Title: William Henry Brisbane Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1829-1975

Creator:

• Brisbane, William Henry, 1806-1878

Call Number: Wis Mss VD; Micro 437; PH 6554

Quantity: 2.0 c.f. (3 archives boxes and 2 card boxes), 3 reels of microfilm (35mm), and 2 photographs

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Abstract:

Papers of Brisbane, a doctor, minister, editor, author, and a South Carolina slaveholder who turned abolitionist and moved north where he freed his slaves, edited abolitionist publications in Ohio and Pennsylvania, and participated in the experiment in communal living at Brook Farm in Massachusetts in 1845. After coming to Wisconsin in 1853 to promote the development of Arena, Wisconsin, he served as clerk of the state senate, 1854, and as chaplain of the 2nd Wisconsin Cavalry, 1861-1862, and was appointed by Salmon P. Chase to be tax commissioner of the District of South Carolina during the early years of Reconstruction. The collection contains twenty-two letters written by Brisbane himself, of which more than half pertain to his effort to secure the 1860 Republican presidential nomination for Chase. Also present are Brisbane's notes summarizing his activities, 1834-1842; diaries, kept by Brisbane and other family members, 1844-1878; pro-slavery notes for the period prior to 1834; anti-slavery essays; sermons and addresses, 1844-1876; and clippings, biographical material, a few family letters and other miscellaneous items, including a minute book of Spring Green Baptist Church Women's Missionary Circle, 1875-1877. The two photographs are of the Arena farm.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-wis000vd

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William Henry Brisbane, a native of South Carolina who settled in Wisconsin, was a physician, a minister, an editor and author, and a national leader in the temperance and abolition movements. He was born October 12, 1806 in the Beauford District of South Carolina. As a young boy he was enrolled as a cadet at the Norwich Military Academy in Norwich, Vermont. He preached his first sermon in 1828 and was ordained November 7, 1830. In 1835 he became editor of the Southern Baptist.

Until 1835 Brisbane held firmly to his pro-slavery beliefs, secure in the possession of his plantation and slaves, and he wrote pro-slavery essays for the Charleston Mercury. In July, 1835 he received an anti-slavery pamphlet with an extract from Elements of Moral Science by Francis Wayland. According to notes in his journal, Brisbane found that in attempting to refute Wayland's arguments, he realized that he must give up his republican principles or admit that slavery was wrong. Although he did not then announce himself as an abolitionist, Brisbane's actions in dismissing his overseer and his changed attitude toward his slaves turned Southerners against him. In 1837 he graduated from the medical school at Charleston, South Carolina. He sold all but three slaves, each for about $200 less than market price, and moved to Cincinnati. In 1841 he bought back his former slaves, took them to Cincinnati, and freed them along with the three he had previously retained.

At Cincinnati, Brisbane continued his preaching as well as his part-time practice of medicine. During his stay in that city he edited the Christian Abolition, the Philanthropist, and Crisis. In August, 1844, he was nominated by the Liberty Committee as a candidate for Congress. In his diary he wrote that he was unwilling to suffer the reproaches and defamation of a political candidate, yet he was unwilling to decline “lest I do injury to our holy enterprise.”

On a trip to New York and Boston in April, 1845, Brisbane and his wife visited Brook Farm, the experiment in communal living. Mrs. Brisbane was so enchanted that it was not until the following December that she could be persuaded to leave. On this trip Brisbane became acquainted with Horace Greeley, and he preached at a number of churches in Boston. In 1846 and 1847 he was in Philadelphia, editing the American Citizen, returning later to Cincinnati, where he operated a farm in addition to his other interests.

In 1853 he moved to Wisconsin to lay out a town site on the Wisconsin River in partnership with his friend Edward Harwood. He purchased land with a tavern and barn in Arena, where he also operated a ferry. He accepted the position of clerk of the Senate in Madison in 1854.

During his years in Ohio and Wisconsin, Brisbane's stature increased as a leader of the abolition and temperance movements. He was a delegate to a number of national conventions, and in 1859 he worked to secure the Republican nomination for his friend Salmon P. Chase. He was elected vice president of the American Medical Association at the Detroit convention in 1856. Despite his importance within the abolition movement, by 1859 Brisbane's financial condition was one of near poverty. Then, while at Fort Madison, Iowa in 1860, his home in Arena burned with all his possessions.

Brisbane served eight months as a chaplain of the 2nd Wisconsin Cavalry in 1861 and 1862 under Colonel C.C. Washburn, but resigned because of ill-health. Through his friend Salmon P. Chase, Brisbane received an appointment as tax commissioner of the District of South Carolina. In 1870 he returned to Arena, where he worked as a preacher and as a farmer until his death on April 6, 1878.

The Brisbane Papers consist of biographical material, diaries, correspondence, sermons and writings, and miscellaneous papers. Most of the diaries and volumes in the collection are available both as paper and on microfilm.

The biographical materials consist of correspondence, 1961-1975, between Madison journalist Betty Cass and several Brisbane descendents which contains detailed information about the Brisbane genealogy and the Arena farm. The two photographs in the collection of the Arena farm are from that correspondence.

The historic correspondence in the Brisbane collection consists of 22 letters, only a few of which are written by or to Brisbane. However, Volume 35 of the collection contains copies of thirteen letters he wrote to Carl Schurz, Salmon P. Chase, and others about his efforts to secure the 1860 Republican presidential nomination for Chase. There is also a letter in this volume concerning the nomination of Alexander W. Randall for governor of Wisconsin. The remainder of the correspondence consists of exchanges between Brisbane's daughter, Phebe Adeline Brisbane Reed, and her brothers, John E. Brisbane and Benjamin L. Brisbane, and other family letters. A March 16, 1862 letter from John is written from the camp of the 2nd Wisconsin Cavalry in Milwaukee.

The scarcity of Brisbane's correspondence is explained in part by the fire at his home in Arena. The diaries, however, are almost complete, missing only the years before 1844 and the years 1862 and 1863. The first diary noted in the contents list below actually consists of notes, 1834-1842, apparently copied by Brisbane from journals that are missing from the collection. Volumes 2-32 are true diaries, however, dating from 1844 to 1878. There are also eight pages from an 1829 diary, as well as several diaries kept by Brisbane's daughter, Phebe Adeline Brisbane Reed, and one kept by her husband Herbert Reed.

Brisbane's writings and sermons cover the period from 1844 to 1878. Religious writings are the most numerous. Some of the sermons have been annotated to indicate repeated use of particular themes. Several other items in this section such as a biblical chronology and an alphabetical subject index to poetry and invocations probably facilitated the preparation of his sermons. Writings of a more secular nature include a book of pro-slavery notes made prior to 1834 (Volume 34), anti-slavery essays (Volume 35), essays on the effects of tobacco use (Volume 40) and on state sovereignty (Volume 37), a published speech delivered on July 4, 1855, and a brochure meant to encourage the settlement of Arena. There is also a typed copy of “Coon Bluff,” an article that first appeared in the Arena Star. Several other published writings are available in the Historical Society Library.

The miscellaneous papers include a membership record of the Christian Society of the 2nd Wisconsin Cavalry (also including Brisbane's personal financial accounts, 1868-1869); pension records of Brisbane's son, William H. Brisbane, Jr.; reminiscences of Brisbane's grandson (also named William H. Brisbane); an autograph book belonging to Phebe Adeline Brisbane Reed; and minutes, a constitution, and handwritten scores of the Women's Missionary Circle of Spring Green, an organization for which she was the secretary.

A document from the 1852 Free Soil Convention signed by Frederick Douglass has been removed to the Autograph File.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Edith M. Brazee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1960; Lucille Brisbane, Milwaukee, and Dr. Rubin Brisbane, Fontanna, California, 1961; George E. Brazee, Lighthouse Point, Florida, 1965; and Grace Hoberg, Pickerel, Wisconsin, 1970.

Processing Information

Re-processed by Carolyn J. Mattern, 2009.

Wis Mss VD Box   1 Folder   1	Biographical materials, 1961-1975
Box   1 Folder   2	Family correspondence, 1861-1893
	Diaries
	William Henry Brisbane
	Paper diaries
Box   1 Folder   3	1829, Diary pages
Box   4 Folder   1	1834-1842, Notes from journals (Vol. 1)
Box   4 Folder   2-16	1844, July-1861 (Vol. 2-16)
Box   4 Folder   17-21	1864-1869, September (Volumes 17-22)
Box   5 Folder   1-10	1869, September, continued-1878 (Volumes 23-33)
Micro 437	Microfilmed diaries Note: Filmed without a counter
Reel   1	Volumes 1-23
Reel   2	Volumes 24-33
	Phebe Adeline Brisbane Reed
Wis Mss VD	Paper diaries
Box   5 Folder   11	1854-1855 (Volumes 42, 50)
Box   1 Folder   4	, 1857-1858 (Vol. 43)
Box   5 Folder   12	, 1864-1878 (Vol. 44)
Box   5 Folder   13	, 1880-1882 (Vol. 45)
Micro 437	Microfilmed diaries
Reel   3	Volumes 42-45
	Herbert Reed diary, 1868, 1876 (Vol. 41)
Wis Mss VD Box   5 Folder   14	Paper diary
Micro 437 Reel   3	Microfilmed diary
	Writings and Sermons
Wis Mss VD	Paper files
Box   1 Folder   5	Arrington, Published exchange about the Dred Scott decision, 1857
Box   1 Folder   6	Biblical chronology and poetry (Vol. 38)
Box   1 Folder   7	Coon Bluff, article typescript, about 1877-1878
Box   1 Folder   8	Religious compositions (Vol. 39)
Box   1 Folder   9	Religious poetry, prayers, invocations arranged by subject (Vol. 49)
	Sermons
Box   1 Folder   10	1844-1860
Box   1 Folder   11	1844-1875
Box   1 Folder   12	, 1848-1878 (Vol. 36)
Box   2 Folder   1	1861
Box   2 Folder   2-3	1873-1874, 1877, undated
Box   2 Folder   4	Smoking (Vol. 40)
Box   2 Folder   5	State sovereignty/History of the Church (Vol. 37)
Box   2 Folder   6	Volume of anti-slavery essays, religious and medical notes, and copies of outgoing correspondence, 1858-1859 (Vol. 35)
Box   5 Folder   15	Pro-slavery arguments, pre-1834 (Vol. 34)
Box   5 Folder   7	Miscellaneous writings, 1855, 1858, undated
Micro 437	Microfilm writings (Volumes only)
Reel   2	Volumes 34-38
Reel   3	Volumes 39-40
	Miscellaneous Papers
Wis Mss VD Box   2 Folder   8	“Cherished fragments” autograph book of P. Adeline Brisbane Reed (Vol. 46), undated
Box   2 Folder   9	Christian Society of 2nd Cavalry with Wiliiam H. Brisbane financial accounts, 1868-1869
Box   2 Folder   10	Civil War records of William H. Brisbane, Jr.
Box   3 Folder   1	Miscellany
PH 6554	Photographs of Brisbane's Arena farm
	Reminiscences of William H. Brisbane, grandson of Rev. Brisbane (Vol. 47)
Wis Mss VD Box   3 Folder   2	Paper volume
Micro 437 Reel   2	Microfilmed volume
Wis Mss VD Box   3 Folder   3	Women's Missionary Circle, Constitution, minutes, and hand-written musical scores, 1875-1877 (Vol. 48)