USA > Wisconsin > Milwaukee County > Milwaukee > Early Milwaukee : papers from the archives of the Old Settlers' Club of Milwaukee County > Part 10
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12
111
PHYSICIANS AND DRUGGISTS
Dr. J. B. Dousman was also a person of strong individuality, a good physician and a kind-hearted man. To see him and note his strong earnest gaze, was to never forget it. It is many years since he passed away. Dr. E. B. Wolcott was so widely and well known that young or old have heard of him, and I could not say anything that would add to a reputation that already stands so high, as a most skilful surgeon and a generous, kind-hearted man, whose tall, lithe and active form was once so familiar on our streets.
There was also another well and widely known physician. I re- fer to Dr. J. K. Bartlett, who until lately was still a resident of our city. He was a gentleman of refinement and culture, and one of our best-read physicians, and occupied a very high position in his profes- sion. His health necessitating removal to a milder climate, he went to California to reside.
Dr. C. C. Robinson was a frequent caller at the store. He has accumulated large means through investments in real estate, is still a resident of the city, and a hale and hearty man.
Dr. D. W. Gorham was one of the oldest medical practioners of the city, coming some time about 1836 or 1837. In an early day he kept a drug store in the vicinity of Kilbourn Town. He was also, for a period, in the office with Dr. Blanchard, was very peculiar and eccentric in his ways, but a man of great capability, professionally, highly esteemed by those who employed him and knew his skill, but a mere child in business matters, and consequently never very pros- perous.
Dr. Blanchard thought much of his ability, and in speaking of him to the writer, said he was one of those who would, at any time of the night, mount a horse bare backed, with coat tails flying, to go and see a case, so intensely was he wrapped up in his profession. The last few years of his life he spent on his farm at East Troy, where he died. His remains were brought to this city and interred at Forest Home cemetery.
Dr. E. D. Baker was another of that distinct cast of characters that always leave an indelible impression on the memory after they have passed away. He was a firm friend or an implacable enemy, gruff in his manner, caused, I think, by reverses in early life, losing
112
EARLY MILWAUKEE
much property by reposing too much confidence in the integrity of others, which soured his disposition and made him misanthropic. Otherwise he had a powerful mind of a metaphysical tendency. He was well and deeply read, and could, had he been so disposed, have occupied a very high position in his profession. His energy ap- peared to have left him after his reverses and he sank into a morbid condition, apparently at war with all the world. The epithet ap- plied to the great lexicographer, Dr. Johnson ; that of "Ursa Major" might also have aptly been bestowed upon him. It is now several years since he died.
Having reviewed some of the medical men, I must not overlook their coadjutors, the druggists. Of the firm of Hatch & Patterson, Mr. Hatch was the druggist, Mr. Patterson, having in Pennsyl- vania, followed the calling of a tanner. (It was common in those days and has been up to a very recent date for persons to enter the drug business whether educated to it or not.) Mr. Patterson was related to John H. Van Dyke of this city, I believe a brother-in- law.
Mr. Hatch, as said before, was one of the earlier settlers of the city, and had previously been associated with L. J. Higby in the drug business. He was a kind-hearted, genial man, lacking some- what in force of character, who originally came from Vermont. I was employed as a clerk by the firm, the situation having been ob- tained for me by our old friend, P. Van Vechten, Jr., a few days after my arrival in the city. The business was afterwards sold to Dr. J. E. Dowe, who came, I think, from New Haven, Conn., and was a brother-in-law to S. B. Grant, who was engaged in the lumber trade. Previous to his purchase of the business it had been re- moved to the new brick block erected by James B. Martin on the southwest corner of East Water and Wisconsin streets, the spot now occupied by Mack's building in which is located the Golden Eagle store of Browning, King & Co. The building was then divided into three stores, the corner occupied by J. H. Crampton, dry goods, next south by Kistner & Bruno, clothing I believe, the other by Hatch & Patterson.
Dr. Dowe carried it on but for a short time. Having become in- volved in some way with complications in J. H. Crampton's dry
113
PHYSICIANS AND DRUGGISTS
goods business, Dr. Dowe's stock was sold to S. Johnson, Jr., whose business afterwards passed successively into the hands of Harring- ton & Dadd, C. Harrington, Swift & Smith and Geo. W. Swift. Mr. Swift ultimately sold out some eight years ago to Drake Bros .; half of their present store covers the ground on which stood the old one occupied by Mr. Swift, that was erected by A. F. Clarke and occupied by him as a drug store, when I came to the city in 1850. The firm then being Clarke & Woodruff.
Mr. Hatch left the city a few years ago to reside with his son, Charles, in New Jersey, he died recently at Chattanooga, Tennessee, where he had gone to benefit his health, having been a sufferer for years from locomotor ataxia.
Concluding I would say there were a number of other physi- cians, whom the limits of my paper do not allow me to speak of in extenso, among them Dr. Diefendorf and Dr. J. Johnson of the regular profession, and of the Homeopathic school, Drs. Hewitt, Tracy, Douglas, Greves and R. M. Brown, the last still well known and much respected.
First Small Pox Epidemic
By Dr. J. B. Selby.
In 1843 smallpox appeared in Milwaukee for the first time among the white settlers. The first case was that of Mrs. Mary Dewey, the wife of Linas N. Dewey, who came to Milwaukee in 1842. She had the disease in a mild form, and soon recovered. Where she was exposed or how she took the disease, neither she or any one else ever knew. It probably had existed among the In- dians camped about, and as they were in numbers here, she may have been exposed to one who had recently recovered. Her husband attended to her wants during her illness, and before she had fairly recovered, he came down with the disease, and had a severe time be- fore his recovery. This was in the spring of 1843-occasionally there was a case of smallpox during the summer-but by the middle of August the disease had spread to such an extent as to cause alarm. While no unusual publicity was given, it was well known at Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, and other ports along the line that an epidemic of smallpox had broken out at Milwaukee. And soon that knowledge must seriously interfere with the landing of immi- grants and other passengers destined for this port, who would pre- fer to go on to Racine, Southport, or even to Chicago, than land at a port whose hotels might be stricken with the contagious disease, while at the same time the rural population, who depended on Mil- waukee to buy their produce and give them in return their sup- plies, would go elsewhere to accomplish that object rather than to risk the danger here.
Then it was that the board of supervisors took action to stamp out this pestilence. They passed a resolution creating a board of health, a hospital or pest house, whence all taken with smallpox should be conveyed and another resolution, that any physician who failed to report any case, should be subject to a fine. The question of locating the pest house was one of much importance. The ground around the location should be high and free from miasmatic in- fluence; fresh, pure air is important to all hospitals, and partic-
115
SMALL-POX EPIDEMIC
ularly so to one where all are forcibly sent, having a contagious disease, and so far from a residence as to justify no remonstrance to its use.
The supervisors were fortunate enough in finding a location that answered favorably all these questions. This location was on the east side of the river, about 31/2 miles north of Wisconsin Street, and 1/2 mile east of Humboldt. There a Mr. Kirby owned 40 acres, having an east front on what is now known as Oakland Avenue, of 1/4 of a mile, having a south front of 1/4 of a mile on the sectional line road; called the town line road, running east from Humboldt and about eighty rods north of the new location of the female col- lege. The land was high and dry, covered with a rich and vigorous growth of native timber. There was no house between it and Mil- waukee; and the only house in Humboldt was through the woods 1/2 mile away. These 40 acres now clothed with rich meadows and pasture were then clad with a forest of oak, maple, and hickory, except a clearing of about 2 acres on which stood a log house. The time was pressing and so was the alarm in Milwaukee. A contract was soon agreed upon between the owner and the supervisors to rent the land and house from September 1st, 1843, to May 1st, 1844, for $100.00. The house not affording sufficient room for those awaiting their retreat, an addition was thrown up on the north at- tached to the log house, with a door between. This addition was 16x30, two stories high. A substantial frame was run up, sheathed with boards up and down and well battened, covered with a good shingled roof. A stairway was made connecting the two floors, and the space above and below, was divided into bed-rooms, except that below a large room was reserved for the dining table.
The weather being warm and favorable the windows were al- lowed to stand open admitting a free use of fresh air, so necessary to purify a crowded house filled with cases of smallpox. The land between Milwaukee and the Pest house, was covered by heavy timber. Between the two points were some three or four deep gullies or ravines, along the river. The land being higher along the lake bluff, caused the spring freshets to run towards the river-and in time cut these deep ravines through the clay. So that the Indian trail from Milwaukee to the north ran along the bluff, crossing the heads of these rivulets, till, passing the last ravine
116
EARLY MILWAUKEE
about opposite Mineral Spring Park, it struck off west to the sec- tion line, now known as Oakland Avenue; thence to the north, pass- ing the Pest house, and on to Port Washington. The Board of Health was composed of three members with Thomas J. Noyes as Chairman. Doctors Bean and Bartlett were appointed physicians to the hospital, and it was directed that all cases of smallpox should be sent there. J. B. Selby who had attended lectures at Willoughby Medical College in Ohio, and was then in Bean and Bartlett's office, transiently, was employed to superintend the hospital and receive instructions from the attending physicians who came out usually once or twice a week to see the sick.
The log house was occupied by the cook and his sleeping apart- ment ; also by the superintendent. In the new part were the dining and various other rooms, both above and below for the sick. One of the first cases sent out was a negro called Tom Field. Whether that was really his name, or one borrowed from his master, for he had formerly been a slave at the south, is not known. During the sea- son he had been a cook on board of a vessel, and as his was a mild case of smallpox he soon recovered, thence was employed as the cook of the establishment; and a good cook he was, busy from morning till night, preparing gruels, broths, beef tea and chicken for the sick and convalescent. Our number was few at first but they increased until we had about 40 including the sick and con- valescent, then the number dropped off, till the house was closed. The treatment of smallpox at the hospital in 1843, adopted by the physicians in attendance, was very simple. Like all eruptive di- seases, its nature is to run a regular course and then gradually to disappear. The main attention of the physician is to watch the patient, remove obstructions to its regular course and confine the disease to its simplest and least dangerous form, and by the use of emollients such as cream, vaseline or oil to lessen as much as pos- sible the pox marks left after recovery. The disease is usually ushered in by chills, rigors and fever. The obvious course is to learn the condition of the bowels if constipated, remove by the use of a mild laxative of salts or oil, to be repeated in 2 or 3 days if necessary. After eruption is fully developed, the fever lessens or passes away altogether. Now the patient is to be carried along with simple food and drinks that strength may be sustained during
117
SMALL-POX EPIDEMIC
the weakness attending recovery. Our duty seems to be to nurse our patient and sce that the pulse is even, assist nature that no undue obstruction of the bowels occurs, seek such nourishment as the digestive organs may bear and daily to strengthen them till convalescence ensues.
Smallpox is usually divided into two classes or grades: The confluent, where the pustules run into each other, and the distinct where the pustules form a round distinct pit on the surface of the body. The confluent is the most malignant and dangerous form and from it few recover. Those brought to the hospital were largely of the distinct class of cases, some were mild, others severe, all of whom recovered and in due time were conveyed to their homes. The house was kept open till December 15th and then closed for want of patients. The epidemic had passed away-win- ter with its chilly frosts had elosed the dwellings; and cheeked the disease. Our supplies were mostly from Milwaukee. There was no trouble in getting the grocery man to send them out; they were brought near the house, and thenee conveyed by the cook. We had everything from town, except milk, which we obtained in ample supply from our nearest neighbor, a Mr. Baer. He owned 160 aeres in the same section on which we dwelt and by going through the woods 1/2 mile we opened on his clearing. We took our can, both morning and evening and after passing through this pleasant forest path, and coming to his house, deposited our can on a stump, and retired a rod or so, to avoid exposure. Mrs. Baer, who was on the watch for us, came out, took the can, and filled it, depositing the same on the stump and then retired. As we advanced, she opened up her questions as to the sick and well. Having satisfied them all, we retired as we eame.
Mr. and Mrs. Baer settled on their land in 1842, a young mar- ried couple. The husband has been dead some ten years. The wife still lives at the age of 78 in the enjoyment of good health, and a son, who is a prosperous and wealthy farmer, lives near. She attended our semi-centennial Anniversary, and when asked if she did not visit the old settlers reception at the Plankinton she replied "no, I supposed it was intended only for those invited." I told her we should have welcomed her to our reunion and our re- freshment table. She seemed to regret not being present and I
118
EARLY MILWAUKEE
certainly felt from the circumstances of my first acquaintance with her a remorse in not calling the attention of the visiting com- mittee to her name.
It may be noticed that in this record some facts that would be worthy of mention are not recorded, such as the number of patients treated, their names, when and where born, their date of reception and when discharged. Such a record was by order of the board of health kept at the hospital. At the close of their official duties in December 1843 they made a report to the board of health of which the above mentioned record or diary formed a part and by them was lodged with the board of supervisors.
Some three years afterwards, Milwaukee obtained a city char- ter and the board of supervisors, having been superseded by a mayor and council, handed over to the new government, when organized, all official papers pertaining to the village system, among others the record of the Pest house of 1843. The city charter had been in operation some 15 years when one night the city clerk's office was discovered to be on fire, and before morning, the whole of Cross Block on the corner of East Water and Huron Streets, in which block the city clerk's office was located, was a mass of ruins, and all the books of that office and papers on file were lost.
This record is made from memory and is believed correct, so far as it goes. It does not give names and dates of those treated nor the length of time they were under treatment. Most of those brought to the hospital were immigrants recently landed, and being hardy, they generally recovered and were sent home. Of the 60 patients treated at the hospital, one was a colored man, four or five were Americans, the balance was composed of foreigners re- cently landed on our shores. Of those who died, one was an Amer- ican and six or seven were immigrants.
As far as I know this record is the only one in existence treat- ing of the above important scenes of 1843, and I leave it with this club, that it may now or hereafter be the means of shedding some light on the carly history of Milwaukee.
At this point I am reminded, not for the first time, of the apathy, the lack of a business ability of those employed for others.
119
SMALL-POX EPIDEMIC
The board of supervisors paid the owner of the land one hun- dred dollars for its use from September 1st till the following spring, and then spent several hundred dollars to build an ad- dition. Had they offered the owner the same amount or a trifle more they could have secured the title to the land. The 40 acres would have been well adapted for future use by the city, and if not so used, would have rented for more than sufficient to pay the taxes. Fifteen years afterward, the timber on the land could have been sold for $40 or $50 per acre, and recently, adjoining land with no improvements, has been sold for $2,000 an acre.
This 40 acres, at the present time, is a smiling landscape. It is now well known that all that tongue of land between the river and lake nearly a mile wide opposite Humboldt and running to a point at the exit of the river to the lake, has a foundation of limestone, covered by a deep soil of red clay, over which is the black loam that gathers up and conveys the oxygen of the air to the soil below ; such is the nature of a rich soil. No malaria is ever found on this strip, partly owning to its elevation; 40 rods south of this land is Mineral Spring Park. One mile north is the suburban village of White Fish Bay. This 40 acres lay in a perfect square, having a frontage on its easten line of 1/4 of a mile on Oakland Avenue, also a south front of 1/4 of a mile on the town line road. Said road dividing it from the city limits, and soon to form a boulevard 150 feet wide. On the west is Humboldt, 1/2 mile distant. On the east, Lake Michigan about the same distance. It overlooks a city of one- quarter of a million. To the west is the village of Humboldt and the winding river to the falls below; beyond are the blue hills of Milwaukee, and the Reservior. Such is this lovely spot; and such is this lovely outlook, only 1/2 mile to the railroad station ; where the Lake Shore and the North-Western unite to form the trunk line that runs to the city ; street cars pass along Oakland Avenue every few moments; what can enhance the value of such a spot for a high school or university? The city once owned 40 acres in Murray's Addition near the water works, and gave it away for a hospital, and other beneficiaries of a publie character. What a princely gift this would be to the Milwaukee Female College, if the city had it to give, and she could have had it, had the board of supervisors done their duty fifty years ago.
Wisconsin in the War with Mexico
By Henry W. Bleyer.
To write of "Wisconsin in the war with Mexico," or of "Mil- waukee in the War with Mexico," involves a distinction without a difference. Milwaukee was the real storm center of that eventful period.
When, in 1846, the news reached us that a Mexican force under Gen. Arista had engaged in battle with our troops under Gen. Tay- lor, we were soon at a fever heat. Capt. George at once offered the government the services of his company-the Washington Guards-and Capt. Meffert of the German Riflemen, was also pre- pared to place his men in the field, but the War department seemed all too slow to avail itself of our good offices in its behalf. This seeming tardiness was in a large measure due to the inadequate means of communication between the East and the West rather than to any disrespect on the part of the authorities at Washing- ton. Communication by telegraph could be carried on only as far West as Buffalo and railway mail service did not extend beyond Kalamazoo. News from Washington, when not telegraphed to Buffalo and dispatched by steamer, was usually two weeks on the way, while the mails from Mexico came to hand some four or five weeks after they had been posted. We were thus partially isolated from the rest of the country.
Under these circumstances little was known of us in the East, and perhaps less was expected of us, though our territory of 160,- 000 souls had been shown to have enough brain and sinew to form several regiments of stalwart men, such as those who were asso- ciated with the Sixth United States infantry in driving Black Hawk and his savage hordes beyond the Mississippi river.
The Wisconsin Company.
The long waiting for an encouraging word from Washington wearied us into a state of such indifference about the war that Capt. George withdrew the tender of his company. Several Milwau- keeans, tiring of this inactivity, went to Illinois to volunteer their
121
WAR WITH MEXICO
services. Others, in their zeal to serve their country, traveled to Detroit and more Eastern points, among them George A. Mc- Garigle, who enlisted at Cincinnati, and Alexander Conse, a pop- ular German litterateur, Herman Upman and Carl von Nekow at Alton, Ill. In the meantime our territory was called upon to fur- nish a company under the president's call for troops. Through the influence of his friend Morgan L. Martin, our territorial repre- sentative at Washington, Gustavus Quarles, a popular and bril- liant young lawyer of Southport, now Kenosha, was commissioned captain of this company. When he arrived here, accompanied by seven or eight of his townsmen who had resolved to follow him through thick and thin, he realized that the work of enlisting men was more arduous than he had supposed it would be. The explana- tion was to be found in the fact that we had a bitter but bloodless war of our own in full force. The foreign and the American ele- ments of our community were arrayed against each other on ques- tions involved in the drafting of a state constitution. The Ger- mans claimed that the instrument discriminated against them in several particulars, especially in the matter of the elective fran- chise. The excitement became so intense that the opposing parties, while parading in torchlight procession, encountered each other and engaged in battle, their torchhandles serving as weapons. This collision so incensed the Germans that they resolved to let the Americans fight their own battles in Mexico and elsewhere, a de- termination which was not strictly adhered to, however, as the roster of Capt. Quarles' company indicates.
Terms of Enlistment.
Recruiting was more satisfactory on the advent of Capt. Hend- rickson of the Sixth United States infantry, who posted bills to the effect that each recruit would receive a bonus of $12 on enlisting, $7 a month while in service, and a warrant for 160 acres of land or $100 in cash at the close of his term. Diedrich Upmann, J. A. Lieb- haber and Lieut. Wright canvassed energetically to fill the Quarles company, Wright having opened an office in Watertown to facil- itate the movement. The Milwaukee recruits, dressed in jacket uni- forms of light blue, presented a creditable appearance as they marched through the streets to the music of fife and drum. They
,
122
EARLY MILWAUKEE
drilled almost daily on Market square, along Wisconsin street east to Milwaukee street, and at times along the bluff near a powder house situated at the head of Martin street. Their rendezvous was in Matt Cawker's large frame building opposite the City hotel, now the Kirby house, where they were very comfortably situated. On the 24th of August, 1847, Lieut. Abel W. Wright completed his enlistments at Watertown and brought his force of twenty-three men to Milwaukee in wagons. Just before his departure from that place a citizen committee consisting of Linus R. Cady, Daniel B. Whiteacre and James R. Richardson presented him with a hand- some sword and an engrossed testimonial of their appreciation of his methods as a military officer.
Departure of the Quarles Company.
The company having been brought up to its quota, its officers, Capt. Quarles and Lieutenants Upmann and Cady, busied them- selves with the preparations for an early departure. On Sunday, May 2, 1847, three signal guns announced the approach of the steamer Louisiana, the boat commissioned to bear the volunteers down the lakes. The recruits hurried to their quarters and citi- zens gathered along Wisconsin street, where the Washington Guards, the German Riflemen, the mayor and the Common Council were marshaled into line by Capt. George as colonel and Capt. MeMan- man as adjutant. After parading the principal streets of the town, the company was escorted out on the pier, where Mayor Horatio N. Wells addressed the departing volunteers and Capt. Quarles re- sponded for them in a brief and soldierly manner. The mayor's parting words were:
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.