The Melting Pot and the Altar: Marital Assimilation in Early Twentieth-Century Wisconsin

191 Pages·1981·8.23 MB·English

by  Richard M. Bernard

The
Melting Pot
and the Altar
The John K. Fesler Memorial Fund provided assis-
tance in the publication of this volume, for which the
University of Minnesota Press is grateful.
The
Melting Pot
and the Altar
Marital Assimilation
in Early Twentieth-Century
Wisconsin
Richard M. Bernard
Assistant Professor of History, Marquette University
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA PRESS MINNEAPOLIS
Copyright © 1980 by the University of Minnesota.
All rights reserved.
Published by the University of Minnesota Press,
2037 University Avenue Southeast,
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55414
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Bernard, Richard M 1948-
The melting pot and the altar.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Marriage-Wisconsin. 2. Marriage Mixed-
Wisconsin. 3. Minorities-Wisconsin. 4. Assimilation
(Sociology) I. Title
HQ536.B48 306.8'09775 80-16287
ISBN 0-8166-0988-8
The University of Minnesota is an equal-opportunity
educator and employer.
For
Terry Bowman Bernard
This page intentionally left blank
Acknowledgments
My research on intermarriage in Wisconsin had its unlikely begin-
nings on a warm February afternoon in 1974 in the Texas State
Archives at Austin. I had gone to Texas the previous fall to study
geographic mobility patterns in Houston and Dallas, only to dis-
cover that the topic belonged in the field of medical research as a
cure for insomnia. In an idle moment, I fingered through some
dusty county marriage registers dating to the days of the Texas
Republic. At the time, I was only seeking a way to trace the move-
ments of women whose names changed when they married, but I
quickly became interested in the marriage records themselves and
in the information that they contained. I began to see them as
prime documents for studying social interactions, and I began to
mull over the seemingly innocent questions of "Who married
whom?" and "Why?" I began thinking of marriage as a measure of
acceptance. Groups who intermarried accepted one another. The
study of marriage patterns—what an excellent means for under-
standing group assimilation! I thought of my adopted state of
Wisconsin with its great pool of European immigrants, and I
wondered whether it would be possible to understand immigrant
assimilation there through an examination of that state's central
vii
viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
marriage registry. Suddenly I realized that I was considering a
much larger concept than I had first thought: not simply the altar,
but the American melting pot as well. From that moment, I knew
I would return to Wisconsin. I went home that afternoon and
searched through the storage bin for my overcoat.
Between that time and this, I have incurred more than the usual
number of debts to individuals and organizations. I greatly appre-
ciate the friendship and technical advice extended to me by Pro-
fessors Stanley K. Schultz and John B. Sharpless of the University
of Wisconsin and the methodological help which I received from
Charles Palit and Jane Neice of the Survey Research Center and
Gordon Caldwell and David Dickens of the Center for Demography
and Ecology, both at Wisconsin. Similarly, I wish to thank Pro-
fessors Shultz, Sharpless, and Allan G. Bouge of Wisconsin, John
Modell of Minnesota, and Timothy Tackett of Catholic University
for criticizing earlier versions of this work. Whatever weaknesses
remain result from my failure to listen to their advice more closely.
I am also grateful to the National Science Foundation, the New-
berry Library and the Marquette University Graduate School for
funding my efforts. A National Science Foundation grant made it
possible for James C. Schneider, Anthony C. Polvino, and George
Sweet to assist me in data collection and processing. Without their
good humor and fellowship, I would not have survived the tedium
inherent in quantitative research. A grant from the Newberry
enabled me to examine both their collections and the 1900 United
States census manuscripts at the Chicago Federal Records Center.
My thanks go to Professors Richard Jensen and Daniel Scott Smith.
Money from Marquette made possible a summer of interviews and
manuscript refinement. In addition, I appreciate the efforts of
Professor John D. Buenker and his students at the University of
Wisconsin-Parkside in helping me to gather materials on Racine
residents. Similarly, the staff of the State Historical Society of
Wisconsin, and especially reference librarian James Hansen, deserve
my thanks for guiding me to numerous materials on Wisconsin's
history. Equally deserving are Tony Polvino, George and Elaine
Sweet, Peter and Marsha Cannon, Mary Weddig, and Terry Bernard
for helping me keypunch during moments of crisis. I greatly appre-
ciate all of these efforts.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix
I save a special word of thanks for three people, my wife Terry,
my mother Elizabeth C. Bernard, and my good friend Bradley R.
Rice for their many years of support. Of these, I wish to single out
Terry for her consistent and invaluable encouragement. Her con-
fidence and assistance over the last ten years have meant everything
to me. This book is for her.