Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1905-01-31
MADISON LETTER.
MADISON, WIS.,, Jan. Goth, l9l

allowance, many of them grey with
age, and the following history of some
of these may be of interest to some of
the PILoT's readers who are not con-
versant with the facts; they are familiar
to nearly everyone here at Madison.
OF these old claims the one held by. s.
ID. Carpenter is perhaps the most in
| teresting.
A great many people living in Wau-
sau know Pump" Carpenter, some
personally, others by reputation. Mr.
Carpenter visited for brief time in
Wausau about three years ago, renew
ing friendship with former acquaint-
ances, and spent his time with old
citizens relating many "reminiscences
of early life in Wisconsin. He is now
considerably past eighty years of age
and as regularly as the state legislature
meets he is on hand to prosecute his
claim. He is present again this winter,
occupying reporters table, and states
that if the claim is not paid before his
death his ghost will ever after haunt
the balls of the capitol building.
The pump Carpenter claim natur-
ally recalls other old claims against the
state OF Wisconsin, which have become
historic and which are as interesting in
their way as some of the claims that for
years and years have come up with reg
ularity, gathering romantic interest
with age, and keeping ever alive the
spark of hope in the breasts of the in
dividuals who have grown white haired
in prosecuting them. Among the mea-
sures pending in the present legislature
the one providing for paying the claim
of $. ID. Carpenter on an old printing
contract is far from being the least in
teresting. The claim originated over
contract entered into between Mr.. Car
penter and the state in 1859, and on
which Governor Harvey, then secre-
tary of state, "kicked" in 1860 and 1861.
In 1874 the legislature adopted bill
providing for report on the subject
from Secretary of State Peter Doyle,
State Treasurer Fred Kuehn, and At
torney General A. Scott Sloan. All
these men are now dead, but certified
copy of their findings is before the
printing committee, which shows that
Mr.. Carpenter is entitled TO $45,970.
In 1875 law was passed waving the
statute of limitations and allowing the
claimant to go to the supreme court.
That body decided against him on tech
nicalities of the law, and never reached
the merits of the case. The claim has
slumbered ever since, except when
brought up at intervals by the claim
ant, to be as regularly defeated by the
legislature. Mr.. Carpenter has re-
turned to Wisconsin, after having been
for years resident of Missouri, and the
prospect is that the claim will hereafter
come up regularly, unless it is settled
| by the legislature in favor of the claim
ant, who is now over eighty years old
and does not look over sixty. He will
probably live for some years, and will
certainly keep his claim alive. At
present he divides his time between re-
porting on Madison paper, working
on voting machine, and occasionally
| talking to members of the legislature.
Mr., Carpenter is historic character in
Wisconsin, and several of his inven-
tions have made other men rich. He
made the model of the first self binding
| harvester, and all the machines in use
are constructed on notifications of his
idea. But shrewd and INSCRIPTIONS
men pirated his patents, and he never
realized any money from them. He al
so invented web perfecting press, but
it was at day too early in the history
of newspaperdom, and he abandoned
his models Years afterward another
man used them, and traces of his ideas
are the leading features of all web per-
fecting machines.
There were other claims growing out
of old printing contracts that have ap-
peared before the legislature. E. A.
Calkins used to come in the early days
with one, and the state finally settled
up by paying him about $36, 900 in all at
intervals.
John b. Norton, an old man, now liv-
ing in Baraboo, used to come in with a
claim that really belonged to David At
wood, but on the death of the latter, it
was allowed to subide. In fact, Colonel
Calkins is the only man who ever got
any money out of the legislature on a
printing claim.
Another long lived claim that only
disappeared with the death of its own
er, was the old Baxter claim. Mr.. Bax.
ter was one of the men who built the
original state capitol, and thereby ac.
quired claim. He began to come to
the legislature as a young, vigorous
man. Years rolled by, but he continued
to come, little less hopeful and trifle
grayer every year until the present
capitol was built, and the old one was
torn down. Even then the Baxter claim
would have still been pressed if the old
man had not died and left no heirs who
were willing to carry the fight further
There have been other short lived
claims that were settled or abandoned
after two or three sessions of the legis
; lature, but none of them ever became
as famous as the printing claims o
Carpenter and Calkins, or the carpen
ter claim of Baxter.
Once, for eight or ten years the late
Moses M. Strong used to appear anf
) try to induce the state to buy the stere
. type plates of territorial history o
Wisconsin which he wrote, but, aftel
being beaten in 1891 for the last time
he died soon after. and the plates un
; doubtedly went to the melting pot
: Expert opioion of old legislators is II
. the effect that if a man has claim, ans
also dollar, he viii be wise to keep tn
> latter and give the state the former.