Collecting Wisconsin

I was born in Wisconsin as were my parents, their parents, and even their parents. I spent my first 22 years in Wisconsin, leaving the state only a couple of times before high school. I now have lived on the west coast since 1996. But for me, my homeland is not a foreign country but the state of Wisconsin, where my parents still live and my ancestors are buried.

The first U.S. tax on documents occurred after the start of the American Civil War. In recent years I began collecting Wisconsin documents with these revenue stamps. The Civil War was a trying time and no battles were fought in Wisconsin, but over 90,000 Wisconsinites enlisted or were drafted. This ultimately affected hundreds of thousands of Wisconsin families. I have enjoyed researching the people and places that formed the state for which I spent the formidable years of my life in.

I may now reside 2,000 miles from Wisconsin, but through these documents I now feel more connected to the state. It also brings me home every summer to continue my research efforts.

-Kristin Patterson