble to all concerned."

From its organization to the present time, the managers of the State Industrial School for Boys, appointed by the various Governoi-s for terms of three years, in such manner that a portion of them shall rotate out of office each year, have been as follows :

1860.-61 - Appointed by Alexander W. Randall : L. F. Frisby, of West Bend ; Thomas Reynolds, of Madison ; Henry Williams, of Milwaukee ; Cicero Comstock, of Milwaukee ; John B. Dousman, of Milwaukee ; Andrew E. Elmore, of Mukwonago ; George S. Barnum, of Waukau ; Talbot C. Dousman, of Waterville, and Isaac Lain, of Waukesha.

1862-63 - Talbot 0. Dousman, of Waterville ; Charles R. Gibbs, of Janesville ; Edward O'Neill, of Milwaukee; Andrew E. Elmore, of Mukwonago, and Cicero Comstock, of Milwaukee.

1864 - Andrew E. Elmore, of Green Bay ; John Hodgson, of Waukesha; Edward O'Neill, of Milwaukee ; William Blair, of Waukesha, and C. C. Sholes, of Kenosha.

1872-73 - William Blair, Waukesha; Edward O'Neill, Milwaukee; Charles R. Gibbs, Whitewater; Andrew E. Elmore, Green Bay, and Samuel A. Randies, Waukesha.

1874 - Andrew E. Elmore, Fort Howard ; Samuel A. Randies, Waukesha ; Charles Jonas, Racine ; Edward O'Neill, Milwaukee, and William Blair, Waukesha.

During the first three years, Mr. Elmore was Secretary ; the fourth year, Secretary and Treasurer, and since that time has continuously held the office of Treasurer of the Industrial School.

The different Superintendents have been : Dr. Moses Barrett, 1860 to 1865 ; A. D. Hendrickson, 1865 to 1877; S. J. M. Putnam, from January, 1877, to April 20, 1879; William H. Sleep, who had been responsibly connected with the school during ten years, the present Superintendent, was formally appointed in December, 1879, though he had been acting in that capacity several months previously.

Owing to sickness among officers and inmates, and to various official changes during 1879, no inventory of the property of the Industrial School was taken ; but from the inventory of 1878, and an estimate of other betterments, the value of the property may be approximately stated, as follows :

Real estate, 233 acres, $12,500 ; main building, $37,000 ; family buildings, Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, of stone, $60,000 ; 7 and 8, of wood and stone, $9,000 ; shop and factory, $17,000 ; correction house, $14,000 ; barn and carriage house, $1,500 ; stone cellar, $1,500 ; farm house and other out-buildings, of wood, $700 ; furniture, fixtures, farm tools, library and miscellaneous stock, $24,119.91; total, $77,319.91. Since 1878, one large double family building and stone connections between the shops, costing $17,000 ; an ice-house costing $1,100, and a gas machine and pipes, costing $800, have been added ; total, $18,900 ; grand total, $96,219.91. This inventory is all put in at cost price. About $2,000 should be added for cattle, hogs and poultry, which, being raised on the farm, represent no cost to the State. But, to show the actual value of the Industrial School property, there should be added to $96,219.91, various large sums for farm improvements, trees in the nursery, a large surplus fund from the factories since 1878, making an estate worth, with all its artificial parks and other valuable improvements, at least $150,000.

Of the different inmates taken into the school in the twenty years of its existence, the different counties have furnished the following numbers :

The actual number of new commitments from July, 1860, to September 30, 1879, was 1,693, or twenty-seven less than the footings of the above table. This table was made up from the printed annual reports, in some of which, in the early years of the institution, re-commitments were included, erroneously, in the report of the number of subjects received for the year, thus making the apparent number of new inmates greater than the real number.

Some counties, and they are by no means of better morals and habits than the others, have never availed themselves of the benefits of the Industrial School, and some never send vicious, vagrant or incorrigible boys to the institution for the reason that it would entail an annual expense of $52 for each subject upon the county. The counties which have sent no subjects are Barron, Bayfield, Buffalo, Douglas, Kewaunee, Pepin, Shawano, and the counties erected during the last year or two. The judicial oflBcers of other counties deem it a privilege to be able to commit young criminals and various incorrigible boys to a reformatory institution of this kind. A glance at the above table will discover which those counties are. '

Up to 1871, when girls were no longer committed to this school, 129 of them were confined within its walls. They were taught the various household arts, and received the same course of mental and moral training as the boys.

The law provides that boys sent to the Industrial School for vagrancy, inporrigibility or vicious conduct shall be supported by the counties to which they are chargeable, at the rate of 1$ per week each. Thus the different counties sending such subjects have contributed amounts to the support of the institution as shown in the following pages ; occupants. The beautifully shaded islands harbor picnic parties, while the shore, gently rising from the water, adorned with pretty houses and fine grounds, with here and there a tent, lends a frame worthy of the picture. Judge Small's fine resort and Draper Hall, both favorite hotels, are located on this lake.

Lac La Belle is one of the largest and finest lakes at Oconomowoc. It is connected with Fowler's Lake, the most prominent feature on whose pretty shores is the grand, well-known Townsend House. All the hotels at Oconomowoc - there are quite a number, and they are all good - are located on the banks of one or the other of the lakes, and are provided with bathhouses. In addition, there are a number of first-class boarding-houses, and furnishing in all accommodations for about one thousand visitors. A beautiful drive leads to Okauchee Lake, another sheet o? water, which would be prized by the quart in many localities, although it covers sixteen hundred acres. There is much to admire in the scenery at this lake, and soon you will doubtless find a number of commodious and excellent hotels on its shores to meet the wants of tourists who come here for the excellent bass and muskallunge fishing. Numerous private residences are already erected and many more projected. This fact speaks better for this wonderful lake region of Wisconsin than volumes of argument, since expensive houses, to be used during a few months of the year only, are never built except in highly favored localities.

A drive south from Oconomowoc to Dousman's artificial trout pond, some eight miles distant, reached via the ancient mounds. Silver, Otis, Duck and Genesee Lakes and several smaller ones, through a most picturesque country, will prove of special interest to every lover of the rod and line, and not less to the lover of well-prepared trout, visitors catching their own fish, which are prepared for them at the farm at moderate charge.

Mention of the drives in the surrounding country has been made in several instances, but too much cannot be said in their favor, and it is no exaggeration to state that they compare favorably with the choicest drives of which the largest cities boast. In all these drives the visitor will fail to find a single poor team, Oconomowoc particularly boasting of a very superior class of livery. When we then realize that within a radius of nine miles there are forty-one of these charming lakes, a number of which we have described, that mineral springs are found in every direction, that the scenery is one of surpassing beauty, we must concede to Ocoaomowioc the claim of being the grandest resort for the enjoyment of nature, combined with the luxuries and comforts produced by modern civilization. The lakes are all of pure, cool water, wth pebbly shores, grassy, dry banks, and of great depth. They are literally alive with fish - pickerel, black, green and rock bass, perch and muskallunge. Two hundred thousand whitefish were planted in Nagowicka Lake from the Milwaukee hatchery in 1877, which are doing well. The fishing at all the lakes is done with minnows, the catching of which forms a regular business. Of the mineral springs in the immediate vicinity of Oconomowoc we have visited but few, they being the La Belle Springs, Draper's Flowing Magnesia Springs, Hitchcock's Medicmal Springs, and the famous Minnewoc Springs near Gifibrd's. These springs have been analyzed, and are claimed to be equal to any found in this country. Croquet grounds are found at every hotel and boarding-house, while of churches we remember a Congregational, Methodist, Catholic, German Methodist and German Lutheran. The climate of this section is genial and wonderfully invigorating, owing to its high location, some 400 feet above Lake Michigan ; the nights are always delightfully cool and refreshing, and there is a gratifying absence of mosquitoes and other "pests of life" peculiar to the season. The sportsman in quest of a plenty of game will find duck, woodcock, snipe and other varieties in "greatest abundance. There is a diversity of sport and pastimes which is practically unlimited, and while we enjoy every luxury and every sport to our heart's content, first-class hotel accommodations, driving, boating, fishing, bathing, together with a long list of etceteras, we find our expense account considerably within the appropriation, leaving a margin larger than the deficit generally resulting from vacations.

Old Log Schoolhousb

The title of this article is not intended to convey the impression that there was but one "old log schoolhouse" in Waukesha County, for there were many of them. The one referred to had the honor of being the first schoolhouse, meeting-house and debating room in Waukesha County. In it the first school (except a private school taught at N. Walton's house, and one by Mrs. John Weaver) was taught ; in it the first public gatherings were held ; the first spellingschool met; the first singing-school was organized; some of the earliest " sparking" was done and the first temperance society was formed. It was erected in the fall of 1837, on Section 3, town of Waukesha - that is, " under the hill," on the west side of the Pox River at Waukesha, the land being owned by Joel B. Bidwell. It was of logs - almost entirely of tamarack poles, taken without leave or license from an unentered tamarack swamp up the river, and was erected by the joint labors of the few pioneers who had then taken up their abode at Waukesha. It was located on the west side of the river, because a majority of the children who would attend school resided on that side. It soon became a noted building, its fame spreading for miles in all directions. It was a proud day for the few settlers of Waukesha County (then a part of Milwaukee County) when they had a place for lectures, funerals and meetings of all kinds. Could the power to speak be given to the ashes of its moldered walls, their story would make the richest pages in the history of the county. But the story will never be told. Like the building itself, those whose hands reared its homely walls, and whose voices resounded often within them, have nearly all passed from the sight of man.

The first teacher was John Moon Wells, who had between twenty-five and thirty pupils, and whose first term extended through the winter of 1837-88. The second teacher was Jane McWhorter ; the third, William T. Bidwell ; the fourth, Chauncey C. Olin.

The pupils were probably nearly all embraced in the following list - that is, the pupils who composed John M. Wells' school: Henry and Albert Clinton; Josiah, Diana, Matilda and Lucinda Mendall ; Elon, Hosea, Randall, Joseph, and Eliza Ann Fuller ; Oliver, Deborah and Henry B. Bidwell; Charles Rossman, Charles, Horace, Caroline and Eliza Owen ; Jerome, Sarah and Mary Love ; Elizabeth Walton and a few more.

Deacon Edmund Clinton's boys sometimes went home from school with " striped jackets," but the Deacon publicly declared "that the boys must mind," and that he "was Satisfied as long as they did not come home with an arm or a leg broken." School-books were very scarce at first, some of the scholars having none at all during the first winter. The few who had books divided the use of them with those who had none or only a few. One or two scholars appeared every Monday morning with new, or rather difierent old almanacs, the source of supply being a collection owned by their grandmother ; and Deacon Mendall's copy of the " Pilgrim's Progress " was finally brought into requisition. It was nearly destroyed by the voracious urchins before the winter was over. Some of the youngsters probably know more about Giant Despair, the twelve signs of the zodiac, how to take Marston's pills and Boltune's liver syrup, and what to do in case of croup, than they did about syntax, percentage or geography ; and probably some of them could get off stale almanac jokes with more accuracy and relish, if not with more polish and eloquence, than they could the multiplication table or the " double rule of three." Whenever a bit of white paper could be secured, the artistic youths made pictures from their almanacs, of tape-worms, cancers, goitre and monster lizards, alleged to have been taken from the stomachs of kings and noblemen by some patent nostrum. However, the school was a success, and with the exceedingly limited facilities at hand, most of the scholars made rapid progress, and their names will go down for ages as those honored as being members of the first district school in Waukesha County.

Few buildings or institutions in Wisconsin, and, perhaps, none in Waukesha County, have a more interesting history than the " Old Prairieville Academy," at Waukesha. It has long been honored with the credit of being the first institution of its kind in the State. That idol the historian must shatter. There were two, in name, at least, before this ; but neither of them began to be successful as early, and the walls of not one have re-echoed the voices of so many students who afterward became distinguished in the State, national and foreign diplomatic circles, and in the war. The building which took the name of the Prairieville Academy is claimed to be the first structure wholly of stone erected in the State. It certainly was the first in Milwaukee and Waukesha Counties, and there are no records by which the historian can dispute the claim of its being the first in Wisconsin. It was the first academy building of any kind erected in the State of Wisconsin. It was erected for an academy, and for no other purpose. William T. Bidwell was a school-teacher, without a school, and Lyman Goodnow the proprietor of a fine stone-quarry, with jao market for its products. They, therefore entered into partnership for the purpose of founding an academy, and the building, which stands next west of M. D. Cutler's splendid park, in the village of Waukesha, was begun by them early in June, 1840. That Waukesha was to have a real academy soon became well understood throughout the vicinity ; for while Mr. Goodnow was quarrying stone and erecting the walls, Mr. Bidwell was advertising the enterprise and securing scholars in advance, as far as he could. Neither of them had any money with which to pay the masons or for the purchase of lumber and glass ; so $400 in gold was hired for this purpose of J. Nanscawen, and Morris D. Cutler gave two lots for a site. The plan, at first, was to erect a small one-story building ; but as the enterprise was looked upon with so much favor, Mr. Goodnow urged that it was not philosophical and progressive to build only for the present. The hardy builders, therefore, determined to be more liberal, and the two-story structure now used by the Lutheran Church was the result. As soon as the walls were up, Mr. Bidwell began a school in a room finished for the purpose ; but the building was not wholly completed until 1841. When done, the $400 had been swallowed up, other debts had been contracted, and Mr. Goodnow had expended nearly two years of his labor in addition to donating stone, lime and sand - quarrying his own stone, burning his own lime and hauling his own lime. The academy was duly incorporated by an act passed and approved February 19, 1841, as follows :

Section 1. That there shall be eslablished in the town of Prairieville, in the county of Milwaukee, a seminary of learning, by the name and style of the Prairieville Academy ; and that Lyman Goodnow and William T. Bidwell, and their associates and successors in oifice, are hereby created a body politic and corporate by the name of the Trustees of the Prairieville Academy, by which name they and their successors shall forever be known and have perpetual succession, and shall have power to contract and be contracted with, sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded, defend and be defended in all courts and places, in all actions, suits, complaints and causes whatsoever ; and they shall have a common seal, and may alter the same at pleasure. , And they shall have power under said corporate name to acquire, purchase, receive, possess, hold and enjoy, in deed and in law, to themselves and their successors, property, real, personal and mixed, and the same to sell and convey, rent or otherwise lawfully dispose of at pleasure, for purposes of education ; provided, that the real estate owned by the said company at any one time shall not exceed |10,000.

Sec. 2. The stock of said corporation shall consist of shares of $20 each, which shall be deemed personal property, and shall be transferable on the books of said corporation in such manner as shall be directed by the Trustees of the same.

Sec. 3. The corporate concerns of said academy shall be managed by three Trustees, a majority of whom shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business. They shall be elected annually, on the first ^londay of May, by the stockholders of the academy, and shall hold their offices for the term of one year, and until their successors are elected. The election of Trustees shall be by ballot, and each stockholder shall be entitled to one vote for every share owned by him, to the amount of ten shares, and then one vote for every five shares over and above that amount. ************ *

Sec. 5. No religious test or qualification shall be required from any Trustee or other officer of said corporation as a condition for admission to any privilege in the same.

At first, Messrs. Goodnow and Bidwell held nearly or quite all of the stock, for much of which they were in debt. The former, therefore, in 1842, sold his interest, debts and all, for a horse. That was all he ever realized from the academy. By an act approved January 27, 1844, the number of trustees was increased to seven. This was in reality a re-organization, as Mr. Cutler, who donated the lots, had purchased the property for its debts, which he paid, of Mr. Bidwell. This new company, or organization, purchased the academy of Mr. Cutler, and continued the school. But it soon became again financially involved, and again fell into Mr.

Cutler's hands in consequence. After lying idle a year or so, in January, 1846, a complete re-organization took place and a new company was formed, which had the name changed to Carroll College. In January, 1847, the charter was amended so that the Board of Trustees should consist of twenty-one persons. During this year, Elihu Enos, now Postmaster of Waukesha, and Prof. Sterling were paid $40 by the county for the use of the building for the first term of the Territorial District Court. School was closed while Judge Miller held court.

In 1849, the name and rights of " Prairieville Academy" were restored by legislative act. The school thereafter was kept along, in a very weak way a portion of the time it must be recorded, until about the beginning of the war, when it was discontinued, probably forever. In 1866, the building was remodeled inside, a vestibule added, and taken possession of for religious worship by the Lutheran Church. Before that, however, it had been used as a cabinet shop, as a s.toreroom and for various other purposes.

Among the graduates of this time-honored institution may be numbered some of the conspicuous men of the war and the nation, such as Lucius Fairchild, a General in the army, Governor of Wisconsin in 1866-67, United States Consul to England, and now United States Minister to Spain ; Cassius Fairchild, a General in the army ; Charles D. Parker, twice Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin ; Cushman K. Davis, Governor of Minnesota in 1874-75 ; Capt. W. V. Tichenor, now of Iowa ; C. C. White, deceased ; Col. Sidney A. Bean, deceased ; Capt. I. M. Bean, Collector of Internal Revenue for this district; Walker L. Bean, deceased, and others hardly less distinguished.

Some of the teachers, too, have been men of note. The first was William T. Bidwell, the junior founder of the institution ; the next, Silas Chapman, the great map man of Milwaukee, who taught about one year from the spring of 1841 ; Winchell D. Bacon, still a resident of Waukesha, taught three terms next after Chapman ; he was succeeded for nearly a year by Myron B. Williams, of Watertown ; Judge Green, now of Dodge County, taught for a time; Eleazer Root, the first State Superintendent of Public Instruction, was Principal for about three years, to October, 1847 ; Elihu Enos and Prof. Sterling managed the school from October, 1847, to October, 1848, under the name of the " Classical Institute and Normal School," and afterward a Greek of the name of Rev. A. Menseos, and various other parties taught until the old Prairieville Academy building - the first in Wisconsin - was sold and dedicated forever to other purposes.

It had an eventful history ; so much so, perhaps, that the future historians will always have some reason for perpetuating its identity as the first academy building erected in Wisconsin Territory. It was a monument to its founders and builders worthy of their energy and forethought, and for many years served a good purpose well.

Nashotah House

This old institution and its lovely surroundings are known everywhere in Waukesha County as " Nashotah Mission ; " but very few, however, have any adequate idea of the richness of its romantic history, nor of the want and privation suffered in founding it. Instead of being condemned, the historian will be praised for incorporating in this sketch of the oldest Episcopal Mission in the great Northwest, without further or more particular specification, the main points in the Rev. John A. Egar's " Story of Nashotah," published in London, England.

In the summer of the year 1841, three young clergymen of the Protestant Episcopal Church came to do missionary work in this new region. They were the Rev. William Adams, a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin ; the Rev. James Lloyd Breck, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania ; and the Rev. John Henry Hobart, a son of the great Bishop of New York, of that name, and a graduate of Columbia College, New York City. They had been classmates in the General Theological Seminary, and while there the design had been formed, by themselves and others, of establishing an associate mission somewhere among the settlers of what was then the Far West.

The honor of originating the project is given to a classmate, Mr. J. W. Miles, a candidate for holy- orders from the diocese of South Carolina. He had been actively engaged in Sundayachool and mission work in connection with his theological studies, and entertained, with some enthusiasm, the idea of missionary life after his ordination. The study of the great missions of the seventh and following centuries, in the Ecclesiastical History cpurse, fired his imagination, and the Great West and its wilderness seemed to present a field where the labors and self-denial of Augustine and Boniface, and Willibrord and Anskar and their companions might be imitated. On the 18th of Jun%, 1840, he presented a scheme to such of his classmates as seemed likely to enter into it, in which, with some youthful exaggeration of thought and language, the general plan was set forth. He proposed that a certain number from every class, as they completed their seminary course, should devote themselves to the West.

The summer vacation now coming on, the class dispersed. When they re-assembled, five were found to be still interested in the project. Its reality began to be felt, and the matter was opened to the Rt. Rev. Bishop Kemper, the Missionary Bishop of the Northwest, and received his approval. As the time for their ordination approached, one more withdrew, and the original mover of the project was held by his Bishop for work in the diocese to which he properly belonged. The three who were free to go received, in the course of the summer, their appointment as missionaries, with a stipend of $250 each, and an assignment to work in Wisconsin, and started on their journey of a thausand miles into the Western wilderness ; the Rev. Mr. Hobart in advance, and Messrs. Adams and Breck together, a little later.

The headquarters of the mission were established, under the Bishop's direction, at what is now the village of Waukesha, and a field was assigned them for their work, thirty miles north, west and south.

Having arrived in Prairieville, the three associates obtained such accommodations as the village could afibrd, by engaging an apartment in a log house, consisting of two rooms, one of which was occupied by the family of the proprietor, while the other was given up to his " boarders," with one reservation. The table was set for the entire family in this room, and here all took their meals in common. Subject to this interruption, the apartment was their own, and constituted their entire domain ; and here they lived and studied, and prayed and slept, and here they were " at home." It was a marked change from the comfort of the city ; but the life was so new, and all around them so strange, that the privations and primitive simplicity of the situation doubtless added to the interest with which they entered upon their work. Their first public services were held in a stone building, called the Academy, which they occupied on Sundays until a small frame church was built. This was begun in the fall of 1841, but was not completed for some time.

So marked had been the success of the mission during the fall and winter of 1841-42, that Bishop Kemper cheerfully gave his consent to an appeal to churchmen at the East for funds to establish an institution under their care, where they could still further develop their plans, and bring their school into operation. The Rev. Mr. Hobart was therefore authorized to proceed to New York and endeavor to interest the church there in the enterprise. He arrived in that city early in March, 1842, and by the kindness of the editor of the Churchman, the Rev. Samuel Seabury, D. D., was permitted to print in that paper a modest and dignified appeal.

The appeal was favorably received, and the responses made to his personal solicitations were such as to permit him to acknowledge, on September 24, 1842, the receipt of moneys amounting to the sum of $2,274.44. The encouraging advices he forwarded to his colleagues, from time to time, justified them in proceeding to secure a location ; and their knowledge of t^e country, gained by their itineracy, enabled them to lay down in advance certain conditions to guide them in their selection. It seemed unadvisable to establish such an institution as they had in view in the village of Prairieville, partly because, from the growth of the village, the church there would require before long such exclusive attention as could be given only by a settled Rector, and partly because it was desirable to secure a larger domain than could be bought with the means at command in immediate proximity to a settlement of that size. A few miles to the west was a region of small lakes, beautiful for scenery, and where land could be obtained at a lower price. It was resolved to purchase a tract upon one of these lakes, and the clergy made it a point, when on their journeys, to examine different localities. In the course of the summer, it was learned that a claim could be bought upon the Nashotah Lakes, and on a set day the Rev. Mr. Adams, accompanied by the Rev. Lemuel B. Hull, of Milwaukee, rode out on horseback to view the spot. They took with them their lunch, consisting of dried beef and biscuit, and spent the day upon the ground. Their unanimous conclusion was that this was the place of all others for their purpose. The Nashotah, or Twin Lakes (upper and lower), are two of a chain of four, the others being the Upper and Lower Nemahbiii, lying about the center of the lake region, twenty-five miles from Milwaukee, and on the summit or ridge which separates the tributaries of Rock River and the Mississippi from those of Lake Michigan. They lie east of Oconomowoc, south of Okauchee, west of Nagowicka, and north of the Nemahbins, into which their surplus water flows, the Upper Nashotah being the head, and having no inlet ; it is fed by springs in the bed of the lake itself. The Indians called the Upper and Lower Nashotah by this name, meaning "twins," because of their correspondence in size and shape.

Upon these lakes was the claim which the missionaries proposed to purchase. It lay to the east and south of the Upper Nashotah, and extended about half-way down the east bank of the Lower Nashotah, the lake being the western limit, and the eastern the section line. It was described in the Government survey as the east fractional half of Section 12, Town 7, Range 17 east of the Fourth Principal Meridian, and the west fractional half of Section 7, Town 7, Range 17 east, containing altogether 464 acres, more or less. Negotiations were at once commenced, and the laud was purchased. The deed was made jointly to the three missionaries.

Here, on the 30th day of August, 1842, the Rev. Messrs. Adams and Breck (Mr. Hoban being still at the Bast) arrived with their worldly possessions. On Thursday, September 1, they took formal possession of the domain by an elaborate public religious service in the open air, at which, besides themselves, two laymen were present, and by which they set it apart and dedicated it to the service of God, for an institution of piety and learning.

The missionaries found, on their arrival, that the improvements actually made upon theii purchase consisted of a claim shanty, 17x13, made of rough boards, without lath or plaster ; and in this they took up their abode ; one corner, as they facetiously described it in after times, being their chapel, one corner their study, one corner their kitchen, and one corner their bedroom. They immediately put under contract a building of a better character, which, though unfinished, they were able to occupy in November, and in which the three clergy (Mr. Hobart having, returned) and three resident students, who joined them as soon as they were able to receive them, spent the winter of 1842-43.

On the 9th of October, 1842, Messrs. Adams and Breck were advanced to the priesthood. The ordination took place in the Indian Church, at Duck Creek. The journey was made in a lumber wagon, and occupied four days each way. On their return they brought a bell and some other effects, which belonged to the Green Bay Mission, and which were made over to them by those having authority. The bell was hung in an oak-tree near the house ; and, though its position has been changed, it still calls to duty and to prayer. And thus came into existence the institution which is known to the church at large as Nashotah, and to the people of the vicinity, even to the present day, as " the Mission."

In the fall of 1842, three acres of land were plowed up and fenced. The next spring the house, of which mention has been made, was finished, and the " claim shanty " was moved near it, and made useful. The shanty has disappeared ; it became a kitchen, then a carpenter's shop, and finally was pulled down ; but the house is still standing, though not on its original site, which is occupied by the present stone chapel. It is known traditionally as the "Blue House," from the color with which it was painted. The structure was humble, but fully equal to the average house of the country at that time. It was a low one, two stories in height, a frame building, containing two rooms on the ground floor and three above. The front room below was the common room, the other was the kitchen; underneath was a cellar; the rooms above were

During the summer of 1843, other buildings were added to the mission premises. The first of these was a chapel schoolhouse of peculiar construction, fitted to the exigencies of an institution which aimed to do a great work with little means. It was a plain, frame building, as were all those erected during this period. It would hold about fifty persons. The second floor was divided into rooms for students, and underneath was a basement. In course of time the basement was also occupied by students, in fact the basement was in request, being warmest and most comfortable in winter ; and Bishop Kemper, during the winter of 1843-44, which he spent at the mission, made his home in one of these basements, or cellar rooms. At the end of this year, eight students found accommodations on the premises, and the next year, 1844, these were increased to twenty-eight. To accommodate them, colleges of the same humble character were built, besides which, other improvements were made from time to time ; such as a barn, a dairy, a wash-house, ice-house, and finally a farmhouse : so that the mission in a short time presented the appearance of a small village.

Before the institution, however, got fairly started on its educational career, certain important changes took place. The Rev. Mr. Adams spent eighteen months at the East, from May,

1843, to October, 1844, and his place was taken for a time by the Rev. William Walsh, a young clergyman from New York, who remained a year. At the close of 1843, the Rev. Mr. Hobart relinquished his connection with the mission, and took clerical work at the East, where all his connections were. These changes are not to be wondered at. To gentlemen born and bred, men of university education, the hardships of pioneer life were peculiarly trying, and the triple labor, not only of carrying on an arduous mission, but also of establishing a school without adequate means, and at the same time of breaking up a farm, and reducing it to cultivation, together with the necessity of doing their own housekeeping, cooking and domestic work, might well weary the most devoted enthusiasm. Society there was none outside their own circle; culture was wholly wanting ; books, that prime necessity to a studious man, were inaccessible ; and in the face of the difficulties that beset them, it is no wonder that the one sought a vacation in a change of scene, and the other retired to more congenial pursuits.

The school, however, had been established, and the work must go on. Mr. Breck remained at his post, and, with the assistance of the students and Mr. Walsh, the missionary work was kept up, instruction given and more land brought under cultivation. In October,

The interest excited by the appeal of Mr. Hobart had not ceased, and friends continued to send their ofierings for the support of the mission. These sums more than met the expenses of building and preparing ground for cultivation, but they were inadequate to the support of the clergy and students. Nor was it desired at this time that the institution should be supported by funds collected from abroad. It has been mentioned that the idea of combining manual labor with education was quite popular in the United States at this time ; and it was supposed that the students could contribute materially towards their own support by the cultivation of the farm, and the performance of the various duties required in the internal economy of the institution. To secure a due co-operation and distribution of labor, the mission was formed into a brotherhood, in which the principle of a common fund and a common life was applied to the clergy and the lay brethren. The members, though bound by no irrevocable vows, did bind themselves to merge all personal considerations in the good of the institution, while they remained its inmates, to share equally with the rest the means they might possess or receive, and to perform such labor as the interests of the community required. The lay brethren, being students for the holy ministry, were to receive the reward of their industry in the spiritual and intellectual training which should fit them for their vocation ; and upon their ordination they were to be released from all obligations to the institution.

Every person educated in the institution was expected to work an average of four hours per day, which was increased to eight hours a day during the summer vacation of two months.

For two months in winter, only two hours' work was required each day. The manual labor was performed by committees, each committee having its particular duty. Of these, some were special, and depended upon the presence among the students of men brought up to a trade, or educated for a profession ; e. g., the medical committee was due to the fact that an educated physician was for awhile a student of divinity. Others were permanent, and their names indicate the kind of work done - gardening, bakery, dairy, farming, carpentry, and clearing land. The head of each committee was held responsible for the tools, furniture, etc., belonging to his department, and also for the work done. He rendered a quarterly account of the condition of his department to the " Lay Council." Each member of a committee was also required to make an individual report of his personal expenses, labor, etc. His expenses were charged against him, and his labor credited at a fair valuation. In this way, the benefit accruing to him from the general fund of the institution could be calculated at any time, and also the value of the work done in lessening the expenses of the mission.

Mr; Gustaf Unonius, a graduate of the University of Upsala, Sweden, was received as a candidate for orders by the Bishop in the spring of 1844, and, after reading theology with Mr. Adams for a year, was ordained deacon May 11, 1845, the first graduate of Nashotah who entered the sacred ministry.

" It would be, Rt. Rev. Father, impossible to maintain a student for $25 per year unless other resources, aside from the sum of $25, were available ; for his washing would come to $8 or $10 a year, groceries to nearly the same, books to half as much, and clothing to twice the sum. But using other means, such as the labor of the students for food, the industry of the ladies of the mission for preparing clothing already purchased or supplied, and the charity of merchants or manufacturers in the East for much of the necessary clothing, and the donations of private Christians for our expenses - by these means, Rt. Rev. Father, we trust to live. I have written

Wilmington, to send us clothing. It matters not what the color or texture, or style of the clothing may be ; we are all pawperes Ohristi at Nashotah, and wish to remain so."

And, June 6, 1844, he wrote again : " The brethren are laboring hard to bring about a supply of food for the approaching winter. We are now twenty lay-brethren, and myself (Mr. Walsh and Mr. Hobart had gone, and Mr. Adams had not yet returned), and the expenses of such a household upon the start are very great. With about four exceptions, the mission clothes them all, which, at $25 per annum, would make $400 ; but the first year nearer $500, for those that have come in many respects very meanly clad ; and up to the present we have had all our food to purchase, besides buildings to erect, etc., so that the next twelve months will be the trying time with Nashotah. In the autumn we shall have to purchase, or rather pay for, 600 weight of butter, that we have ordered to be laid down. But, dear Bishop, we must make our own butter another year. There are two brethren here that understand fully both the making of butter and cheese - indeed do now make from our two cows a few pounds per week, and better butter I never wish to eat ; but we must have ten or twelve good cows, and a milk-house by the lake, and an ice-house. I do, moreover, see another necessity that will, without doubt, arise before long, viz., the doing a portion, and in time all, of the washing ourselves. We cannot pay out $250 a year for twenty brethren, $500 for forty. All, except shirts and the finer clothing, may be done. I have never hinted anything of the kind to the brethren as yet, but they have to me. In time it will work out. We have bought a wagon for $60, new, and Eastern make; also a superior yoke of oxen for $60."

On the 28th of September, 1845, he wrote again : " We have received no very abundant supply of money since last spring, but have been, nevertheless, kept from distress ; we are in debt about $200. We have all the provisions necessary for the ensuing winter, save wheat and pork; both will be cheap. Also, we have the most part of the winter's clothing that will be necessary ; yet this must amount to nigh on $100, which for twenty or more is moderate, compared with the last winter. We have put in twenty-four acres of wheat for the next year, and shall raise our own pork. There have been some depredations committed in the neighborhood, so that now we have to keep two of the students statedly sleeping in the wash-house, which is not yet either lathed or plastered. The schoolhouse is lathed, but not plastered. We have had $10 given us to buy fowls with, and have turned the horse-stable into a poultry house, no longer keeping even so much as a single horse. The farm-work is done by oxen. We shall require, to pay what we owe, and to meet necessary expenses, nearly $500 the coming winter."

It will be noticed that Mr. Breck speaks of a limited supply of money, but congratulates himself that they had been " kept from distress." It would be interesting to know at what extremity he would at that time have considered " distress " to begin ; for the fact was that the spring of 1845 was a time of real want at the mission. The rule not to go in debt was. never relaxed for daily support ; and if provisions fell short, and there was no money with which to buy more, the community lived on what it had until supplies, or money for their purchase, came in. It is not too much to say that more than once their diet was reduced actually to bread and water, and no great quantity of the former.

When the candidates went out to lay-read at the stations to which they were appointed, they were, of course, entertained by some one or other of the farmers or villagers of the vicinity, and it usually happened, on sitting down to a backwoods farmer's meal, that some apology would be made for the roughness of the plenty on the table, with the suggestion that, doubtless, at the mission they were used to better fare. It was said that on no such occasion was tha want at the mission alluded to, but the remark was allowed to pass with the assurance that they enjoyed the meal set before them ; and it was not until long afterward that the neighborhood really knew how poorly the brotherhood lived at that time.

And this may illustrate the fact that the brotherhood was a necessity, without which Nashotah could not have persevered through the years immediately succeeding its foundation. Circumstances at a later period, however, as imperatively required that the brotherhood principle should be given up ; and it is a true account of this whole matter, that, without the brotherhood, Nashotah could not have been begun, and with it, the institution could not, after a certain, period, have been continued.

In 1846, Bishop Kemper, having organized the Diocese of Missouri and surrendered it to. a Bishop of its own, removed to Wisconsin and purchased a farm adjoining the Nashotah property, which became his residence (November, 1846) until his death.

About this time, some further improvements were made at the mission. The increase of population in the immediate neighborhood rendered necessary the formation of a parish, and, to accommodate the more numerous congregation, the building before spoken of, in which the services had been held, was remodeled and enlarged. Some little attempt at ornamentation of a churchly character was also made, and the institution became possessed of a proper chapel, which was also the parish church of the neighborhood.

At this time, the institution had shown such evidence of stability that it was deemed proper to petition the Legislature of the Territory for a charter, and, in 1847, it was duly incorporated with university powers. The property was then legally transferred to the Trustees.

In 1847, Bishop Kip, of Albany, N. Y., visited the mission, and, in his account of it, remarked that at prayer he " was surrounded by Americans, English, Irish, Swedes, Danes, a Norwegian, a converted Israelite and the dusky sons of our own forest. The Indians are Oneidas, from the mission of Mr. Davis, on Duck Creek, where a flourishing church has been formed and a system of discipline adopted as strict as that introduced by the Jesuits, and far more efficient. The Indians, in their own figurative language, have bestowed upon Bishop Kemper a name signifying the ' Keeper of the Word,' and on Mr. Davis that of the ' Clear Sky.' When the late convention of our church was held, at Milwaukee, four lay delegates from the Oneidas appeared and took their seats. They walked the whole distance from the mission, the last day traveling forty-five miles. We believe that it is the first time that the voice of one of our aborigines has been heard in the councils of the church."