THE DRAPER HOMESTEAD.

The above will was admitted to probate by Judge Carpenter at the November term of the Dane county court. Mrs. Catherine T. Hoyt-Draper, the widow of Dr. Draper, declined to act as executor; but W. A. P. Morris and E. A. Hayes have consented to serve, and the estate is now in course of settlement.

At a meeting of the executive committee held October 29, 1891, the following proposition was received from Mrs. Draper:

MADISON, Wis., October 23, 1891.

To the Executive Committee of the Wisconsin State Historical Society: GENTLEMEN:- In view of conversations with several of your committee in respect to the transfer to you of my interest in my homestead, and after consultation with my attorney, Burr W. Jones, I make the following proposition:

I will convey all my interest in the homestead and all the land and appurtenances connected therewith and give covenants of warranty against my own acts and those claiming by, through or under me, for the following consideration, to-wit:

The Historical Society are to pay me on delivery of the deed the sum of one thousand dollars.

The Society are also to enter into an agreement in consideration of such deed to pay to me the sum of four hundred dollars per year during my natural life; the same to be paid to me in quarterly payments, the first payment being at the end of three years and three months from the date of said deed and contract. No money is to be paid me during the first three years except said $1,000, which I agree to accept in lieu of such payments during said three years. If at the time of my death any part of any quarterly payment remains unpaid, that is, if any quarter shall not have fully expired, my representatives or heirs shall receive such proportion of such quarterly payment as shall have expired.

Possession of the premises will be delivered on or before December 1st, MRS. C. T. HOYT-DRAPER.

1891.

In presence of

BURR W. JONES.

The committee agreed to accept the proposition for these reasons: (1) They had been credibly informed that Mrs. Draper was laboring under a serious ailment, and not liable long to survive; (2) she was anxious to dispose of her lifeinterest in the homestead, and go to a milder climate;

(3) Dr. Draper's services to the Society had been of inestimable value, and he had been generous to it in his will, hence it was deemed not creditable to drive too sharp a bargain with his widow; (4) so long as the property was in any event to revert to the Society, it needed to be kept in good condition, and it was thought the Society's interest would best be subserved by its becoming the sole owner of the property.

On the 16th of November Mrs. Draper executed a warranty deed, with covenants against her own acts, and on the first of December the Society came into full possession of the homestead. The property, situated on West Washington avenue, is valuable for residential purposes, and an eligible tenant can doubtless soon be obtained. Some work needs still to be done on the house and outbuildings before they can be rented, and a standing committee should be appointed to look after their proper maintenance, with authority to expend such sums for this purpose as may from time to time be necessary.

THE DRAPER LIBRARY.

Until Dr. Draper's estate is settled, the Society will not come into legal possession of his private library. It will be necessary to remove the books and manuscripts from their present abode, in the detached brick building to the rear of the residence, for the reasons: (1) That the building is damp, and infested with rats and mice; and (2) that it will probably be necessary to convert it into a stable for the prospective tenant of the premises.

The contents of this building will therefore, with the consent of the executors, soon be transferred to the rooms of the Society to be kept apart from the rest of our library until released by the probate court. Before removal it is necessary, for legal purposes, that it be properly inventoried; and in the preparation of such a list the first assistant librarian and two of the library assistants have been engaged for the greater part of a month past.

Dr. Draper's books and manuscripts are of great practical value to historical students, and when properly classified

and indexed will greatly add to the reputation and usefulness of our library. He left his literary possessions, however, in great confusion. The entire time thus far spent in his library by our assistants, in the at first almost discouraging task of envolving order out of chaos, has been devoted to the classification of books and pamphlets. A proper classification of the manuscripts, the collection of which cost their owner fifty three years of unremitting labor, is quite impossible at this time; they number probably 20,000 pages, for the most part unassorted, and their preparation for binding will require the uninterrupted services of an expert for several months, while the necessary work of indexing will be a duty that may occupy the spare time of our force through several years to come. Until the manuscripts are classified and bound, a labor not possible for us to enter upon until next spring or summer, it is advisable that they be withheld from public inspection.

It will not be possible to render to the Society a detailed report of the extent of these notable accessions until a year hence. We may roughly estimate, however, that of the 3,000 or more books in the Draper library probably 2,000 are duplicates of volumes already on our shelves, but the residue of about 1,000 are among the rarest of choice Americana; the manuscripts will, of course, be net accessions to our store. Nothing in the Draper library has thus far been counted in our report of accessions, and will not be until legally in our possession.

THE TANK PICTURES.

On the first of April, 1891, Mrs. C. L. A. Tank died at her home in Fort Howard, aged eighty-eight years. Born in Amsterdam, Holland, in April, 1803, she was the widow of the late Rev. Nels Otto Tank, a Norwegian clergyman, whom she married in Amsterdam in 1849.

Mr. Tank had been a Moravian missionary in Dutch Guiana, South America, where his first wife died, leaving him an only daughter. He returned to Europe with this daughter in 1849, and for his second wife - she who became his widow-married Miss Van der Meulen, daughter of the

Rev. R. J. Van der Meulen, an Amsterdam clergyman of some note. This was in 1850, and Miss Van der Meulen was then forty-seven years of age. After their marriage, they came to America at the head of a colony of Norwegian Moravians, and settled at Fort Howard, Wisconsin, where Mr. Tank purchased for his people a plat of land which he laid out in village lots: the district now comprising the fifth and sixth wards of the city of Fort Howard.

A diligent student was Mr. Tank, a fine classical scholar, a devotee of the sciences, and he spoke fluently six or seven modern European languages; he was the son of a Norwegian nobleman who spared neither pains nor expense in his education. He died in 1864, Mrs. Tank and her stepdaughter, a gifted young lady, surviving him.

Mrs. Tank was a woman of wide culture, an artist, a musician, and like her husband, able to speak several languages. She had made one or two trips abroad for the purpose of studying in England, to listen to lectures in Paris and to avail herself of the best musical instruction to be acquired on the continent. While there her love for her adopted country never faltered, and she returned to her quiet residence upon the shore of the Fox river with renewed affection for her home. The sudden death of her husband had imposed upon her and her daughter weighty duties - the affairs of his mission, and the management of their private estate, which required the active and protracted use of executive ability, of which before the trial they were totally unconscious; but these duties were admirably discharged. In 1872 the daughter died, the cares which had been shared between them falling now upon Mrs. Tank alone. She was, however, blessed with perfect health and bravely bore her accumulated burdens. She was the soul of generosity, but as often happens this disposition was taken advantage of by unworthy persons, and by degrees this truly benevolent lady became suspicious of applicants for charity and finally withdrew herself to the comparative quiet of her secluded residence. Here she occasionally received the few whom she trusted as friends; and happy indeed were connoisseurs in art when they were

permitted to accompany some of Mrs. Tank's intimates to view the stores of rare China, linen and furniture, with which the genial old woman had enriched her Wisconsin home, all of them family heirlooms imported from Holland, and of great beauty and value.

Of all her friends, Mrs. Tank was the most generous to this Society. In 1867 she presented to our library nearly 5,000 volumes, for the most part in the Dutch language – possibly the largest collection of Dutch books in America. In the annual report of the executive committee, submitted January 4, 1868, Secretary Draper thus gave the history of this splendid gift:*

"The Tank collection is decidedly the largest donation the Society has ever received. It has come to us as the generous gift of Mrs. C. L. A. Tank, of Fort Howard, Wisconsin, and was collected by her father, the late Rev. R. J. Van der Meulen, of Holland, who was a clergyman of lib. eral culture, and during his lifetime accumulated this valuable collection on history, travels, science and theology. It reached us in good condition in October, filling twenty-one large cases, the legislature having provided for the freight expenses from Holland. Though in foreign languages, yet such a collection will prove a valuable acquisition to such a reference, library as ours, where the wants of our citizens of all nationalities must needs be provided for, so far as it may be in our power to do so.

"This Tank collection, numbering altogether 4,812 volumes, and 374 pamphlets, deserves a more special notice. It is rich in works in fine old vellum binding-having 111 folios, 261 quartos and 404 smaller size, making a total of 779 bound in vellum style. The total number of folios in this collection, in vellum, sheep and paper binding, is 269; of quartos in various bindings, 737. Many of these works are largely and richly illustrated.

"Among this Tank collection are the following: Suetonius' History of the Twelve Cæsars, in Latin, printed at Antwerp, 1548; Marcobius' Comment. ary on Cicero, Lyons, 1560; Lucan's Pharsalia, Antwerp, 1564; a fine, rare edition of the New Testament, Paris, 1568; a large folio Bible, in the Dutch language, with numerous large copperplate engravings, bound in heavy Russia leather, with heavy brass clasps, Gorinchem, 1748; a similar copy without engravings, Dort, 1729; another copy, small folio, with clasps, Amsterdam, 1796: also a 12mo. edition, bound in morocco, with clasps, with the psalms set to music, Dort, 1769; Calvin Opera Omnia, in 9 vols. folio, Amsterdam, 1671; Travels of Nieuhoff, De Bruyer Baldaeus, and Montanus in foreign countries, with fine copperplate engravings, in 6 folio

Wisconsin Historical Collections, V. 162-64.