The Wisconsin Magazine of History, Volume 1, 1917-1918

by Various

COMMUNICATIONS

MORE LIGHT ON THE ORIGINATOR OF “WINNEQUAH”

As a medieval Madisonian, I protest against your summary termination of the activities of “Cap” Barnes at “1873 or 1874, perhaps later.”[127] He was positively an institution in and of Madison, and I positively remember him and his steamboat line at least as late as 1889. His steamboats, the Scutenaubequon and the Waubishnepawau, lent new terrors to the aboriginal tongues. His later divergence to Silenzioso bore witness to the liveliness, if not the expertness, of his linguistic imagination. No Madisonian of the Victorian age, so to speak, will recall “Angleworm Station” without a warming of the heart to the memory of “Cap” Barnes. His midwinter straw hat and his irrepressible gaiety are intimately associated with our tenderest Madison memories. Picnics? Madison was the home of them, and “Cap” Barnes and his steamboat, in combination, were preëssential to them. It was “Cap” Barnes who hit upon the first discovered practical use of the abortive capitol park driven well: “Pull it up, saw it into lengths, and sell it to the farmers for post holes.”

Statesmen, prophets, and nabobs, Mr. Editor, may pass into oblivion—but touch reverently on the memory of “Cap” Barnes. Madison would never have been the Madison of its golden age without him.

Charles M. Morris.

Milwaukee, January 7, 1918.

A HISTORY OF OUR STATE FLAG

I have just received the first copy of the new Wisconsin Magazine of History, and think it a splendid idea. Of course, I have not had time to examine it carefully, but I did run across the short article with reference to the state flag, which seems rather to carry the idea that Wisconsin had no state flag at any time prior to 1913.

I call your attention to a letter written by me to H. W. Rood, Custodian of Memorial Hall, under date of January 5, 1911, in which I said:

In response to your verbal request of a few days since, I have investigated the matter of the state flag of Wisconsin.

Chapter 215 of the Laws of 1863, published April 10th 1863, provided in part as follows:

“Whenever the state flags of the regiments in the service of the United States, from this state, shall have become so far worn and damaged by service that it is deemed necessary to replace them, and the officers commanding any of the said regiments shall inform the governor of such fact, and make requisition for new flags, the governor is hereby authorized to cause to be furnished to such regiments new flags; the state flag to be of the design, plan and material as adopted by this legislature, by joint resolution No. 44, Senate; and one of the said flags shall be inscribed with the names of the battles in which such regiments shall have taken an honorable part.”

I do not find that there was a joint resolution No. 44 of that year. Resolution No. 4, however, is evidently the one referred to and that provides as follows:

“Resolved, by the senate, the assembly concurring, that the following be and is hereby adopted as the design for a state flag for the state of Wisconsin:

“State Flag.—To be of dark blue silk, with the arms of the State of Wisconsin painted or embroidered in silk on the obverse side, and the arms of the United States, as prescribed in paragraph 1435 of 'new army regulations,’ painted or embroidered in silk on the reverse side; the name of the regiment, when used as a regimental flag, to be in a scroll beneath the state arms.

“The size of the regiment colors to be six feet, six inches fly, and six feet deep on the pike; the length of pike for said colors, including spear and ferrule, to be nine feet, ten inches; the fringe yellow, cords and tassels blue and white silk intermixed.”

This resolution was approved March 25, 1863.

Chapter 248 of the laws of 1864, published April 15, 1864, repealed chapter 215 of the laws of 1863, but provided in part as follows:

“The state flag to be of the design, plan and material as adopted by the legislature of this state by joint resolution No. 44, senate, at the session of 1863, and one of said flags shall be inscribed with the names of the battles in which such regiment or battery shall have taken an honorable part.”

Joint Resolution No. 6, approved March 3, 1863, read as follows:

“Resolved, that the superintendent of public property be and he is hereby authorized to purchase two national flags and two state flags, one each of which he shall place over the president’s chair in the senate chamber, and one each over the speaker’s chair in the assembly chamber, where they shall remain during each session of the legislature.”

I do not find any other laws or resolutions relating to this flag until the adoption of the revised statutes of 1878, section 4978 of which provides in part that

“The following acts of the legislature, passed in the several years hereinafter enumerated, shall be repealed, that is to say:”

Then follows a table of the laws thus repealed and among them I find chapter 248 of the laws of 1864. I believe that this ends the legislation in relation to a state flag and that the State of Wisconsin no longer has such a flag.

In the pamphlet published by Doctor Thwaites entitled Wisconsin’s Emblems and Sobriquet he refers to chapter 167 of the laws of Wisconsin of 1907 (section 633m of the Wisconsin statutes), which provides:

“The organization, armament and discipline of the Wisconsin national guard shall be the same as that which is now, or may hereafter be prescribed for the regular and volunteer armies of the United States.”

He seems to think that the state flag is now as provided in paragraph 222 of the United States army regulations for 1904—the colors to be of silk, five feet, six inches fly, and four feet, four inches on the pike, which shall be nine feet long, including spear head and ferrule. From this article I should assume that he considers that chapter 167 of the laws of 1907 is the law that repealed the prior law providing for a state flag. As will be seen from the references herein given, this law was repealed upon the adoption of the revised statutes of 1878.

This may not be of any particular importance, except that as a matter of historical accuracy, it should be noted that Wisconsin, in fact, did for several years have a State Flag.

Very truly yours,
Winfield W. Gilman.

Madison, October 24, 1917.

[127] See Wisconsin Magazine of History for December, 1917, 196.