USA > Wisconsin > Winnebago County > History, Winnebago County, Wisconsin: Its Cities, Towns, Resources, People > Part 25
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The value of logs, lumber, ties, poles, posts, etc., not manu- facturers' stock, is $177,490, and most of the class of property is owned in Oshkosh. To be exact, the value of such property owned in Oshkosh is assessed at $146,500.
Steam and other vessels owned in the county are valued at $73,530. Their number is not given. The vessel property owned in Oshkosh is assessed at $33,975. The remainder is distributed as follows: Town of Black Wolf, $5,725; town of Clayton, $5,750; town of Menasha, $250; town of Winchester, $400; town of Winneconne, $675; town of Wolf River, $510; Menasha, $5,600; Neenah, $8,695; Omro, $4,665; Winneconne, $7,285.
The value of real and personal property and franchises of water and light companies not taxable under the law is given at $799,371.
Oshkosh is credited with $3,300 worth of bicycles, but as these are not assessed in any other part of the country, the supposi- tion is that the "bicycles" in this case are really automobiles.
All other personal property not specifically enumerated is re- turned at $453,762 and the total in the county is $8,220,510.
The value of the land outside the cities and villages, exclu- sive of buildings, is $13,424.981. There are 269,011 acres of this land and the assessed valuation ranges from $23.37 to $96.84 per acre. In the entire county there are 269,824 acres of land, valued at $13.471,406, and the average value per acre is $60.08.
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POPULATION, WEALTH AND PRODUCTS.
The valuation of city and village lots, exclusive of buildings, is $8,207.440 and the value of the buildings on those lots is $11,652,713, making the total value of city and village real estate $19,860,153. In the towns the value of lots, exclusive of build- ings, is $23,735 and the value of the buildings is $61,013, making a total of $84,748. Outside of the cities and villages the total value of lands and buildings is $16,231,869.
The grand total value of lands and improvements in the county is $36,071,354 and the total value of all property in the county is assessed at $44,291,864, apportioned to the several townships, villages and cities as follows :
Oshkosh city, $19,102,153; Neenah city, $3,604,553; Menasha city, $2,422,415; Omro village, $630,225; Winneconne village, $382,298; Algoma, $1,126,412; Black Wolf, $1,101,895; Clayton, $1,592,792; Menasha, $712,131; Neenah, $668,901; Nekimi, $1,545,- 885; Nepenskum, $1,409,885; Omro, $1,163,473; Oshkosh, $1,163,473; Poygan, $669,263; Rushford, $1,249,104; Utica, $1,402,930; Vinland, $1,516,499; Winchester, $1,038,403; Winne- conne, $995,613; Wolf River, $811,519.
The total value of all property in the townships is $18,150,220, while the total value of the cities and villages is $26,141,644.
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XXI.
LITERATURE, ART, MUSIC AND THE STAGE IN WINNE- BAGO COUNTY.
Among the former residents of Oshkosh who have won for themselves a national reputation is Miss Helen Farnsworth Mears. She was born and lived her childhood in Oshkosh, where she first experienced the inspiration to become a sculptor. In this art she has won fame. The first opportunity that came to her was the offer of the Women's Clubs of Wisconsin of a prize for the best design in sculptor for the World's Fair at Chicago in 1893. She offered the design of the clay model of her genius of Wisconsin which was given the first prize of $500. The model designed by Jene Miner, born at Menasha, but then in Madison, secured the second prize. One was afterward cut in marble and stationed in the rotunda of the capitol, and the other cast in bronze and mounted in the capitol park, the only pieces of sculpture about the capitol, and both designed by girls native to Winnebago county. Miss Mears has studied under Lorado Taft, and was for many years up to the time of his death the special friend of Augustus St. Gaudens, of New York. When Congress in 1898 authorized the statue of Miss Frances E. Wil- lard to be placed in the hall of fame in the national capitol, the commission came to Miss Mears and the statue unveiled in February, 1905. A contemporary says of it, "The statue stands in the hall of fame, its womanly and appealing quality height- ened rather than lessened by the folds of the simple dress, touched with nervous delicacy and refinement, the one statue to a woman among all those statues of great men." This famous statue of a Wisconsin woman, designed by a Wisconsin woman, will remain forever, a monument to her genius. She also designed the bust of George Roger Clark, in the library at Miuwaukee, and the model of the great fountain of life at the World's Fair at St. Louis.
Mary Mears, her sister, was born in Oshkosh and attended its public schools. Her writing of fiction has brought national fame. Something of her life and work has been told in her own pleas-
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ant way, part of which is copied here: "I was expected to write and I wrote, principally, I think, in the first place, because my mother before me had written. My parents considered that I had a picturesque and original way of using words, and when I was a little girl I was set at story writing as my sister Helen was set at modeling, as our elder sister Louise was set at draw- ing. Our elder sister illustrated books while still young. Helen modeled a bust while she was still a child in short dresses, and I wrote all but the five concluding chapters of my first book, 'Emma Lou-Her Book,' between the ages of 13 and 17, while I was still a school girl. Later, when the book was published by Henry Holt, I added, at their suggestion, the last five chap- ters which make it a love story.
"During the progress of 'Emma Lou,' I wrote many short tales. I wrote for a sensational paper in Chicago that paid me, as I remember, about $4 for a newspaper page of the finest print. My stories were as sensational as the imagination of seventeen years could produce. I remember one was called 'His Strange Eyes'; it closed with the hero's leaping from a housetop into the darkness of night. My first short story to meet with marked success was published in 'Harper's Bazar.' Afterward I pub- lished it in the leading magazines. My best short story ap- peared in 'Harper's Magazine' in 1900. It is entitled 'Across the Bridges.' It was written immediately after my return from Europe.
"The achievement that marked my efforts was at times easy, and at other times difficult. My first book, 'Emma Lou,' I wrote with no conscious effort, as a child plays. The short stories were more difficult, for I sought constantly to use the fewest words possible in telling the tales. It seems to me now that I put very little of myself into them. They are, with the exception of two or three, objective studies. 'The Breath of the Runners,' I be- lieve is the most individual work I have done, therefore I con- sider it a greater achievement than anything else. My inspira- tion has come to me largely at all times, from my surroundings. Europe filled me with feverish longings and unquenchable enthu- siasm. Some part of my mind that had never before been touched, awoke. I believe the creative faculty, to a large de- gree, awoke. My stay over there altered the style of my writ- ing. From my trip dates my effort to write as one would paint or model, using words as if they were clay or paint, keeping in mind always a just sense of color and proportion. My life
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HISTORY OF WINNEBAGO COUNTY.
with my sister in studios has convinced me that all the arts are practically one. If the painter and sculptor are artists, how much more is the creative and poetic temperament required in one whose field is vaster than in any of the other arts.
"My advice to those just commencing to write is, study the great writers diligently, and aim to carry away from the study a sense of their simplicity and directness, together with a per- ception of the rules of construction. Then, when this knowledge has become a part of him, as it were, so that he no longer thinks of it, let him work his own brain like a newly opened mine. Let what is in that mine be his only concern, and above all things, let him not seek to bring any metal from a mine not his, to add to his hoard. It is this working over the thoughts of others that is the ruin of many a writer. And, as if in revenge, his own power as a creative writer withers and dies, in pro- portion as he carries on the nefarious practice."
Mrs. Frank B. Fargo, of Lake Mills, nee Miss Louise Mears, of Oshkosh, gave promise of attaining high place in the field of illustration and random sketches. All still life and the ideal was her field. Her most celebrated work was the illustration of the Land of Nod, of Ella Wheeler Wilcox. Since her marriage she has only indulged her natural talent for her own amusement and the decoration of her home. Miss Mary and Helen Mears reside in New York City, where they are both busy with their chosen profession.
Their parents were John H. Mears and Elizabeth Farnsworth Mears. Mrs. Mears wrote the first book of poems published in the state. She was born in Grotin, Massachusetts, in 1830, mov- ing to Wisconsin with its earliest pioneers, living for many years . at Fond du Lac, where she wrote under the nom de plume of "Nellie Wildwood." She died November, 1907, at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Frank Fargo, in Lake Mills, and was buried in Oshkosh, by the side of her husband, who died in Osh- kosh in 1885.
The authorship of books has some students in the county, writing both for pleasure and profit. IIon. Robert Shiells, of Neenah, wrote "The Token," an account of the disk or card formerly given in the communion of Presbyterian churches. It was at first only intended for a paper on the collection of tokens, but developed into a small book, and was published by John Ireland, New York, 1891, from which the author received but $18 in proceeds. Later the Presbyterian Publication Board
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obtained his permission to republish it. He obtained the ac- knowledgment of King Edward for a copy presented to him. It is the only book ever written on the subject.
Mr. John Ilicks, old-time editor of "The Northwestern," and now Minister Plenipotentiary to Chili, wrote "The Man From Oshkosh."
Miss Lillian G. Kimball, of this county, and a member of the faculty of the Normal School at Oshkosh, and instructor in English, wrote the "Structure of the English Sentence," in 1900, published by the American Book Company, a text book in gram- mar intended for students in advanced study, the popularity of which is attested by the sale of over 20,000 copies, and its use in several normal schools, and many of the high schools in this state, and many other schools in the United States. Miss Kim- ball wrote in great part and edited a "Bulletin on the Teaching of English in the Grades," in 1905, which was published by the Board of Regents. of the Wisconsin Normal Schools. She has contributed articles on phases of language teaching to "The School Century," and in 1902 wrote a paper on the English sen- tence for a magazine entitled, "New York Teachers' Mono- graphs." Beside the above she has delivered numerous unpub- lished addresses to teachers and students.
Among the students of the Neenah schools who have acquired some literary fame is Miss Emma IIelen Blair, a native of the town of Menasha; she graduated from Ripon College in this state, and afterward was engaged in newspaper work in Mil- waukee. For five years she was registrar of the Associated Charities in that city, and interested in other philanthropic work there. Since 1892 she has resided at Madison, where she pursued graduate studies in the University of Wisconsin for two years, and was during nearly ten years a member of the library staff of the Wisconsin State Historical Society. For the last twelve years she has been an historical editor; compiler of the Catalogue of Newspapers in the society's library; assistant editor of the 72 volume edition of the Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents (Cleveland, 1896-1901) ; assistant in preparing Voi. XVI. of Wisconsin Historical Collections; Original Journals of Lewis and Clark; and various other historical works; and co-editor of the Philippines, 1493-1898 (Cleveland, 1903-08), twelve volumes.
Miss Kate Gordon, philosopher, born in Oshkosh, daughter of Dr. W. A. Gordon, has received an unusual number of high
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honors and degrees, and is now traveling in Greece and other foreign lands, making a study of art in its ancient home for a work now in preparation on "Ethics," of which 200 pages are completed.
Miss Gordon, after graduating at the Normal School at Osh- kosh and from the University of Chicago, was selected by mem- bers of the university faculty to take the part of Queen Eliza- beth in the Ben Johnson play; and was given a fellowship in the department of philosophy. The press said of her on this occa- sion : "Although but twenty-three years of age, Miss Gordon has received an unusual number of high honors as a student, and is considered one of the brainiest young women attending the university. She will have been a student at the University of Chi- cago five years next fall. Two years ago she graduated with high honors from the regular course of psychology and philosophy, first winning honorable mention and then a scholarship. Since then she has taken post graduate courses and has won two fel- lowships, besides election to the Greek society of the university, which admits only those who have the highest standing in scholarship. She first received the title of Bachelor of Phi- losophy, and in June will be given the degree of Ph. D. or Doctor of Philosophy, being all the honors to be obtained in these de- partments of Psychology and Philosophy. Miss Gordon was also appointed graduate scholar in pedagogy by her alma mater for the year 1900-01. For the three months in 1903 she taught psychology and logic, in the Rockford College. Some of her publications at this period were : "McDougal's Observations Re- garding Light and Color Visions"; "Spencer's Theory of Ethics in Its Evolutionary Aspects"; "Ethics of the Hindus"; "Psy- chology of Desire."
She was the choice of the association of collegiate alumina who select each year a representative for a one-year free tuition in European college work, known as the European Fellowship. and crossed the ocean to follow her studies in the schools of Europe, on which she was honored by an invitation to deliver an address before the German Psychology Society, one of the great educational organizations of Germany. While studying in Paris she was honored by a call to accept a chair in the Mount Holyoke Seminary at Mount Ilolyoke. Massachusetts. It was while en- gaged in this professorship she delivered on invitation an ad- dress before the New England Association of Colleges, her paper on, "Wherein Should the Education of a Woman Differ from That of a Man?" The bright, sharp treatment of the subject
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creating considerable newspaper notice, with numerous extracts, and of which the "Boston Journal" said: "Miss Gordon, who is fair to look upon, got an ovation from the audience." In the Memorial volume on Professor James, Miss Gordon furnished a paper on James' "Pragmatism of Ethics."
Mrs. Hypatia Boyd Reed is among the most remarkable of the literary people of Winnebago county. Though deaf she has ac- complished wonders for herself and others during the short period of her life. Her story is best told by herself as written to the author in a letter: "I was born in Milwaukee thirty-four years ago, and was in the first grade of the public school when four years old. At the age of six and a half, scarlet fever was epidemic in Milwaukee, and like thousands of other children, I had it, with the result that it left me totally deaf. Then I made a trip to Scotland in the vain hope that the doctors there could restore my lost hearing, which they failed to do after repeated operations. It is hard to see how hearing can be restored at all, when one has no ear-drums. Returned to Milwaukee, I at- tended the hearing school awhile until the Milwaukee Day School for the Deaf was started, and I was among its first pupils. In a class of eight I graduated as the valedictorian, and the following fall entered the hearing high school. I was like a stranger in a strange place. but I soon became used to my new surroundings. Everybody was very kind, and I was treated just as if I, too, could hear. Those days at high school were very happy ones, but all too soon over, for in two and a half years I graduated from the south side high school with the class of 1895. I was elected the class poet.
In the meantime I had met Mrs. Charles K. Adams, whose hus- band was then president of the University of Wisconsin. Through her kind interest I was enrolled as a pupil at the University of Wisconsin in September, 1895. Among the cherished and tender memories of my life in Madison is Mrs. Adams' beautiful friend- ship for me. I was often invited to her beautiful home, and she gave me the freedom of her fine private study, the windows of which look out on Lake Mendota. President Adams, too, was very kind, and it was a great pleasure to read his lips.
To these two friends, to Paul Binner, who taught me to speak and hear with "the listening eye," to John Johnston, a promi- nent banker and scholar of Milwaukee; to Daisy M. Way, of Kansas City, Mo., herself a deaf lip reader, and to Mrs. Robert C. Reinertsen (Gale Forest), a well known writer of Milwaukee.
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HISTORY OF WINNEBAGO COUNTY.
I owe much for their kindly interest and their words of cheer and encouragement, which helped me over seemingly insur- mountable difficulties in my pathway. Leaving the university in June, 1896, I was a newspaper woman, until February, 1902, when I suddenly found myself a teacher to the first deaf-blind pupil in the history of the state, Eva Halliday.
She was fourteen years old then, had not been to school since she was six, and her mind was practically a blank. It was an experiment, but during the first five months I succeeded in teach- ing her over 230 words, besides the ability to compose sentences, and to read and write in American braille. That same year I taught her also to operate a Remington typewriter, and she could do sums in arithmetic, and all this by the sense of touch. So pleased was the board of control with my success that they opened a deaf-blind department at the Wisconsin school for the deaf and put me in charge of it. Eva's affection for me and for Mr. William Wade, the great warm-hearted friend of the deaf-blind everywhere, was and is as pathetic as it is charming. I in turn loved her, and had decided to devote my life to her. But I did not then know what destiny had in store for me. Eva's fame grew and grew, the papers were full of her, and up in Menasha Charles Reed, the deaf assistant postmaster, read these accounts and becoming deeply interested, journeyed to Delevan at the time of the celebration of its fiftieth anniversary. There he met Eva Halliday and her teacher, then Miss Hypatia Boyd. He was interested in the remarkably bright deaf-blind girl, and next found himself more than ordinarily interested in the teacher, so much so until finally he succeeded in carrying her off to Menasha as his wife, where they have since lived a very happy life. One child, Charlie Boyd Reed, came to bless their home, but died in infancy.
I have written but one book, "Paul Binner, His Noble Work Among the Deaf," which book was published in 1901. Titles of some of my papers published are: "The Deaf and Sound Vibra- tions"; "University Experiences," "That Wonderful School." "Deaf Woman's Friend," "Name of Milwaukee, Its Derivation and Meaning," "Hallowe'en in Auld Lang Syne," "How the Deaf Are Taught to Talk," "Christimas, December 25; Uncertainty as to the Year and Month of Birth of Christ," "Why the Deaf Intermarry," "A Visit to the Yerkes' Observatory at Lake Geneva," "I'nique Sermon in the Sign Language," "History of Kissing; Its Origin as Old as the Bible," "Voices of Deaf and
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Hearing Persons Compared," "Plea for the Deaf," "Letters to St. Nicholas," "The Remarkable Intelligence of Deaf-Blind Eva Halliday," "How a Deaf Girl Got Lost in Chicago," "Do the Deaf Enjoy Going to the Theatre?" Then there are my monthly articles of several years' duration, while I had charge of the Woman's department in the "Silent Worker."
(Signed) HYPATIA BOYD REED.
Mrs. E. M. Crane, nee Lillian Felker, wrote many short stories, which were published in the "Oshkosh Times," when her father, Charles W. Felker, the brilliant advocate, was the editor. Miss Ellen Brainard compiled a book of short stories, which she caused to be published in Oshkosh. It was illustrated by Miss Hattie Brass. Minnie Hicks Harmon wrote "The Oshkosh Fire," and many other poems of merit, published in the public press. The late Dr. Harvey Dale wrote quite frequently for the papers and magazines on various subjects, and published several poems, one of them entitled, "Three Score and Ten," which appeared in "The Northwestern" but a few weeks before his death. Miss Nellie Maxwell, domestic science expert and writer, educated in Neenah high school, University of Wisconsin, and Downer Col- lege, was a resident of Neenah, where her parents were pioneers, and her mother still has her home. Her papers appear regu- larly in the "Sentinel," Milwaukee. Mr. George Leon Varney, of Oshkosh, has written numerous papers on literary and his- torieal subjects, for the press and magazines, and is gathering material for a volume on "Historical Truths."
Martin Mitchell and Judge Joseph H. Osborn wrote the first "History of Winnebago County" in 1856. This was a small pam- phlet, paper covered, printed on news paper. It was written sixteen years after the organization of the county, but during primitive and pioneer days. The booklet is very rare now; but doubtless served its purpose of attracting attention to the county. It contained wood cut illustrations made from daguerreotype pictures made by Mr. J. F. Harrison, of Chief Oshkosh, Web- ster Stanley, the villages of Oshkosh, Algoma, Neenah, Menasha, Omro and Winneconne, the log cabin homes of Governor Doty and Harrison Reed, and the ancient lighthouse in the Menasha channel. These wood cuts are deposited in the State Historical Library. A number of these were reproduced in the "Proceed- ings of the Wisconsin Historical Society," 1905. Mr. Charles G. Finney and Mr. Davis prepared, in 1867, a "History of Oshkosh," in which was included a considerable history of the county. This
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paper-covered booklet was considerable larger than its prede- cessor of ten years before, and though doubtless sent out in large numbers at the time is now very rare. "History of Winne- bago County," by Richard Harney, 1880, published by the author, was a large folio volume of 300 pages, cloth bound, and contained a fund of local information and pioneer recollection. Mr. W. N. Webster wrote the chapters on Neenah and Menasha, and the township history from personal visits and pioneer recollections. His sister married Major Charles Doty, and his association with the people of the county gave him the information possessed by very few, and he had the ability to record it in a readable and historical study. Mr. Harney was himself a pioneer and well adapted to prepare this work. The illustrations were mostly of homes, farms and manufacturing industries, and very interesting for future reference. Cotemporary with this work, Mr. G. A. Cunningham wrote the "History of the City of Neenah," and stopped the. press to include some information from the county history just issued by Mr. Harney. This history of Neenah con- tains some rare old wood cuts of the council tree, the old land- marks, the loggery of Governor Doty still standing, and the double log house of Governor Harrison Reed, which has long since rotted away. There is a portrait of Harvey Jones, and several street views, and many old mill views. Both this history of Neenah and the county history contained complete directories. Mr. John V. Bunn, of Oshkosh, has been engaged in compiling directories of cities and counties for the past twenty years, and has produced several editions of his complete directory of Winne- bago county. G. A. Randall, of Oshkosh, published a town and city "Atlas of the County" in 1886 containing a large number of biographies and portraits of men and views.
Song writers : Mr. S. A. Petrie, of Jackson street, wrote "In the Good Old Summer Time." The late Arthur Bauer, who was with Sousa's band, composed the popular waltz, "Dream of Heaven." His brother, Charles Bauer, is also a composer of popu- lar music.
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