The greater number of the settlers who occupied the lands of southeastern Wisconsin during the years im mediately preceding the sale of 1839 were of New York and New England origin. The biography of one of them, Luther Parker, may lay claim to a special inter est as illustrating the conditions of pioneer life, not only in Wisconsin but also in New Hampshire, where, before his migration to the West and participation in the building of the new commonwealth, he was actively concerned in one of the most interesting experiments in the history of American democracy, as well as in a border trouble which at one time threatened to result.