RIPON, Wis. (WFRV) – With just a few months left until the official 250th birthday of the United States of America, it’s important to look back on one of the many moments that have shaped the nation’s history, right here in northeast Wisconsin.
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The Little White Schoolhouse Museum appears to be just an average small building, but take a closer look inside this one-room building, and you’ll find the Birthplace of the Republican Party.
“This is a one-room schoolhouse built in 1853, but it’s powerful, because in 1854, the Republican Party was founded on March 20,” Museum Director Ellen Sorenson said.
The meeting came during one of the most heated and tense moments in American history, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which repealed the Missouri Compromise, allowing popular sovereignty to decide on slavery in each state.
The act directly led to the historically violent acts of Bleeding Kansas, and subsequent meetings nationwide to discuss the next steps.
“These were meetings that were happening all across America, from New Hampshire to Iowa, all over,” Sorenson said.
One of those many meetings was at this schoolhouse in Ripon, but it started elsewhere in town.
“They initially met at the congressional church,” Sorenson said. “[But], they felt that because that was a religious building, they had to come to a secular place, and this public school was in proximity.”
The movement quickly gained momentum nationwide, and then, just months later, Michigan held the first state Republican Party convention.
“This was done in March,” Sorenson said. “Then on June 6th, Michigan had the first state convention for the Republican Party, followed by Wisconsin having one of its own.”
Now, over 160 years after Abraham Lincoln became the first Republican President of the United States, this little schoolhouse in Ripon stands as a testament to a moment in American history.
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“We want people to realize that politically you can make a difference, you can have your convictions, engage with your elected officials, you need to vote, you need to do all those things,” Sorenson said.
The museum operates today as a nonpartisan non-profit centered on telling the story of America, and it was designated as a National Historic Site in 1974. Click here to learn more.
