History of Milwaukee from its first settlement to the year 1895, Part 4

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 4

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).

Wisconsin to its mouth, discovering on the 17th of June, 1673, the upper Mississippi.

In 1685 Nicholas Perrot was appointed by De La Barre-Governor of New France-Command- ant of the West, which he was to hold with an army of twenty men, as we are told by Mr. Thwaites in his interesting story of Wisconsin. He went to Green Bay and thence up the river, which was the navigable opening then alone practicable to interior Wisconsin. He passed up the Fox to the Portage, and thence down the Wisconsin to the Mississippi, which he entered, and on the east shore of which, near the present village of Trempealeau, he passed the winter. In the spring of 1686 he moved up the river and entered Lake Pepin, where he erected a stockade called Fort St. Antoine.

A fortunate discovery preserves to us a relic of Perrot's journey which Mr. Thwaites mentions in these words: "In 1802 there was plowed up at Depere, on the site of the ancient mission-house, a silver soleil, or ostensorium, made to contain the consecrated wafer ; upon the rim was found an inscription, in French: 'This soleil was given by Mr. Nicholas Perrot to the mission of St. Francis Xavier, at La Baye des Puants, 1686.'" The soleil is still in existence, and was exhibited at the Marietta Centennial, in 1888, as probably the old- est existing relic of the European conquest west of the Alleghany Mountains. It was fully de- scribed in a recent paper by the learned Prof. J. D. Butler, of Madison, and is now in the museum of the State Historical Society.

The whites, who were either missionaries or traders, were all French, and the first government of Wisconsin under white authority was that of the French, who claimed the territory for France. A fierce and bloody war long prevailed, chiefly within the State of Michigan, between them and the powerful tribe of Indians, called the Foxes. The latter were defeated on the Fox river in the year 1706, and later at Butte des Morts, in each of

DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT OF WISCONSIN

which combats it is said that large numbers of Indians, men, women and children, perished. It was not the habit of those combatants to spare any age nor the weaker sex. September 8, 1760, the British flag was raised in Canada, and the French, in 1763, abandoned to Great Britain, by the treaty of Paris, at the close of the bitter war between those two nations, all claim to land in these territories. It remained British soil until the treaty acknowledging the independence of the United States in 1783, when it was ceded by Great Britain to the United States. It was then claimed by Virginia as a part of the Illinois tract by virtue of the conquest of Colonel George Rogers Clark. In March, 1784, the State of Vir- ginia transferred its right to the United States under the cession of the Northwest territory, and a government was provided for the territory northwest of the Ohio river by the celebrated ordinance passed by Congress July 13, 1787. Such possession of the present State of Wisconsin as was then held by civilized men, was, however, retained by Great Britain until 1796, when it was formally surrendered in accordance with Jay's treaty which had been ratified the previous year. On the 7th of August, 1789, an act of Congress was passed to carry into effect the ordinance of 1787, providing for the organization of a govern- ment to consist of executive, legislative and judi- cial departments. The governor and judges were empowered to select and adopt such statutes and laws of the original states as were in their judg- ment adapted to the condition and circumstances of the territory; and which should serve as laws to the territory until its population should number five thousand, whereupon a legislature should be elected and organized. In May, 1800, Congress enacted that all the territory of the United States northwest of the Ohio river, and west of a line beginning at the Ohio river and opposite to the mouth of the Kentucky river and running thence to Port Recovery, thence north until it inter- sected the territorial line between the United States and Canada, should constitute the Indian territory, to which were extended the general provisions of the ordinance of 1787. The judges were to be appointed by the Presi- dent and to hold office during good behavior. January 11, 1805, the territory of Michigan was carved out of this Indian territory, and provisions were made for its government sim-

ilar to those previously in force. Michigan ter- ritory included all north of a line drawn east from the southerly extremity of Lake Michigan until it intersected Lake Erie, and east of a line drawn from the said southerly extremity, through the mid- dle of Lake Michigan to its northern extremity,and thence due north to the northern boundary of the United States, Wisconsin thus remaining a part of the Indian territory. Congress set off, by act of February 3, 1809, the Illinois territory, taking for it that part of the Indian territory west of the Wabash river and of a direct line drawn from the Wabash river and Port Vincennes due north to the territorial line between the United States and Canada. Thus Wisconsin became then a part of the territory of Illinois. The State of Illinois was admitted April 18, 1818, and congress estab- lished the north boundary line of that State at 42 degrees, 30 minutes north latitude, and provided that the remainder of the Northwest territory, lying north of that boundary, should be attached to and made part of Michigan territory, which thus embraced all of the present State of Wiscon- sin and part of Iowa, all of Minnesota and part of the Dakotas. The settlers in Wisconsin were principally French and English traders in the vicinity of forts and trading-posts, those at Green Bay and Prairie du Chien being chief. The French settlers were permitted by the treaties with the British government, to withdraw

from the country within one year. But few departed and of those who remained a few after- wards joined the enemies of the United States in the war of 1812. Only at the termination of that war was actual possession taken of the Northwest by the American forces. In August or September, 1816, the first American vessel laden with supplies arrived at Green Bay, opposite the point where Fort Howard was afterward estab- lished on Fox river. General Cass was governor of

Michigan at the time when Wisconsin was added to

that territory, and he held that office until 1832, exercising until 1834, on account of the paucity of the population and the insufficiency of the other departments of government, a power nearly arbi-

trary, but useful. There were justices of the peace, with authority, valid or invalid, at Green Bay and at Prairie du Chien for some years, but exercising a jurisdiction unlimited except by the military power. The difficulties of an appeal to the Supreme Court of Michigan at Detroit gave

HISTORY OF MILWAUKEE.

them an influence and a control probably much exceeding their legal authority. By the act organizing the territorial government of Michigan, a governor and a secretary and three judges were appointed,of whom the governor and judges con- stituted the legislature of the territory. In March, 1823, an act was passed giving to certain residents of the territory the right to elect a legislative council of nine members, which was increased in January, 1827, to thirteen members. One of the acts passed by the governor and judges provided that no prosecution should be carried on against any person for conjuration, witchcraft, sorcery or enchantment; but that any person pretending to exercise any of those arts should be punished by fine and imprisonment ; that corporal punishment might be inflicted on any negro, Indian or mu- latto convicted of a crime not capital. Imprison- ment for debt being the rule, the territorial legis- lature excepted from its operations all judgments in which the debt or damages recovered did not exceed the sum of fivedollars. In January, 1823, an act of Congress provided for the appointment of an additional judge for the counties of Brown, Crawford and Michillimackinac. James D. Doty was appointed the judge of the court so created, and held office until 1832, when he was succeeded by David Irvin. This court continued until 1836, when it was superseded by the organi- zation of the territory of Wisconsin. October 16, 1818, the territory now included in Wisconsin was divided into two counties, Brown and Crawford, by an act of the Legislative Council of Michigan territory; Brown including the eastern part of the State, and consequently the present site of the City of Milwaukee. Septem- ber 6, 1834, Milwaukee county was established and set off from Brown county, including all the territory in the southeastern corner, north to the line of township number twelve, and west to the range line between ranges eight and nine. The territorial government was established by Con- gress April 20, 1836, and it embraced the States now known as Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota, and a portion of Dakota; the act taking effect on the 3d of July of that year. The legislative power was vested in the governor and Legislative Assembly, the latter to consist of a council of thir- teen members and a house of representatives of twenty-six members. The acts passed by them were required to be submitted to Congress for

approval or disapproval. The Supreme Court consisted of three judges who should hold one term in each year at the seat of government. They held also district courts in the several counties of the territory. In the organic act, the privileges secured by the ordinance for the gov- ernment of the territory of the United States northwest of the river Ohio, known as the ordi- nance of 1787, were confirmed.

An act of Congress of June 15, 1836, provided for the admission of Michigan as a State and it was admitted January 26, 1837, but that portion now within the State of Wisconsin was not in- eluded in the new State. It continued under the name and powers of the territory of Wisconsin, including also the present State of Iowa.

An election of members of the legislative coun- cil was held on the 1st Monday of October, 1835. The counties of Brown and Milwaukee elected five members, Iowa county three members, Craw- ford county one member, Dubuque two members and Des Moines two members. These were to meet upon the 1st day of January following at Green Bay. George W. Jones was elected dele- gate to Congress. Owing to a sudden proclama- tion by Governor John S. Horner of Michigan which, without sufficient notice, changed the time of meeting to the 1st day of December, 1835, none of the members-elect attended at Green Bay on the day last set, but nine were present there on the first of January, being a quorum, but soon adjourned.

The population in August, 1836, of the entire territory was twenty-two thousand two hundred and eighteen, of which Milwaukee county then had two thousand eight hundred and ninety-three; Brown county, two thousand seven hundred and six; Crawford county, eight hundred and fifty- four; Iowa county, five thousand two hundred and thirty-four; the remaining ten thousand five hundred and thirty-one being on the west side of the Mississippi. The members of the legislature were apportioned two to Brown, two to Milwau- kee and three to Iowa, and to the county of Dubuque and the county of Des Moines, each three. The members of the House of Repre- sentatives were twenty-six. The members elected the second Monday of October met at Belmont, October 25, 1836. Three judicial districts were created, of which the third, consisting of Mil- waukee and Brown counties, was assigned to

DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT OF WISCONSIN

Judge Frazer. Three banks were chartered by the legislature, all of which afterward failed, and the losses produced by them were severe and created a hostility toward banks which long continued. The legislature in 1836 fixed upon the village of Madison as the seat of gov- ernment. The growth of the population during the territorial existence is shown by the following figures : 1830, three thousand two hundred and forty-five ; 1836, eleven thousand six hundred and eighty-six; 1838, eighteen thousand one hundred and forty-nine; 1840, thirty thousand nine hun- dred and forty-five; 1842, forty-six thousand six hundred and seventy-eight ; 1845, one hundred and seventeen thousand (estimated). The popula- tion of Milwaukee county appears as follows : 1836, two thousand eight hundred and ninety- three; 1838, three thousand one hundred and thirty-one; 1840, five thousand six hundred and five; 1842, nine thousand five hundred and sixty- five; 1845, twenty-five thousand (estimated).

The territorial governors were appointed by the President of the United States, and they served as follows :

Henry Dodge from July 4, 1836, to October 5, 1841.

James Duane Doty from October 5, 1841, to September 16, 1844.

Nathaniel P. Tallmadge from September 16, 1844, to May 13, 1845.

Henry Dodge from May 13, 1845, to June 7, 1848.

A session of the territorial legislature was held at Burlington in Des Moines county beginning November 6, 1837, and another beginning June 11, 1838. The territorial legislature convened at Madison November 26, 1838. It thereafter met annually at Madison until the State was admitted into the Union in 1848, and the legislature of the State continued to meet annually until biennial sessions were introduced under an amendment to the constitution adopted in 1881 .*

Nelson Dewey was the first governor of the State of Wisconsin, presiding over the new gov- ernment from its inception, being elected two successive terms. He was a Democrat, respected and honored by all who knew him. He was snc- ceeded by Leonard J. Farwell, who served during

* To Hon. S. U. Pinney, one of the justices of the Supreme Court, I am indebted for many of the above facts, collected by him in the preface to the first volume of "Pinney's Reports."

the years 1852 and 1853. William A. Barstow was elected as a Democrat and served during the years 1854 and 1855. He was the nominee for the same office against the Republican candidate, Coles Bashford. The vote was exceedingly close and a few returns, devised by two ardent friends of Governor Barstow connected with the State offices at Madison, were mingled with genuine re- turns and counted and canvassed as such by the Democratic State officers. Each candidate took the oath of office and claimed the right to hold it. Proceedings were instituted before the Supreme Court to inquire into the right of the case and judgment was rendered in favor of Bashford. Mr. Barstow had resigned four days previously and Arthur McArthur had been acting as Gov- ernor, but he gracefully yielded to the judgment of the Supreme Court, and on the 25th of March, 1856, retired, allowing Bashford to take posses- sion of the office, out of which he had been kept since the 7th of January. Alexander W. Ran- dali, the Republican candidate, was elected in 1857 and served four years. Lewis P. Harvey was elected in November, 1861. A few months after entering upon his term of office he lost his life at Pittsburg Landing on the Tennes- see river, where he was drowned while visiting the army and forwarding supplies to Wisconsin soldiers. The lieutenant-governor, Edward Salo- mon, took the oath of office on the 23rd day of April, 1862, and as governor fulfilled the highest hopes of his friends and of his party. James T. Lewis became governor in January, 1864, witnessing in the next year a successful close of the war and the return of Wisconsin's famous troops.

Lucius Fairchild was governor for three terms, beginning in January, 1866. Cadwalader C. Washburn served two terms. William R. Taylor was governor in 1876 and 1877, when William E. Smith was elected and he served two terms. Jeremiah M. Rusk held the office for three terms and was succeeded by William D. Hoard, who served in 1890 and 1891. Since the election of Governor Taylor every governor except him had been Republican, but the election of 1890 placed George W. Peck in the office as a Democrat, and he was re-elected in 1892. William H. Upham, a Republican, became his successor in January 1895.

HISTORY OF MILWAUKEE.

slope of Wisconsin. We are more fortunate than the inhabitants of Chicago in this respect: that the timber has been nearer to us than to them; that we have within convenient reach and within the limits of our city vast amounts of earth suit- able and readily used for filling the marshes, and for thus paving the way for the construction of a great city. Milwaukee has a gradual slope to the water on nearly every street, and convenient, healthful sites for homes, without the vacant spaces which the rocks of Eastern cities have com- pelled their inhabitants to leave in a state of nature, or to smooth away at an immense expense.

The phenomena of the glacial period, the geol- ogists say to us, had much to do with the topog- raphy of eastern Wisconsin for a period too long to be reckoned. Probably for two distant, pro- longed epochs, all of Wisconsin, except the southwesterly portion, was covered by ice of varying depths, nowhere less than one to two thousand feet. This was in the form of glaciers, moving slowly from the northward and melting as they approached the south. One large glacier is supposed to have occupied the bed of Lake Michigan, overlapping its present shores from five to thirty miles; and another, likewise pro- jecting from the boreal region, covered the valley of the Fox river and extended down into the site of the present county of Rock. These glaciers brought with them rocks which they had torn from northern cliffs, and grinding them and rubbing them in their slow path to the southward marked some of them and the rocks over which they passed by those well-known lines called glacial striae, and ground others into mere sand or into pebbles and boulders which, scattered over the surface of many a Wisconsin meadow, indicate the former track of the icy current. The line between the glacier of Lake Michigan and that of the valley of Green Bay, Fox river, Lake Winnebago and Rock river is probably the line of the ridge which now divides the water-sheds of the two valleys. It is easily to be supposed that these vast masses of ice, ernshing against each other as they passed slowly to the south- ward, discharged a quantity of soil and rock ex- ceeding that which fell from the moving glaciers at points where there was less friction. The ridge, including the Pot and Kettle moraine in Wash- ington county and to the north, extends nearly parallel to the present line of the lake shore, and,

as has been suggested, is the probable cause of the separation along that line of the waters which flow to the Atlantic ocean from those which flow into the Gulf of Mexico. Owing to the narrowness of this belt, the eastern streams of Wisconsin are of no great size, and the larger ones run north or south. The vast mass of polar ice and the glaciers which projected from it, as they melted after the climate had become milder, filled the valley be- tween this State and Michigan to a height above the present surface of the lake, so that the waters reached for a time, nearly if not quite to the ridge above mentioned ; in some portions of that protracted period even beyond that ridge; but those waters remained deep-perhaps owing partly to the sinking of the crust of the earth-for a time so long as to allow for the deposition from this interior sea of vast amounts of clay and sand. These banks are in some cases stratified, showing the length of various periods of deposition, and the changes in the depth, contents and other cir- cumstances of the depositing waters, and the greater or less attrition which the rocks of the Lake Superior country had undergone before attaining their final rest in these banks. As they rose slowly from the water, or as the water settled around them, they became the bluffs which we now rec- ognize, and they have had time since then to take upon themselves a covering of soil, foliage and forest. Long ages before this, a sea had deposited the limestone which underlies much of eastern Wisconsin, and is specially marked in our counties of Milwaukee and Waukesha. The regular strati- fication of the lime rocks shows the extent and continuance of this process, interrupted only by slight changes; and the results, however little we may know about the details, have left us who inhabit this neighborhood ample reason to rejoice in the gifts we then received. Later ages have washed out from these rocks the impurities and some of the mineral substances which the sea first deposited, and the pure residuum has filtered the springs and streams, the excellence of which gives wide reputation to southeastern Wisconsin.

The tendency of the lake waters to form a cur- rent to the south along the western shore bas contributed, by the sand carried along in it, to shut in the river mouths ; as the channel bottoms, ele- vated by the drainage from above, have gradually risen above surrounding waters, forming bars and enclosing basins of nearly stagnant waters, these

GEOLOGICAL AND CLIMATIC FEATURES OF EASTERN WISCONSIN.

gradually narrowed, or, covered by vegetation and by the washings from the streams, were transformed into marshes which slowly became converted into solid land. The latter transition while in progress sometimes produced unexpected conditions. Water underlies surfaces of soil supposed to be on solid foundation, and railroad tracks have settled down thirty to sixty feet, within a few hours after being-as was supposed-securely laid. Such an occurrence happened in the Menomonee valley to the Milwaukee & Waukesha Railroad, at the time of its construction in 1850, and months of time and many car loads of earth and timber were consumed in filling this unwelcome cavity.

The point on the shore of Lake Michigan where the Milwaukee river found its entrance into the lake, is distinguished by a nearly semi-circular bay, about six miles from north to south and three miles in depth from the chord to the center of the arc. Although the shore is low in the center, the two points of the bay are high bluffs. The present mouth of the river, some three-eighths of a mile north of the original mouth, is about the center of the bay, and the whole formation adds to the commercial value of the harbor of Milwaukee and to the beauty of its site. From the extreme north point and for two miles to the south, there is a noble prospect of the broad bay stretching before the spectator, and from the south a view of nearly equal beauty to the northeast. These two points greatly protect the bay within from the violence of the northerly or southerly winds. The bed of the bay furnishes excellent anchorage, and re- quired but little artificial protection to make it a safe resting place in any gale. That artificial pro- tection has now in great part been supplied by the United States Government, and vessels coming into the bay will find to the north perfect safety behind the breakwater, which has been for a few years under construction. The greater area of the three rivers, widened at their affluence, gives also ample and quiet shelter for vessels seeking the port. The natural beauty of this bay is a striking feature which must have impressed all who saw it in earlier times, as it does those who now contemplate it. The bay is one of the im- portant features of the city to which is owing much of its healthfulness, and much of its sum- mer coolness, as well as the marine views of picturesque and changing beauty, hardly to be surpassed. The gentle slope of the surface of the

land to the water in the middle part of the bay, affords access for the easterly breezes which travel far inland, thus promoting those changes of the atmosphere characteristic of the sea coast. This striking advantage has made this place conspicu- ous, and there is hence no record of any past date when the mouth of this river was not a favorite resting-place for some tribes of Indians, until like tastes led the whites who superseded them to form here the principal city of Wisconsin.

The vast body of deep water which we know as Lake Michigan, produces an effect upon the climate, assimilating it in great degree to the changes which like causes produce upon the Atlantic coast. The water, unlike the land, re- tains its temperature not greatly changed through- out the entire year. In the winter it never falls, except upon the surface, below forty degrees, and in summer it bardly rises to sixty. In the winter it is therefore a continued source of warmth, as compared with the frozen land sometimes touch- ing twenty degrees below zero. In the hot days of summer it cools the air over it, which in turn hastens to cool the heated land, filling the vacancy whence the torrid air had ascended carrying, what might have been inland, one hundred degrees of heat. In the night, as the land grows cool, the air flows back from the shores over the lake, and the lake breezes alternate daily with the land breezes in producing a change of atmosphere, which is of the highest value in point of comfort and of health. This lake breeze is felt at different dis- tances into the interior, from five to fifteen miles, sometimes further. In winter the contiguity of the water, comparatively warm, softens the rigor of the climate immediately along the shores, and thence occasionally spring moist east winds, quite unlike the dry cold airs that come to us from the Rocky Mountains. At Milwaukee these lake winds in summer are delightfully refreshing so that only those few days when the southwest winds overcome the easterly currents, are uncom- fortable to the dwellers in the favorite cities of eastern Wisconsin. It is a natural consequence that as the winter begins to give way to spring the easterly winds often bring snow and rain, and are filled with humidity. This, however, is the worst feature of this climate, the general health here being strikingly good, pulmonary and mala- rial diseases being rare. The severity of any winter depends much upon the wind. The west winds,

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.

History of Milwaukee from its first settlement to the year 1895, Part 4

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