EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. The president, vice-presidents, secretary, treasurer, librarian, curators, the governor, the secretary of state, and the state treasurer, constitute the executive committee, and the following standing committees are sub-committees thereof: STANDING COMMITTEES. Library - Thwaites, Butler, Turner, Gregory, and Conover; ex-officio — Scofield, Casson, and Peterson. Finance - Van Slyke, Morris, Doyon, Ramsay, and Burrows. Auditing Accounts - Morris, Carpenter, Ramsay, Steensland, and Con over. Printing and Publication - Thwaites, Butler, Adams, Anderson, and Turner; ex-officio - Casson and Peterson. Art Gallery and Museum - Thwaites, Bradley, Winslow, Sanborn, and Cassoday. Endowments and Contributions - Bradley, Johnson, Keyes, Oakley, and Morris. Literary Exchanges - Thwaites, Bradley, Parkinson, Freeman, and Rosenstengel. Natural History Fairchild, Bunn, Dunning, Siebecker, and Palmer. Historical Narratives - Pinney, Carpenter, Gregory, Anderson, and Bryant. Nomination of Members-Stevens, Cassoday, Bunn, Proudfit, and Taylor. Prehistoric Antiquities, and Indian History - Butler, Turner, Johnson, Raymer, and Knox. Obituaries - Pinney, Parkinson, Newman, Johnson, and Bashford. SPECIAL COMMITTEES. Draper Homestead — Van Slyke, Steensland, and Thwaites. Biennial Address, 1897-Thwaites, Butler, Adams, Turner, and Gregory. Revision of Constitution and By-Laws - Van Slyke, Gregory, Morris, Jones, Parkinson, Thwaites, and Conover. LIBRARY STAFF, ETC.-1896-97 SECRETARY REUBEN GOLD THWAITES LIBRARIAN ISAAC SAMUEL BRADLEY ASSISTANT LIBRARIAN MINNIE MYRTLE OAKLEY LIBRARY ASSISTANTS FLORENCE ELIZABETH BAKER EMMA HELEN BLAIR ANNIE AMELIA NUNNS MESSENGERS JOHN HARRIS MCNICHOL (library) PETER FAGG (library) CEYLON CHILDS LINCOLN (gallery and museum) LIBRARY OPEN- From 9 A. M. to 5:30 P. M. PORTRAIT GALLERY AND MUSEUM OPEN - Morning, 9 to 12:30; Afternoon, 1:30 to 5. STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN FORTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING. The forty-fourth annual meeting of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin was held in its rooms in the Capitol, Thursday evening, December 10, 1896. In the absence of President Johnston, Vice-President Butler took the chair. The secretary read letters and telegrams of regret from President Johnston; Vice-Presidents Sawyer, Sutherland, Thomas, and Wight; and several members resident in different portions of the State. FINANCIAL REPORTS. Chairman Van Slyke, of the committee on finance, presented the report of his committee, approving the annual report of Treasurer Proudfit, both of which reports were duly adopted. [See Appendix, A and B.] Chairman Morris, of the auditing committee, reported that said committee had examined and approved the report of Secretary Thwaites, of expenditures from the general fund for the year ending November 30, 1896, the vouchers therefor having been deposited with the governor according to law. The committee also reported having favorably passed upon that officer's expenditures from the income of the binding fund during the same period. [See Appendix, C.] EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE'S REPORT. Secretary Thwaites, in behalf of the executive committee, presented its annual report, which was adopted. [See Appendix, D.] OFFICERS ELECTED. Messrs. Van Slyke, Oakley, Keyes, Conover, and Jones were appointed a committee on the nomination of officers, and reported in favor of the following, who were duly elected: Vice-President - Hon. John B. Cassoday, of Madison, to succeed Gen. Lucius Fairchild, of Madison, deceased. Curators for the term expiring at the annual meeting in 1899 Hon. Buell E. Hutchinson, Hon. N. B. Van Slyke, Gen. Chandler P. Chapman, Prof. John B. Parkinson, Hon. George B. Burrows, Hon. John A. Johnson, John C. Freeman, LL. D., Rasmus B. Anderson, LL. D., Hon. Burr W. Jones, Charles K. Adams, LL. D., Frederic K. Conover, LL. B., J. Howard Palmer. Curators, to fill vacancies -Gen. E. E. Bryant, Hon. Horace A. Taylor, and Rev. Patrick B. Knox. In behalf of the committee, Chairman Van Slyke offered the following resolution, which was adopted: Resolved, That the corresponding secretary shall hereafter be also the recording secretary, the duties appertaining to the latter officer being imposed upon the former; and that the official bonds of the corresponding secretary, librarian, and treasurer, heretofore filed with the recording secretary, be hereafter filed with the chairman of the finance committee. NEW MEMBERS. The chair appointed Messrs. Parkinson, Ramsay, Proudfit, Rosenstengel, and Mills, a committee on the nomination of new members, and on the recommendation of this committee the folowing were elected: Life Rt. Rev. S. G. Messmer, Green Bay; Hon. C. L. Colman and Lucius C. Colman, La Crosse; Hon. Sam. S. Fifield, Ashland. Annual A. R. Mead, Ashland; Very Rev. J. J. Fox, Green Bay; Frederick W. Kelly, George H. D. Johnson, Ernest Bruncken, Charles Quarles, and Frank T. Terry, Milwaukee; Hon. James H. Stout, Menomonie; Frank A. Hutchins, Baraboo; A. W. Robinson, Waukesha; Hon. A. A. Jackson and Hon. John M. Whitehead, Janesville; Hon. Chauncey B. Welton, Madison; W. K. Coffin, Eau Claire. Corresponding-Albert C. Beckwith and Edward S. Beckwith, Elk horn. IN HONOR OF GENERAL FAIRCHILD. The following gentlemen addressed the society upon the character and public services of the late General Lucius Fairchild, one of the vice-presidents of the society, who died at Madison, May 23, 1896: Remarks by Prof. James Davie Butler, LL. D. Lucius Fairchild was in my judgment one of the best friends this Society ever had, or ever will have. In 1866, in his first message as governor, while announcing that the Society was in the act of removal into this capitol, he added that it would more than ever prove its usefulness, and advised that it be authorized to print a volume of its collections every three years. This beginning was the keynote of many utterances in its favor. The next year, he said: "the Society reflects great credit on our people—is a subject of just pride to all and is well entitled to receive assistance." His special recommendation then was that the State should pay a big freight bill for it. This bill was for transporting 5,000 long-desired volumes presented by the British government - valued at $12,000, while the Society was too weak to stretch out its hands for receiving this royal bounty. His request was granted. Few governors before him had taken much notice of our Society. He gave it such prominence that none of his successors has ignored its claims. Never since his time has it needed to beg pardon for having been born into this breathing world. This favor was one among a multitude done us, times and ways without number, both before and after his six years in the gubernatorial chair. While consul in Liverpool and Paris, as well as while minister to Spain, the many rare books he sent home proved that he never forgot the Society. The portraits of Columbus and Cortes, which he took such pains in Madrid to secure for the portrait gallery, marked a new departure and widening of its scope. Fairchild's zeal for us before he became governor is not as well known as it ought to be. Our infant library found ample room in a glass-faced case, 32 feet by 4, and stood in the executive chamber. When crowded out of the capitol it took refuge in the basement of the Baptist Church. It had been cooped up there eleven years when the fourth installment of this edifice was approaching completion. We ancient members were in mortal fear that no corner of it would be vouchsafed for our treasures. At that time it was my luck to fall in with him in the unfinished wing, and I told him my fears. His answer was: “Don't be troubled. What do you think I have come here for? I am picking out the rooms that will be best for you, and you shall have them." I do not forget that the same quarters which he then pointed out were afterwards granted the Society by the legislature, and that before Fairchild became governor. This fact is by no means inconsistent with our owing admission within these walls largely to Fairchild, who was already secretary of state and a recognized power behind the throne - his words to me made me see his hand quietly leading on to the Society's petition and so to legislative action. A power behind the throne is talked of as something pecu |