Box 3, Folder 6: Typewritten Letters, 1849-1851

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Chapter XXIII 1849

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1849.

Milwaukee, January 8, 1849.

Dear Sir--

I have sent you, by Mr. Z. A. Cotton, representative from this part of our city, a box of specimens for the proposed cabinet of the University of Wisconsin.

I propose further to present to the University a pretty extensive Herbarium, or collection of dried plants, about one thousand or fifteen hundred species--embracing nearly all those heretofore found in Wisconsin, together with others from the United States and from Europe, provided the Regents will pay the expense of the paper and the portfolios necessary to contain the plants. ***

Yours truly,

I. A. Lapham.

H.A. Tenney,

Agent of the University.

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Smithsonian Institution, Feb. 1, 1849.

Sir--

Prof. Henry has directed me to say *** that he will be very much pleased to received from you a record of such atmospheric phenomena as we would have desired Dr. E. S. Marsh to have made, had he not been absent from Milwaukee. Blank forms will be sent. We would be very glad to obtain a copy of Dr. Marsh's register for the past year. Would it be asking too much of you to furnish it to us?

Respectfully yours,

E. Foreman.

P.S. We have received your interesting volume on Wisconsin. Please accept our thanks.

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1849.

February, 1849.

I.A. Lapham, Esq. --

In answer to the proposition contained in your letter of the date of January 8, 1849, to "procure for the University an Herbarium or collection of dried plants," I would reply that you are authorized to procure the same, and the Regents will pay the expense of the paper and portfolios necessary to contain the plants, *** as soon as they are in possession of sufficient funds to pay the same. The Regents regard your proposition as very liberal and tender you their thanks for the interest you have manifested in this important department of the University.

Very Respectfully,

E. Root,

President of Board of Regents.

Milwaukee, Wis., Feb. 17, 1849.

Dear Sir--

I had hoped to see you and my old friend Bartlett in Milwaukee on the return trip from the St. Croix country last fall, but was unfortunately doomed to disappointment. This I regret much as I wished to learn something of the results of your summer's work and to compare them with the facts observed in the eastern part of the state. With a few more observations I shall be able to make a general geological map of our whole state of Wisconsin. A profile I have constructed from here to Rock river shows some very interesting results.

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During the past season I have been engaged in preparing a large map of the state with a view of publication; scale six miles to an inch. I have the surveys down to January from Dubuque and have consulted with members of the legislature now in session at Madison, but there is much blank space to be filled up in the St. Croix Land District. I suppose you have been engaged in preparing a map to accompany your report. If so, can I have a copy of it? If it is to be published within six or eight weeks I can wait that time, if not I should like a sketch showing such localities and such names of streams and lakes, east of the St. Croix, as are not on Nicollet's map. I am willing of course to pay for copying.

We have recently organized a Historical society, as you will see by the enclosed slip; are now ready to engage in any historical movement that may be deemed beneficial. We have nothing yet, of course, to offer in exchange for your publications, but hope to have at some future time.

I heard nothing recently of your proposed periodical; had it been commenced? ***

Very truly yours,

I.A. Lapham.

A. Randall.

Milwaukee, Wis., March 2, 1849.

Dear Sir--

*** In compliance with your request I have copied the register of meteorological observations kept at this place by Dr. E.S. Marsh and herewith transmit it to you.

It has been rather a tedious job, but I shall feel myself amply rewarded if I can become one of the men among whom knowledge

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is to be "increased and diffused" by your Institution.

I will hereafter make monthly returns in accordance with the forms received.

Yours truly,

I.A. Lapham.

Prof. Joseph Henry,

Sec. Smithsonian Inst.

Milwaukee, March 19, 1849.

Dear Sir--

I have your very interesting letter of the 12th inst. with the map showing your routes and geologic profiles. I thank you very cordially for your offer to furnish information for my large map of Wisconsin and herewith send you a sketch of the northwestern portion of the state on which you can make such additions as you may find leisure to do. The geological information would also be very interesting but I fear it will be taking you too much to furnish much in that way. I cannot but hope that your report will be published in less time than you suggest. It is due to Wisconsin and Minnesota and it is due to the public that the results of your labors should be published by the general government, without unnecessary delay.

My connection with the Hist. and Phil. Soc. of Ohio was but brief. I was elected treasurer. The manuscript you speak of I have never seen. It was probably handed to P.B. Wilcox, Recording Secy, with other documents of various kinds. There was a box of minerals and other specimens in the office of the Board of Public Works, when I left Columbus in 1836. They were of non-great value however.

It is to be hoped that our new Hist. Soc. of Wisconsin will flourish. Most of the newspaper editors have agreed to fur

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-nish files of their papers for preservation. We shall thus do for the benefit of future historians if not for the past. I fear our surveyors will not very generally adopt the suggestions in relation to the "ancient mounds". They should be examined and described soon, as they are fast disappearing. Many of them are but slightly elevated, so that the plow soon effaces all traces of them. Do they occur often in the regions traversed by you?

I have to thank you for the first offer of books for this society; the time may come when we can make an adequate return. I will make known to the Society your proposed periodical; and it is possible they will conclude to aid you in it. I will ask some of my neighbors to join me and become subscribers; I have already secured four.

Yours truly,

I.A. Lapham.

A. Randall. Cincinnati.

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Milwaukee, April 12, 1849.

Dear Sir--

I am not altogether satisfied with the observations herewith sent for the month of March, 1849. The barometer may and may not be correct. The thermometer attached is uniformly from 1 to 6 (mean 3) degrees higher than one hanging by its side. The observations here recorded were taken from the side thermometer, supposing it most correct. I have now given it to a friend to be used on the overland route to California and shall use the attached thermometer hereafter, so that to make these observations correspond with those to be sent in future 3 degrees must be added.