Good morning,
The forecast for Whitewater is for a sunny day with a high of 14 degrees.
It’s Christmas Corner at Lakeview School today, and there’s a school-wide music program at Washington School.
In Wisconsin History for December 11th, according to the Wisconsin Historical Society, signs of our free society:
1833 – First Newspaper in Wisconsin Published
On this date the Green Bay Intelligencer, Wisconsin’s first newspaper, began publication. John Vorhees Suydam and A.G. Ellis head up the publication effort. [Source: History of Wisconsin, Vol. 1]
Later, in 1901, a particular oddity from Whitewater’s past:
1901 – Morris Pratt Institute Incorporated
On this date spiritual leader Morris Pratt gained incorporation for his school of spiritualism located in Whitewater, Wisconsin. Many people of this time embraced spiritualism to try to reach friends and family who had died in the Civil War. As a result, Whitewater became known as the “mecca of modern spiritualism.” Pratt built his institute in 1888, which was initially used as a meeting place for public seances. Pratt decided to turn his institution into an educational school for spiritualists, focusing on science, literature, morality, and communication, as well as spiritualistic instruction. The institute was closed for a few years during the Depression, and then in 1977 relocated to Waukesha, where it remains one of the few institutes in the world that is dedicated to the study of spiritualism. [Source: Wisconsin Saints and Sinners by Fred L. Holmes]