ment's policy, inaugurated by Jackson, of holding those lands out of market until they were wanted by settlers, coupled with the operation of preëmption laws and the settlers' associations, effectually prevented speculators from entering lands there in competition with actual settlers. There still remained one way by which Hubbard could have acquired an interest in lake-shore lands, as some other moneyed men demonstrably did. Such a plan was clearly outlined by John Catlin in a letter to Strong dated August 2, 1838. Catlin was looking forward to the prospective land sales in the Milwaukee land district. He pointed out that about the same time that these sales were scheduled to take place, other land sales would be going forward in Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri. Such vast transactions spread over so ex tended a territory would result in greatly depleting the supplies of specie, which it would thus be very difficult for settlers to secure. This was the background; now for the positive proposal: "Opportunities will be afforded to those who have money, of entering one half of a preemptor's farm which is improved by paying for his half, that is the preemptors will be willing to allow you to bid off their lands at the sales and deed one-half to them. My opinion is that as much money can be made at the land sales to take place this fall as at any former period, by purchasing only such lands as have been improved, with the settlers' consent."

A study of the land entries in Milwaukee County, and a comparison of the names of entrymen with the names of claimants as recorded in the book of the Milwaukee County Claims Association, proves that during the sale itself large numbers of formal transfers were effected, the lands technically becoming the property of certain well-known capitalists. There can hardly be a doubt that those transactions were in the nature of fiscal operations arising from the necessities of settlers anxious to purchase their farms, or that a portion of the lands entered in the capitalists' names ultimately became the property of claimant settlers. There are numerous instances of settlers' entering one-half the claim they would have been entitled to purchase as preëmptors, the balance of the quarter-section going to a capitalist. In these cases the eighty-acre tract relinquished by the settler probably gained for him the money to pay for his own entry. But, so far as the lands of Milwaukee County are concerned, none of the entries were made in the name of Henry Hubbard. It is probable that he acquired no interests in that land district. To do so it would have been necessary for him to advance money at the time of the land sale, and our knowledge of his pecuniary difficulties precludes the possibility of his being in position to do that. His presence in the territory near the time of the land sale, as indicated in the opening paragraph, was doubtless occasioned by his anxiety to sell some of his western Wisconsin lands rather than to buy lands near the lake shore.

EXPERIENCES OF A BOHEMIAN
EMIGRANT FAMILY

FERDINAND F. DOUBRAVA

Wisconsin was and is yet liberally sprinkled with settlements of Bohemian nationality. The question arises, why did these people originally select the United States, and particularly the Badger State, for their home? While there is a Slovak and Bohemian colony located principally in Austin County, Texas, far the largest proportion of Bohemian immigrants is found in the northern states.

The first modern exodus from Bohemia and Moravia took place after the rise of the Hussite propaganda. John Huss's preaching and lecturing against popish arrogance in state affairs and the loose character of the clergy-many of whom were living in opulent debauchery and instead of aiding were merely oppressing the people created a tremendous agitation. Huss was finally tried by a church council at Constance, was declared a heretic and condemned to be burned at the stake. His ashes were cast into the River Rhine and his followers persecuted-almost exterminated. A few remnants of them, however, driven into northern Moravia and south Saxony, congregated under the name Morawsky Bratri (Moravian Brethren) and lived under the protection of the Saxon Count Zinzendorf. Generations passed till eventually, America looming on the horizon like a new land of Canaan, a group of Moravian Brethren led by a man named Koch emigrated in company with some Saxon Germans to the United States. Descendants of these Moravian Brethren still remain, many of them in Pennsylvania.

When the Mexican War came, one of the members of the Koch family enlisted in the United States army, and so valuable were his services estimated to be, that after the close of the war he was granted a square league of land in Austin County, Texas. The Kochs had never broken off relations with their kinsmen in the old world; and in course of time correspondence spread in Moravia among the Slovakian Protestants, when a large number were induced to seek homes in Texas, locating in the vicinity of Mr. Koch's grant. These people prospered abundantly in material ways, but they were very meagerly supplied with schools and not at all with houses of worship or ministers of their faith. A Slovak merchant named Reimershoffer,1 who was living in Allentown, Texas, had a brother-in-law who was pastor of a Calvinistic church at Miroslav, Moravia. My father was a member of that congregation. Reimershoffer, strongly urged by the Slovak community, implored his reverend brother-in-law to come to Texas and establish among the Slovaks such a church as they desired, promising him liberal rewards. The pastor went. He and my father were very intimate friends, hence correspondence resulted; but my father was not then ready to leave Moravia.

There were influences at work which nevertheless determined his final decision. The Bohemians and Moravians within the Austrian Empire were always marked for oppression and suppression. Whether Catholic or Protestant, they were suspected of rebellious dispositions, especially after the Revolution of 1848. Both Bohemia and Moravia were beautiful in their physical conformation; they were rich in agricultural products, fruits, forests, minerals, and had industrious and thrifty populations of generally fine character. But these people were genuinely liberty loving. Is it necessary to seek further for an explanation of their restlessness and desire to find new homes in the new world? Heavy, almost crushing, taxation, compulsory military service, religious intolerance, constant reminders of the lack of freedom in official suggestions of what they might do or how they might speak in order not to wound the sensibilities of the imperial government or the clergy-these were some of the ways in which the desire for change was borne in on the people.

Between 1850 and 1855 numbers of young men liable for military service slipped out of Moravia by way of Bavaria or Saxony, and so to the land of promise. These became enthusiastic over American conditions, and their glowing letters written to the old home scattered the seeds of desire more widely. A certain wag among them composed a bit of doggerel which he sent to his home friends. In this it was said that gold in California grew on the sides of the hills like the antlers of deer; that the fences generally were made of bologna sausages, and pigs ran about ready roasted with carving knife and fork sticking in their backs, inviting all to slice off the juicy sirloin.

Bohemians who objected to an aristocratic rule emigrated to America, while those in Russia who were similarly minded were deported to Siberia. The causes of Bohemian immigration, in short, were mainly similar to those recited above as influencing Moravians. Many Bohemian immigrants left from Humpolec and its environs, and these located at Racine, Milwaukee, Manitowoc, and in the Blue River valley, Wisconsin. In time, of course, they became very widely scattered over the middle northern and northeastern states.

My father was a miller by trade and belonged to the millers' guild. Two of his guild brethren, Kolman and Wopalensky, left for America and located in the Blue River valley in Wisconsin. There was some correspondence with these friends, but it did not at once produce in my father a desire to follow them. He, having leased a portion of a