Editing Wisconsin (section)

===Statehood===
{{Main|Admission to the Union|List of U.S. states by date of admission to the Union}}
[[File:3c Wisconsin Statehood Centennial, 1948 issue.jpg|thumb|On May 29, 1948, the U.S. Post Office issued a [[commemorative stamp]] celebrating the 100th anniversary of Wisconsin statehood, featuring the state capitol building and map of Wisconsin.]]

The [[Erie Canal]] facilitated the travel of both [[Yankee]] settlers and European immigrants to Wisconsin Territory. Yankees from New England and [[upstate New York]] seized a dominant position in law and politics, enacting policies that marginalized the region's earlier Native American and French-Canadian residents.<ref>{{Cite book| publisher = Cambridge University Press| isbn = 9781107052864| last = Murphy| first = Lucy Eldersveld| title = Great Lakes Creoles: a French-Indian community on the northern borderlands, Prairie du Chien, 1750–1860| location = New York| date = 2014| pages=108–147}}</ref> Yankees also speculated in real estate, platted towns such as Racine, Beloit, Burlington, and Janesville, and established schools, civic institutions, and [[Congregationalist]] churches.<ref>The Expansion of New England: The Spread of New England Settlement and Institutions to the Mississippi River, 1620–1865 by Lois Kimball Mathews page 244</ref><ref>New England in the Life of the World: A Record of Adventure and Achievement By Howard Allen Bridgman page 77</ref><ref>"When is Daddy Coming Home?": An American Family During World War II By Richard Carlton Haney page 8</ref> At the same time, many [[Germans]], Irish, [[Norwegians]], and other immigrants also settled in towns and farms across the territory, establishing [[Catholic]] and [[Lutheran]] institutions.

The growing population allowed Wisconsin to gain statehood on May 29, 1848, as the 30th state. Between 1840 and 1850, Wisconsin's non-Indian population had swollen from 31,000 to 305,000. More than a third of residents (110,500) were foreign born, including 38,000 Germans, 28,000 British immigrants from England, Scotland, and Wales, and 21,000 Irish. Another third (103,000) were Yankees from New England and western New York state. Only about 63,000 residents in 1850 had been born in Wisconsin.<ref>Robert C. Nesbit. ''Wisconsin: A History''. 2nd ed. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1989, p. 151.</ref>

[[Nelson Dewey]], the first [[governor of Wisconsin]], was a [[History of the Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]]. Dewey oversaw the transition from the territorial to the new state government.<ref name="1960bio">{{cite book |last=Toepel |first=M. G. |editor-first=Hazel L. |editor-last=Kuehn |title=The Wisconsin Blue Book, 1960 |year=1960 |url=http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/WI/WI-idx?type=header&id=WI.WIBlueBk1960&isize=M |chapter=Wisconsin's Former Governors, 1848–1959 |chapter-url=http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/WI/WI-idx?type=turn&entity=WI.WIBlueBk1960.p0087&isize=M |publisher=Wisconsin Legislative Reference Library |access-date=September 17, 2008 |pages=71–74 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604152221/http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/WI/WI-idx?type=header&id=WI.WIBlueBk1960&isize=M |archive-date=June 4, 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref> He encouraged the development of the state's infrastructure, particularly the construction of new roads, railroads, canals, and harbors, as well as the improvement of the [[Fox River (Illinois River tributary)|Fox]] and [[Wisconsin River]]s.<ref name="1960bio" /> During his administration, the [[Wisconsin Board of Public Works|State Board of Public Works]] was organized.<ref name="1960bio" /> Dewey, an [[abolitionist]], was the first of many Wisconsin governors to advocate against the spread of [[slavery in the United States|slavery]] into new states and territories.<ref name="1960bio" />
{{Further|Pioneer Women in Wisconsin}}