In his long career William Henry Carman Folsom was an Indian trader, farmer, lumberman, land speculator, politician and author. The papers in this collection relate to his activities, from 1836 until 1900, in areas along the Mississippi and St. Croix rivers from Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, to St. Croix Falls.
A descendant of John Foulsham, who came to Hingham, Massachusetts from England in 1638, Folsom was born at St. Johns, New Brunswick, June 22, 1817. His family had its residence at five different locations in Maine, Vermont, and Canada, by the time his formal education ended at the age of ten years. He was then put to work cooking in a lumber camp at a wage of five dollars a month and as a farm hand for twenty-five cents a day. Later he worked as a logger and log driver in the state of Maine until 1836, when he travelled to the Territory of Wisconsin.
After a survey of the Territory as far south as Burlington, Folsom returned to Prairie du Chien, where he became engaged in farming and a mercantile business. An indenture in this collection, dated December 20, 1836, shows that Folsom purchased two lots in the County of Dubuque from Elijah M. Bissel. Deeds show that he also purchased land from James H. Lockwood, March 28, 1838, and from Hercules Dousman, December 29, 1842. Contracts between Folsom and the United States Army show that he furnished cordwood and hay to the Fort Crawford garrison at Prairie du Chien.
He was married during a visit to his home in Maine in 1841 to Mary Wyman. On his return to Wisconsin he carried on his mercantile business. Through a license issued to him, September 28, 1842, he was authorized to trade with Indians in any articles not prohibited by the laws of the United States.
He continued his mercantile enterprise after moving to Stillwater in Crawford County of Wisconsin Territory in 1844, and later in Taylors Falls, where he became very successful in lumbering, steamboating, and land speculation. Although Folsom had large land holdings on both sides of the St. Croix River, he continued his residence on the west side. When Wisconsin attained statehood, therefore, Folsom found himself a citizen of the Territory of Minnesota. He exerted much influence in Minnesota politics and attended the constitutional convention of 1857 as a delegate.
In his book, Fifty Years in the North West, Folsom described the convention as really two conventions, one Republican and the other Democratic, with the two compromising, finally, on a constitution. He served as a senator in the first Minnesota state legislature, 1857-1858, also in the 1867-1869 and the 1875-1877 legislatures.
His history, Fifty Years in the North West, published in 1888, records the settlement and development of Wisconsin and Minnesota counties northward from Prairie du Chien through the valley of the St. Croix River. As a steamboat operator he was an active proponent of government aid to river navigation until his death in 1900.
These papers primarily concern Folsom's Political and business activities.
With the exception of one copy of a business letter dated November 12, 1841, and a single letter dated July 12, 1922, the Folsom correspondence is confined to a period from February 8, 1851 to March 17, 1900. Its arrangement is chronological. Considering Folsom's many business and political interests it seems logical to assume that the correspondence in this collection must have been saved from a much larger body of correspondence.
Levi [Folsom] of Bloomfield, Maine, describes business conditions, particularly logging and lumber prices in the state of Maine in a letter dated March 17, 1851. Most of the letters, however, relate to Wisconsin and Minnesota, such as the one from M.L. Boutwell, July 14, 1651, in which he tells of a very difficult trip across the portage and of several bands of Indians gathering at La Pointe to meet the agent.
Folsom's increasing interest in politics, as well as his own sentiment toward temperance, was reflected in the letter of C. Gordon Ames, October 21, 1853, in which Ames advocated a campaign of petitions to the Minnesota territorial legislature for a “prohibitory law.” Ames was the corresponding secretary of the Minnesota Temperance Society.
Hopes for the rapid development of the territory were shown in a letter from delegate to Congress Henry M. Rice, who wrote Folsom from Washington, May 25, 1854 about land patents and told of a 20,000 dollar appropriation toward the cost of a railroad to St. Louis. The great development in the logging industry was foretold in the many references in the correspondence from 1854 through 1868 to boom charters and the cost of “boomage” on the St. Croix and Mississippi rivers. The subject of log booms was first mentioned in a letter from N.C.D. Taylor dated January 15, 1854 and in another letter dated the twenty-fifth of the same month. The second letter also mentioned a bridge charter. A growing national interest in the development of the territory was evidenced in the sale of over 9,000 copies of a book, Minnesota and Its Resources, as told by the author, J. Wesley Bond, in a letter to Folsom dated February 7, 1854.
Depression in the lumbering industry in the state of Maine was related in a letter from Levi Folsom dated January 22, 1856. In the same letter Levi told of the fear of war with “John Bull,” of its possible consequences to New England, and of the growing apprehension over the slavery question.
Folsom's active interest in state politics was reflected throughout the correspondence. The possibility of starting an “anti-corruptionist” party in Minnesota was discussed in a letter from Congressman Cyrus Aldrich, March 5, 1859. Aldrich felt he and Folsom were on the side of the people against the plunderers and corruptionists, who were ruining the state by floating a 5,000,000 dollar loan. On that same day James M. Cavanaugh wrote from Washington to tell of his own efforts in behalf of a resolution to permit the sales of public lands in Minnesota and of his hope that he would someday secure the passage of his homestead act.
Congressman Aldrich wrote again, March 12, 1859, a very bitter letter about “corruption” in state finance and the sale of state bonds. At the end of the letter, in discussing the coming election, he mentioned that “Young Washburne” desired to become a candidate. D.S. Norton wrote to Folsom also, May 2, 1859, to ask for support in the coming election. On that same day, May 2, 1859, Aldrich wrote again to condemn the use of tax money to pay interest on railroad bonds and to comment on the opening of a bank in Folsom's area by “corruptionists.”
Reactions to the election of “Old Abe” and the secession of South Carolina were the subjects of a letter from E.W. Somers of Ashland, December 20, 1860. Lincoln's speeches during his trip to Washington elicited comments by D. Cooper of St. Paul in a letter dated February 16, 1861, with the observation that “we may have over rated his ability as a ready speaker.” Cooper also expressed anxiety over the selection of a cabinet and a feeling that times were ominous. “The peace convention will do irremediable injury to the country,” he wrote. Another letter from Cooper, November 20, 1861, discussed the problem of political influence in military appointments and the progress of the war. He also reported on the progress in court of a case involving the old St. Croix Boom Company.
Two long letters, descriptive of the military campaign in the Sioux uprising, from the pen of Thomas F. Morton, dated July 10 and August 6, 1863, tell his personal views on corruption, blunders, and hardships in the army. He wrote of moldy “hard bread” that had been condemned before shipment to the troops, of drought, prairie fire, alkali water, no grass for the beef cattle, and of soldiers killed by the Indians.
Conduct of the war between the states was roundly criticized by Captain A.A. York, who was especially bitter about the self interest of politicians, whom he described as traitors in his letter of October, 1863, York also decried the practice of electing military officers, regardless of competence.
Folsom's son, Wyman, wrote in a letter dated December 2, 1863, that the war was about wound up. The nineteen year old son wrote several letters to his father in 1863 and 1864 describing army hospital life in the St. Louis and Paducah, Kentucky areas. Surprised to hear that Wyman had entered the army hospital service, Sergeant Fred A. Drisser wrote in a letter dated December 9, 1863, “I guess he must have thrown all ambition to the winds for there is no chance in a hospital for promotion.”
That the railroad bond question was still a political issue as late as June 15, 1867, is indicated by a letter from Ignatius Donnelly on that date, in which Donnelly complimented Folsom for his sagacity in fighting the railroad bond proposition. Governor William R. Marshall also stated his position in regard to railroad bonds in his letter of August 31, 1867, in which he solicited active aid from a friend whose confidence could not be shaken by falsehood and detraction and told of unscrupulous war-fare being waged against me.”
References in the correspondence of this collection to Folsom's business activities are limited. One letter, dated March 20, 1868, from J.S. Pillsbury of Minneapolis, outlines the regulations governing the sale of school timberlands and suggests that Folsom submit land descriptions to the Board of Regents, which might then permit Folsom to purchase the land.
Six letters for the years 1899 and 1900 were found attached by glue to other papers in a folder marked “Navigation.” Since those letters related directly to other papers in the folder, they were allowed to remain there. The folder contains correspondence, statistics, and news clippings gathered by Folsom in 1899 and 1900 relating to navigation on the St. Croix River and to hearings on the subject which were conducted by the Rivers and Harbors Committee of the United States House of Representatives.
One folder contains miscellaneous papers, including property deeds, contracts, store accounts, trader's license, and indentures relating to Folsom's early affairs at Prairie du Chien. It also includes a pilot's license and master's license as well as a license to operate the steamboat Wyman X, issued to Wyman Folsom in the year 1870.
Maps plotted to show Folsom's land holdings and real estate developments in the St. Croix Valley also indicate, in many instances, to whom he sold the land, or who owned the land in the surrounding territory. (Other maps, which have a more general interest, have been placed in the map collections of the Wisconsin Historical Society Archives.)
Volume number one is a record of Folsom's business at Prairie du Chien from April 10, 1841 until September 27, 1844. Among the records in the book are accounts with Hercules Dousman, H.M. Rice, James H. Lockwood, and the United States Army by Lieutenant Caldwell.
Volume two is a record of cargo delivered by Folsom's steamboat, the Wyman X, to points on the Mississippi and St. Croix rivers between St. Paul and Taylors Falls, Minnesota, between August 13 and October 12, 1870. Volume three is the passenger list of the Wyman X from May 26 until September 2, 1871.
