Emigration to Wisconsin-Character of the Settlers. 231 turns from 1800 down to 1850. From it is confessedly true that the basis of this table it appears, that during the the social character of Wisconsin has decade 1840-50, the population of been laid in a migration as distinguished Wisconsin advanced from 30,000 to in character as it has been surpassing 305,000, while, at corresponding decades of their growth, Ohio presents the figures from 45,000 to 230,000, Michigan from 31,000 to 212,000, while the corresponding increase of Indiana and Illinois was in a much smaller ratio. It will be observed, that the increase of Wisconsin, for the ten years ending in 1850, was 900 per cent. By examination of the census returns of that year, it will be found that the increase of Iowa was 345 per cent.; that of Arkansas, 114 per cent., and of no other state over 100 per cent. during the same period. This migration to Wisconsin, unparalleled as it is in the experience of states, has not been the fitful result of the gambling mania which is luring its hordes of victims to the land of gold. It has been the steady and persistent flow of men and capital, seeking a permanent home and a profitable investment. After filling up the southern tier of counties, the unbroken tide is setting strongly to the fertile valleys of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers, with their tributaries, and to the Mississippi border. Wisconsin is no less distinguished in the character of its early settlers than in their number. Recklessness and wild adventure have found little place in the history of this migration. Michigan was fairly open to survey and settlement as early as 1830, and in the course of the succeeding ten years its capabilities were explored and appreciated, during which period its population rose, by a massive emigration, from 31,000 to 212,000. In 1840 the relations of Wisconsin to the intelligent enterprise of the eastern states were what those of Michigan were ten years earlier. The straits had been passed by sails and by steam, and the Territory of Wisconsin was open to settlement. The conviction, however, had fastened itself on the mind of New-England and New-York, that the physical elements of prosperity were more decided and more readily available in Wisconsin, and would work out an earlier maturity, economical and social, than had been realized in the history of other states. In accordance with these impressions, in numbers. The intellect, the education and integrity-the head and the heart, as well as the enterprise, the wealth, the industry and the skill of NewYork and New-England, have been laid broadly and deeply under requisition to furnish out the staple of the population which is to leave its impress on the state for generations to come. Wisconsin has been equally fortunate in the numbers and the material of her foreign emigration. The great European movement which is likely to characterize the latter half of the 19th century, will consist, not so much in the improvement of the forms of social organization at home, as in the reproduction of her civilization under greatly improved conditions, by a massive emigration to the new world, whose broad surface of land, still unoccupied, is demanding settlement and cultivation, with a voice now familiar to the ear, and attuned to the heart of Europe. There is a Germany in America which is destined to be greater than the German's fatherland. Ireland is already cis-atlantic and regenerate. The Scandinavian, with his remarkable power of assimilation, touches our shores, and is American in thought, feeling and language. From all these sources, Wisconsin is deriving large and steady accessions of numbers and of wealth, of enterprise and of cultivated intellect; not of those who drop down by accident within our borders, but of those who leave their native shores with no other intention than to find a home in Wisconsin. Through those several channels of increase and progress, Wisconsin presented in the year 1850-the third of her existence as a sovereign state and a member of the national union-a population of 305,000 souls, a result absolutely without parallel in the settlement of states. And it is equally true that the opening of her career as a sovereign state has been from a point of nearer approximation to the standard of social maturity which prevails on the Atlantic border, and with far less sacrifice of the advantages and refinements of modern civilization, than has been true of other new states, whether of the North-west, or of other portions of the great valley. basis of the alluvion of Southern WisconIt is, therefore, an interesting question, sin. This geological district, in addiand one which has attracted attention, tion to that portion of the state which public and private, what are the natu- lies southerly of the valley of the Wisral capabilities of Wisconsin, which consin River, comprises the whole of have made so broad and permanent an the slope towards Lake Michigan. impression upon the mass of mind at home and abroad, as to bring to her shores so large a portion of the men and the capital that are annually seeking a home and investment in the West? The answer to this inquiry naturally arranges itself under a variety of heads, which will be very briefly considered. GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION.-The State of Wisconsin comprises most of that part of the original North-western territory which lies north of the parallel of latitude 42° 30' and between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River, and extending to Lake Superior on the north. A portion of this expanse of territory, lying between Green Bay and Lake Superior and to the north and east of Menomonee and Montreal rivers, is attached to Michigan; and another portion, west and north of the St. Croix and St. Louis rivers, to Minnesota. The area of Wisconsin, exclusive of the waters of Lake Michigan and Superior, comprises fifty-four thousand square miles, or thirty-five millions of acres. CLIMATE.-Included between parallels 42° 30', and 48° north, the climate of Wisconsin is of the same general character with that of New-York and New-England. The average annual temperature, however, of Wisconsin, is not of so low a figure as that of the same parallels on the Atlantic border. The atmosphere is drier, more transparent and salubrious, and the whole area of the state is remarkably free from those causes of endemic disease which were by no means unknown in the settlement of western New-York, which have been the misfortune of large portions of Michigan, and the scourge of Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and, in part, of Iowa. Wisconsin is conceded to be the healthiest of the western states. Its summers are adapted, in temperature and duration, to perfect all the products natural to the latitude, but are not oppressive. Its autumns are proverbially delightful. Its winters are close and uniform, but not harsh or generally severe. GEOLOGICAL FEATURES, SOIL, &c. The limestone, underlying the coal fields of Illinois, forms the immediate In many portions of this district the limerock disappears, and the out-cropping sandstone furnishes a fine material for building. The lead-bearing rock of the mineral region is a porous limestone, prevailing throughout Grant, La Fayette and Iowa counties, comprising four-fifths of the "Lead District" of the Upper Mississippi; the remaining one-fifth being in the states of Illinois and Iowa. Deposits of iron ore, water limestone, and beds of gypsum, together with other varieties of minerals, are found in localities more or less numerous throughout the limestone region. All of that section of the state which lies between Lake Superior on the North, and the Falls of St. Anthony on the Mississippi, and the falls of the other rivers flowing southerly, is primitive in its prevailing geological character; and it is within this primitive region that the copper mines of Lake Superior are found -probably the richest in the world, and apparently inexhaustible. In all that portion of the state lying between the primitive region just described, and the limestone formation of the South and East, the transition sandstone prevails, interspersed with limestone, and, more sparsely, with rock of a primitive character. This formation comprises that section of country drained by the Wisconsin and other rivers tributary to the upper Mississippi, and below the falls of those streams. Within this geological district are found quarries of white marble, which promise to be abundant and valuable. The character of the soil of Wisconsin is, of course, indicated to some extent by its geological features. The limestone district of the state is overspread by a soil and subsoil similar to that which prevails in other portions of the great valley, and unsurpassed by any in fertility. It is the distinction of the mineral region of Wisconsin, that it is overspread by a surface of the very finest agricultural qualities, contrary to the general fact, that a mining district is worthless for the purposes of culture. Proceeding northerly and westward Geographical Position-Geological Features, Soil, &c. ly of the dividing ridge between the waters of Lake Michigan and those that flow into the Upper Mississippi, the soil will be observed to become more sandy and porous; a character which will be found to prevail throughout the sandstone region above described. This portion of the state admits of easy cultivation. The soil is warm and highly productive, and the growth lux uriant. FACE OF THE COUNTRY, SCENERY, &c. -The surface of Lake Michigan is about six hundred feet above the level of the ocean. The surface of the state is every where undulating; not hilly, much less mountainous. Its average level below latitude 46° is about 250 feet above Lake Michigan; seldom falling so low as 100 feet, and rarely rising above 400 feet. The highest of the Blue Mounds, on the line between the counties of Dane and Iowa, rises 1,170 feet above Lake Michigan, and is perhaps the most elevated land in Wis consin. There is a remarkable depression in the surface of the country, running across the state, from Green Bay to the Mississippi, the bottom of which furnishes the channels of the Fox and the Lower Wisconsin. The portage between these two rivers is less than two miles. 233 struction of roads of easy grade, transversely, as well as in the line of watercourses. There is also, from this cause, much less to be apprehended from the sudden and destructive swell of the volume of water, from copious rains-two considerations, which they know best how to appreciate, who have dwelt where rivers and their branches make their beds in deep valleys, while the general elevation of the country is but a succession of intervening ridges. Such being a general description of the surface of Wisconsin, the immigrant will not look for Alpine scenery, or the bolder and sublimer features of the country of high mountain and deep valley. But in all that constitutes the beauty of the landscape, whether in the vestments of nature, or in those capabilities which cultivation can alone develop, Wisconsin is without a rival.Among her ten thousand undulations, there is scarcely one which lifts its crown above its fellows, which does not disclose to the prophetic eye of taste a possible Eden, a vision of loveliness, which time and the hand of cultivation will not fail to realize and to verify. The only forests, of a growth approximating towards that of Western NewYork, Pennsylvania and Northern Ohio, are found in a small portion of the Rock River valley, and in a narrow border on Lake Michigan, widening as it is traced northerly; evergreens becoming more freely interspersed, and finally predominating. This portage is but 223 feet above the level of Lake Michigan; being the elevation of the dividing ridge at this point, between the basin of the lakes and the valley of the Mississippi. At the mouth of the Wisconsin, The evergreen growth prevails in the the western terminus of this depression valleys of the streams of the sandstone is about 60 feet above Lake Michigan; district. The most extensive pinery in that of Lake Winnebago, at the head the state is found on the upper Wisconof the rapids of the Fox, being 160 feet. From the north into this valley flow the Upper Wisconsin and the Wolf, and on the south the country rises to the level of the head waters of the Rock, 316 feet above the surface of Lake Michigan. Thence there is a gradual inclination of the surface southerly to the line of the state; the elevation of which at the egress of the Rock is 128 feet above the lake. sin. The same valuable growth prevails in the valleys of the Wolf, the La Crosse, the Black, the Chippewa, the St. Croix, and other streams penetrating the sandstone region. Aside from these localities and the primitive region of Lake Superior, the elements of the Wisconsin landscape are the rolling prairie, the sparse woodland, the opening, the natural meadow, and the lake. These, in their infinite variety of combination, and in their unIt is characteristic of the state, that rivaled loveliness, make up the natural the streams uniformly flow in beds but scenery of the state. Three hundred very slightly depressed below the gen- and fifty thousand souls have, in a day, eral level of the adjacent country, and as it were, found a happy home in Wispresent no difficulty in the way of con- consin. But her millions of acres, equal ly beautiful, and all untouched, are still courting the hand of cultivation and the adornings of art. EDUCATION. The bounty of Congress has set apart the 16th section of every township in the state for the support and maintenance of common schools. From this source, nearly 1,000,000 acres will accrue to the state, the proceeds of the sales of which are to constitute a permanent fund, the income of which is to be annually devoted to the great purposes of the grant. This magnificent foundation has been wisely enlarged by constitutional provisions, giving the same direction to the donation of 500,000 acres, under the act of 1841, and the five per cent. reserved on all sales of government lands within the state. A still larger addition will accrue from the grant of the swamp and overflowed lands, which the settlement of the country, the lapse of time, and easy processes of reclamation, will convert into the best meadow land in the world, and a large portion, ultimately, into arable. For the support of a state university, seventy-two sections of choice land, comprising 46,080 acres, have been already granted, and it is not improbable that this provision may be also enlarged by subsequent grants. If these trusts are administered with ordinary wisdom, the educational funds of Wisconsin cannot be less, ultimately, than $3,000,000, and may reach $5,000,000. The university is already chartered and in successful operation. The school system has been wisely designed, and the progress of organization, under the law, keeps pace with the progress of settlement. There are already not far from two thousand five hundred school districts in the state. The annual income to be divided, has already reached $70,000, and will be greatly increased from year to year. The system contemplates, by the introduction of union schools, to extend academic instruction to each town in the state. In addition to this munificent public provision for common and liberal education, there are, in different parts of the state, educational incorporations, both academic and collegiate, found ed on private subscription. The most promising of these are the college at Beloit, well endowed, and in success ful operation: and similar institutions at Milwaukie, Racine and Waukesha, in Eastern Wisconsin, and at Appleton, in the North. Indeed, in none of the new states, even in the North-west, will the means of education be more ample; and in none is there a more rational apprecia tion of the importance of this paramount public interest. In Wisconsin, as in the other states of this Union, there is, and ever will be, an entire freedom of ecclesiastical organization, and an equal protection of every religious institution and arrangement, conservative of good morals, and protective of the highest and most enduring interests of man. In consideration of all these elements of prosperity, economical and social, such as have never, till now, gathered around the opening career of a new political community, there is little ground for wonder that the early growth of Wisconsin has been without a parallel in the history of states; and it may be very safely assumed, that the advent of men and capital to that favored portion of the North-west, will continue, in increasing volume, for many years to come. MINING. To the practical miner, as capitalist or operative, the lead region of the Upper Mississippi offers the most substantial inducements to settlement. The exceeding abundance and richness of the mineral; the comparative ease with which it may be mined; and the high price it commands the moment it is brought to the surface, open to the industrious and prudent operator a highway to wealth. New leads of the richest promise have been recently discovered in the mineral district, and an increasing emigration to that section of the state promises to replace the California draft, and to meet the growing demand for the mineral. The steady advance in the price of lead which has prevailed for five years past, is indicative of a gradual but decided extension of its uses in the arts.There is no ground for apprehension that the supply will outrun the demand, or be able to work a reduction of the wages of labor and profits of capital in this industrial occupation, for some years to come. The copper mines of Lake Superior are of established celebrity throughout Mining-Lumbering—Agriculture, Manufactures, Trade. 235 the world, and open an inviting field skirted and belted by timber, as to be for enterprise. The mining interest in adapted to immediate and profitable octhat region is fast losing its character of cupation and improvement to their very adventure, and is attracting the atten- centre. tion of the prudent capitalist and the practical miner, as a remunerative branch of business. The iron mines of Wisconsin have not yet been opened to any extent, but are worthy of the attention of the immigrant. There are rich localities of ore near the head waters of the Rock, and on the Upper Mississippi and its branches. The openings, which comprise a large portion of the finest land of Wisconsin, owe their present condition to the action of the annual fires, which have kept under all other forest growth, except those varieties of oak which can withstand the sweep of that element. This annual burning of an exuberant growth of grass and of underbrush, has been adding, perhaps for ages, to the LUMBERING. To the lumberman, the productive power of the soil, and prepineries of Wisconsin present induce- paring it for the ploughshare, without ments for investment and settlement the life-long process which was neceswhich can be hardly overrated. That sary to bring the densely timbered lands of the Upper Wisconsin and its tribu- of Ohio to the same advanced point of taries is the most extensive, and dis- preparation, for immediate and profitable tinguished still more for the fine quality, cultivation. than the inexhaustible quantities of its It is the great fact, that nature has timber. The other localities of the thus "cleared up" Wisconsin to the white pine and other evergreens are hand of the settler, and enriched it by mainly on the Wolf, the great northern affluent of the Fox, and on the La Crosse, the Black and the St. Croix, branches of the Upper Mississippi. The rapids of these streams furnish abundant water-power for the manufacture of lumber; and on the annual spring rise, and occasional freshets at other seasons of the year, the yield of the mills is floated from the Wolf into Lake Winnebago and the Lower Fox, and from the other streams into the Mississippi. Scarcely ten years have elapsed, since the Alleghany pine of Western NewYork and Pennsylvania had undisputed possession of the market, not only of the Ohio valley but of the Mississippi and its tributaries, above New-Orleans; at which point it competed with the lumber of Maine and New-Brunswick. The course of the lumber trade may now be considered as permanently changed. The pineries of Wisconsin now control, and will soon hold exclusive possession of the market of the valleys of the Mississippi and its great west ern afluents. AGRICULTURE.-But it is to that great body of emigrants who are seeking a home in the West, as cultivators of the soil, that the natural capabilities of Wisconsin most of all address themselves. The prairies of Wisconsin, unlike those of Illinois, Missouri, Iowa and Minnesota, are none of them extensive; and are so yearly burnings, and has at the same time left sufficient timber on the ground for fence and firewood, that explains in a great measure the capacity it has exhibited, and is now exhibiting, for rapid settlement and early maturity. There is another fact important to be noticed in this connection. The low level prairie, or natural meadow, of moderate extent, is so generally distributed over the face of the country, that the settler, on a fine section of arable land, finds on his own farm, or in his immediate neighborhood, abundant pasturage for his stock in summer, on the open range, and hay for the winter, for the cutting-the bounty of Nature supplying his need in this behalf, till the cultivated grasses may be introduced and become sufficient for his use. It is this very rapid transition of a quarter-section of government land into an old farm, without a tithe of the privations and hardships which hung around the lifetime of the early pioneers of Ohio, which distinguishes the early settlement of Wisconsin. Every description of husbandry suitable to the latitude, may be successfully prosecuted. In addition to the usual routine of crops, the business of stockraising, of dairy, of wool-growing, and the culture of flax, are beginning to engage the attention of settlers, with promise of eminent success. The steady and exclusive prosecution |