the church, performing the ceremony. We took a short wedding trip and then began at Osage, Mitchell County, a life of fifty years in Iowa. Four years ago we observed our golden wedding.

PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF PLATTEVILLE MARIA GREENE DOUGLASS

As I sit at my desk there is before me the portrait of a man in the prime of life, of large frame, broad shoulders, wide brow crowned with an abundance of dark hair, a well formed nose, firm mouth, and dark beard. The outstanding of the features are the dark, full, kindly, piercing eyes. When fixed upon one they seem to penetrate to one's inmost being, "discerning even the thoughts and intents of the heart." Such was the outward appearance of one of the great educators of the Middle West in the last half of the nineteenth century, Josiah Little Pickard.

Born in 1824 in New England, where his early life was spent and where he was educated, his life service was given to the Middle West, and his last years were spent in California, whence he departed this life in 1914, a noble Christian man and educator, the impress of whose life was left upon many thousands of young men and young women. No one could fail to be a better man or woman from having come in contact with this great-hearted friend.

I first met Mr. Pickard when I was at the age of twelve. My parents, with their minor children, moved from western New York to the young state of Wisconsin in the autumn of 1855, and settled at Platteville, Grant County, in the southwest corner of the state. Entering as strangers the Congregational Church, where we were accustomed to worship, we were greeted by Mr. Pickard as a deacon of the church. The opening of the Sunday school found Mr. Pickard as its superintendent, alert and interested in every

individual member; so he became a formative influence in my life from our very first meeting.

Platteville was a typical western village of those early times, rude and uncouth in many ways but not lacking in signs of refinement and good taste. Situated in the midst of the lead mining region, its people were of a number of nationalities and tongues. The men and women who were counted as leaders and who gave tone to the town were largely from New England and New York, and from the South. These were for the most part enterprising, publicspirited, cultured people, bringing with them the traditions of the several sections from which they came. The majority of them, being professed Christians, were gathered into the Congregational and Methodist Episcopal churches. The miners' families were predominantly English and Welsh, and a Primitive Methodist Church accommodated them. A considerable German population supported a Presbyterian and a Lutheran Church. The growing Irish population erected a Catholic house of worship, and later an Episcopal Church was built. There was one institution open to all, and patronized freely by many of the citizens—namely, the saloon. In those early days, because foodstuffs and drink were supposed to belong to the same category and were dispensed by the same business houses, the term "grocery" was appended to the store which furnished them. Later, when staple foodstuffs and dry goods were combined in general stores, the term "grocery" still clung to places where drinks were the principal merchandise. Thus, in my early days in Platteville "groceries" were the equivalent of saloons of later years.

Main Street in Platteville extended east and west through the entire length of the village. Branching off about midway of its length to the north was Grocery Street,

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Grocery Street (Second Street) was a unique institution of modern city government. The first business houses were erected on this street, but gradually business drifted onto Main Street. The first village board, 1845, refused to grant licenses for sale of liquors

where the drinking places were segregated within a block or so. Beyond this section were residences, but that part of the street was popularly known as Slab Street. In addition to the groceries (or saloons) there were several other business houses on Grocery Street, a shoe shop, harness shop, etc. From the doors of the groceries drunken men were often seen reeling, and men and boys were often seen entering for drinks. Women and girls were not often seen on Grocery Street.

On all sides of the town the mining industry was carried on in a primitive way, and mineral holes abounded everywhere. They were well-like excavations sunk for lead ore. The ore mixed with earth was lifted in buckets operated by a hand windlass; when the vein of ore was exhausted, the digging stopped and the hole was left open; not seldom a drunken man or an animal would fall into one of these holes and suffer injury. The holes varied in depth from a few feet to twenty or thirty feet, so one had to watch his steps carefully if he were walking elsewhere than on the regular highway. Many were the warnings given us children when we went into the country to gather flowers or nuts, not to fall into mineral holes. As I remember it, the lead ore that was mined was taken to a smelter and melted and run into a mould of certain dimensions, and came out "pig lead," in which form it was taken to market. I have no data as to the annual yield of lead, but it must have been considerable.

At the time of my first acquaintance with Platteville there were three public schools. The north and south schools for younger pupils were accommodated in small brick structures. The more advanced boys and girls were gathered into the one-time dining room of a rather commo

on Main Street, but no ordinance to that effect was ever enacted. It remained the unwritten law, however, and the saloons were ever after confined to Second Street, which thus became and remained Grocery Street.

dious brick hotel building called the Campbell House, which had ceased to be used as a hotel and was rented for school purposes. It was this school that I entered in the autumn of 1855, Mr. H. Robbins, a farmer-citizen of Platteville, being the teacher. The one thing that I remember with distinctness about that school was the thorough daily drill given us in mental arithmetic. At the close of the winter term the school was discontinued. The following summer I attended the south school taught by Miss McMurray, who afterward became Mrs. W. Grindell. The next year, because there was no other place for me to attend school, I entered Platteville Academy as one of its youngest pupils. Looking back over a period of sixty-five years, I count my enrollment as a pupil of Platteville Academy one of the most fortunate occurrences of my life. I do not hesitate to assert that in my belief it was providential, as have been all the orderings of my life. Mr. Pickard as principal and Miss Fanny S. Josslyn as preceptress were rare teachers, and rare persons for a young girl to be associated with. To these, together with our pastor and his wife, Rev. and Mrs. John Lewis, I am more indebted than to all others outside the family circle, for influences exerted and ideals presented which determined the course of my life. During the previous winter, after a few weeks of residence in Platteville, my father suddenly sickened and died of pneumonia, so that because of our great loss and bereavement I was in a state of mind to be influenced in the best ways.

At the time I entered Platteville Academy there were a number of boys and young men from Southern slaveholding families enrolled as students. They were among the popular and influential students. In course of time a refined colored girl came to town with a prominent white family and was entered as a student of the Academy. There were threats on the part of the Southern students of leaving

school if that colored girl were allowed to remain. The matter was taken up by the trustees of the Academy, who decided the girl must be dismissed. Mr. Pickard, being ill at the time, gave notice to the trustees that when the colored girl was sent away they would receive his resignation as principal of the Academy. While the matter was pending, the girl in question announced that she had applied for admission to Rockford Seminary and had been accepted, so the matter quieted down; but young girl as I was, and almost heartbroken at the prospect of losing my beloved teacher, the thought of his great sacrifice in giving up all rather than compromise principle made an impression on my mind which remains to this day, and many a time has helped me to be firm and uncompromising in standing for the right as I have seen it. I count that as one of the most valuable object lessons of my life, and in my girlhood imagination it set Mr. Pickard upon a pedestal high above most other men that I had known.

The Academy building of my day was a rather imposing three-story stone building west of the business section of the town. The first floor consisted of an entrance hall with stairway, on either side of which were recitation rooms. In the rear was a large assembly and study hall, where also recitations were conducted in front of the teachers' platform. It was a well lighted, pleasant room. Its decorations were engraved portraits of great statesmen -Washington, Webster, Franklin-also several framed mottoes to which reference was often made from the platform.

In the second story were music room and physical laboratory, and the third story was used as a dormitory for men students. The building was surmounted by a belfry from

The Academy building described is still standing, being now used as the State Mining School; and the houses described as across the street, one occupied by Mr. Pickard and one by Mr. Lewis, are still standing.