Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1902-05-29
WISCONSIN'S EARLY DAYS.

Today is Wisconsin's 54th birthday,
with nearly 100000 citizens to note,
if they choose, the result OF the labors
of the few thousands who established
the commonwealth She is one of the
sold girls" in the sisterhood of states
being the seventeenth of the family
vet not SO venerable but that there
are living "old settlers" who rejoiced
at her coming OUT as state, May %,
1848; but Of those who nursed her
through the ills of territorial infancy
there cannot, in the run of nature, be
many alive.
Wisconsin (Ouiskonsan, as it's long
ago governor, James Duane DOty, used
to write it in it's early days. became
territory in 1886 by severance from
Michigan territory made state In
1897, which took it from the Indian
territory of 1900 This deviation ac-
counts for the chartering in 1885, by
Michigan, of 'The Bank of Wisconsin"
the first one in the territory, and To-
Gated at Green Bay-a bank which, in
1899, had got into such condition as
to receive legislative investigation.
In 1888 the boundaries of the terri
tory were defined and it's capital fixed
at Madison. Prior to that time the
government was nomadic. Henry
Dodge was governor in 1886, with head
quarters at a place called Belmont.
His signature to commission he is
sued in that year was plain H.DOdge,
Just as if he were private citizen. In
1888 he issued another commission,
this time from Burlington, and, less
economical of ink and labor than Of
yore, signed it Henry Dodge" The
great seal of the territory used at that
time was unique, being an uncouth die
2M inches in diameter. The device
was an arm, almost as biz n appear
ance as a quarter Of beef, with the
sleeve rolled back to the elbow; the
hand was intended to appear as clutch
ing (which it did not) and UNFOLDING
miners pick above tangle of lines in
dicating ore. In large letters around
this rough cut were the words, "Great
Seal of Wisconsin Territory" The
Impressions from this seal were illeg-
ible, and on one of the commissions re-
ferred to the then secretary of the.
territory, John T. Horner, had to make.
the design palmer, smirched the prop
er place on the document with paste
made of red waters, laid on that rude
disc from common foolscap paper, and
squeezed it with the seal, the result
being butcher-like in more ways than
one.
There was trouble, at the start, about
the capitol building. 1t was thought
there was jobbery, pool, in the con-
tract for construction, and an investi-1
cation was had by the legislature with
a result of much smoke and little fire.
When the building was ready, it
lacked, of course, all the modern i'm
provements for making laws with
neatness, dispatch and secrecy. The
furniture was rude and uncomfortable.
The rooms we're heated with huge
stoves into which there was constant
chucking of wood. Small wooden box
es filed with sand were conveniently
placed for legislative expectorations.
Among the principal supplies for mem
bers we're candles and candleStickS,
pale ink, quires of "foolscap" paper.
punches of goose quilts. which the law
makers had to make into pens with the
Congress- knives with buckhorn
handles (also supplied by the govern
ment, which same cutlery was en-
pillow in scratching out mistakes, as
tooJhpicks and for manicure work.
pounce powder for erasures, waters,
sealing wax, rulers, and red tape by the
cord. An odd lot of stuff to be sure;
vet with such tools and their brains
the Solons OF that day began to shape
the destiny of the territory.
The voting strength of the territory