The Making of Pioneer Wisconsin

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Voices of Early Settlers

Michael E. Stevens

A fascinating and intimate exploration of Wisconsin's early European and American settlers, revealing their fears, joys, frustrations, and hopes in their new home.

192 pages, 5.5 x 8.5, 62 b&w photos
Paperback: $21.95 | ISBN: 978-0-87020-889-8
Ebook: $15.99 | ISBN: 978-0-87020-890-4
Publication Date: 10/29/2018

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Front cover of The Making of Pioneer Wisconsin

Description

From the mid-1830s through the 1850s, more than a half million American migrants and European immigrants moved to Wisconsin. While traveling in ships and wagons, establishing homes, and forming communities, these men, women, and children recorded their experiences in letters, diaries, and newspaper articles, revealing the fears, joys, frustrations, and hopes for life in this new place.

In The Making of Pioneer Wisconsin, historian Michael E. Stevens brings a rare and intimate glimpse into the lives of the people who resettled here, as told in their own words. They describe what it felt like to be a teenager in a wagon headed west, an isolated young wife living far from friends and family, or a Black man giving a speech about his love of "sweet freedom."

Woven together with historical context provided by Stevens, these first-person accounts form a fascinating narrative that deepens our ability to understand the experiences of Wisconsin's early American and European residents during a time of tremendous change.

Author Bio

Michael E. Stevens

Michael E. Stevens is the author or editor of nearly thirty articles and more than a dozen books. He earned his PhD in American history from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and is Wisconsin State Historian Emeritus. He lives in Fitchburg, Wisconsin.

Michael E. Stevens has assembled a vivid, compelling, and memorable collection of pioneer voices in ‘The Making of Pioneer Wisconsin.’ The nineteenth century feels suddenly very contemporary.

Pamela Smith Hill

Editor of “Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography” by Laura Ingalls Wilder

“The Making of Pioneer Wisconsin: Voices of Early Settlers provides fascinating insight into one of the most transformative periods in Wisconsin’s history. With Michael E. Stevens’s expert commentary providing context, this compelling collection of primary accounts illustrates the immigrant experience in all its diversity. Highly recommended.”

—Kathleen Ernst, author of A Settler’s Year: Pioneer Life through the Seasons