[127] See Wisconsin Magazine of History for December, 1917, 196.
SURVEY OF HISTORICAL ACTIVITIES
THE SOCIETY AND THE STATE
During the quarter ending December 31, 1917, five new life and twenty-four annual members were added to the State Historical Society. The new life members are: Henry F. De Puy, of New York City; Walter S. Lacher, of La Grange, Illinois; Thomas E. Lyons, of Madison; Chester H. Thordarson, of Chicago; and J. Russell Wheeler, of Columbus, Wisconsin. The list of new annual members is as follows: Rev. A. S. Badger, Waukesha; George Banta, Menasha; George Banta, Jr., Menasha; Dr. Robert C. Brown, Milwaukee; Arthur J. Dopp, Waukesha; Emerson Ela, Madison; Judge Oscar M. Fritz, Milwaukee; Professor J. L. Gillen, Madison; L. H. Gingles, Waukesha; George Bird Grinnell, New York City; William G. Hanson, Milwaukee; George C. Holmes, Madison; John T. Kenney, Madison; Professor A. C. Kingsford, Baraboo; Gilbert L. Lacher, Chicago; Judge David W. Maloney, Ladysmith; Dean Lois K. Mathews, Madison; Carl E. Nord, Sioux City; Cyril A. Peerenboom, Appleton; A. L. Saltzstein, Milwaukee; Judge James E. Thomas, Waukesha; Frank J. Wilder, Boston; Edwin E. Witte, Madison; and Henry M. Youmans, Waukesha.
Dr. James W. Vance of Madison died October 31, 1917. Dr. Vance had been a member of the State Historical Society for thirty years. Mr. Walter P. Bishop, vice president of the E. P. Bacon Company of Milwaukee and since 1909 a member of the State Historical Society, died October 10, 1917. Mr. Michael A. Hurley of Wausau, a member of the Society since 1906, died September 25, 1917. Mr. Archie E. Wood, of Whitehall, died October 8, 1917.
Rev. Eugene G. Updike, of Madison, whose completion of a twenty-seven-year pastorate of the First Congregational Church was noted in a recent number of this magazine, died at the Madison General Hospital December 24, 1917. Dr. Updike was a life member of the State Historical Society, and throughout his long pastorate at Madison had taken an active part in civic and educational affairs generally.
Hon. Thomas E. Nash, of Grand Rapids, for sixteen years a life member of the State Historical Society, died at his home December 13, 1917. Mr. Nash was brought to Wisconsin in infancy by his parents. He had been engaged in railroad work for many years when in 1882 he was appointed by Postmaster General Vilas chief
clerk of the post office department and the following year general superintendent of the railway mail service. In 1888 Mr. Nash organized the Nekoosa Pulp and Paper Company with which he continued to be prominently associated until ill health forced his retirement from active work a few years ago.
Volume XXIV of the Society’s Collections, entitled Frontier Retreat on the Upper Ohio, 1779-1781, copy for which was sent to the state printer in December, 1916, at length came from the press in December, 1917, and was distributed the first of the year to the Society’s members and exchanges. The reading of galley proof on Volume XXV of the Collections was completed early in December. The contents of this volume, entitled An English Settler in Pioneer Wisconsin: the Letters of Edwin Bottomley, 1842-1850, differ markedly from those of any preceding volume of the Collections. The papers printed present a rarely intimate picture of the life and problems of the pioneer Wisconsin farmer and constitute, it is believed, a valuable contribution of source material to the history of the territorial period of Wisconsin’s development.