Wisconsin History

Lorine Niedecker (1903-1970) was in high school when her English teacher inspired the Fort Atkinson student’s interest in poetry.

Rest assured: There is no shortage of female history makers in the Badger State — as evidenced by Wisconsin Women Making History, an online database featuring over 100 notable women (a figure that’s growing by the day).

Mabel Watson Raimey (1895-1986) enrolled at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to study English and become a teacher; when she graduated in 1918, it is believed she was the first African American woman to do so.

When Ebenezer Cheseboro relocated to Wisconsin in 1839, there was no school for his deaf daughter, Ariadna – so he hired Wealthy Hawes to teach her and a neighbor at their home on Janesville Road.

In the Badger State, festival days have historically been good reason to gather with friends over culinary feats – like a pair conceived of by Captain Thomas Anderson, a prominent British fur trader.

Wisconsin has awarded its fluctuating number of electoral votes to the nation-wide winner a whopping 77% of the time.

Nearly 1,200 people died after railroad workers inadvertently started a fire that obliterated the Wisconsin towns of Peshtigo and Brussels.

The Badger State’s inaugural train trundled west on tracks between Milwaukee and Waukesha in 1847 – giving rise to reliable rail service across a scant 18 miles.

The tradition of beer in Wisconsin has been brewing for nearly two centuries.

Can you name Wisconsin’s only baseball team to win a major professional league title?The Racine Belles didn’t just win the championship in 1992’s “A Leauge Of Their Own,” they won it in real life, too.

You may be thankful that it’s not election season anymore, but did you know how The Badger State impacted the way we elect our representatives?Primary candidates used to be chosen behind closed doors be each party’s bosses, but in the early 1900s, then-Governor Robert M.

As kindergartners head back to school (or back online), parents in America have Wisconsin to thank.

The storied relationship of Wisconsin and cheese began as a quick fix for dairy farmer’s excess milk.

Wait … you mean to tell me there isn’t an overwhelming population of badger animals in the state of Wisconsin?

The toilet paper craze of 2020 led many Americans to buy greater amounts of toilet paper than ever before.

In 1857, an American named Joseph Gayetty invented the first purpose-made toilet paper, but most Americans continued to use pages from the Sears Catalog or Farmer’s Almanac (the latter was even printed with a hole for hanging in an outhouse).

Wisconsin’s favorite foam triangle and corresponding nickname didn’t originate here, or even in America.

At 2:30AM the morning of February 27, 1904, a gas leak sparked a raging fire in our state capitol building.

In 1848, the first paper mill opened on the Lower Fox River in Appleton, launching the industry that put Wisconsin on the map. In 12 years, the state became the Midwest’s top paper producer.

The Pfister Hotel is “a place where things happen,” says chief concierge Peter Mortensen. In his 30 years at the landmark hotel, he’s seen it all — Mortensen likens choosing a standout memory to deciding on a favorite child.

Even before Jean Nicolet, the first European to explore the Great Lakes while seeking passage to the Orient, impressed Green Bay’s native Ho-Chunk with his Chinese silk robes and a pistol in each hand in 1634, the people of this land have known it’s more than fly-over (or paddle-through) country. It’s a place of notable, historical “firsts,” including the following six: