Dr. Increase Al. Lapham The Name of this American Scientist Would be Most Appropriate for Schlitz Park, p. 1

For Sunday Sentinel
Aug. 28. 1909.
Insert two page cut of Dr. L.
now in files of Sentinel.

Dr. Increase A. Lapham

The Name Of This American Scientist Would
Be Most Appropriate For Schlitz Park

By Geo. A. West

Dr. Increase A. Lapham was born in Palmyra, N. Y. in
1811. In his early manhood he served as an assistant on the
survey of the Erie Canal, and as an engineer in the construc-
tion of the Welland and Miami canals.
Arriving in Milwaukee in 1836 he was soon engaged in
laying out the streets of the then new city of Milwaukee. Be-
ing a keen observer his attention was at once attracted to the
strange artificial earth elevations and depressions in the form
of birds and animals that were then so common in the southern
portion of this state and so rare beyond its borders. Dr. Lap-
ham immediately began a most thorough and scientific investiga-
tion of these prehistoric remains. Probably his first paper
published on the subject was an account of the large "turtle
mound" in Prairie Village, now the city of Waukesha, in the Mil-
waukee Advertiser, then in its first year of existence.
From the date of Dr. Lapham's arrival here he turned
his attention to scientific study and investigation, not only
in Archaeology, but particularly in the branches of botany,
meteorology and geology.
In 1844, LAPHAM'S WISCONSIN, said to be the first book
every published in this state, appeared. It is a geographical
and topographical description of Wisconsin, with brief sketches
of its history, geology, mineralogy, natural history, popula-
tion, soil and productions, with several pages devoted to an-
tiquities, especially the far famed ruins at Aztalan, Jefferson