USA > Wisconsin > Milwaukee County > Milwaukee > History of Milwaukee, city and county, Volume I > Part 30
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When the Rivers and Harbors Bill was passed in 1919, Senator benroot of Wisconsin secured the insertion of a clause which provided that the United States and Canada get together, establish the engineering problems involved. ascertain the cost to be met and the commercial utility to be attained.
Thereupon the several states bordering on the Great Lakes, with the ex- eeption of New York, organized private and publie bodies to make propa- ganda for the project. The states of Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota and Illinois created publie deep waterway commissions while the states of Indiana, Ohio and several of the western states, including the Dakotas, Nebraska. Kansas, Wyoming and Idaho formed organizations of business men under the leadership of the governors and commercial bodies.
How Will Milwaukee Benefit ?- It will make Milwaukee an ocean port. With the development of Jones island and the lake frontage between Wis- consin Street to the harbor Milwaukee will be amply equipped to receive vepan ships. The harbor entraner is deep enough and with terminals now planned it will be able to receive the water-borne commerce from all parts of the world.
This port will enable Milwaukee to make her imports direet instead of making them through the Port of New York. I will enable immigrants to land on the Wisconsin shores and be near the farm sections of the Mid-West instead of becoming lost in the congested eities of the East.
On the other hand, Wisconsin's prodnets, both farm and factory, may be shipped directly to the various ports of Europe, to the east coast of South and Central America and to Africa. This will prove a tremendous advantage in a competitive sense as it will eliminate the costly rail haul to the East and the trans-shipment expense.
Wisconsin normally has an export trade of thirty millions in factory prod- nets and as much more in farm produets. By securing a direct market and eliminating unecessary freight charges the volume of trade can, no doubt. be doubled. When the world gets back to normal production, the products of the Mid-West will face a stronger competition which will only be met by the advantages involved in reaching the high seas expeditionsly and econ-
318
HISTORY OF MILWAUKEE
omically. The Port of Milwaukee will then prove the most accessible and serviceable on Lake Michigan.
But, after summing up the concrete arguments why the city should possess itself of the entire water frontage embraced in the comprehensive harbor plan evolved by the Harbor Commission, there still remains the broad eon- tention that it is the imperative duty of the municipality to protect its future by availing itself of every advantage presented by a most wonderful natural situation.
Water fronts such as Milwaukee is favored with are a priceless heritage which should be safe-guarded in the interest of the people. Let it not be said, fifty years hence, that those of this period of commercial enlightenment were so blind to the needs of the future as to permit one of the finest natural harbor situations in the world to be encroached upon by selfish interests and thus rendered useless to posterity.
W. G. B.
CHAPTER XXI
THE COMING OF THE RAILROADS
Along in the thirties the people had begun to long for the appearance of the "iron horse" of which they had heard remarkable tales from the East. As early as 1825 the first railroad had been opened in England. In that year George Stephenson, the famous engineer, had run a train of a dozen or more ears, some loaded with coal and others with passengers, from Stockton to Darlington, in England. Descriptions of this event filled the newspapers of the day, and the news of its success was the inspiration of railroad building in this country. The people everywhere saw in the railroad the promise of better conditions in transportation, and became possessed with the desire to see them built throughout the land.
In Illinois, a vast system of railroad construction was undertaken in 1836, a period sinee known in the histories as the "Era of Internal Improvements." The disastrous results which followed is of more interest to the people of that state than it is to those of the neighboring communities. Among the old settlers of the Western states the coming of the railroad was long antiei- pated as the fulfillment of their fondest hopes for the future prosperity of the region in which they dwelt. People had heard of the railroads building in the East and a few had actually seen and traveled upon them. In 1852, the Michigan Central railroad had been extended from its former western terminus at New Buffalo, in Michigan, to Chicago, soon to be followed by other lines from the East. Milwaukee was connected with Chicago by the Chicago and Milwaukee railroad in 1856, and its influence on lake navigation soon began to be felt.
It was said by Lord Bacon that "there are three things which make a nation great and prosperous, a fertile soil, busy workshops, and easy trans- portation for men and goods from place to place." This saying was placed as an inscription on one of the great World's Fair buildings erected in Chi- eago in 1893. Without a doubt the greatest advantage that any city can enjoy is its transportation facilities, and by this is meant freight transporta- tion as well as passenger traffic. Without industries a eity is without life ; without railroads and canals industries are strangled in embryo. "Com- meree is one of the most beneficent among the activities which have engaged, or can engage, the abilities and energies of man," wrote George F. Stone, formerly secretary of the Chicago Board of Trade. "The demands of com- meree for constantly increasing facilities for rapid and economical exelange of commodities, are imperious and resistless. There is no alertness so sensi-
319
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FIRST RAILWAY DEPOT IN MILWAUKEE-1851
Milwaukee and Mississippi Railroad, corner Fowler and Second Streets
1
OLD LAKE SHORE DEPOT Chicago and Northwestern Railway-About 1565
321
THE COMING OF THE RAILROADS
tive and swift as that of commerce; there is no vigilance equal in intensity and constancy to commercial vigilance."
When railroads were first talked of in the thirties and forties, people and communities were ready to "go broke" to assist new railroad enterprises, and it actually happened that towns, counties and cities voted for the pur- chase of stock and bonds to assist them far beyond what seemed to be their power of ultimate payment. In these days the statement seems hardly ered- ible when we consider the state of public sentiment in regard to them, when railroads, their projectors, financiers and officers are subjected to disparage- ment and every form of hostile criticism.
Changed Attitude of the People .- "Immediately after the Civil war," says Legler, in his history of Wisconsin, "railroad extension was carried on in the state at a remarkable rate. The attitude of the railroad magnates toward the people grew so arrogant that in a message to the Legislature Governor Cadwallader C. Washburn declared with emphasis that `many vast and overshadowing corporations in the United States are justly a source of alarm, and the Legislature cannot scan too closely every measure that comes before it which proposes to give additional rights and privileges to the railways of the state.' He further recommended that the granting of passes to the class of state officials who, through their public office, have power to confer or withhold benefits to a railroad company, be prohibited."
"The farmers considered themselves aggrieved by discriminations in rail- road charges," continues Legler in his volume. "The hard times of 1873-4 were popularly accredited to the dominant party. William R. Taylor, a democrat, was elected governor. The pendulum of polities made the sweep to the other end of the are, and the passage of the famous 'Potter law' fol- lowed at the next legislative session. This was a drastic measure, limiting transportation charges and regulating prices for freight, creating a railroad commission and making stringent provision for general regulation of railroad traffic. The railroad officials openly defied the provisions of the law, and the presidents of the two leading railroad corporations of the state served formal notice on the governor that they would disobey them." Governor Taylor responded in a proclamation that "the law of the land must be respected and obeyed." Long litigation followed which attracted attention all over the country on account of the important principles involved, namely, the power of the state to control corporations of its own creation. "The railroads were beaten in the state and federal courts, and were compelled to acknowledge submission."
Early Railroad History .- A passage of the early railroad history of Mil- waukee has come to light recently through an interview with Edwin H. Abbot, printed in the Milwaukee Journal in its issne of January 16, 1921. This interview is transcribed here in full because of its interest to the student of our history.
The recent sale of the Abbot doek property, near the harbor entrance to the Hansen Storage Company, and the visit to Milwaukee of Edwin Il. Abbot on that and other business, recalls a chapter of great interest in Mil- waukee's railroad history.
Vol. I-21
OLD LACROSSE DEPOT, THIRD STREET, CORNER OF CHESTNUT STREET, IN 1860 Drawn from memory by JJohn A. Schowalter
:
1
1
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LOOK OUT ", THE CAR
1
323
THE COMING OF THE RAILROADS
Mr. Abbot, who is now a resident of Cambridge, Mass., although for nearly thirty years a Milwaukeean and largely interested in the growth and de- velopment of Wisconsin, through his large financial interest in the Wisconsin Central railroad, is still a holder of Milwaukee real estate; among other items the Colby-Abbot Building.
In speaking of the manner in which the dock property, just transferred, came into his possession, Mr. Abbot said :
"The doeks were known in the old days as the Shea & George docks, and, if I remember rightly, were built somewhere about 1886 or 1887. I purchased the property, some 840 feet of waterfront, in 1889, for the Wis- consin Central for $325,000.
Project Joint Terminal .- " The Northern Pacific had leased the Wisconsin Central, in which Charles Colby and I were heavily interested, with the inten- tion of using it as an entrance to Chicago. Villard and Oakes wanted to bring the Central into Milwaukee. Its nearest approach to the city was Waukesha. Having leased it, and having purchased terminals in Chicago, on which the Grand Central station now stands, they wanted to swing the entire Wisconsin Central and Northern Pacifie business down through this city. It would have been a tremendous thing for the development of Mil- wankee.
"As a part of the plan, I was authorized to spend $1,000,000 in picking up property, at the then market price, which would be needed later. We took an option on the Milwaukee Northern road and the stock of Angus Smith, and there was an understanding arranged with Mr. Rhinelander, of the Mil- waukee, Lake Shore and Western, by which both of those roads, now parts of the Milwaukee and Northwestern systems, respectively, were to use the new terminal which we were planning.
"The idea was to enter the city from the north, striking the end of Jack- son Street and tunneling under the property along the east side of that street until we came out on the slope across from the present post office build- ing and there our passenger station was to be located. The four roads were all to use this tunnel entrance to Milwaukee.
"The plan was of course kept secret. I bought certain parcels of land in advance, which would have been difficult to acquire later, this doek prop- erty among others. It was an important link in the scheme, as we planned to eross to Jones Island at that point and then, turning to the natural land, cross the Northwestern traeks into the Chase Creek distriet, where I bought twenty-three or twenty-four acres for yard purposes; then run south to the main line of the Wiseonsin Central and into Chicago. There they had bought something like four hundred aeres of land, covering the only available entry- way.
"That was our plan, and it was a great one, but Villard and Oakes went under in the crash of '93 and the Northern Pacific went into the hands of a receiver. That killed it.
"When the Northern Pacific failed, I determined to break the lease and regain control of the Wisconsin Central. I petitioned the United States circuit court to intervene in the Northern Pacifie foreclosure proceedings
The First Rate Table of the Milwaukee & Mississippi Rail-Road, (Now the Chi. Mil. & St. Paul Ry.) 15
RATE TABLE.
Resolutions adopted by the Board of Directors of the Mil waukee and Mississippi Rail-Road Company, Deo. 1850.
Resolved, That the following Rules be adopted relative to passengers-to be conspicuously posted in each Pas- senger Car:
There is to be no free list: no persons whomsoever shall be entitled to a free passage on any train, except by order of the Board, or by a free pass, singed by the President of the Company, or Superintendent of the road; and ex: cept also in cases of persons on Company business- which exceptions will be specially communicated to each Conductor.
The following low rates shall be established for Passen- ger Fare, until otherwise ordered, viz :
! MILWOKEE.
SI SPRING STREET ROAD
CHASE'S MIL. 19 | WAUWATOSA.
49 | BLANCHARD'S.
| UNDERWOOD'S.
ELM GROVE.
E | DIXON'S ROAD.
POWER'S MILL ..
TEW'S ROAD.
| PLANK ROAD.
| Fox RIVER COTTAGE WAUKESHA.
MILWAUKEE,
10 15 20 25 30 35 45 50 55 60 65 75
SPRING STREET ROAD 10
5 10 15 20 25 35 40 45 50 55,65
CHASE'S MILL, :
15 5 5 10 15 20 30 35 40 45 50,60
WAUWATOSA,
20 10' 5. 5,10'15 25 30 35 40 45 55
BLANCHARD'S,
25 15 10 5 5 10 20 25 30 35 40,50
UNDERWOOD'S,
30 20.15:10 5 . 1.5 15 20:25.30 35 45
ELM GROVE, -
35 25 20 15 10 5 10 15 20 25 3040
DIXON'S ROAD, -
45 35 30 25 20 15 10 5'10 15 20,30
POWER'S MILL, -
50 40 35 30 25 20 15 5 -| 5 10 1527
PLANK ROAD,
TEW'S ROAD, 55 45 40.35 30 25 20 10 5 ยท | 5:10.20 60 50 45 40 35 30 25 15 10 5 . 5.15 Fox RIVER COTTAGE 66 55 50 45 40 35 30 20,15 10 5 10
WAUKESHA, - 175 65 60 55 50 45 40.30 25 20 15 10
Norr. In cases of Passengers being taken up between any of the aforesaid points, the fare will be the same as if taken at the point back of that at which such passengers may be received. Children under fen years of age, at half the above rates.
DAILY FREE DEMOCRAT PRINT-MILWAUKEE.
AN OLD-TIME SCHEDULE OF RAILROAD RATES
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THE COMING OF THE RAILROADS
and succeeded in having the lease canceled for nonpayment of rent, bringing young Mr. Brandeis, now on the United States supreme bench, here from Boston as my attorney.
"The land which I had picked up, in furtherance of our plan for a joint entry into Milwaukee, was disposed of from time to time. At the request. of the company I took . this dock property off its hands and have held it ever since. With its sale to the Hansen Company about the last trace of the Northern Pacific-Wisconsin Central plans for a Milwaukee entrance vanishes.
"We had figured on this water frontage as a most available site for a carferry terminal, as it is the first doek, property after entering the Mil- waukee harbor, with no bridges to pass and with 375 feet of open water in front of it, because of the junction of the Milwaukee and Kinnickinnie rivers. I still expect some day to see it put to such a use."
Two warehouses, one brick and the other frame, stand on this property, which adjoins the city's ineinerator plant on the west. One of these houses is used by the Milwaukee, Chicago & Michigan City line of steamers, re- eently organized by Milwaukee interests, and the other is used by the Hansen Company for the storage of antomobiles, for manufacturers and dealers, and other wares.
First Locomotive Built in Milwaukee .- The pamphlet published at the time of the "Diamond Jubilee" in June, 1921, contains an account of the first locomotive built in Milwaukee in October, 1852. This account was com- piled by George Richardson, the librarian of the Old Settlers' Club in Mil- waukee.
This locomotive was called the Menomonee for in that day all locomotive engines bore names just as ships always do. The Menomonee was built at the shops of W. B. Walton & Company, and when it was completed and ready to be moved to the tracks where it was to operate, Mr. Richardson had an important part in the task which was indeed a formidable one. Ile was at that time an employee of John Miller, colloquially known as "Long John." IIe relates as follows: "Much has been recently said and, written in a local controversy as to the identity of that particular locomotive, to which should attach the credit of being the first one built in the State of Wisconsin.
The Locomotive Leaves the Shop .- "My interest in th's matter," con- tinues Mr. Richardson, "attaches not only from a motive of fact, but from a motive of personal pride, and the latter condition arises from the fact that I am-so far I know-the only person now living who had anything to do with Milwaukee's first locomotive before it was put into active service. It is true that my connection with Milwaukee's first locomotive was not over important, as I now consider it, but was such as to give me the right to claim connection with it, and to vouch for the absolute truth of all I may say relative thereto, from a personal standpoint.
"During the years 1852, 1853 and 1854, I was employed by John Miller ('Long John' he was called by reason of his great size, six feet nine inches in height). Mr. Miller was at that time Milwaukee's heavy moving con- tractor, and he it was who moved Milwaukee's first locomotive from the
From an old lithograph by Louis Kunz-probably made in the later '50s or earlier '60s. Names of persons found on original in possession of Old
OFFICERS AND EMPLOYES OF THE MILWAUKEE & ST. PAUL RAILINAY
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:
C
--
Settlers ' Club.
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THE COMING OF THE RAILROADS
shop where it was built and placed it on the tracks of what was then the Milwaukee & Mississippi Railroad, now the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad.
"The locomotive was built at the works of W. B. Walton & Company, known as the Menomonee foundry, and located at the southwest corner of Reed and South Water streets. The first locomotive differed from all alleged drawings of it recently published in some of the Milwaukee papers, and also from the alleged drawing of it in the possession of the Milwaukee Old Set- tlers' Club, inasmuch as it was what is known as 'inside connected,' that is, the machinery, cylinder, etc., was all underneath the boiler, exeept the parallel rods connecting the two pair of driving wheels. Recently published drawings elaiming to represent the first engine show the cylinders and machinery as being located on the outside, as locomotives of today are built. This is a mistake. If such, however, is in existenee, this controversy may be the means of bringing it to light. I recolleet this engine as plainly as though I had seen it but yesterday, and I remember that on its dome or sand box on top of the boiler was the following :
MENOMONEE LOCOMOTIVE WORKS,
No. 1 JAMES WATERS, Engineer ; W. B. WALTON & CO., PROPRIETORS.
On the side of the boiler was this word :
. MENOMONEE'
Locomotive Crosses the River .- "On October 15, 1852, 'Long John,' with his crew of a dozen men and several yoke of oxen, began laying temporary traeks from a point at the foundry near which is now located the seales of Seeboth Brothers, and thenee to Reed Street, on Reed to the bridge over the Menomonee River-then a float bridge. No trouble was experienced until the bridge was reached. At that time Reed Street was just about wide enough for ordinary wagons to meet and pass, and the locomotive and its traeks occupied the whole street. At the bridge all the power of men, bloek and taekle, as well as oxen, was needed to enable us to get the locomotive up the incline. The engine's weight was about twenty-six tons, and under it the bridge barely escaped sinking, but it was safely landed on the north side of the river and placed on the track, located abont seventy-five feet away from the bridge, and here my connection with it ceased."
From the Milwaukee Sentinel of October 14, 1852, is quoted the following comment: "The Menomonee is the name of the splendid locomotive just built by the Menomonee foundry for the M. and M. R. R. company. The Menomonee leaves the foundry for the track today. It was designed and built under. the superintendence of James Waters, to whose skill it bears ample testimony. The next engine, now nearing completion, is to be called White- water."
Again, the Sentinel of October 16, 1852, says: "The new locomotive, the Menomonee, now fairly launched from the Walton & Company's foundry yesterday, commenced its march toward the railroad track."
328
HISTORY OF MILWAUKEE
This "march" of the Menomonee is described above. Also, the follow- ing from the Sentinel on October 25, 1852:
"The locomotive Menomonee, built by Walton & Company, at the Me- nomonee foundry, the first -one manufactured there, was put in motion on the track on Saturday (October 23), and performed to the complete satis- faction of all concerned. We note the fact with no little pride that here in Milwaukee has been built the first locomotive west of Cleveland."
The Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad .- As early as 1836 a meeting was held in Milwaukee, of which Samuel Brown was chairman and Byron Kilbourn, secretary, to consider the feasibility of building a railroad from Milwaukee to the Mississippi River. A resolution was adopted to petition the Legislature to pass an act incorporating a company for such a purpose. In the year 1836 there was great activity in every branch of business through- out the country but the following year the panie of 1837 prevented the further consideration of any such enterprise. Some influential citizens favored the construction of eanals rather than railroads, having the example before them of the great Erie Canal which had been completed in 1825. But the fact that canals could not be operated throughout the entire year gave the advantage 10 the railroads as the proposed means of transportation.
However, all plans either for railroads or canals had to be abandoned until the times became more propitions in which to launch new projects. and it was not until 1847 that a bill passed the Territorial Legislature an- thorizing the construction of a railroad from Milwaukee to Waukesha though in the following year its provisions were extended to allow of its construction to the Mississippi River. At the same time its capital which at first was limited to $100,000 was increased to an amount necessary for the extension of the road beyond Waukesha.
The sum of $100,000 of the stock having been subscribed as required by . the act, an election of directors and officers was held May 10, 1849, thus com- pleting the organization of the Milwaukee & Mississippi R. R. Company. Byron Kilbonrn was chosen for president, Benjamin H. Edgerton, secretary. and Walter P. Flanders, treasurer; the directors were as follows: Lemnel W. Weeks, Edward D. Holton, Alexander Mitchell, Erastus B. Wolcott. Anson Eldred, James Kneeland, John H. Tweedy, E. D. Clinton.
In his report to the stockholders in 1850, Mr. Kilbourn gave a history of the company from the beginning, including the vicissitudes through which it passed in its efforts to secure a charter. In the course of his report he said: "It is of the first importance that this undertaking be in the hands exclusively of the people of Wisconsin, and as generally diffused through the body of the community as possible, so that every citizen may l'eel that in its success his individual interest is to be promoted. In the hands of such owners its success is far more certain than if held as a monopoly in the hands of foreign capitalists for their benefit alone, and to whom the people of Wisconsin would be required forever to pay tribute."
A suitable corps of engineers was appointed of which the president. Mr. Kilbourn, was designated as the chief. His qualifications for this task were no doubt suggested by his early experience as a young man in canal building
329
THE COMING OF THE RAILROADS
when he was a resident of Ohio. It should be remembered also that Mr. Kil- bourn was at that time serving as mayor of Milwaukee then a rapidly growing town of 15,000 inhabitants.
The surveys for the new railroad were begun under the immediate super- intendence of JJasper Vliet, B. Il. Edgerton, and, at a later period, Richard l'. Morgan. "About four-fifths of the whole number of stockholders," says Mr. Kilbourn in his report, "were farmers and mechanics in towns and villages of the interior, and the remainder consisted of laborers, mechanies and busi- ness men in the City of Milwaukee."
After the charter of 1847 had been secured and the organization of the road completed, there came a pause, owing to the cessation of interest on the part of the public. "It was a great undertaking for that day," said E. D. Holton in a historical address made in 1858 before the Chamber of Com- merce in Milwaukee; "we were without money as a people either in the city or country. Every man had come to the country with limited means, and each had his house, his store, his shop, his barn to build; his land to elear and fenee, and how could he spare anything from his own individual neces- sities? Some wise men looked on and shook their heads, and there were many, croakers.
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