COMMUNICATIONS

Mrs. Ada Pratt Kimberley has called our attention to an error on page 124 of the September, 1924, issue of this magazine. In place of being called the Wisconsin Daughters' little "grandmother," she was often referred to as their little "godmother."

One of the Society's members is desirous of obtaining one copy each of numbers 1 and 3 of volume 4 of this magazine (September, 1920, and March, 1921). Since the Society has no extra copies of these issues, will any of our readers who can supply them kindly communicate with Charles H. Leavitt, 999 Cleveland Avenue, Portland, Oregon.

THE SOCIETY AND THE STATE

During the quarter ending January 10, 1925, there were nineteen additions to the membership of the State Historical Society. Five persons enrolled as life members: O. F. De Longe, Madison; Frank F. Fowle, Chicago; Alexander J. Horlick, Racine; Theodore Kronshage, Milwaukee; A. L. Nussbaum, Madison.

Twelve persons became annual members, as follows: Mrs. Margaret H. Abels, Madison; John P. Hammarlund, Janesville; Robert M. King, Hinsdale, Ill.; Oliver M. Layton, Fond du Lac; Stoddard H. Martin, Milwaukee; Robert G. Miner, La Crosse; Mrs. H. G. B. Nixon, Hartland; H. E. Pratt, Plainfield; Edward Seybold, Wauwatosa; Rev. Charles Stehling, Fond du Lac; D. D. Sutherland, Fond du Lac; George G. Wright, Milwaukee.

The Milwaukee County School of Agriculture, Milwaukee, and St. Agnes Convent High School, Fond du Lac, are now Wisconsin school members.

Mr. E. E. Pantzer, Sheboygan, previously an annual member, has become a life member.

Mr. Harry E. Cole, of Baraboo, for many years a curator of this Society, and recently first vice-president, automatically became president, under the Society's constitution, upon the retirement from that office, in last October, of Judge E. Ray Stevens.

The annual address before the Society, which could not be given at the time of the annual meeting in October, was delivered on the evening of January 15 in the Assembly chamber at the State Capitol. The Society welcomed on that occasion Dr. Frederick Jackson Turner, late of Cambridge, Massachusetts, now of Madison and North Hancock, Maine, one of the most eminent of its members and former curators. The address forms the leading article of this number of the magazine.

Upon the initiative of the Minnesota Historical Society, it has been arranged to hold on June 17 and 18 a cooperative field meeting of the two state historical societies at the neighboring towns of Winona and La Crosse. A committee of our Society headed by Curator Albert H. Sanford, of La Crosse, is working on the local features of the meeting, and it is hoped that we shall have a program of such interest that many of our members will desire to attend, especially those in the western part of the state. It is planned to have talks on Minnesota history in Wisconsin, and a Wisconsin program at Winona. An excursion to Trempealeau and the site of the old French post at that place will probably be arranged. All members and friends of the Society are cordially invited to be present.

ACQUISITIONS

The three important gifts received during the past quarter are the Tweedy papers, the Burmeister papers, and the Dr. Joseph A. Paxson diary. The first of these is described in the preceding editorial. The collection of Charles Burmeister was given by his daughter, Laura Burmeister, of Los Angeles. It is concerned with the history of the merchant marine of the Great Lakes, and particularly with that of Lake Michigan, for Captain Burmeister was a native of Manitowoc County, and both there and at Frankfort, Michigan, was the owner of lake craft. He was interested in the history of shipping and collected lists of both schooners and steamboats that navigated the lakes in the early nineteenth century. Among the papers are a list of lakes captains with the boats they commanded; a list of side-wheel steamboats with the place of building and the number of tons capacity; a diary of a trip on the lakes in 1880; and an Ottawa Indian trade vocabulary. There are also some items of local history for Door County, and an autobiography of Byron Burmeister, who died in 1922.

Dr. Joseph A. Paxson was reservation physician for the Winnebago Indians in Nebraska, sent there from Philadelphia by the Society of Friends. His diary for the winter of 1869-70, together with some letters written during the same time, has been given to the Society by his son, Professor F. L. Paxson, of the University. Dr. Paxson in these papers gives the only first-hand information we possess of the Winnebago tribesmen in this period; his diary also throws light on the Indian policy of Grant's administration, and on the relations between the officials of the reservations and the chiefs. To illustrate the diary Professor Paxson also gave the Society photographs of several Winnebago chiefs, taken during the winter of his father's sojourn with the tribe.

NECROLOGY

We regret to chronicle the death at Washington, D. C., on October 26 last, of Major General William G. Haan, leader of the Red Arrow (Thirty-second) Division during the World War. It will be remembered that General Haan delivered the annual address before the Society on October 23, 1919, and that he has shown a deep interest in our prosperity. His portrait, donated by the veterans of his command, is in our museum, and was unveiled a year ago in January. General Haan was not well enough to be present on that occasion, but sent Mrs. Haan as his representative. At the funeral, which took place in Washington on October 29, the state was represented by Adjutant General Ralph M. Immel, Colonel George F. O'Connell, and Colonel Paul B. Clemens, the latter of whom served as one of the bearers. The state National Guard was represented by Lieutenant-Colonel Gilbert E. Seaman and LieutenantColonel Edgar N. Caldwell. The city of Milwaukee, where General Haan had established his home, held a memorial service for him at the City Hall on Armistice Day.

Dr. Samuel Plantz, president for thirty years of Lawrence College, died suddenly November 14, at Sturgeon Bay. Although a native of New York, Dr. Plantz grew up on a farm in Rock County of our state. He wrote a historical sketch of the college whose interests he did so much to further, for the December, 1922, number of this magazine. His death at the age of sixty-five is a loss to the educational interests of Wisconsin.

LOCAL HISTORICAL SOCIETIES

The opening of the historical museum at the Sawyer Foundation of Oshkosh, which occurred November 8 and 9, was a notable event for the history-loving people of Fox River valley. The city council, to whom the question of the use of the building was referred, very wisely determined last April to permit the Winnebago County Historical Society to prepare for these beautiful rooms a permanent exhibit of the relics of Indian occupation, of pioneer industries, and of all materials significant in the life of the community. The historical and archeological society has amply and wisely met the trust reposed in it. Not only are the archeological and the natural history sections large and representative, but the committee has also secured a department of domestic art, another of costumes, and one of ceramics. Several fine paintings and pieces of statuary grace the halls; and the early maps of Oshkosh and vicinity, the pictures of the city in its pioneer stages, will teach the youth of the city much of their forerunners' mode of life. The Winnebago County Historical and Archeological Society is very much alive, and constantly contributing to the growth of historical interest. Its fifth anniversary was celebrated early in December, when the reports by its secretary, Arthur Kannenberg, and by Ralph N. Buckstaff, secretary of the museum board, reviewed the society's activities. The occasion was completed by a delightful talk on Italy by Mrs. G. A. C. Comstock. The marker erected in June at the old payground reads: Indian Payground 1826-1828 Annuity payments in Money and Winter Supplies were made in this vicinity to the Menominee Indians, by the United States Government.

The Fond du Lac County Historical Society, whose organization we chronicled last year, held its first anniversary at the Community House in Fond du Lac on January 2, President C. L. Hill of Rosendale in the chair. The officers of 1924 were re-elected for 1925. The first paper presented was by Mrs. H. M. Ridgeway of Rosendale, on "Kitchen Firesides, Pewter, and Hallmarks," in which she gave a most interesting account of the utensils used by our ancestors and their makers. The eighth in descent from Captain Miles Standish, Mrs. Ridgeway is familiar with the domestic art of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and made the subject of deep interest to her listeners. President Hill was asked by the committee to describe the beginnings of the dairying industry in Fond du Lac County, where some of the earliest and most successful experiments in breeding and in cheese making were made. He gave Chester Hazen credit for pioneering work in the latter industry, and detailed the history of several herds of purebreds that have been developed in his county. B. J. Gilbert, who came to Wis