The September number of the Mississippi Valley Historical Review contains three articles of special interest to Wisconsin readers. The first, “The Rise of Sports,” by Prof. Frederic Logan Paxson, curator of the Society, was delivered as the recent annual presidential address before the Mississippi Valley Historical Association. It traces in interesting fashion the development in America between 1876 and 1893 of a widespread interest in out-of-door exercise. B. H. Schockel writes on the “Settlement and Development of the Lead and Zinc Mining Region with Special Emphasis on Jo Daviess County, Illinois.” The district treated of consisted of Grant, Iowa, and
Lafayette Counties in Wisconsin, and of Jo Daviess County, Illinois. Although the latter county affords the particular locus for the study, it applies with almost equal force to the three counties of southwestern Wisconsin included in the lead mining district. Finally, Prof. James A. James, of Northwestern University, writes on “Spanish Influence in the West during the American Revolution.”
The Wisconsin Archeological Society has recently issued two reports, one describing the antiquities of Green Lake, the other describing the early Indian remains of Shawano County. The latter report is based upon the recent surveys made of the Shawano Lake and Wolf River Region by George R. Fox, a former resident of Wisconsin, but now a curator of the Chamberlain Museum in Three Oaks, Michigan. The Society is now making an earnest effort to preserve a fine Indian mound on the shore of Lake Anderson, in Forest County. This mound, 10 feet high and 45 feet in diameter, stands at the edge of an old Indian village site and is the only one in that part of the country. Relic hunters have already begun to dig into it, and the state Archeological Society, realizing its historic value, is urging the owner to preserve it permanently and mark it with a descriptive tablet.
The first issue of the Michigan History Magazine published by the Michigan Historical Commission appeared in July, 1917. Like similar magazines, its chief purpose is that of serving as an historical news bulletin, and as a medium of publication for papers of historical interest. The first number contains five contributed articles, with sections devoted to historical news, notes, and comments. One of the features to be mentioned is that of securing reports from all the county and local historical societies regarding their activities. Since the local societies cannot support a joint publication, this method offers a good substitute. By this exchange of news, each society is kept in touch with the proceedings of the other. A contributed article of more than ordinary merit appears in the first issue by Rev. F. X. Barth on “The Field for the Historian in the Upper Peninsula.” Aside from indicating the numerous points of historical interest found in the Upper Peninsula, many of which are shared jointly by Wisconsin, the paper presents one of the strongest appeals for the value of local history study that can be found anywhere. It is recommended to every reader of our Society.
Dr. George N. Fuller, Secretary of the Michigan Historical Commission, is the author of a new book entitled the Economic and Social Beginnings of Michigan. The study deals with the settlement of the Lower Peninsula during the territorial period from 1805 to 1837. Doctor Fuller has given special attention to the purely economic
conditions that existed in the Michigan Territory until her admission into the Union. It is by far the most interesting and authentic volume on the early history of Michigan that has appeared. The work is richly illustrated and is printed in large, readable type.
The Michigan Historical Commission proposes to reproduce by photostatic process the rare files of the Kentucky Gazette, 1787-1800, and the Detroit Gazette, 1817-1830. Of the former, but one file is known to exist, that in the Lexington Public Library. Of the latter file, the Wisconsin Historical Library possesses six bound volumes, covering over one-half of the total period. It is proposed to issue ten sets of each paper for as many subscribing libraries.
The Filson Club of Louisville has issued as number twenty-eight of its publications The Kentucky River by Mary Verhoeff. In this and other similar studies supported by the Filson Club, Kentucky is accumulating a valuable history of her state development. River navigation played a larger part in the early history of Kentucky than in almost any other of the western states. Miss Verhoeff’s chapter on the “Beginnings of River Commerce” contains one of the most interesting discussions of trade in the early Ohio Valley that has recently appeared. The study is profusely illustrated, consisting of six chapters and 257 pages. In marked contrast with the expensive volumes that thus far have been issued by the Filson Club, the present one appears in a most simple dress with covers of heavy paper.
Mr. A. C. Quisenberry has an interesting article in the September number of the Register of the Kentucky State Historical Society on the “History of Morgan’s Men.” There are few chapters in the military history of the Confederacy that compare in interest with the swift, dashing raids of Generals Morgan and Forrest. There are many historical readers who do not know that the southern forces ever came north of the Ohio during the conflict between the states. But during the summer of 1863 the citizens of Indiana and Ohio were given the greatest scare they ever experienced when General Morgan led 2,000 men in a mad dash across these two states and reached Columbia County, Ohio, where surrounded by over 80,000 regulars, volunteers, and home guards, he surrendered. Mr. Quisenberry’s article gives us a praiseworthy review of this brilliant raid.
One of the most important publications of original documents that has recently appeared relating to the southwestern portion of the United States and Louisiana Territory is the collection of the official letter books of Gov. William C. C. Claiborne, edited by Dr. Dunbar Rowland of the Mississippi Historical Society. Governor