XXX. WISCONSIN. Organized as a Territory in 1836. Capital, Madison. Area, 53,924 square miles. Population, 1860, 775,881. The circuits are composed of the following coun- | Crawford, and Vernon. 7th Circuit: Marathon, ties:-1st Circuit: Racine, Kenosha, Walworth, Rock, and Green. 2d Circuit: Milwaukee and Waukesha. 3d Circuit: Marquette, Green Lake, Dodge, Washington, and Ozaukee. 4th Circuit: Fond du-Lac, Manitowoc, Sheboygan, Calumet, and Kewaunee. 5th Circuit: Richland, Iowa, Grant, and Lafayette. 6th Circuit: Clarke, Jack son, La Crosse, Trempeleau, Buffalo, Monroe, Portage, Waupacca, Waushara, Adams, Juneau, and Wood. 8th Circuit: Eau Claire, Chippewa, Dunn, Pepin, Pierce, St. Croix, Polk, La Pointe, Douglas, Dallas, Barnett, and Ashland. 9th Circuit: Columbia, Sauk, Dane and Jefferson. 10th Circuit: Brown, Outagamie, Oconto, Winnebago, Shawanaw, and Door. FINANCES. Receipts and Expenditures. $187,300 97 The balance in the treasury, September 30, 1860, was...... Total receipts for the year ending September 30, 1861... The disbursements for the same period were......... Sources of Income. From General Fund: Balance Taxes, Licenses, &c...... $444,794 08 Balance, Fines, Sales, Loans, School Fund Income: Balance and Interest................................ University Fund: $1,861,535 09 $1,617,604 53 $1,861,535 09 208,829 78 Drainage Fund Income: 192,019 08 Normal School Fund: Balance, Sales, Dues, Loans, Taxes, and Penalties............. * Fifty per cent. of this income goes to the Drainage Fund Income, 25 per cent. to the School Fund Income, and 25 per cent to the Normal School Fund, which last is divided annually. Owing to the transfer of some of these funds to others, the sums total exceed the aggregate of receipts and expenditures. 243,930 56 $1,879,100 57 Due Treasurer State of Wisconsin........ Total liabilities.......... aggregate circulation of $4,600,000. A very considerable number of the Wisconsin State Debt.-Prior to May, 1861, the State debt banks, which were all on the free-banking prinwas only $100,000, which was the extent which ciple, had deposited as securities with the Compthe Constitution permitted, except in case of in- troller stocks or bonds of the disloyal States, and, vasion or for the suppression of rebellion, &c. these depreciating in value after the commenceThis debt was in six per cent. bonds. At the extra ment of the war, a panic ensued, and the banks session of the Legislature in May, 1861, a loan for owing the largest amount of these securities war purposes of one million dollars more was failed or wound up their business, involving the authorized. Of this, $200,000 was to be negotiated business of the State in serious losses and emby the Governor alone, and not below par. The barrassments. In May, 1862, there still remained remainder was to be negotiated by the Board of in the State 70 banks, having a capital of $4,397.Loan Commissioners, consisting of the Governor,000, specie to the amount of $380,000, and an Secretary of State, and State Treasurer, on the best terms they could obtain. The condition of the banks at the time, and the general distrust of Western securities, together with some technical defects in the law, rendered the negotiation of these bonds in the Eastern money-markets impossible. Under these circumstances, the Wisconsin bankers came forward, and offered to take the $800,000 bonds, paying 70 per cent. of their face down (3 in specie or N.Y. Exchange, and in their own bills), and the remaining 30 per cent. in instalments of one per cent. every six months, giving their corporate bonds as security for this payment, and to deposit the State bonds with the INSURANCE COMPANIES.-There is one Life Insurance Company and nine Fire and Marine Companies in the State. The fire insurance companies have an aggregate capital of $300,000; capital and accumulation, $742,307 68; total assets, $773,164 89; total liabilities, $30,857 30; number of policies in force, 20,568; total receipts, $254,602 61; total losses, $55,282 93; total expenses, $42,527 55. The Life Insurance Company reports 185 policies in force, $56,981 20 total assets, $45,857 56 total receipts, $16,320 61 total expenditures. 41 fire and 9 life insurance companies from other States transacted business in Wisconsin. RAILROADS.-The railroads in the State, which had been fostered by liberal grants of lands and farm-mortgages, and were many of them in the hands of speculators who cared only for their own interest and emolument, were mostly brought to bankruptcy by the financial revulsions of 1857-58 and 1860-61, and many of them passed into the hands of the bondholders or receivers. Under their new organization they are generally progressing towards completion, and many of them show signs of returning prosperity. None of them have yet, we believe, declared a dividend; but several of the more important routes will soon be in a position to do so. The whole number of miles of railroad completed and in operation in the State is 1,157.15 miles,-an increase of nearly 300 miles within the past year. The following table exhibits the condition of the roads about January 1, 1862. apportioned during the year, $131,636 03; county tax for schools, $171,697 27; district tax for teachers' wages, $330,766 24; for school-houses, $173,356 09; for contingencies, $97,300 65; total amount raised from all sources and expended for schools, $854,766 28; number of stone and brick school-houses, 376, of frame ditto, 2478, of log ditto, 1357; total number of school-houses, 4211; number of sites containing less than one acre, 3230; number of sites unenclosed, 3037; total valuation of school-houses, $1,302,732; average valuation of school-houses, $309 50. EDUCATION.-There are in the State nine col- | female teachers, $14 62; amount of State funds leges. Of these the oldest is Beloit College, under the control of the Congregationalists, founded in 1847. The State University, at Madison, founded in 1849, has now an endowment from the University Lands Fund of about $248,000, besides buildings valued at $100,000, and besides land yet unsold of the estimated value of $91,366 39. Its income for the year ending Sept. 30, 1861, was $18,397 70Of the other colleges, one (at Milwaukee) is for females only, and two are under the direction of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and one, each, controlled by the Baptists, Roman Catholics, Presbyterians, and Episcopalians. Some of these, though possessing college charters, have as yet organized but little more than preparatory departments. There are three theological seminaries in the State,-Nashota, at Delafield, under the care of the Episcopal Church, the Seminary of the Norwegian Synod (Lutheran), at Half-way Creek, La Crosse co., and the Ecclesiastical Seminary of St. Francis of Sales (Catholic), at Nojoshing, Milwaukee co. There is a medical school, nominally connected with the State University, at Madison. There is no law school in the State. A fund (from one-fourth the income of the SwampLand Fund), whose revenue is from $4000 to $5000, is set apart for normal-school education, and was distributed in 1861 to aid fourteen in stitutions (colleges and academies) which maintained classes for normal instruction, and to assist teachers' institutes. 27 of these institutes have been held, varying in length from three days to two weeks; they have been attended by 1600 teachers. The classes connected with the fourteen institutions aided by the Normal Fund have numbered 342 members; 86 passed the very rigid and severe examination prescribed by the Board of Regents, and most of these are engaged in teaching. Common Schools.-The following are the statistics of the public schools for the year ending Oct. 1, 1861:—whole number of districts in the State, 4558, of which 177 made no report; number of children between 4 and 20 years of age, 299,133, viz. males, 153,530, females, 145,603; number of children registered in the schools, 194,264, besides 2013 who were under 4 and 2166 over 20 years of age; whole number in attendance, 198,443; number estimated as in private schools, 8000; whole number in private and public schools, 206,443. The number actually registered are 65 per cent. of the whole number of persons of schoolage, and the regular attendance is 60 per cent. of the whole number registered. The average duration of the schools was 6 months; schools were taught by male teachers an average of 3.85 months, by female teachers an average of 4.06 months; the estimated number of male teachers was 2400, of female teachers, 3600; total estimated number of teachers, 6000; estimated total number engaged in teaching at the same time, 3500; average monthly wages of male teachers, $23, of School Fund.-The School Fund of the State is derived from the proceeds of the sale of the 16th section of each township and an additional grant by Congress of 500,000 acres of land; 25 per cent. of the proceeds of sale of swamp and overflowed lands, and lands selected in lieu thereof (25 per cent. more goes to the Normal School Fund); 5 per cent. of the proceeds of sales of Government public lands in the State (this has been withheld in consequence of a claim of Government against the State); 5 per cent. penalty as forfeiture for non-payment of interest on school land certificates and school fund loans; and the clear proceeds of all fines collected in the several counties for penal offences and for trespasses on State lands. The productive fund from the sale of these lands, &c., Sept. 30, 1861, was $2,458,351 49, and there remained unsold and forfeited 454,775 acres of 16thsection lands; forfeited lands of 1861, 219,000 acres; 125,000 acres unsold swamp-lands; 118,750 acres of forfeited swamp-lands; and 39,500 acres of forfeited swamp-lands of 1861. There are also 140,000 acres of land claimed from Government, and 16th-section and swamp-land, yet unsurveyed. The lands as yet unsold in the whole will exceed 1,500,000 acres. Wisconsin Institute for the Education of the Blind, at Janesville, Thomas H. Little, Principal. This institution was incorporated in 1849, and opened in 1850. It had in Sept. 1861, 6 teachers and officers, 36 pupils; 9 had been admitted and 45 had been in attendance during the year, and 21 had graduated in all since opening the institution. There was a workshop for males, and another for females. The males were employed in broom-making, and the girls in knitting, netting, &c. The workshops showed a profit of $321 40 on their work for the year. Other branches of employment were to be introduced soon. The school course occupies four years, and does not advance, except in music, beyond that of ordinary English academies. The Superintendent recommends the admission of such blind students as may qualify themselves to the University. The receipts of the year were $11,077 71, and the expenditures $9,849 39, of which $8,340 24 was for current expenses, or $213 85 per pupil per annum. Wisconsin Institute for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb, at Delavan, J. S. Officer, Prin |