USA > Wisconsin > Milwaukee County > Milwaukee > History of Milwaukee, city and county, Volume I > Part 12
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Modes of Travel .- There were several different modes of travel employed by the immigrants of the 80s and 40s. J. S. Buck mentions in his book two men, Balser aud Holmes, who came from Michigan City in an open boat drawn by a horse following the beach the whole distance. Enoch Chase came in 1835, traveling in a wagon from Chicago in company with James Flint and Gordon Morton. The first day they traveled as far as Gross Point, twelve miles from the starting point, and the next day they covered the dis- tance to Sunderland's, back of the present City of Waukegan.
"We intended to stay at Louis Vieau's trading honse at Skunk Grove (in Racine County) the third night, but found the house filled with drunken
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Indians, and coneluded to push ou, reaching Root River which we crossed on a pole bridge before dark. * *
* The following day we reached Walker's Point in Milwaukee about noon."
Edward D. Holton's Reminiscences .- In his address before the Milwaukee Chamber of Commerce in 1858, Edward D. Holton gave a rapid and interesting review of his arrival in Milwaukee in 1838, and of his subsequent experiences as a citizen. Portions of his address are given below :
"When a boy of fifteen or sixteen years of age I read the history of the Valley of the Mississippi by the Rev. Timothy Flint. an itinerant missionary of the Presbyterian Church. Never will the impressions of his graphie and delightful descriptions of our own portion of the great valley pass from my mind. I longed to depart from my New England mountain home and becom" a citizen of that fair land. Following the open door of opportunity I made my way first to Wisconsin in the fall of 1838. I spent one day in Milwaukee. A period of high water was then prevailing on the lake and much of the lower part of the settlement was submerged-no sidewalks, no streets: specu- lation had raged here through the years 1836 and 1837, and everything was now prostrated. Surely a more desolate, down-at-the-heel, slip-shod looking place scarcely could be found than was Milwaukee in October, 1838. Its population was from twelve to fifteen hundred.
"I turned away from the town then with the feeling that if it was a fair sample of the glorious and beautiful West, I had seen enough. But my journey took me into the interior of the state, through all the southern part of our own and the northern and central parts of Illinois. At this time the popula- tion was very sparse. As an illustration, I passed a night and a day at the eabin of a gentleman who was almost the sole oeeupant of the beautiful little prairie known as Prairie dn Lae which later became the site of the Village of Milton, in Rock County, and the populous region round about. The owner and occupant of that cabin is now a member of this board and is present upon this floor, I allude to N. G. Storrs.
"At what is now the site of Janesville, I tarried a number of days. There were there then three log houses and one log blacksmith shop. John P. Diekson, just elected a member of the Legislature from the City of Janes- ville, entertained travelers in his more than usually ample log house. Old Squire Jaues, a frontiersman from whom the town took its name, was residing there. At that time there were no bridges and but few roads in the whole country. But the weather was delightful, and who that saw Southern Wis- consin and Northern Illinois in that early day, when the annual fires swept prairie and opening, and made them clean and smooth as a house floor, will ever forget their beauty, or the facility with which the traveler passed through the country even without roads and bridges? Most fully now did my own observations confirm the description given by Mr. Flint, of the beauty and natural wealth of the country!
"It was not difficult for the commonest observer to arrive at a conclusion. after an observation of the surrounding country, that important towns must arise upon the west shore of Lake Michigan, and hence it was that my own
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mind turned again toward Milwaukee as one of those natural commercial points to which this delightful interior country must become tributary.
Takes Up His Abode in Milwaukee .- "On the 12th day of November, 1840, I took up my abode in Milwaukee, with the profession of merchant. I first opened my goods in one corner of a warehouse known as Hollister Ware- house, just below Walker's Point bridge, but soon after removed to another location on the corner of Wisconsin and East Water streets." Mr. Holton then recalled some of the carly business men of the period. There was Maurice Pixley, a brother of John Pixley, who did business on the west side of East Water Street; Indington & Company, composed of Lewis Ludington, Harrison Ludington and Harvey Birchard ; Cary & Taylor, clothing ; Higby & Wardner, general merchandise ; Cady & Farwell, iron and tin ; J. & L. Ward. This firm did a large business and was "the first to induce the transportation of lead across the country by wagons drawn by oxen from the lead mines." This business was continued to a greater or less extent for two or three years.
Among the other places of business mentioned by Mr. Holton in his address were the shop of Robert Davis, Tailor; the shoe shop of Richard Hlad- ley ; and the store of George Bowman. These were all above Michigan Street, and on the west side of East Water Street. Below Michigan Street and above Huron, was the store of William Brown & Company, one of the first firms which did business in Milwaukee. Next to them was the store of L. Rock- well & Company; next, that of Geo. F. Austin, and of Cowles & Company. George Dousman was the leading forwarder of that day; and Holton's store was the only one on the east side of the street. Below Michigan, and above lluron, was the residence of Mr. Juneau, and the Cottage Inn. The hotels and taverns were made up as follows: The Milwaukee House, kept by Graves & Myers, on the corner of Wisconsin and Main streets: the Cottage Im, kept by Mr. Vail: and the Fountain House kept by N. P. Hawks. The Cottage Inn was consumed in the great fire of 1845.
"And now I am amazed," continued Mr. Holton in his address, "when I visit either the northern or southern ends of our city and witness the extent of business done. Now, hundreds of people come to the city daily to do busi- ness, and in coming from the north, market their productions and make their purchases, and do not get east of the river, or south of Tamarack Street. The same is approximately true when an equal number approach the city from the south and do not get north of the Milwaukee and Menomonee rivers; so muerons and extensive are the mereantile and manufacturing establishments in those quarters of the town, where, at the time to which our observation goes baek, not one of them existed."
Professional Men and Others .- Following the mention of the business men Mr. Holton gives the names of professional men and others belonging to that period. Among the members of the legal fraternity there were J. Il. Tweedy ; Upham & Walworth ; Wells, Crocker & F nch; Graham & Blossom ; Charles J. Lynde ; J. E. Arnold ; and Francis Randall. The physicians of that day were Drs. E. B. Wolcott, Proudfit, Hewett, Bartlett and Castleman. Members of the clerical profession were Rev. Lemmel Hull, rector of St. Paul's Church ;
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Rev. Stephen Peet, minister in charge of the Presbyterian Church; Rev. Mr. Bowles, of the Methodist Episcopal Church : and Rev. Father Morrissey of the Catholic Church.
Others mentioned by the speaker were Cyrus Hawley, clerk of the court; Rufus Parks, receiver ; Colonel Morton, register : Daniel Wells, deputy sheriff : Clark Shepardson, blacksmith : Ambrose Ely, shoemaker: C. D. Davis, livery keeper; James Murray, painter; Elisha Starr and Geo. Tiffany, stage men: Matthew Stein, gunsmith : Doney & Mosely, founders: 1. A. Lapham and Joshmia Hathaway, land agents: B. Il. Edgerton and Garrett Vliet. surveyors: Harrison Reed, publisher of the Sentinel: Daniel II. Richards, publisher of the Advertiser: Alexander Mitchell, banker : and Messrs. Kilbourn. Juneau. G. H. Walker. L. W. Weeks, James H. Rogers, Mayor Prentiss, and E. Cramer. proprietors, land dealers and money lenders. These were the names of the leading men of that day and their occupations.
Beginnings of the Grain Business .- Mr. E. D. Holton, in his address before the Milwaukee Chamber of Commerce in 1858. gave some interesting informa- tion about the grain business in its early days. "Up to 1841. no grain had gone out of Wisconsin, " he said. "I think I am correet in stating that I purchased during the winter of 1840 and 1841 the first cargo of grain that was sent from the then territory. The amount was small: I advertised to pay cash for it, and gathered about four thousand bushels which went to Canada in the spring of 1841. From this time on more or less grain came to town. and I suppose I am correet still in saying that the firm of Holton & Goodall, up to 1844, purchased more wheat than all others put together. But still the amount was trifling, not exceeding in the entire year, nor even reach- ing. as much as now arrives in a single day in the season of marketing this commodity.
As the grain business increased there were warehouses built for handling this important staple. In 1848. the first building to use a steam engine for the elevation of grain was completed by Alanson Sweet. From that time on building operations were frequent in adding to the facilities for storage. "It took three days in 184]," says Holton, "to ship the 4,000 bushels of wheat I spoke of, as the first shipment made from Wisconsin. Now, I suppose, if need be, more than as many hundred thousands of bushels could be shipped in the same time.'
Piers Along the Lake Shore .- The first pier was built at the foot of Huron Street in the year 1842, by Horatio Stevens, of New York. He added to this a second in the next year, and Mr. Iligby built a third in 1845. These piers were near together. In 1845, Doctor Weeks built the south pier. For several years these piers did nearly the entire business both for imports and exports. until their construction," says Holton, "vessels and steamers anchored off and in the absence of a harbor they answered the purpose admirably. " For. in the bay, and received and discharged their cargoes at infinite cost and trouble upon a small steamboat, or seows." The opening of the new harbor was begun and partly brought into use in 1844. From 1840 until the new harbor came into use the little steamer, "C. C. Trowbridge" performed the business of rimming up and down the river, taking freight and passengers.
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to and from the steamers and vessels in the bay. This little steamer drew about two feet of water and was able to get over the bar at the mouth of the river.
Increase A. Lapham .- The records of early Milwaukee as well as those of the state are filled with allusions and frequent mentions of this distinguished man. Increase A. Lapham came to Milwaukee in July, 1836. He was then a young man of twenty-five having emigrated to this state at the invitation of Byron Kilbourn, and at once became a conspicuous figure among the early settlers and later among the scientific men of the state, as his tastes were chiefly in the direction of scientific investigations. He studied and made known through various publications the physical features, topography, geol- ogy, natural history, meteorology and antiquities of the state.
The animal-shaped mounds of Wisconsin early attracted his attention of which he made an extended survey, and an account of which was published by the Smithsonian Institution in 1855. He also examined and described several masses of meteorie iron found near Milwaukee on which he found peenliar marks afterwards known as "Laphamite markings." Mr. Lapham's education consisted only of that obtained in the common schools, supplemented by his own studious efforts. In 1860, he received from Amherst College the degree of "LL. D."
In the biographical sketch printed in Conard's "Milwaukee," it is stated that Doctor Lapham made numerous observations on the rise and fall of water in Lake Michigan by which the highest and lowest and the mean or average stage was determined. These observations were used by the engineers of Milwaukee and Chicago in establishing their systems of sewerage and water supply. "In 1849, he made a series of very careful observations by which he discovered in the lake a slight lunar tide like that of the ocean. This im- portant fact was annonneed in the papers at the time, and the observations were communicated to the Smithsonian Institution. Many years later Lieut .- Col. James D. Graham of Chicago made a like discovery at that city, the tide there being much larger than at Milwaukee." More extended remarks are made on the subject of lake tides in another portion of this work contained in the chapter on the Natural History of Lake Michigan.
At the unveiling of the Lapham Memorial in Lapham Park, Milwaukee, on June 18, 1915 (the centennial anniversary, it may be noted, of the battle of Waterloo), Mr. William Ward Wight made an address which contains many interesting facts concerning the subject of this chapter.
Increase Allen Lapham was born at Palmyra, New York, March 7, IS11. His father, Seneca Lapham, was a contractor on the Erie Canal, and in 1824 the family lived at Lockport, N. Y., where stupendous and intricate engineer- ing was employed in the construction of the canal loeks at that place. He acquired experience and knowledge in surveying while at work with his father, and was afterwards employed in similar work in Ohio and Ken- tueky. On his arrival in Milwaukee he engaged in a variety of occupations and soon gained recognition for his scientific accomplishments both at home and in more distant centers of learning.
"Mr. Lapham was intensely interested in the edneation of youth, and his
KNOW ALL MEN, That
J. A Lapham
party of the first part, in consideration of ten dollars him paid by To Butter
part 2 of the second part, the receipt whereof is nereby acknowledged, does hereby BARGAIN, SILL, CONVEY, and forever QUIT CLAIM, to the said part 4 of the second part, his heirs and assigns forever, the following real estate, viz: Lot number twenty one in the burying Ground in the west was of the town of Newranked
Together with all the privileges and appurtenances to the same belonging: TO HAVE AND TO HOLD the same to the said party of the second part, his heirs and assigns forever: Hereby covenanting that the title so conveyed is clear, free, and unincumbered by any act of the grantor hercin.
IN WITNESS whereof, the said party of the first part has hereunto set his hand and seat, His thirtieth day of September in the year eighteen hundred and forty Three . In the presence of
& A. Lapham
Then horying ground
Church mais no stands
COPY OF A QUIT CLAIM DEED ISSUED BY INCREASE A. LAPHAM IN 1:43
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MILWAUKEE IN THE PIONEER PERIOD
name appears at the head of those citizens who, on March 1, 1851, became incorporated by legislative aet as the Normal Institute and the lligh School of Milwaukee. This institution became later the Milwaukee Female College, and still later the Milwaukee Downer College. Of this girls' school he became president in 1851, and so contimied until he declined further election in 1863. IIe was a trustee from 1851 until his death, twenty-four years. In the welfare of the young women gathered in that college he was deeply interested, tem- pering and holding in cheek the extreme views of the early patron of the school, Miss Catherine Beecher, yet advocating the advanced and symmetrical development of the feminine mind. Ilis books, his collections, the wealth of his varied learning were always at the service of teachers and pupils."
"How gladly would I," continued Mr. Wight in his address, "his remote successor at the head of the trustees of Milwaukee Downer College, exhibit to President Lapham the present institution in the Eighteenth Ward the seeds of which his labors planted and his industry watered!"
In a bibliography of Wisconsin authors published in 1873, Doctor Lap- ham's name appears as the author of a long list of works in the form of contributions to periodieals or in separate volumes and pamphlets, on his chosen subjects. Of these the list mentions some fifty titles. In a list of eminent meteorologists by Prof. Henry J. Cox, of the United States Weather Bnrean, and Dr. J. Panl Goode of the University of Chicago, published by the Geographic Society of Chicago in 1906, Doetor Lapham is named by these authors as "the man who took a prominent part in influencing Congress to establish the Weather Service, then known as the Signal Service, in this country." He helped to organize the new service and for a time in 1870 he served as forecaster in charge of the Storm Warning service. In 1873 he was appointed state geologist of Wisconsin.
Doctor Lapham was married October 24, 1838, to Ann M. Aleott of Rochester, N. Y. Mrs. Lapham died in Milwaukee February 25, 1863. In the address of Mr. William Ward Wight at the unveiling of the Lapham Memorial in Lapham Park, Milwaukee, June 18, 1915, he adds this tribute to the memory of Mrs. Lapham : "She was a worthy helpmeet for her husband ; his papers received her criticism, all his labors her encouragement, all his seien- tifie tasks her assistance, all his varied sneeesses her applause."
In the publication of the "State Historical Society" (Volume VII, 472), Dr. Lyman C. Draper writes of the death of Doctor Lapham, as follows: "Wisconsin's great naturalist, Increase A. Lapham, LL.D., died of heart dis- ease while alone in a boat on Lake Oconomowoc, September 14, 1875, in the sixty-fifth year of his age. Coming to Wisconsin in 1836, he, probably more than any other person, drew attention by his writings to the advantages for settlement and enterprise which the territory, afterwards the state, of Wisconsin, presented to eastern emigrants; and as a scientist his name had become familiar to the savants of both hemispheres. For twenty-two years he served as president or vice president of the Wisconsin State Historical So- ciety. The services and memory of such a man deserve fitting memorial recognition by the society."
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Rapid Growth of City. I. A. Lapham, writing of the growth of the city in his history of Wisconsin, in the early times, says :
"No town or city has grown up with anything like the rapidity of Mil- waukee. Within ten years from the time when the first family arrived hore, with a view to permanent residence, we see a city with a population of at least ten thousand.
"The City of Rochester, in Western New York, has often been referred to as having increased more rapidly in wealth and population than any other in the world-and perhaps she has been entitled to that distinction. Mr. O'Reilly, who has written a very valuable book, entitled. "Sketches of Rochester and Western New York.' asks exultingly, 'Where, in what place, through all the broad and fertile West, ean there be shown any town which has surpassed Rochester in the permanent increase of population, business and wealth ?' We may answer the question by making a little comparison.
"Rochester was laid out in 1812. and in 1816, or in four years, the popu- lation was 331. In 1820, or eight years, the population was 1,500.
"Milwaukee was laid out in 1835, and in 1839, or in four years, the popula- tion was 1,500-or as much increase in four years as Rochester had in eight. But in 1843, or in eight years, the population of Milwaukee was over six thousand, or an increase of four times as much as Rochester during a similar period."
The "Father of the Typewriter."-AAn important page in the history of inventions which have had their birthplace in Milwaukee should be assigned to the inventor of the typewriter, and the beginnings of his useful invention. Christopher Latham Sholes was born in Columbia County, Pennsylvania. February 14. 1819. At an early age he entered a newspaper office to learn the printing business, and at the age of eighteen he joined a brother in the same business at Green Bay, Wisconsin. A year later, when only nineteen he compiled the house journal of the Territorial Legislature and attended to its printing.
At twenty years of age young Sholes took charge of the Wisconsin "h- quirer" at Madison, and later he edited the Southport ( Kenosha ; "Tele- graph." In 1844 he became the postmaster, receiving his appointment from President Polk. "Later," says the biographical sketch of C. L. Sholes in the "National Cyclopaedia of American Biography." "during his residence at Milwaukee he was postmaster, and filled with credit the positions of commis- sioner of public works, and collector of customs. He was for a long time editor of the 'Sentinel,' and the 'News' which at a later date was absorbed into the 'Sentinel." "
While discharging the duties of collector of customs at Milwaukee in 1866. Sholes became interested in making a consecutive mimbering machine, especially For use on bank notes and on the pages of blank books. His attention being directed to an account of a machine devised by John Pratt, an American inventor, published in an English journal, for writing by me- chanical means, he at once saw the possibilities of "a revolution in the handling of a pen, " and "from that moment he devoted his whole time and
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thought to the idea which has given to the world the typewriter." This won- derful creation is the result of his creative genius.
"In 1867, the first crude instrument was made. James Densmore became interested, and, in 1873, the invention was so far perfected as to warrant the production of machines on an enlarged seale. The Remington factory at Ilion, N. Y., was selected, and the manufacture begun. For a long time the financial returns were small, and Mr. Sholes, who was to receive a royalty on each machine, disposed of his right for a comparatively small sum. Later he invented several improvements, which with an excess of conseience char- aeteristie of the man he gave to the persons in control of the manufacture. In the last years of his life, although confined to his bed, he invented two new machines for typewriting which were more satisfactory to him than any of his previous inventions. This last work of the weary hours in the chamber of sickness was consigned to the care of his executors."
Mr. Sholes.' Political Activities .- " In addition to his inventive powers," continues the sketch, "Mr. Sholes did much as an editor and a politician. Ile witnessed the evolution of the State of Wisconsin from its wild begin- nings, and contributed no small share to shape the laws that were necessary to set the new state government in successful motion. Although at all times interested in general polities, he was never a strictly party man. He was raised a democrat, but in 1848 joined the free-soil movement. He served in the State Senate in 1848-49 from Raeine County, and in 1852-53 represented Kenosha County in the Legislature; and in 1856-57 was state senator. being president pro tem. for more than a year. Ile was a man of such broad and generous sympathies that he took naturally to the side of the minority. His innate abhorrence of wrong and cruelty made him an abolitionist, and he was one of the most active founders of the republican party in the state. He was a dreamer and an idealist, and though not a writer of poetry, was imbued with a true portie nature."
Mr. Sholes disliked the details of business and the painstaking efforts usually found necessary to make money was with him a partienlar aversion. A man of an excessively tender conscience in all matters pertaining to the practical affairs of life he failed to secure the pecuniary reward that was undoubtedly due to his abilities in perfecting the first successful typewriting machine. "He lived to see the work of his genius," says the cyclopaedia article already quoted from, "accepted throughout the world, and to hear the pleasing compliment rendered him, that he was 'the father of the type- writer.'"'
Mr. Sholes died in Milwaukee February 17, 1890, at the age of seventy-one years.
The foregoing sketeh of C. L. Sholes and his invention is by no means a complete history of the typewriter. Such a history is found in widely seat- tered publieations of which the more important ones are the biographical cyclopaedia mentioned above, under the names of James Densmore, G. W. N. Yost and John Pratt.
In a historical sketch of Kenosha County of which C. L. Sholes was one of the early settlers (printed in the collections of the State Historical Society)
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it is quaintly remarked by the writer that C. L. Sholes had "always been for- ward in every improvement and good work, and that if the spirits of the de- parted influence none to worse deeds than they did to him we shall not be very jealous of their visits."
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