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MIGRATION PATTERNS TO WISCONSIN

Many people came from New York State came to Wisconsin in the 1800's, due to the large lumbering interests. Areas of northern to central Wisconsin were loaded with pine forests and many men from upstate New York had worked in the lumbering industry there. As the lumber companies logged off the old growth forests, they wanted to sell off the cut-over land. Some companies even advertised in Europe. Land in the east was becoming expensive and Wisconsin, or northern Wisconsin, was a frontier, almost unpopulated, with few farmers. Too many trees in some areas even in 1900 to farm. The timber interests took out the big trees and saved those interested in farming some major labor doing so. The rocks were another matter. Every spring, a new crop of rocks. Every spring the farm children picked rocks before the crop went in for that year.

Keep in mind that land in Europe was tightly controlled, often overworked and not very fertile, and hard for a younger son, and very hard for a daughter, to obtain. Land in Europe was expensive, compared to in America. Whole villages sometimes emigrated to Wisconsin to take advantage of the opportunity to have not just their own farms, but to have big farms, by comparison with what they'd be able to achieve in the old country. It was also here possible for someone of no particular inheritance or status to become a landowner, even for women to do that, a thing very difficult in Europe.

Advertising was done in New York to lure men to Wisconsin which was supposed to have an "inexhaustible" supply of timber to cut, and many came seeking new job opportunities. The lumbermen did a good job cutting the pine forests, and the "inexhaustible" supply was pretty well gone shortly after 1900.

Another reason was easy transportation. The Erie and other canals afforded folks easy passage across New York to Buffalo where they could gain passage on one of the numerous Lake Schooners and easily make their way to Wisconsin where land was available.

In addition, many people just wanted their own land and more space. The east was getting crowded and many moved westward. Many left Wisconsin also and moved further west for farming opportunities in the Dakotas, Nebraska, etc.

One of the reasons some people moved to Indiana in that time frame was the opening of land and granting of land to veterans of the War of 1812 in return for their service.

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