Kewaunee County: Wisconsin's Early Eugenics Laws

Few in Kewaunee County have heard the name Francis Galton and the few who did were probably glad to forget him. He was the founder of a movement dedicated to improving the human population by controlled breeding, thus increasing desirable genetic characteristics. Wikipedia defines Eugenics as "a set of beliefs and practises that aims at improving the genetic quality of a human population by excluding certain genetic groups judged to be less desirable and promoting other genetic groups judged to be superior." Galton's concepts fell into disfavor only after such ideas were included in Nazi doctrines. Nevertheless, eugenics did have an impact on Kewaunee County.

As early as January 1905, the following was included in Algoma Record's religious news: Mr. Francis Galton, F.R.S., has founded in London university (sic)  a fellowship for the promotion of the study of '"National Eugenics," the study of the agencies under social control that may improve or repair the racial qualities of future generations either physically or mentally.

Epileptics, feeble-minded and insane were in 1907 banned from marriage and sexual intercourse. Severely disabled were usually kept institutionalized as it was not expected they would ever marry, but others were often sterilized. Passing a eugenics law in 1913, Wisconsin's edict targeted "mental defectives" and epileptics for sterilization. Laws varied by state and by the 1960s, most sterilization efforts were discontinued. Wisconsin's trust of science, medicine, psychology and sociology was there to form public policy which accepted eugenics as a science.

Mental defectives were defined as those receiving state aid, people in state institutions such as Wisconsin Home for the Feeble-Minded in Chippewa Falls, those who were promiscuous or otherwise  violated social norms. Authorities also looked for similar traits in one’s family. If a family refused sterilization, the one in question could be institutionalized indefinitely, however the director of the Chippewa Falls’ home felt sterilization was both efficient and fiscally responsible over institution. Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned the law that required people to prove they were fit to marry.

During mid-January 1914, the Record carried an article saying Wisconsin's Attorney General Owen said physicians who entered agreements not to test under eugenics' marriage law "come dangerously near conspiracy in obstructing the administration of the law" and that the "conditions must be looked after."

Two months later in March 1914, officers of the State Federation of Catholics in Wisconsin and the U.P. adopted a resolution protesting sex eugenics, inviting moral people to use their influence to prohibit such teaching. Then in June 1915, Dr. Charles Davenport of the eugenics laboratory at Cold Spring Harbor, NY warned against possible hereditary tendencies and cancer. He said such research showed incidences were highest in Maine, and that dominant traits show up in cousins marrying cousins as frequently happened on the islands off Maine's coast.

When in November 1915 the State Board of Health reviewed 1914 statistics, it was noted that there were 3,807 fewer marriages in Wisconsin than in 1913. Statistical information convinced the board that financial depression “retards marriage” and said economic factors affected marriage rates while the eugenics law was only partly responsible. However, there were also common law marriages. By 1915, the marriage law was amended so that ample publicity was given to applications and thereby allowing for objections to the marriage.

Kewaunee County’s own John Cashman served in Wisconsin’s legislature. Cashman attacked eugenics in April 1923 saying it was “a farce” that the state could no longer afford to keep on the books. He went on to tell of the Milwaukee woman who masqueraded as a man to get a physical certificate to wed and then said the law proved ineffective in accomplishing its original purpose. The law was repealed in the Senate, 18 – 17. The law’s lone defender said he would favor an amendment to provide a Wasserman* test in all cases if the present provisions were inadequate.

Frank R. Sherwood came to Algoma in April 1923, lecturing men and boys on hygiene at a program held in the high school auditorium. He gave his lecture as a part of the State Board of Health and the federal government. Sherwood told the assembled that unless the boys lived better than those around them, American would be ruined because 35 of every 100 examined for the army were physically unfit. They had poor teeth, poor feet and venereal disease. Sherwood said fathers had to give more time to their sons. Then he said the eugenics law should be rigidly enforced because sins of the fathers often result in crippled and blind children or in an invalid mother. He said towels, drinking cups and dance halls were the most common spreaders of venereal disease which resulted in the birth defects.

At the July 1924 meeting of Wisconsin County Clerks, Kewaunee County Clerk Joseph Lazansky was appointed a committee of one to represent the clerk’s association in an appearance before the legislature. Lazansky’s job was working to obtain uniform dance hall ordinances, and the adoption of uniform marriage laws throughout the country. There were those who felt dance halls were at the root of venereal disease. As the law stood, the marriage eugenics law affected  men only. Lazansky advocated that the law should apply to both contracting parties – bride and groom. It was pointed out that, “Couples who are physically unfit go from Wisconsin to neighboring states, get married and come back here. The misfit children are then thrown upon the institutions of Wisconsin.”

In 1931, marriages in Kewaunee County totaled 119, 2 over the previous year. There were 7 divorces and 8 the preceding year according to the State Board of Health, but overall the state recorded 544 few marriages than the year before. The state felt the figure did not tell a complete story because a national committee in 1917 provided for publication, via the county clerk’s office, the intent to marry. That prompted couples to go to one of the 4 adjacent states which had not adopted the 1917 code, however the law was not thought to be a factor. 1930’s marriage rate was 15% below 1929, a rate possibly due to the country’s economic woes.

Women were targets of eugenicists. Women could be judged defective by having a child out of wedlock, going to a tavern or defying social mores. The average age of sterilized women was 21. In Wisconsin Public Television’s October 6, 2016 edition of University Place, speaker Scott Gordon said the sterilization programs was found scientifically credible, nevertheless of the 1,823 people recorded, 79% were women.

In August 1937 the state health officer said 25 years before Wisconsin was proud to be one of the first three states to enact premarital examinations for men and, in 1937, extended the intelligent procedure to brides as syphilis prevention. The effects of the new eugenics law would be immediate and prevent “procreation of innocent babies doomed to suffer the cruel blight of congenital syphilis. “ The State Health Officer said the noble aim would be accomplished without surrendering the right to marry and hinged on successful treatment of diseases because the previous health problem would no longer affect the children born to the union. The health officer went on to say that the law eliminates heartbreak and offers joy to a marriage.

One wonders how such laws affected Kewaunee County. Obviously, there would have been those who were forbidden to marry under the law. A genealogical search brought to light a widow and three young boys living at the Poor Farm. The boys were listed with words describing their limited intelligence, words that would be highly pejorative in today’s society. The boys might have had delayed speech, stuttered, or something else prompting the recorder to jot down the apparent intelligence. One son eventually became a successful business man, married and had a family. Another took employment in his uncle’s hotel. What might the labels have done to those children?

As recently as April 1969 , eugenics was part of the Southern Door High School science fair. The student creating the display received a Superior rating for the charts on eugenics, which was then said to be the explanation of genetics, which is the study of heredity.  Fifty years later, DNA is part of medicine and culture. News reports have carried instances of DNA also being misused.

A generation earlier, in early 1934, the Advocate was a head of its time when it reported that eugenics was a well-born theory that was :undoubtedly true.” The paper said brains had to be educated and environment is education “in the truest sense of the word.” Environment was a matter of home, family, social contacts, geographical location, luck in opportunity and the ability to take it. As the paper pointed out, eugenics could not control those factors.

*A blood test to determine syphilis.

Sources: Algoma Record/Algoma Record Herald with reprints of articles from Wisconsin Dept. of Public Health; Door County Advocate; Wikipedia; https://www.uvm.edu/~lkaelber/eugenics/WI/WI.htm