USA > Wisconsin > Milwaukee County > Milwaukee > History of Milwaukee, city and county, Volume I > Part 17
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 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78
"As late as April, 1859, he had written to a friend who had approached him on the subject that he did not think himself fit for the presidency. The vice-presidency was then the limit of his ambition."
Lincoln's visit to Wisconsin on the occasion of his address at the State Fair at Milwaukee in 1859 was his third to this state.
Ilis first visit was in 1832 during his participation in the Black Hawk war. Ile was among the first to respond to the call of Governor Reynolds for volunteers to repel the invasion of Black Hawk. It is an early testi- monial to his leadership that at the age of twenty-three he was chosen captain by his fellow militiamen. His power over men was shown when he defended an old Indian who strayed into camp and was detained beeanse the men thought he was a spy, and they wanted blood.
Before Lincoln's company got as far as Wisconsin, however, it was mus- tered out; and on the same day (May 28th) he re-enlisted as a private in the Independent Spy Company and with that organization crossed the state line near Beloit on June 30, 1832.
With the company Lincoln pushed north, but they did not come in con- taet with the enemy, and no fighting was done. On July 10th they were 'mustered ont near Fort Atkinson, and returned home before the battles of Wisconsin Heights and Bad Axe, with which the Black Hawk war was ended on August 2d. In all Lincoln spent about two weeks in Wisconsin at that time.
The Black Hawk war episode was an important one in the life of the
16-1
HISTORY OF MILWAUKEE
future president, because it brought him to the notice of Maj. John F. Stuart. the Springfield lawyer, which resulted in the latter's giving Lincoln en- couragement and assistance in his law studies, and in his inviting Lincoln in 1837 to become his law partner.
The record of Lincoln's second visit to Wisconsin to which reference is made also in Professor Olson's article is found largely in the "History of Washington and Ozanker Counties, " 1581, Western Historical Company. Chicago. The visit is more or less shrouded in mystery. I' Lincoln did come to Wisconsin, and it is very likely that he did. in the light of what follows, then of course he visited Milwaukee also.
On page 508 of the "History" we read :
"The first dwelling house built in the village was erected by Gen. (Wooster) Harrison in 1835. It is still standing (iss1), apparently in a good state of preservation. It is a little story-and-a-half frame building. gable end, the sills resting on the ground. A partition divides the first floor into two apartments, and also the upper or half story. It was at this house that the first votes of the town were polled. This old and time worn strue- ture has become one of the sacred relies of the past. commanding a prom- inent place in the history of the town of Port Washington, not only on account of the relation it bears to the first white settler of the village, but because it once served as a shelter to one of America's greatest states- men. It may be of interest to mention the fact that the great and martyred president. Abraham Lincoln, during his days of roughing it, once walked from Milwaukee to Sheboygan, and stopped a night in this old house. AAfter the defeat of the Merrimae by the Monitor, Mr. Lincoln, in company with some of his Cabinet officers, visited Fortress Monroe to get a practical knowl- edge of the fort. While viewing the works, desiring some information, he approached an officer, who proved to be Capt. Berger, from Port Washing- ton. 'Well, my man,' said Lincoln, where are you from?' 'Port Wash- ington,' replied the Captain. . Port Washington-let me see: that is in Wisconsin about twenty-five miles north of Milwaukee is it not?' The Cap- tain answered that it was. 'I stopped there over night once,' said the President : 'just name over some of the men who lived there in the early days.' The Captain proceeded to name over quite a number. finally men- tioning that of Harrison. . Harrison, that is the man!' said Mr. Lincoln. . I remember him well.' He then walked off to join his escort, leaving Capt. Berger very much elated to think that his town had been honored by the presence of so great a man."
Harry W. Bolens, ex-mayor of Port Washington, and a well known journal- ist, in an interview in the Milwaukee Daily News during the year of the Lincoln centenary (1909), supplemented this story. He said that the visit occurred some time between 1836 and 1540. Lincoln also visited Sheboygan. . Mr. Bolens said. Lincoln returned at once to Port Washington and stopped there For two days, during which time he rented quarters for a law office from General Harrison. This was in the fall. It was Lineoln's intention to return in the spring, but floods prevented all travel in the Middle West
165
LINCOLN IN MILWAUKEE
during the following year, rains continuing till early fall, so Lincoln sent his regrets to Ilarrison and remained in linois.
Professor Olson thinks that all this may be true. The records show an abnormally heavy rainfall during 1836. Furthermore, Ann Rutledge died on August 25, 1835, the great tragedy of Lincoln's life. He was driven nearly insane with grief, we read in all his biographies. Friends urged a change of scene, and his Wisconsin trip probably resulted, there being some weeks at this period in his life which none of his biographers can account for satisfactorily.
In this connection, biographers and lecturers on Lineol call attention to his great liking for William Knox's poem "O, Why Should the Spirit Of Mortal be Proud?" Ile often quoted passages from it during these dark days.
(The first stanza is as follows :
Oh, why should the spirit of mortal he proud ? Like a swift-flitting meteor, a fast-flying cloud, A flash of the lightning, a break of the wave, lle passeth from life to his rest in the grave.)
Carl Sehurz, considering this great tragedy, writes in his essay on " Abra- ham Lincoln":
"In the meantime he had private sorrows and trials of a painfully aftliet- ing nature. lle had loved and been loved by a fair and est mable girl, Am Rutledge, who died in the flower of her vonth and beauty, and he mourned her loss with such intensity of grief that his friends feared for his reason. Recovering from his morbid depression, he bestowed what he thought a new affection upon another lady, who refused him. And finally, moderately prosperons in his worldly affairs, and having prospects of political distine- tion before him, he paid his addresses to Mary Todd, of Kentucky, and was accepted. But then tormenting doubts of the genuineness of his own affee- tion for her, of the compatibility of their characters, and of their future happiness came upon him. His distress was so great that he felt himself in danger of suicide, and feared to carry a pocketknife with him; and he gave mortal offense to his bride by not appearing on the appointed wedding day. Now the torturing consciousness of the wrong he had done her grew unendurable. He won back her affection, ended the agony by marrying her, and became a faithful and patient husband and a good father. But it was no secret to those who knew the family well, that his domestic life was full of trials. The erratic temper of his wife not seldom put the gentleness of his nature to the severest tests; and these troubles and struggles, which accompanied him through all the vicissitudes of his life from the modest home in Springfield to the White House at Washington, adding untold private heartburnings to his publie cares, and sometimes precipitating upon him incredible embarrassments in the discharge of his public duties, form one of the most pathetie features of his career."
Two years before Lineohi's trip through Milwaukee to Port Washing-
1
166
HISTORY OF MILWAUKEE
ton and Sheboygan, a pioneer Norwegian, Kleng Peerson, traveled alone from Chicago to Milwaukee on foot, over the Chicago-Green Bay Indian trail. This trail had for some time been used by the ball-breed who packed the mail on his back between the two lake shore posts. Peerson found only Solomon Junean and one other white man at Milwaukee at that time.
If Lincoln actually made the trip, as it seems likely that he did, it is strange that no record of it has come down to us. Quite likely he spent less time here than at Port Washington, but Milwaukee was the more im- portant post and without doubt even for a brief visit Lincoln would have come in contact with more whites in Milwaukee than at the post further up the lake shore.
Henry Bleyer is quoted in the Milwaukee Free Press in Mr. Mortarity's article as saying that Lineom met with little encouragement to settle either here or at Port Washington at that time, and so returned to Hlinois. And as success came to him later in his native state, there was little likelihood of his leaving: so that Wisconsin lost its opportunity of numbering the Great Emancipator among its famous sons, if it ever had the opportunity.
Milwaukee achieves connection with Lincoln once more in the controversy which raged in 1916 and 1917 over the Bernard statue of Lincoln. The Mil- waukee Sentinel took part in this controversy and is quoted as follows by the Literary Digest under date of February 10, 1917, the article appearing in the "Art World" of June of that year under the title of "A Mistake in Bronze," which gives a hint as to its purpose :
"The question arises (says the Sentinel), is it realism at all? Is it a faith- ful presentment in bronze of the real Lincoln? That question is still fairly capable of settlement. There are entirely credible and competent witnesses now living who knew Lincoln in the flesh and remember perfectly well how he looked-no difficult thing, for 'Old Abe' was a striking figure that, once seen, was never forgotten.
"We have tried this test, by submitting to some who knew Lincoln in life the appalling photographie eut of the production, which is supposed to perpetuate for Cincinnatians the appearance of Lincoln. The consensus of usually indignant testimony is that it is fearfully and wonderfully unlike Lincoln as they knew him.
"The seulptor seems to have evolved his conception of Lincoln out of his inner consciousness, though he states that he was greatly assisted by contemplating a man he met in Louisville, who was six feet four and one-half inches tall, who was born not far from Lincoln's birthplace, and who had been splitting rails all his life.
"The finished artistic result of these processes is one that. so far as our own inquiries go, is calculated to stir to wrath and resentment those who knew Mr. Lincoln in life and must be admitted to be competent witnesses as to his personal appearance.
"It is perfectly possible to combine good art with a respectable degree of verisimilitude in these productions. If we are going to have statues of Lincoln, a decent respeet for the memory of 'Old Abe' seems to require that they resemble him, and are not freaks of faney that with a few alterations
167
LINCOLN IN MILWAUKEE
might do duty as figures of Ichabod Crane, or Dominie Sampson, or St. Simeon Stylites on his penitential pillar."
A noble statue of Lincoln, seated, occupies the erest of the Upper Campus hill at the State University of Madison, in front of Baseom Hall (formerly known as "Main Hall") where it dominates the vista between the great elms over the beautiful lawns. A mile to the east is the State Capitol, under whose great dome is housed the machinery that keeps this great Common- wealth functioning in our democracy, and toward which the spirit of Lineoln gazes steadily out of the bronze eyes. It is one of the shrines of the State of Wisconsin. It helps to shape the ideals of the thousands of young men and young women from this Nation and other nations who are training them- selves for citizenship in the shadow of this great memorial.
Adolph Weinman is the seulptor, the original of which it is the replica being at Hodgensville, Ky., Lincoln's birthplace. It is the Lineomn whom his neighbors knew and loved, the statesman who piloted a nation through a great war and then gave his own life on the altar to heal the breach caused by the four years of bloody warfare.
Weinman was born in Germany in 1870, but came to this country at an early age and was educated in the public schools of New York. He was a pupil of St. Gandens, another of the outstanding seulptors of the immortal Lincoln.
A personal reminiscence by a Milwaukee man of the nomination of Lincoln at the convention of 1860 may be of interest. Amherst W. Kellogg, a resident of Wisconsin sinee 1836, was an eye-witness. The following is from an inter- view given by him to the Milwaukee Sentinel on October 23, 1921:
When Ilinois presented the name of Abraham Lincoln I was much surprised at the demonstration that occurred ; however, when Seward was nominated by New York he seemed to awaken even greater enthusiasm. Salmon P. Chase was Ohio's favorite son ; Edward Bates was Missouri's choice ; Pennsylvania presented Simon Cameron. On the first ballot Seward had more votes than any of the others, but not enough for a nomination. Before the second ballot was taken Simon Cameron withdrew his name and his votes went to Lineol, who then almost equaled Seward's vote.
With the third ballot the excitement grew intense ; state after state turned over to Lincoln and he seemed likely to succeed ; but we who had been keeping tab found as the last vote was cast that he was two votes short of the number necessary to nominate. Then just before the figures of the ballot were an- nonneed Carter of the Ohio delegation got the floor and shouted: "Ohio changes four votes from Salmon P. Chase to Abraham Lincoln."
With that such a wave of emotion swept over the vast audience as I have never seen in all my experience ; women threw up their parasols and men their hats. Though we were packed in so we could scareely move, Mr. Daggett (S. S. Daggett, also of Milwaukee, who was at that time seventy years old) daneed up and down like a boy. One man standing beside us, down whose face the tears were pouring in streams, eried ont : "I can't help it! I can't help it ! I've been working for him a week and I didn't really hope for it." Another old man near us began to shont at the top of his voice: "Glory, Glory Halle-
168
HISTORY OF MILWAUKEE
Injah! Now, Lord, lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen the redempt on of Egypt" (as Southern Illinois was then called).
Meanwhile the chairman of the convention, George Ashmun of Massa- chusetts, moved that the vote for Abraham Lincoln be made unanimous. With that the enthusiasm broke out afresh and continued until the andiene . was fairly exhausted.
Notwithstanding the impression made by Lincoln in his address at the State Fair, the feeling of dismay which was common throughout the country, as Carl Sehurz rem nds us, doubtless was shared by citizens of Milwaukee and Wisconsin when after Lincoln's elvetion the Southern states seceded and war became imminent.
Mr. Sehurz writes :
"Honest Abe Lincoln," who was so good-natured that he could not say "no:" the greatest achievement of whose life had been a debate on the slavery question : who had never been in any position of power : who was with- out the slightest experience of high exeentive dut'es, and who had only a speaking acquaintance with the men upon whose counsel and cooperation he was to depend. Nor was his accession to power under such circumstances greeted with general confidence even by members of his party. While he had indeed won much popularity. many Republicans, especially among those who had advocated Seward's nomination for the presidency, saw the simple * Illi- nois lawyer" take the reins of government with a feeling little short of dismay. The orators and journals of the opposition were ridienting and lampooning him withont measure. Many people actually wondered how such a man could dare to undertake a task which, as he himself had said to his neighbors in his parting speech, was "more difficult than that of Washington himself had been. "
The Gettysburg address is great, if short, but the closing words of Lincoln's second inaugural, Sehurz says, are "like a sacred poem. No American presi- dent had ever spoken words like these to the American people. Americans never had a president who found such words in the depths of his heart."
Let us consider Lincoln's words :
Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war max speedily pass away. Yet if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled up by the bondman's 250 years of unrequited toil shall be sunk. and until every drop of blood drawn with the last shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said 3.000 years ago. so still it must be said. "The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether." With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive to finish the work we are in: to bind up the Nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and for his orphan ; to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.
And then the closing scenes of the war. The fall of Richmond, with Lincoh himself entering the city on foot, where the slaves crowded about him, kissing his hands and his garments, while tears streamed down his care-furrowed checks. Following close on the heels of the news of Lee's surrender, came the
169
LINCOLN IN MILWAUKEE
stunning news of Lincoln's assassination. And all the civilized world wept beside his coffin. The judgments of those mourning nations of his worth and greatness have never been reversed.
The "History of Milwaukee, " page 736, says :
"The city was hushed in grief. Silently and sorrowfully the buildings, many of them still gaily flaunting the joyous decorations of the week before, were clad in the habiliments of woe."
It was the saddest week in Milwaukee's history.
Mayor Abner Kirby issued a proclamation, the day, April 15th, being the last of his term. This is what he said.
Mayor's Office, April 15-The joy of the Nation is turned into mourning. The Ch'ef Magistrate of our country is reported to have been slain at the hands of an assassin, and the life of our Secretary of State taken by a still more infamous hand. Therefore, 1, Abner Kirby, Mayor of Milwaukee, do hereby recommend that all the dwellings and business places of our eity forth- with be elad in mourning as a token of the deep and common sorrow that prevails; and that the people, abstaining from all excitement improper for such solemn occasion, postpone their ordinary duties today, and that in all the churches, tomorrow, such services be performed as will duly express the great and general grief.
ABNER KIRBY, Mayor.
Word of the assassination, which occurred on Friday night, April 14th, did not reach Milwaukee until the following day.
Issuance of the foregoing proclamation was Kirby's last official aet, for Jolm J. Tallmadge was inaugurated as mayor immediately afterward. Tall- madge's first publie proclamation, which appeared on Tuesday, April 18th, annonneed the publie funeral, set for the following Thursday.
Services were held in all the churches between 9 and 10 o'clock. The procession was scheduled at 11 o'clock, but rain interfered and the sun did not come out till afternoon, so that the procession did not start until 3 o'clock.
There was a hoarse, and the following well-known Milwaukeeans acted as pallbearers: Hans Crocker, Jackson Hadley, Alexander Mitchell (later United States senator), Angus Smith, John Bradford, James S. Brown, Doctor John- son, John W. Cary and Mortiz Schooffler.
There were 4,000 persons in line, the procession being over a mile long, while 40,000 more, with bared heads, lined the streets as the solemn pageant passed to the accompaniment of dirges, tolling bells, muffled drums and the firing of minute guns, the afternoon sun shedding its benign rays over all.
A great meeting on the Courthouse Square had been arranged to take place during the forenoon, but this too had to be postponed on account of the downpour. Addresses were to have been made from three stands at different parts of the grounds, three speakers being scheduled at each stand. George H. Walker, founder of Milwaukee's South Side, was one of the chainnen, and Senator Matt Il. Carpenter was one of the speakers. These eulogies had to be given indoors, meetings being held in the Plymouth Con- gregational and the First Presbyterian Churches.
Milwaukeeans have a personal interest in the splendid Lincoln memorial recently completed at Washington. Lyman H. Browne, for many years a
.
170
HISTORY OF MILWAUKEE
resident of this city, informed the writer that his brother-in-law, Fred Drew, of Washington, D. C., was the contractor and builder.
Theodore G. Joslin some time ago described the memorial in the Boston Transcript, the article being reprinted in the Literary Digest of December 20th, 1919. We read :
"A great axis planned scores of years ago is completed by the memorial. At one end is the Capitol. containing the national legislative and judicial bodies, which is a momment to the United States Government. A mile to the westward. in the center of the axis, is the mounment to Washington, who established the Government. Terminating the axis is the new memorial to Lincoln, who saved the Government."
The movement to establish the Lincoln memorial had its inception in 1867. The memorial, costing over two and a half million dollars, takes the form of a momment symbolizing the union of the Nation, enclosing in the walls of its sanctuary three memorials of the man himself -- one a statue of heroic size expressing his humane personality; the others memorials of his two great speeches, one of the Gettysburg address and the other his second inaugural, each with attendant senlpture and painting telling in allegory of ยท his splendid qualities evident in those speeches. William Howard Taft turned the first spadeful of earth on Lincoln's birthday in 1914.
CHAPTER XV
IMMIGRATION AND RACE ORIGIN
In the process of assimilation, as exemplified in sections of the Middle West, where, during the last half of the nineteenth century emigrants gronped themselves in great numbers, striking social situations have been evolved which either have escaped, or have been deemed unworthy, the attention of the essayist and fiction writer.
Every phase of American life, susceptible to literary treatment, has been explored to the fullest. The conditions, characters and complications of a quaint New England village, of a peaceful Dutch settlement in New York State, or a German county in Pennsylvania ; the race problem and Creole life of the South, and the thrilling picturesqueness of the western frontier-all have been treated by author and poet.
The home-hunting foreigners, who came to the north central west, may have tended to that prosaie industrialism which leaves no surface indications of romance or dramatic situations, and yet upon closer analysis they reveal in unique setting and scenery, life's drama in climaxes as compelling and touching as those enacted in other parts of the new world.
Where the foreigners are sparsely sprinkled among the natives the absorp- tion is necessarily rapid, but where those of similar racial origin have settled in mmbers, they eling tenacionsly to language and enstoms, and stand out in stronger contrast to social order of the native.
The assumption that the transition stages from a raw emigrant to a fullfledged American citizen are colorless, or that the collective newcomer merely offers in subdued colors a reproduction of old world customs and mannerisms, might be wholly true if the foreigners wholly isolated themselves from the natives. But where, in the commingling of foreign and native born, the amalgamation proceeds along social as well as economie and civic lines, the element of conflict and heart interest become pronounced and appealing.
The clashes between foreign and native tradition, between old and new world conceptions are bound to ignite the sparks of prejudice and hatred. In the manifest course of human adjustment many situations are created in which toleranee and the nobler impulses of man may come vividly into play. The writer has here seen an unplowed field rich in material and setting for the dramatist and novelist.
In thus directing attention to what seems to the author an unexplored, or at least only partially explored field for study and treatment, he is convinced that much, in the inner struggles and outward movements of the emigrant, during the transition period, constitutes an essential l'actor in American life,
171
..........
-
-
-4
L VOCE GOES
THE OLD MATHEW STEIN GUN SHOP ON MARKET SQUARE IN THE LATER '40s AND EARLY '50s Soe old Town Pump to the left below
173
IMMIGRATION AND RACE ORIGIN
and is therefore worthy of permanent record. Admirat'on is aroused when the progress of the emigrant is contemplated, when his preconceptions per- ceptibly have yielded to openmindedness, when alienism has faded into a sturdy loyalty to American institutions, when the humblest and most unpromis- ing beg nings are followed by useful service and valable contributions to the prestige, power and prosperity of the nation.
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.