Wisconsin 101

Read more about the article Pleasant Ridge: Southwest Wisconsin’s Integrated Pioneer Community

Schoolhouse of District #5 in Pleasant Ridge. Both Blacks and whites built, attended, and taught at the school, circa 1890. Image ID: 4239, WI Historical Society.

Pleasant Ridge: Southwest Wisconsin’s Integrated Pioneer Community

Schoolhouse of District #5 in Pleasant Ridge. Both Blacks and whites built, attended, and taught at the school, circa 1890. Image ID: 4239, WI Historical Society. Pleasant Ridge was a rural agricultural community located near present-day Beetown in central Grant County that…

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December 21, 2022

A Bulgarian miner operating a pneumatic rock drill at a zinc mine in Platteville, circa the early 1900s. Image courtesy of The Mining and Rollo Jamison Museums Platteville, WI.

Eastern European Immigration to Wisconsin

Between the 1880s to the 1920s, a new wave of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe began to arrive in Wisconsin. The Eastern European immigrants included Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Russians, Hungarians, and Bulgarians. Eastern European countries at this time struggled with overpopulation,…

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December 20, 2022

Read more about the article The Whiskey War of 1854

The Wisconsin House (left) and Al Ringling Theatre (right). Before the theater was built, the Wisconsin House occupied the land. The Brick Tavern—located within the Wisconsin House—was the main target of the Baraboo Whiskey War, an event that would see its stock dumped. The Theatre was built in 1915 on the same site. Courtesy of the Wisconsin Historical Society ID # 29104 & 72938

Sauk County / Region 6 - South West / Related Stories / The Canfield Temperance Case / Baraboo / Food & Cooking / 1840-1860 / Politics, Society & Government / Religion

The Whiskey War of 1854

Alcohol consumption is an integral and often contentious facet of American life and has been for most of the nation’s history. In the 1800s, the public believed alcohol had medicinal properties and regulated health. However, the harmful effects of drunkenness on the…

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October 4, 2022

Read more about the article The Temperance Movement’s Impact on Wisconsin’s Early Laws

The masthead from an 1849 issue of The Old Oaken Bucket. The masthead includes the icon of a trinity with the values of love, purity and fidelity surrounding each side. Above the trinity, the tagline “Sons of Temperance Organ” is visible. Courtesy of the Wisconsin Historical Society ID # 67985

Sauk County / Region 6 - South West / Related Stories / The Canfield Temperance Case / Baraboo / Politics, Society & Government / 1840-1860 / Religion

The Temperance Movement’s Impact on Wisconsin’s Early Laws

Temperance was a defining and prominent movement in Wisconsin from the state’s admission to the union in 1848 until the mid 1850s. Temperance legislature, and the battles fought in favor of and against it, determined the state’s early legal trajectory.Temperance arrived in…

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October 4, 2022

Beyond the Dirt Track: Harley-Davidson Expands to New Markets

“Typical Bikemen of the 1920’s,” Courtesy of the Milwaukee Police Historical Society. Harley-Davidson motorcycles may have had their first exposure on the dirt-track racing circuits of the early 1900s, but their legacy did not end with extreme sports. 1908 marked the Milwaukee…

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June 18, 2022

Read more about the article Marge Engelman and Equal Opportunity at UW-Green Bay

Engelman talks with peers at the University of Green Bay. Courtesy of UW-Green Bay Archives.

Brown County / The Land of the Freed-up Woman / Region 5 - Center East / Green Bay / Related Stories / Politics, Society & Government / Art, Sport & Entertainment / Education / 1940-1960

Marge Engelman and Equal Opportunity at UW-Green Bay

In the 1940s, it was rare for young women like Marge Engelman to pursue higher education. Having grown up in Illinois on her parents’ farm, Engelman was pressured by her father to stay on the family farm and to marry a farmer. In…

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August 19, 2021