Horner together agreed to found the city, the latter furnishing the land, and retaining the right to name the city and the principal streets, and the former acting as promoter, receiving for his service sundry alternate lots. The modesty of the captain never stood in his way; but he does deserve the credit of having been a vigorous promoter.

Captain Mapes is right concerning the ancestry of the Horner family. They resided near Ripon, in Yorkshire, England, and among them was his paternal grandfather, who emigrated to Maryland at an early day, engaging in business as a wholesale importing merchant; also Francis Horner, the parliamentarian. Many of the streets of Ripon bear names given by Governor Horner in honor of members of his family, or of political friends, etc., as appears from the following, which will aid in the perpetuation of his name and place as founder: Watson, Blackburn, Jefferson, Cass, Houston, Washington, Henni, Spaulding avenue, and Doty.

The last years of Governor Horner's life were spent in dignified retirement, his death occurring at Ripon on February 3, 1883, at the age of eighty-one years. His mansion-like resi dence in this city, now occupied by a daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth Burling, with her husband, is one of the ancient landmarks of a solid man's good taste and strength. In the long years to come it will be pointed to as a fit monument for one of "the brave men who pushed their way into the Western wilds, and moulded out of the chaotic struggle of pioneer life, civilization, society, and government."

Personally, Governor Horner was a marked man. His form was erect even in age, his presence being at once dignified and winning. His manners were those of the cultivated gentle man of the old school, and his home life, surrounded by his three sons and two daughters, was gentle, but firmly authoritative and wise, His moral instincts were keen, as evidenced by the manumission of his slaves, his exact justice as an officer, and his intelligent patriotism. The poor were

turned from his door unfriended, and his hospitality to strangers was generous and free. His life was temperate, "abstaining wholly from the use of ardent spirits." I find in a writing left by him this quaint and ingenuous confession: "I have deplored the early and continuous use of tobacco, and bear testimony to its injurious effect both on the mind and the body, and I attribute most of my sickness or failure in life to its effects." He was a sincerely religious man, a member of the Protestant Episcopal church, whose worship he steadily sustained, even in the primitive conditions of his Green Lake neighborhood.

I well remember him on one Sunday morning in the old white church of the Congregational Society of Ripon, which is traditionally supposed to be the place where the first organization of the Republican party was formed. President Merriman of Ripon College had preached one of his masterly sermons, in the course of which he had presented his view of the doctrine of the Trinity; Governor Horner tarried, not only to express his admiration of the sermon, but with fine and characteristic courtesy to thank the preacher for the help he had received toward comprehending one of the great doctrines.

I may fitly close this sketch by giving an extract from a brief biography found in Tuttle's History of Michigan:

Early in life Governor Horner distinguished himself by his advocacy of slave emancipation, and the records of the Virginia courts show evidences of his success as an advocate for slaves suing for freedom. His sincerity in the cause was proved by his freeing the slaves descended to him from his father's estate, an act performed soon after he became of age, and one as rare as it was commendable at that early day. Throughout his life Governor Horner was known as a man of great determination and courage. Andrew Jackson remarked when appointing Governor Horner to settle the Northwestern difficulties, "Now I have a man who will not fear." His utter fearlessness was a distinguishing trait of his early public life, and was shown in his liberation of his own slaves and by his adherence to the Federal Union during the late civil war.

First Constitutional Convention in Wisconsin, 1846

2

By Frederick L. Holmes

In less than a century the forest-covered territory of Wisconsin has been transformed into a prosperous commonwealth. Yet in the early twenties, so remote was this region from the centre of population that the United States government, at the suggestion of Dr. Jedediah Morse,' actually considered the policy of reserving the entire state for Indian residence, and in 1823-24 a contingent of the Stockbridge, Oneida, and Brothertown Indians was removed hither from New York. About this time a description of the abundance of lead to be found in what is now southwest Wisconsin appeared in a St. Louis paper, and thereafter for several years population pressed thitherward from the southern states-Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee-by way of the Mississippi River and Kellogg's trail in Illinois. Lead mining developed into a prosperous industry; Galena was more of a commercial mart for the interior of Wisconsin than Milwaukee or other lake

1 Morse, Report to Secretary of War on Indian Affairs (New Haven, 1822), appendix, p. 314.

2 Wis. Hist. Soc. Proceedings, 1899, p. 162.

3 Henry E. Legler, Leading Events in Wisconsin History (Milwaukee, 1898), p. 166.

ports, and Chicago was scarcely known in that connection.1 At Green Bay had long been a sparse settlement of French habi tants and fur traders. The remainder of the region was an unconquered forest.

2

With the close of the Black Hawk War in 1832, the problem of settling Wisconsin took on a different aspect. Eastern papers published numerous descriptions by soldiers who had passed through this country, of the beauty and fertility of the land. President Jackson favorably mentioned the locality in his messages to congress (1832-33); treaties were concluded with the Winnebago and Potawatomi for their removal beyond the Mississippi. The terror of further border forays thus dispelled from the minds of prospective settlers, land offices were opened at Green Bay and Mineral Point in 1834, and emigrants from the East surged in through the port of Milwaukee.' This second migration scattered agricultural communities of the New England type throughout the southeastern part of Wisconsin. A decade later, in the early forties, began the migration from beyond seas of Germans, Scandinavians, and other Teutonic and Celtic nations, whose influence was to have a profound effect on the future destinies of Wisconsin. Thus by 1840 the four chief elements in Wisconsin settlement had

8

6

10. G. Libby, "Significance of the Lead and Shot Trade in Early Wisconsin History," in Wis. Hist. Colls., xiii, pp. 293-334; and R. G. Thwaites, "Notes in Early Lead Mining in the Fever (or Galena) River Region," in ibid., pp. 271–292.

George Gary, History of Fox River Valley (Oshkosh, 1898), p. 247. 3 John A. Wakefield, History of Black Hawk War (Jacksonville, Ill., 1834), p. 66.

* James D. Richardson, Messages of the Presidents (Washington, 1896–99), ii, p. 603; iii, p. 321.

William Salter, "Henry Dodge, Governor of the Territory of Wisconsin," in Iowa Historical Record, iv-ix, xiii-xv.

• Wisconsin Blue-Book, 1905, p. 853.

7F. J. Turner, "Fur Trade in Wisconsin," in Wis. Hist. Soc. Proceedings, 1889, p. 62.

8 Legler, Leading Events in Wisconsin History, p. 207.

arrived the non-progressive French-Canadian about Green Bay; the early Southern immigrants from Missouri and the Southern states in the lead region; the New England and New York farmers in the southeast; and the settlement of foreigners, democratic in nature,' chiefly located on the western shore of Lake Michigan.

2

3

The agitation for admission into the union began soon after the territorial government was established in Wisconsin (1836). In 1838, ten years before Wisconsin was admitted as a state, Gov. Henry Dodge in his message to the legislature advised that the question of state government be submitted to a popular vote. No attention was paid to his recommendation and the following winter he again renewed it, only to have it once more ignored. However, in 1841 a vote was taken; the returns demonstrated how little interest the people took in the matter. Only 92 votes were cast in favor of a state government, with 499 against it. Undaunted by defeat, the vote was taken a second time the following year, and again resulted in failure. Governor Doty now took up the question and in 1843, when public sentiment was again tested, 571 votes were cast in favor and 1,276 against a change of government. The scheme was publicly denounced as "Doty's pet hobby."" In 1844 the question, again submitted to a popular vote, resulted in 1,503 votes for and 5,343 against the proposal. The following year a bill for this purpose was defeated in the lower house

8

1 Ernest Bruncken, "Germans in Wisconsin Politics," in Parkman Club Publications, i, p. 226.

2 Journal of Council, 1838, p. 7.

зId., 1839, p. 8.

4A. M. Thomson, Political History of Wisconsin (Milwaukee, 1900), p. 53.

5619 in favor of and 1,843 against a state government; see Moses M. Strong, Terr. Hist. of Wis. (Madison, 1885), p. 363.

Journal of Council, 1843, p. 274.

7 Tenney and Atwood, Fathers of Wisconsin (Madison, 1880), p. 19. Strong, Terr. Hist. of Wis., p. 412.