History of Milwaukee from its first settlement to the year 1895, Part 10

Author: Conard, Howard Louis, ed. cn
Publication date: 1895
Publisher: Chicago and New York, American Biographical Publishing Co
Number of Pages: 840

USA > Wisconsin > Milwaukee County > Milwaukee > History of Milwaukee from its first settlement to the year 1895 > Part 10

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The period between 1833 and 1846 may prop- erly be termed the formative period of Milwau- kee's history. It was during that era that the ele- ments of which cities are composed were brought together in such a way as to facilitate develop. ment, and like a tree, the roots of which have imbedded themselves deeply in fertile soil, and

which begins to send out its branches in all direc- tions, its subsequent growth must be traced along these different branches from source to terminus, if one seeks to obtain a thorough knowledge of its structure and extent. Before directing the atten- tion of the reader to the different departments, into which the history of Milwaukee will be sub- divided after we leave the pioneer period, some- thing more should be said of the character of the early settlers, of the organization effected in later years to perpetuate their memory, and of the worthy women who shared with their husbands the privations and hardship of the pioneer period, and who should share with them as well the honor of having founded a splendid metropolis.

In 1869, a permanent organization of surviving pioneers was effected, which took the name of the "Milwaukee County Old Settlers' Club," and under the auspices of this club much has been done to insure preservation of the annals of the city and county of Milwaukee, and to keep green the memory of those who were the avants coureur of civilization on the west shore of Lake Michi- gan. As originally organized, "The Old Settlers' Club" admitted to membership all persons of good character who had settled in Milwaukee county, as organized, before 1839. At a later date provision was made for the perpetuation of the organization through the admission of the sons of pioneers, and of long-time residents of the city, and the annual reunions and banquets of this asso- ciation have been occasions fruitful of good results in stimulating local historical research, while under its auspices also a valuable collection of old books, manuscripts, maps and other mementos of pioneer days has been made. At the twenty-third annual banquet of the Old Settlers' Club, in 1892, Hon. Horace Rublee, in responding to the toast, "The Old Settlers," aptly delineated the character of the pioneer, and the writer of these pages of pio- neer history desires to adopt as his own sentiment that expressed by Mr. Rublee as follows:

" With hardly an exception, both the native and the foreign-born pioneer relied upon his own indus- try to make his way. There were few drones in the early communities. Every man and every woman was expected to work in their several spheres. Among them were various types of intelligence-most had the advantage of a com- mon school education-some had advanced beyond that-a few lagged behind. Some had capacity

HISTORY OF MILWAUKEE.

to get on more rapidly than others, and soon to become employers ; while others found it difficult to reach a position beyond that of the hired man. But the spirit of equality prevailed to an extent not known in older societies. Every member of the community met every other on the same plane of familiarity and sympathy, and the pio neer who lives today, though he may have become- a millionaire, has a knowledge of the thoughts, and feelings, and latent capacities, and essential man- hood of the humble, illiterate workingman, such as his college-bred sons or grandsons are never likely to attain, and yet it is a knowledge worth possessing.

"The very fact that they were pioneers, that they broke away from their ancestral homes to encounter the toils and privations of life in what was then a wilderness remote from the centers of civilization, to wrest, by their own labor, from the virgin soil and the primeval forest, subsistence and fortune, demonstrates their strenuous and enterprising character.

"The old settlers were not scheming for re- nown. They were not particularly mindful of the possible far-off results of their labors. They were not men conscious of a mission. They were mainly intent on solving the immediate and press- ing problem of gaining a livelihood for themselves and families. They worked hard, they endured many privations, but, notwithstanding, life offered them a fair share of its rewards and pleasures. There is a romance, fascination, about an entirely new country, different in its nature, but hardly less strange than the romance that invests the regions that were the seats of early civilization and the scenes that figure in the morning of his- tory. No such enthusiasm of local pride else- where is found as among the settlers in a new country. There is a charm in the primitive forest and in the virgin soil, with its unexplored treasures and mysteries. Every new dwelling that is reared, every new field laid bare to the sun, every new road opened, is an event in which the whole community takes the liveliest interest. The settler in the forest or on the unbroken prairie, as he improved his land, and saw, where was only a tangled growth of woods or an expanse of rough prairie grasses, as the result of his labor, fields

covered with golden grain or serried ranks of Indian corn, felt a satisfaction kindred to that which the artist experiences, as some master-piece of painting or sculpture grows into divine beauty beneath his hands, the result of honest and faith- ful work."

In point of high character and sterling worth the pioneer women of Milwaukee were the equals of any who have helped to build up the new com- munities of the great West. Like their husbands, a large majority of these women came from the New England and eastern States, and as a rule they were women of superior intelligence, who ably supplemented the efforts of the men in the advance- ment of civilization. Here, as elsewhere, women have been chiefly instrumental in laying the foun- dations of religious and charitable institutions and in promoting moral and social development. The pioneer women were no less active in their sphere than were the men in theirs, and to them is due no smaller share of the honor for results achieved. Their memory should be perpetuated along with the memory of those who laid the foundations of the city government, its industries and its com- merce, and their names should occupy a conspicu- ons place on the honor-roll of the pioneers.

The closing years of the first decade of Mil- wankee's history were years of rapid and substan- tial growth and progress. It soon outgrew all rival towns in the territory, and in 1843 had a population of over six thousand people. An appropriation had been secured from Congress for the improvement of the harbor, and annual imports and exports aggregated in value more than two millions of dollars. Manufacturing enterprises of considerable consequence and importance had come into existence as a result of the water power furnished by the Rock River Canal, and the vessels stopping at this port would have averaged one for each day of the year. A con- siderable portion of the farming country tributary to Milwaukee had been brought under cultivation, and the permanent prosperity of both the country and its metropolis was assured. Before Wisconsin became a State, Milwaukee became a city, and all the phases of its history as a city will be fully treated under separate headings in the following pages of this work.

CIVIL HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT.

CHAPTER XII.

CIVIL HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT.

BY WINFIELD SMITH.

I T is not quite fifty years since Milwaukee was incorporated as a city ; and it is hardly sixty years since the first permanent settlers took up their residence within the territory which the city now occupies. Within this period it has ac- quired a population of more than two hundred and fifty thousand; and many millions of wealth are represented by its factories, atores, ele- vators, railroads and docks, and the myriad other structures which have been erected within its limits. The causes of this rapid growth are not far to seek. They are found in part in the char- acter of the original founders and of their succes- sors ; in part in the natural advantages of the lo- cality ; and again, in part, in the contemporaneous growth in population and wealth of the whole country. It was partly necessity, partly restless- ness which impelled the earliest settlers to leave the more established communities of the East and seek out homes for themselves in the unsubdued wilderness; but there was practical wisdom in the selection of the site, and indomitable resolution and energy were shown in facing and overcoming the difficulties which confronted them on their arrival. If there were added to these, occasion- ally, other difficulties growing out of narrow views of self-interest and mutual distrust, there is nothing to wonder at in this ; for the first settlers were human, and their successors, who have prof- ited by their resolution and enterprise, have not yet succeeded in freeing themselves entirely from these shortcomings and might learn something to their advantage even now from the mistakes of the past.

The site occupied by the present city, has always been a gathering place for men. The earliest ex- plorers found Indian encampments here; and mounds then overgrown with forest trees told of races of much greater antiquity. It has been suggested rather fancifully, that a supersti- tious reverence for the number three may have had something to do with the presence of

the savages at a place marked by the junction of the three rivers whose waters come together at this point. But there is no need of mysticism to explain what is so easily accounted for on other grounds. The locality presents in happy combi- nation many features as attractive to the Indian as the white man. The rivers were deep and broad and full of fish; the marshes the resort of countless wild fowl; the bluffs, high and wooded, the homes of many fur-bearing animals. There was easy communication by water, and food and fuel in abundance. These were the inducements for Indian settlements; and the same attractions drew the first Europeans to the spot, long before a city was thought of, to buy furs and trade with the red men. There were other charms, which, perhaps, would appeal more strongly to us than they did to the Winnebagoes and Pottawa- tomies, or to the hardy coureurs du bois, but to which even they could not have been entirely insen sible. Try to put yourself in the place of the first explorer whose weary journey through seemingly interminable forest has been suddenly arrested on the border of one of our great inland seas. The woodsman's skill lies in careful observation of ob- jects close at hand; and his eye falls back. weary and baffled, when it seeks to penetrate to a dis- tance in the forest. On the border of the lake it first finds itself free. It roams a limitless expanse, without check; and when it tires of this and turns back toward the land it follows with a new de- light every bend and recess in the outline of the shore. Such was the delightful prospect from the edge of the forest-covered bluffs which bordered the lake and river at the month of the Milwaukee. Towards the rising sun were the sparkling waters of the lake and the unobstructed view of the sky; in the opposite direction long vistas of river, widening here into marshes, and narrowing be- tween the hills; and these, opening again, led the eye on through a panorama every spot in which was a paradise. Perhaps the savages did

HISTORY OF MILWAUKEE.

not appreciate all this beauty. It may be that the civilized races have an advantage over them in this respect. But, at least, they did not destroy these charms; that they left for their civilized brethren to do. Many changes have taken place in the topography of the city since those days. Nearly all of the third ward was then a marsh. There was one narrow strip of dry land extending a little distance south along the east bank of the river, which now underlies a portion of East Water street. Another strip fol- lowed the beach south from the bluffs at the head of Michigan street, to the mouth of the river, which was half a mile further south then than it is now. This was a hundred or a hundred and fifty feet wide, and supported a growth of trees; it was used as a road from the village to the mouth of the harbor; but it has since been worn away by the beating of the waves, whose further intrusion into the land is now prevented by a breakwater. At Huron street the land began to rise out of the marsh toward the north and formed high bluffs along the present line of Wisconsin street. The Milwaukee river, keeping near the eastern edge of its valley, lay at the foot of similar bluffs. Springs were plentiful and cut the banks into ravines which extended back in many places for consider. able distances, making the outline of valley and hill extremely irregular. The bluffs on the wes- tern border of the valley were also high and of even more irregular outline. The site of the ex- position building was occupied by a swamp, cov- ered by a heavy growth of white cedar, tamarack and black ash, which reached from the river as far west as Eighth or Ninth street, and to the north and south as far as from Wells street to Chestnut. At Grand avenue the hills came as near as Fifth street to the river; at their foot was the marsh, spreading southward to the junction with the Menomonee, and westward on both sides of the latter stream as far as the western limits of the city, forming a broad valley through which the river twisted like a snake. On the south side the slow waters of the Kinnikinnic sparkled in a bed of marsh grass and wild rice which filled the space between that river and the lake and formed a resting place for countless wild fowl. A tongue of land known as Walker's Point touched the Milwaukee a little below its junction with the Menomonee, reaching away toward the south west and joining the bluffs in that direction; but every-

where else on the south side the high lands re- treated far from the river, presenting steep banks whose rounded summits were crowned with trees.

The earliest explorers found the site of Mil- waukee occupied by Indian tribes, and the first white men who took up homes there did so for the sake of the Indian trade. The land east of the river was in the possession of the Menomonees, and that west and south in that of the Ottawas and Pottawatomies, with whom at different times were associated the Sacs and Foxes. Treaties were made with these tribes looking to their removal to the regions west of the Mississippi and the surrender of their lands to the government. That with the Menomonees was made in Feb- ruary, 1831. The negotiations with the Potta- watomies and Ottawas were not concluded nntil 1835. But the Indians were not immediately removed ; and indeed by the terms of the treaty those on the west side were not to be removed until 1838, and remained in partial possession until that year. Pre-emption laws were not enacted for the territory until the summer of 1834, and it was not till the summer or fall of 1835 that the settlers on the east side were able to perfect their titles at the public land-sale held at Green Bay. On the south and west sides the Indian titles had not yet been extinguished and the pre-emption laws did not apply there. The rights of the settler were not always respected, and in more than one instance improvements as well as lands were lost to him and acquired by the enter- prising speculator in " floating scrip" to which much of the land remained subject. Indeed it was not until 1845 that George H. Walker was able to perfect his title to the land which he and purchasers from him had occupied for more than ten years; and that was one great disadvantage with which that portion of the future city had to contend, in its struggle for prominence with the other sides.

With the exception of Solomon Juneau, who made his home on the east side of the Milwaukee river in 1818, and a trader or two like Vieau, there were no white settlers until the fall of 1833, when Albert Fowler-who in 1835 was made the first justice of the peace in Milwaukee county-Rodney J. Currier, Andrew J. Lansing and Quartns Car- ley came from Chicago. George H. Walker came in the spring of 1834; and the same year witnessed the arrival of Byron Kilbourn, Horace Chase, Samuel Brown, Doctor A. Bigelow, George

CIVIL HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT.

F. Knapp, Skidmore L. Lefferts, William Burdick, D. W. Patterson and Richard M. Sweet. More than a hundred men were added in 1835, some of them bringing their wives; and in the list are many names which are still honored in the com- munity. Settlements were also made during this year at Kenosha, Racine, Port Washington, She- boygan and Manitowoc, and along the Rock river, and it became apparent that the west shore of Lake Michigan with the adjacent country would very soon become the seat of a considerable popu- lation. The county of Milwaukee was set off from Brown county by the Legislature of Michigan in 1834, but was not given a separate organization' till Angust, 1835, at which time the first county officers were appointed by the Governor of Michigan.

The territory included within the limits of Wis- consin was originally divided into two counties, Brown and Crawford. Iowa county was set off from Crawford in 1829. Among the earliest tasks of the legislature of the territory of Wiscon- sin, after its separation from the newly formed State of Michigan in 1836, was the organization of some fifteen new counties out of the territory hitherto occupied by four. The new counties then created were Calumet, Dane, Dodge, Fond du Lac, Grant, Green, Jefferson, Manitowoc, Mar- quette, Portage, Racine, Rock, Sheboygan, Wal- worth and Washington. Several of these have ever since retained the boundaries given them at the time of their creation. Others, especially in the northern part of the State, have been repeat- edly subdivided. Milwaukee county was divided in 1846, when Waukesha county was formed from its western half, thereby settling a question, which had begun to be annoying, of the propriety of changing the location of the county seat from Milwaukee to the more central location of Prairie- ville, a thriving village, whose name has since been changed to Waukesha, and which is now the county seat of the new county. The present number of counties within the State is seventy.

The boundaries of Milwaukee county as at present constituted are as follows: Beginning at the southwest corner of township five, of range twenty-one east of the fourth principal meridian, and running thence due east to the boundary line of the State in Lake Michigan, thence north on the State boundary line to the dividing line, extended into the lake, between townships eight

and nine, thence west to the northwest corner of township eight of range twenty-one east; thence south to the place of beginning. Thus bounded Milwaukee county has a north and south exten- sion of twenty-four miles, and an east and west extension of something over fifty; but a large portion of the territory included within these boundaries is covered by the waters of Lake Michigan, and the actual width of the county, or that portion of it which consists of dry land, is only between nine and twelve miles; being nine miles at the narrowest part and twelve at the widest. The county includes the towns of Oak Creek and Lake, south of the city of Mil- waukee and bordering on Lake Michigan, and north of the city the town of Milwaukee, also upon the lake. West of these, proceeding, as before, from south to north, are the towns of Franklin, Greenfield, Wauwatosa and Granville. The principal villages are South Milwaukee, at the mouth of Oak Creek; Cudahy, in the town of Lake; Wauwatosa, just west of the city and certain to be annexed to it in the near future; North Green. field in the town of Greenfield and Whitefish Bay on the Lake Shore, in the town of Milwaukee. All of these suburbs are connected with the city by frequent train service on the Chicago & North- western and Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul rail- ways; and short electric and steam railways in addition furnish easy communication with Wau- watosa, North Greenfield and Whitefish Bay.

Each township is governed by a board of super- visors of three members, elected at the annual town meeting held in April, at which all town officers are elected and the people vote directly on questions relating to roads and bridges, the institution and defense of actions and suits, the settlement of claims; issuing of bonds, levying of taxes and local police regulations. Other officers elected are clerk, treasurer, one or more assessors, justice of the peace, constables and overseers of highways. The supervisors elect a chairman from their number. Their powers are limited to a watchful supervision of affairs of the town and of the accounts of its officers and all claims asserted by or against the town. The chairman of every town, together with a supervisor specially elected from each incorporated village and one from each ward of the city of Milwaukee, compose the County Board of Supervisors, which represents the county and exercises all the powers reposed in it as

HISTORY OF MILWAUKEE.

a body corporate. The board meets annually in November, and holds such special meetings as may be required. Its powers include the building and keeping in repair of the county buildings, the ex- amination and settlement of the accounts of the different county officers and of all claims against the county, the apportionment and levying of taxes for county purposes, the issue of bonds, pro- viding seals for the county and for the Circuit and County courts, prescribing the form and manner of keeping the public records, organizing and changing the boundaries of towns, and chang- ing the names of towns and villages, the allow- ance of bounties for the destruction of wolves, lynxes, wild cats and foxes; the granting of charters for the incorporation of literary, benevo- lent, charitable and scientific societies, and other powers of similar character. Other county officers are the clerk, sheriff, coroner, clerk of Circuit court, district attorney, registrar of deeds, sur- veyor, and superintendent of schools, all elected at the general election in November, and serving for terms of two years each. In addition to these are the judicial officers, which in Milwaukee county include a judge of the Circuit court, two judges of the Superior court, a judge of the Mu- nicipal court, a judge of the County court, and a Police Justice. The Circuit court is the court of general jurisdiction in the state, which is divided into seventeen circuits, each containing several counties, with the single exception of Milwaukee county, which constitutes a circuit by itself-the second. The Superior court is a local court, hav- ing jurisdiction nominally inferior to that of the Circuit court, but practically concurrent, it being limited by the terms of the law creating it to con- troversies involving not more than five million dol- lars, while the jurisdiction of the Circuit court has no limit whatever. The reason for this dis- crimination was a doubt of the power of the legis- lature, under the constitution, to create any courts of unlimited jurisdiction other than the Circuit courts. The Superior court has two divisions, and there are two Superior court judges. The Municipal court is vested with the criminal juris- diction of Circuit courts; the County court is the Court of Probate; the Police Justice-an office created at the last session of the legislature-ex- ercises the criminal jurisdiction exercised outside of the city by Justices of the Peace. The present incumbents of these judicial offices are D. H. Johnson, Circuit Judge; R. N. Austin and John

C. Ludwig, Superior Judges; Emil Wallber, Mu- nicipal Judge; J. E. Mann, County Judge, and Neele B. Neelen, Police Justice.

The first election ever held in Milwaukee took place on the 19th day of September, 1835, and was for the election of township officers. Thirty- nine votes are said to have been cast on that occa- sion. A book containing the records of this election came to light, in 1885, and forms an ex- ceedingly interesting relic of the old days. It is said that this was the only blank book in the township at that time; and to its pages was committed a curious mingling of public and private records, It was important that the history of that election should be pre- served for posterity; but it was, perhaps, of more immediate importance that a record should be kept of each owner's private property, or of that portion of it which, from its ambulatory disposi- tion, was mnost liable to become lost and confused with the property of a neighbor. There were no fences in those days, although fence viewers were chosen at this election-perhaps because there were not enough other offices to go around. The clearings, as well as the woods, were held in com- mon, not perhaps by the masters, but at any rate by the swine, which formed an aristocratic society of its own, little intruded upon by the other sorts of domestic animals, which were not in those days very numerous. It was certainly important that no mistakes should be made in respect of the ownership of the pigs, or, if made, should be easily rectified, and the marks by which each owner distinguished his own were considered of sufficient interest to deserve a place in the public records, and were set down among the names and oaths of office of the first township officials The importance of this species of property is further shown by the fact that at the election held the following spring four hog constables were added to the list of the township.

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History of Milwaukee from its first settlement to the year 1895, Part 10

Author: Conard, Howard Louis, ed. cn Publication date: 1895 Publisher: Chicago and New York, American Biographical Publishing Co Number of Pages: 840

Author: Conard, Howard Louis, ed. cn
Publication date: 1895
Publisher: Chicago and New York, American Biographical Publishing Co
Number of Pages: 840