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This collection comprises citizen petitions written to the legislatures of the Wisconsin Territory and later the State of Wisconsin, from 1836 to 1891. At the time, petitions were the only direct means for citizens to communicate with the government.
From requesting dams, roads, and money to build schoolhouses, to recording views on slavery, suffrage, and statehood, these petitions reveal what settlers wished to achieve for their communities, and the ways in which they hoped to connect Wisconsin to the expanding commerce and intellectual life of the United States. These petitions are mostly handwritten in blue and iron gall ink; most petitions comprise a title page, the petition itself, and signature pages.
For more information about this Collection, visit its Online Finding Aid and View the Online Collection.
The work of flattening, scanning, and describing these petitions was funded by a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commissions (NHPRC) of the National Archives.
Works
Petition replying to remonstrance contesting a seat in the Legislature
Collaboration is restricted.
Petition requiring railroad companies operating in Wisconsin to hold their meetings in the state
Collaboration is restricted.
Petition to alter the road that runs from Madison to Green Bay
Collaboration is restricted.
Petition to authorize Cyrus Curtis to build a mill dam on the Rock River at Fort Atkinson
Collaboration is restricted.
Petition to incorporate the First Congregational Society of the town of Troy
Collaboration is restricted.
Petition to legalize a road in Pleasant Prairie
Collaboration is restricted.
Petition to lower the subscription required to speed up the incorporation of the Two Rivers and Green Bay Plank Road Company
Collaboration is restricted.
Petition to reenact a law authorizing construction of a railroad from Lake Michigan to the Rock River
Collaboration is restricted.
Petition to regulate the artificial flooding on the Apple River
Collaboration is restricted.
Petition to restore the original boundaries of the town of Calumet
Collaboration is restricted.
