How to Become a Historian

This title is used with “tongue-in-cheek” because I don’t consider myself to be a historian. While it is true that many people in Lake Mills refer to me as the “Local Historian” and persons seeking historical or family genealogical information from the Chamber of Commerce, the library, or the local historical society are frequently referred to me for a response, I am not a true historian. Rather I prefer to be classified as an accumulator of local historical facts, not a bonified “historian.”

So how did this designation develop? In retrospect, there are several successive events that seem to have been factors. As a student in high school and later at the university, I avoided all history courses that were not required—in part being turned off by the need to memorize rather meaningless (to me) dates and possibly from the method of presentation. As a freshman at the University of Wisconsin, I was required to take a course in English that required writing an essay every week. This was an unanticipated surprise, following high school where we wrote only one theme a year. Fortunately we had a high school English teacher who very adequately drilled into us both grammar and sentence construction, the result of which has supported me in good stead throughout the years. However, at the university I did learn something of essay composition and later while working in research in the Department of Pharmacology, the need for concise writing in preparing medical articles.

For many years I was an avid stamp collector. Since most countries portray prominent people or important historical events on their stamps, by a sort of osmosis, I absorbed a great deal of historical information while studying these bits of paper. At that point, there was little inclination to pursue historical detail but perhaps a seed was planted…

As a physician in private practice for seventeen years there was little time for any type of writing; however, after becoming a medical director at Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company in Milwaukee, I was assigned the task of writing articles for its agents, explaining how a variety of medical conditions could affect an applicant for insurance (this develops tact). Later as medical director at CUNA Mutual Insurance Group in Madison, I was given the opportunity to write health related articles for its internal publications. Both of these experiences helped me develop my writing skills and refine methods for presenting information in an interesting way.

In retirement I joined the local Friends of the Library organization and asked the librarian what I could do for the library. She suggested that it would be nice to make a video record of current events in the community that would then be available to library users. Since I had recently obtained a video camera, I was open to this opportunity, and over a period of a year, four seasonal tapes of local activities were completed. Inspired by this small success, I embarked on a plan to create a video history of early Lake Mills. This required some research, which I anticipated would easily be gained from previous historical accounts written by local and county historians. I found myself rather quickly disillusioned over contradictory statements and obvious improbabilities. To this end, I determined it was necessary to go back to original sources, mainly area newspapers and abstracts of deeds at the County Court House, to clarify the true past events and their sequence.

Fortunately many copies of old newspapers exist in microfilm form at the various area libraries. I began extracting pertinent events for a file as I developed my video history, and in doing so became aware of a number of other extraneous events. Among these, some were of enough interest that I began composing articles about them. These were submitted to the local weekly newspaper, the Lake Mills Leader, which was gracious enough to print them. In turn, I was surprised to receive positive responses from readers.

So why do I write? Certainly neither for personal recognition nor remuneration. Primarily, frustrated by erroneous historical accounts produced by prior historians who were either careless or misinformed, I was determined to “set the record straight.” Secondly, possessing an active curiosity, I find myself more and more interested in why something happened rather than what happened or who did it. When I have identified some interesting and long forgotten event, I have a strong desire to share my new knowledge with other people and put it in writing. To me, hoarded information is selfish. To date I have completed nearly a hundred articles for the local newspapers and have both compiled and published two books containing the majority of these articles. That these books were ever published can be attributed to pressures to do so from a variety of individuals. I feel no particular pride of ownership in what I have produced and never have submitted an article with a byline. Moreover, the entire proceeds from the sale of these books have gone to the library’s building fund.

I don’t pretend to know what makes a “historian”; I have rather attempted to explain how a series of events appear to have shaped this writer. I believe it was Thoreau who once wrote something to the effect that “History is always being made, but it us up to the historian to make it interesting.” His observation would seem to contain a basic truth for those desiring to produce good historical stories. Additionally, I have always been impressed with the quality of the writings by Dr. Steven Ambrose (in spite of accusations of plagiarism). He had the unusual ability to make history alive, and his methods are worth emulating. To be a good historian requires significant dedication and determination to explore all the available facts. Such efforts necessitate intensive probing, diligent research and not giving up after ending up in blind alleys. Admittedly, these are factors that I only rarely accomplish to my satisfaction. A historian must also be a good storyteller and wisely will enroll in writing classes to develop skills. I never expect to qualify as a true historian but writing about past events will remain a continuing goal for me as I endeavor to inspire residents of my community to develop a better understanding of and relationship to the town they currently inhabit.

— Roland Liebenow, MD