USA > Wisconsin > Milwaukee County > Milwaukee > History of Milwaukee, city and county, Volume I > Part 5
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
Thus it may be said in general that the levels of lakes with river outlets of a limited vohime change from time to time, according to the amount of precipitation on their surfaces and the contiguous territory. The sources of supply of such a body of water as Lake Michigan, for example, are springs and rivers; and, since they are dependent upon rain and snow, the sources of the supply of lake water may be said to be atmospheric precipitation.
The fluetnations in the level of Lake Michigan in different seasons is thus accounted for, though in the case of the frequently observed sudden changes in lake levels the cause is found in the atmospheric pressure. "A sudden change in atmospheric pressure on one part of a large lake," says Professor Salisbury, "eanses changes of level everywhere. If the pressure is increased in one place, the surface of the water there is lowered and the surface else- where correspondingly raised."
Disastrous Fluctuations .- On the 30th of April, 1909, a very remarkable rise of water of the lake occurred, reaching a height of six feet at Evanston. It rose and retired within the space of a few hours, coming just after a storm of unusual severity. The account of it in the Evanston Index of the next day says: "The lake shore presents a highly interesting sight following the action of the tidal wave which washed clear to the middle of the lake front park, filling the lagoon with debris and leaving a big windrow of driftwood of all sizes and shapes to mark its extreme reach."
The Chieago Tribune of May 1, 1909, states that the storm above referred to caused the loss of five lives, and of property estimated at $2.000,000. Collapsed and umroofed houses dotted the stretch of prairie land near the Illinois Central Railroad in the neighborhood of Seventy-fifth Street. "The storm eaused unusual disturbanees in Lake Michigan at the Thirty-ninth Street pumping station ; variations in the lake level of between four and five feet oeenrred." The authorities caused the flow of water into the Sanitary Canal to be nearly donbled in order to ease the pressure, but despite the efforts made the Chicago River at times was reversed and ran its old course into the lake.
In the Coast and Geodetic Survey Report for 1907. it is stated that "the most common cause of these periodie movements is the wind blowing over bodies of water in which they oceur. The sudden variations in barometric pressure may cause seiches' (tidal waves) in lakes and other nearly enclosed bodies of water."
Gradual Fluctuations of the Lake .- The variations in the water levels of the lake extending over comparatively long periods of time. for example a month, a year, or even for a longer period, have been carefully measured at stated intervals, for more than fifty years. Results from such measurements.
51
DISCOVERY OF THE GREAT LAKES
disregarding the sudden rises and subsidences of which we have spoken, show a slow increase or decrease in the general height of the surface, as compared with the level of the sea, such fluctuations sometimes extending over years of time.
The mean stage of water on the lake, for the period extending from 1860 to 1907 (inelusive), is given on the chart of Lake Michigan, issued by the United States Lake Survey, as 581.32 feet above mean tide at New York. The highest stage of water on record was that of "the high water of 1838," when it stood at 584.69 feet above sea level. The lowest stage was that of December, 1895, during which month the average was 578.98 feet. Thus be- tween the extremes there was a variation of 5.71 feet.
There had, however, been many noteworthy fluetnations throughout the period from 1838 down to the end of the century between these extremes, as will be shown below. For example, in the year 1869 the level declined to 580 feet, followed two years later by a rise to 582.7 feet. Again, there was a deeline in 1873, to 579.9 feet, followed by a rise, in 1876, to 583.5 feet.
In 1880, a low stage was again reached when the level stood at 580.7 feet : after which there was a gradual rise to the year 1886, when the level stood at 583.6 feet. After that there was a gradual descent for ten years, and, in 1896, the level dropped to 579 feet, the lowest on record. The level again began to rise, so that by the year 1900, the elevation was 580.7 feet above the level of the sea.
Aspect of Milwaukee from the Lake .- In an article printed in Seribner's Magazine for March, 1892, by Charles C. Rogers of the United States Navy, he says: "Perhaps the most pleasing prospeet of the lake (Lake Michigan) is Milwaukee, whose cream-colored buildings produce a peculiar and most agree- able effect. Eight railways eenter here after traversing a rich and rapidly improving country, whose grain forms the chief element in the city's pros- perity. In entrances and clearances, it follows elosely upon Chicago, the number last year (1891) exceeding 20,000; one of the chief contributors to this record is the line of wooden steamers to Ludington, in the service of the Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad. Its vessels are built especially to con- tend with the lake ice: they run regularly in winter and are never detained more than a few hours."
.
1995
Okd Settlers Club
Iweg Pust PressAnts 0 8 Potrgraphs by Cutterstein.
LÝ HALSEY
1913
FORMER PRESIDENTS OF THE OLD SETTLERS CLUB OF MILWAUKEE COUNTY WHO WERE ALL LIVING AT THE TIME THIS GROUP PICTURE WAS MADE IN 1918 Photo by Guttenstein
CHAPTER IN
MAIL CARRIERS AND ROUTES
The first mail route that crossed the Alleghany Mountains was established in 1788, coming west as far as Pittsburgh. Within the next few years routes were extended to Louisville (1794), to Vincennes (1800) and from Vandalia to Springfield (1824). As the northern part of Illinois was sparsely settled, it was not until the early '20s that mail was brought to Chicago by regular "express" as the carriers were called. Before that time letters arriving had come through special conveyance or messenger as opportunity offered, and when conditions were favorable.
In 1826 David MeKee agreed with the Goverment to carry dispatches and letters once a month between Chicago and Fort Wayne. This was mainly for the convenience of soldiers or agents occupying Fort Dearborn. He took with him an Indian pony to carry the mail bag and sleeping blankets, driving his pony ahead of him. For his own food he relied upon the game which he could kill, and for his pony's eating he eut down an elm or basswood tree here and there on the path. The route lay from Chicago to Niles, Michigan : thence to Elkhart, Indiana; and thence to Fort Wayne. The average trip took fourteen days, it being sometimes accomplished in ten days.
Writing of the mail at Chicago in 1825, Mrs. Kinzie says, "The mails arrived as may be supposed, at very rare intervals. They were brought occa- sionally from Fort Clark (Peoria), but were more frequently from Fort Wayne, or across the peninsula of Michigan, which was still a wilderness peopled with savages. The hardy adventurer who acted as express was, not unfrequently, obliged to imitate the birds of heaven and 'lodge among the branches,' in order to insure the safety of himself and his charge." The carriers often suffered from "snowblind" having to suspend the journey or hire it done by another while they recovered in some cabin or other stop- ping place along the route. Although usually prov'ded with parched corn against the seareity of game, there were many times when the mail carriers traveled for days on the verge of starvation; just as common a hardship was freezing the feet, in some instances the men losing their toes as a result. One might wonder why horses were not in general use for these long wilder- ness journeys. The question is answered by pointing out the difficulty of progress through forests erossed by few or no paths. In writing of his western tour, Storrow says, "The thickness of the forest rendered marching difficult, and almost entirely impeded the horse : but for exertions in assisting him over crags, and cutting away branches and saplings with our tomahawks,
53
51
HISTORY OF MILWAUKEE
we should have been obliged to abandon him. The land was broken with hilloeks and masses of rock."
The eastern mail was brought to Wisconsin twice a year by a soldier. whose route was overland from Detroit. around the southern bend of Lake Michigan and through Chicago. About the year 1825 postoffices were estab- lished in towns west and south of Chicago, and mail routes put through con- meeting these places. In this way the older settlements in Illinois were more closely connected with the northern part of the state. Of the route between Green Bay and Chicago much is found in historical records, as it was one of the oldest western rontes. In an aeconnt of one who lived in Green Bay in 1825, we read. "Once a month a mail arrived, carried on the back of a man who had gone to Chicago, where he wonkl find the mail from the East, des- tined for this place. Ile returned as he had gone, on foot, via Milwaukee. This day and generation can know little of the exeitement that overwhelmed ns when the mail was expected-expectations that were based on the weather. When the time had come, or was supposed to have come, that the mail carrier was nearing home, many of the gentlemen wouldl start off in their sleighs to meet him."
Alexis Clermont, Pioneer Mail Carrier .- One of the well known carriers of the early days was Alexis Clermont, who regularly made this journey, after the Black Hawk war. He has told his own story of it: "1 would start . out from the postoffice in Shantytown, taking the Indian trail to Manitowoc. „Only twice would I see the lake between Green Bay and Milwaukee-at Sauk River, twenty-five miles north of Milwaukee, and at Two Rivers. From Milwaukee I went to Skunk Grove, then to Gross Point, where I struck the lake again. and then I would see no more of the lake until I reached Chicago. * In making my trips I was not alone. An Oneida Indian always accompanied me. The load was limited to sixty pounds and we usually had that weight. As a rule it took us a full month to make the round trip from Green Bay to Chieago and return. We carried two shot bags filled with parched corn; one of them hulled, the other ground. For the greater part of our diet we relied upon the Indians, or on what wild game we could kill; the bags of corn were merely to fall back upon, in case the Indians had moved away, as they were apt to do, on hunting and fishing expeditions. At night we camped ont in the woods, wherever darkness overtook up. and slept in the blankets which we carried on our baeks. In Chicago we merely stopped over night, and promptly returned the way we came: unless we were delayed by a tardy mail from Detroit, which reached Chicago by steamer in summer. and by foot, overland, in winter. * * * Our pay was usually from $60 to $65 for a round trip such as I have described, although in the fall sometimes it reached $70."
The receptacle carried by the express was not always the bag that is re- ferred to so frequently. John HI. Fonda, in starting on his trip from Green Bay to Chicago, was intrusted "with-not mail-bag-but a tin cannister or box of a flat shape, covered with untanned deer hide, that contained the dis- patches and letters of the inhabitants."
55
MAIL CARRIERS AND ROUTES
In the period about 1825 "the United States mails coming from the East to Chicago and other lake ports were conveyed, during the season of navi- gation, by the irregular and tardy conveyances of sail vessels, and the in- habitants of the country were oftentimes for weeks and months without intelligence of what was passing in other parts of the world from which they were completely isolated." The privilege of mail service "was purchased partly by voluntary contributions of the citizens and an allowance from U. S. Quartermaster's Department, and the military post fund at Fort Howard. The Government at Washington found it would not pay to establish a mail route, or defray the expenses of carrying the mail, and decreed, no doubt wisely, that no expenditure could be made by the Post Office Department for that purpose, exceeding the net proceeds of the mail matter."
The narrative of Alexis Clermont, from which the above account is in large part derived. is printed in the Wisconsin II storieal Collections in Vol. XV. In that interesting volume, entitled " Historie Green Bay," by Ella Hoes Neville, Sarah Greene Martin, and Deborah Beaumont Martin, it is related that one Moses Hardwick was also employed during the '30s as mail carrier to Milwaukee, where Solomon Juneau was at that time postmaster. The small newspaper published semi-monthly at Green Bay, in 1834, had this refrain at the head of its columns :
"Three times a week without any fail, At four o'clock we look for the mail, Brought with dispatch on an Indian trail."
Trusty carriers, it is said, "were hard to find, although the pay was ample according to the scale of wages in those days, $45 to Milwaukee, and from $60 to $65 to Chicago and return, but communication must have been very irregular, to judge from letters that passed between Bernard Grignon who had the contract for transporting the mail, and the Milwaukee postmaster."
"The mail carrier (it was said), was necessarily a man of tough fibre and strong nerve, for, burdened as he was with his pack, mail pouch, and loaded musket. he was forced to keep on his feet day and night, wading through snow so deep at times as to require snow-shoes. When overcome with sleep he wrapped himself in his blanket and lay down in a snow-bank, taking such rest as he could with the wolves howling around him."
Unsettled State of the Country .- " The country was in a will, unsettled state," continue the anthors above quoted from. "Acts of violence were frequent, although summary punishment was nsnally inflicted upon the of- fender. The enlisted soldiers at the fort were often desperate characters, and officers were in danger of assasination by their own men in revenge for arbitrary punishment, as well as from the suspicion and emnity of the Indians. In the summer of 1821, the post surgeon, William S. Madison, was shot and instantly killed near the Manitowoc River by a Chippewa Indian concealed in the brush. The murderer was captured, taken to Detroit, and tried at the September term of the Supreme Court.
56
HISTORY OF MILWAUKEE
"His eonnsel, James D. Doty, denied the jurisdiction of the court, alleging that the murder was committed in a distriet of country to which the Indian title had not been extinguished, and therefore the United States could not take cognizance of the crime, for the Chippewa and Winnebago nations, both being sovereign and independent, exercised exclusive jurisdiction within their respective territorial limits. Further, he argued that the American Govern- ment, by repeated treaties with the Indians, had acknowledged that its dominion extended no further than as actual owners of the soil by purchase from the savages; that the Indians must be either citizens of the United States or foreigners: yet were evidently not considered citizens by our Gov- ernment, the privileges of our laws and institutions not being extended to them, nor had any act of theirs been construed as treason or rebellion.
"He said they had been regarded by the French, English and American governments as allies, and were not a conquered people. Various other argu- ments were urged by the brilliant young advocate, but his plea was over- ruled by the court, and Ketauka was sentenced to be hung at Green Bay. on December 21, 1821. The sentence was executed at the appointed time and place."
Moses Hardwick, Noted Mail Carrier .- In one of the chapters of the Wisconsin Historical Society's collections (for 1882) there is a sketch of a mail carrier of the period of 1817, contributed by Morgan L. Martin. This mail carrier's name was Moses Hardwick. He was a discharged soldier and was employed for several years by the quartermaster at the fort in carry- ing the mail from Detroit by way of Chicago and Milwaukee to Fort Howard during the season when lake navigation was closed. He made monthly trips on foot between these points for seven conseentive winters, commeneing in 1817.
"It was a service," says the writer. "which few could perform, requir- ing powers of endurance and strength, with which men are rarely endowed. The depth of snow was such as to require the use of snow-shoes, and to give no opportunity for providing a comfortable camp for the night. The person engaged in this service was obliged to keep on his feet day and night until overcome by fatigue and want of sleep, when rest becoming an absolute necessity he wrapped himself in his blanket, lay down in a snow bank, and took the needed repose, after which he continued the same routine of tramp- ing and rest until his destination was reached. The severity of the trial of strength seems almost incredible, for in addition to the mail-bag, weigh'ng usually from fifty to sixty pounds, the carrier had the necessary supply of provisions to pack on his back.
"There were two or three other men engaged in this arduons service, but none it is believed suffered greater hardships than Hardwick; and yet after many years of this severe and continued labor, exposed to all changes of weather, he lived to the remarkable age of eight-eight years." Hardwick was employed to carry the mail on the route between Green Bay and Mil- wankee when it was established in 1833.
In an address before the Old Settlers' Club in 1873, Judge Andrew G.
57
MAIL CARRIERS AND ROUTES
Miller, who came to Milwaukee in the late thirties, referred to the early mail carriers and the mail routes. He said that between Milwaukee and Green Bay the only intermediate stopping places were Port Washington, Sheboy- gan Falls and Manitowoc ; and that "the postman traveled the trail on foot, delivering the mail at the terminus of his route on the fourth day. Return- ing from holding court in Green Bay, in October, 1839, a beautiful Indian summer day, between Sheboygan Falls and Milwaukee, I met the mail ear- rier on foot, who was the only white man I observed on the trail that day, but there were numerous Indians enjoying their hunting season."
John H. Fonda .- Having previously referred to John H. Fonda we will here give some account of this picturesque traveler with a brief deseription of his movements through the West. Fonda was a rover who left accounts of his travels in the form of memoirs which are printed in the early records of Wisconsin. Hle belongs to the "Realm of Vagabondia" who, urged by his boyish love of roving, joined in about 1819, a party which was going to Texas, taking their departure from New York State. After following the occupation of fur trader in that country for about four years which seemed to be as long as his interests in his surroundings held out, he traveled in a haphazard fashion toward Saint Louis, sometimes crossing the plains "on board an old paek mule," at one time stopping for a season in a mixed settlement of trappers, Mexicans and Indians; moving on again to Saint Louis in charge of a caravan of wagons and cattle over a barren con- try, that even then seemed to him rich in its possibilities. In Texas he had been a fur trader: in Saint Louis he was a bricklayer : and next, after a few months in that place, hearing that fortunes were to be made in lead mining near Prairie du Chien, and that a number of men were starting up the Missis- sippi, he made himself one of this party. It was sufficient for him that they were seeking new experiences. On the journey up the river rumors of Indian disturbances in the mining region came to them, so they branched off at the Illinois River, went on up the Desplaines, across the old slough into the Chicago River, and thus Fonda first entered Chicago paddling down toward Fort Dearborn in a canoe.
Feeble Beginnings of Chicago .- " At this period," he relates, "Chicago was merely an Indian ageney: it contained about fourteen houses, and not more than seventy-five or one hundred inhabitants at the most. * The staple business seemed to be carried on by Indians and runaway sol- diers, who hunted ducks and musk-rats in the marshes. There was a great deal of low land, mostly destitute of timber. The principal inhabitants were the agent (Dr. Alexander Wolcott), a Frenchman by the name of Quilmette, and John B. Beaubien. It never occurred to me then that a large city would be built up there."
From Chicago he started to Green Bay, but at the seanty trading settle- ment of Milwaukee he stayed two years, perhaps for no reason at all, per- haps for one having to do with the fact that a few years later he married the niece of the only merchant in the settlement. In 1827 he roved toward Green
58
HISTORY OF MILWAUKEE
Bay. In all his wanderings the scenery on the way afforded him as much interest and excitement as actual adventures.
At Fort Howard, near Green Bay, he was delighted to see Yankee sol- diers, after eight years' absence from his eastern home. Colonel MeKenney was in command of the fort, and visiting him was Gen. Lewis Cass, who was there on a commission to hold a treaty with the local Indians. At Green Bay, he was continually hearing rumors increasingly alarming, of Indian disturb- ances .- the first warning notes of the Winnebago war: he "continued," as he said, "to hang around the fort. leading a sort of Free ranger life, some- times accompanying the officers on their hunting tours, but refusing all pro- posals to enlist."
Soon there came a task that suited his fancy. "It was the winter of 27 that the U. S. Quartermaster. having heard of me through some of his men with whom I was a favorite, came to me one day, and asked me if l thought I could find the way to Chicago. I told him it wasn't long since I had made the trip up the lake. He said he wanted to get a person who was not afraid to carry dispatches to the military post at Fort Dearborn. I said I had heard that the Indians were still unfriendly, but I was ready to make the attempt. He directed me to make all the preparations neces- sary, and report myself to his quarters at the earliest moment. I now began to consider the danger to be provided against, which might be classed under three heads, viz., cold, Indians, hunger. For the first it was ouly needful to supply one's person with good hunting shirts, flannel and deer-skin leggins, extra moccasins, and a Mackinaw blanket ; these, with a resolute spirit, were deemed sufficient protection against the severest weather. And fortunato was he who possessed these. Hunger, except in case of getting lost, was easily avoided by laying in a pouch full of parched Indian corn and jerked venison. "
Against danger from Indians, he provided himself with adequate arms .- a rifle, a sheath knife, and two pistols .-- took unto himself a comrade for sociability's sake and was ready to start on the long journey to Chicago.
Suffice it to say that Fonda with his companion started for Fort Dearborn (Chicago) on foot in the dead of the winter of 1827, passed through a coun- fry then little known to the white man, depending upon his compass and the course of rivers to keep the right direction. On the fourteenth day after leaving Green Bay (Fort Howard) they arrived at Junean's settlement on the Milwaukee River, and at the end of one month arrived at Fort Dear- born. Here he delivered his dispatches and in a few days started on the return journey, arriving at Green Bay, about the last of February. In the Black Hawk war he served in the army and from that time forward lived at Prairie du Chien for the remainder of his life.
Mail Carriers of the Early Days .- It is amusing to regard these two com- panions together .-- Fonda. the valiant, free lance, tall, powerful, good- natured : and Boiseley beside him in comical contrast, a short, uncouth, hir- sute woodsman, with long arms, having an endurance and power even greater than that of his companion. These two left Fort Howard on foot, with
59.
MAIL CARRIERS AND ROUTES
letters and dispatches for the Indian agent at Fort Dearborn. The trip was made by land, and in a little more than a month their destination was reached. This was the second time that Fonda had come to Chicago, and in his approach as a carrier of dispatches, he felt a certain importance, a dignity which his former arrival as a casual tourist had lacked. The dis- patches were delivered to Captain Morgan, whom he found in command at the fort with a company of volunteers from the Wabash country, who had come in response to Gurdon S. Hubbard's appeal for aid. The two men then went out from the fort into the settlement to a house "built, " as Fonda says, "on the half breed system, -- partly of logs and partly of boards." At this house, kept by a Mr. Miller, Fonda and his companion stayed while in the settlement. Of the place at the time of his second visit he said. "With the exception, that the fort was strengthened and garrisoned (that is, by the volunteers mentioned ), there was no sign of improvement having gone on since my former visit."
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.