| Wisconsin (a meeting place of waters)
has a terrain of rolling hills from 581 feet in the "Central Lowland" to 1,953
feet in the Superior Upland (Timms Hill in Price county). One-third of the state
drains to the Mississippi, a third to Lake Superior, and the rest to Lake Michigan.
Natural resources are wood, soil, and climate. They export the first two, but you
have to visit to enjoy the last. First
inhabitants were the Menominee, Chippewa, Potawatomi, Saulk, and Winnebago tribes. The
French fur traders settled and claimed in the Green Bay area in 1634. By 1763 they
ceded to Great Britain who remained there until 1796 well past the close of the
Revolutionary War. It was known as Northwest Territory in 1787, Indiana Territory
in 1800, Illinois Territory in 1809, Michigan Territory in 1818, Wisconsin Territory in
1836, and the 30th state in 1848.
Wisconsin is a collection of ethnic towns begun in
the 1840's when immigrant farmers were enticed to settle in the "West" as they
arrived in the East Coast seaports. They were offered free land for homesteads. All
they had to do was clear the land of a dense forest of hardwoods. In 1960 there were
3,951,777 people and 2,375,000 dairy cows. Each town was a different ethnic group -
English, Irish, Dutch, German, Norwegian, and Swedish.
Sheboygan was a ship building port exporting lumber
and importing people, and consumer goods. Many trades came in to support the
population growth. My English ancestors were carpenters
and farmers. Sue's German ancestors worked the docks and town needs. Being
mostly German, Sheboygan began its own version of ethnic foods unlike those found anywhere
else such as potato salad, chili, bratwurst, and beer. Recipes were guarded to the
death, so only the public domain versions remain known today. |