USA > Wisconsin > Milwaukee County > Milwaukee > History of Milwaukee from its first settlement to the year 1895 > Part 48
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 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95
In 1876 small-pox reappeared and there were three hundred and thirty-seven cases reported. Dr. James Johnson remained in the health de- partment until 1877, and during his incumbency introduced many sanitary measures. In 1874 he went abroad for the purpose of investigating im- provements in sanitation in the Old World. He persistently urged the Common Council to pro- vide a better supply of drinking water for the city, and for extension of the sewers, as im- portant elements in the preservation of public health. To relieve the city from a nuisance which existed then, and has not yet been abated, he critically examined abattoirs in other places, and in his reports urged that one be built in Milwau- kee; but ignorance or obstinacy, or both, on the part of local legislators, defeated his recommenda- tion and the abattoir has not yet been built.
Dr. Johnson was succeeded as Commissioner of Health by Dr. I. H. Stearns, who had for a time been associated with the National Soldier's Home, and who remained in the office of commissioner one year, to be succeeded by Dr. O. W. Wight, who held the office four years.
During Dr. Wight's incumbency a case of small-pox appeared in the city; the patient was re- moved to an isolated place and every provision made for his treatment, while the house in which he was taken sick was burned with all its contents. Whether the radical measures instituted by Dr. Wight stopped the spread of the disease cannot be proven, but it is a fact that no other case of
4
Austrian 66
66
66
..
254
HISTORY OF MILWAUKEE.
small-pox followed. The reports of Dr. Wight for 1879 and 1880 are treatises upon sanitation in its several branches, and are full of valuable informa- tion upon all points concerning sanitary matters -- water supply, sewerage, general hygiene, milk supply, the sanitation of public buildings, ceme- teries, necessity for abattoirs, and kindred subjects. A vast amount of research was necessary to pre- pare these valuable documents, which are buried in the annual reports of those years, now practi- cally unobtainable. In 1881 flattering induce- ments were offered to Dr. Wight by officials of the city of Detroit, who requested him to accept the position of Health Commissioner of that city, which he did, remaining there until his death.
Dr. Wight was succeeded as Commissioner of Health in Milwaukee by Dr. Robert Martin, who held the office from October, 1881, until 1890. Small-pox existed in a number of the wards when be entered upon his duties, but few annual reports were printed during his administration, and the details of the disease are unknown. Dr. Martin was succeeded in this office by Dr. U. O. B. Wingate, and it was during the four years of Dr. Wingate's administration that arrangements were finally perfected for the proper disposal of the city garbage, a matter which for several years had led to much controversy. By persistent, determined effort, in spite of senseless and bitter opposition, Dr. Wingate succeeded in establishing the excellent system now in use. The prolonged difficulty in securing it is but an illustration of the hindrances which ignorance throws in the way of progressive sanitation; but for the doc- tor's perseverance and disregard of personal abuse, this subject would undoubtedly still harrass the public mind.
From the day upon which the Board of Health was first organized until the present, there have been on the one hand urgent, persistent efforts on the part of the several health officers and commis-
sioners to improve the sanitary condition of the city in every respect. Their reports iterate and reiterate the necessity for sanitary im- provements ; for an increased and better supply of pure water; for better sewerage; for improved methods of watching milk supplies and guarding against the introduction of impure and adulter- ated food; for abating nuisances of all kinds; for purifying rivers; the construction of abattoirs, and other measures to relieve the city from nox- ious odors and unwholesome conditions conse- quent upon the slaughtering of animals and prep- aration of meats for market; while more con- tinuous than all has gone forth an incessant demand for compulsory vaccination to prevent the recurrence of small-pox epidemics which have repeatedly ravaged the city. The persistent ap- peals made by the several health officers are the best evidence of the resistance and obstruction which they have encountered in their efforts to induce the local legislature to carry out estab- lished methods for improving the health of the city. In the face of this factious and unwise opposition stands the fact, that every sanitary measure introduced by the several Health Com- missioners, when successfully enforced, has im- proved the health of the city and materially re- duced the death rate, and there are other changes recommended which would increase the one and decrease the other. The Health Department should be furnished with a properly equipped labora- tory for making chemical tests, and microscopical examinations-now recognized everywhere as es- sential to ascertain the existence of micro-or- ganisms, or germs of disease and for detecting impurities in water, milk or food; each being a factor of the greatest importance in preventing the spread of diseases, and the preservation of the public health; and without such equipment Milwaukee must remain far behind in methods of modern sanitation.
1
.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
HOMEOPATHY IN MILWAUKEE.
BY LEWIS SHERMAN, M. D.
T RADITION informs us that the first ho- meopathic physician who practiced medi- cine in Milwaukee was one Dr. Cator, who came in 1847. He remained only a few months. But during the following year the ranks were filled by the coming in of Drs. James S. Douglas, Luther M. Tracy and J. P. Greves, and the adop- tion of the homeopathic system by Dr. Jesse S. Hewitt.
All of these, as well as most other physicians who practiced according to the homeopathic method before 1870, were graduates and former practitioners of the "regular" or allopathic school. Being converts, they were the more ac- tive and zealous in presenting the claims of the superiority of the new method. The proselyting spirit was fresh and vigorous. The merits of ho- meopathy were discussed, pro and con., in season and out of season, in public as well as in private.
Of Dr. Cator, little is known. Dr. Tracy is well remembered by many of the older citizens of Mil- waukee. He was a man of good education, strong personal character and quiet, industrious habits. He was obliged to retire early from practice on account of ill health. He died in 1871 or 1872.
Dr. Douglas was a native of New York state. He received his literary education at Madison University, at Hamilton, New York, from which institution he afterward received the honorary degrees of A. M. and Ph. D. His medical diploma was from Fairfield Medical College, 1825. He practiced according to the regular or allopathic method for twenty years, when, after investiga- tion, he adopted the homeopathic system in 1845. He removed to Milwaukee in 1848 and, with Dr. Tracy, opened an office on "Spring street," near the river. He afterward removed to the East side, and for some years had his office at the northwest corner of Main (Broadway) and Wis- consin, "up stairs," where he afterward, in 1854, established in connection with his practice a phar- macy or supply store for other homeopathic
physicians. He was afterward associated in partnership at different times with Drs. Greves, Bentley, Hoyt, Perrine and Sherman. He continued in active work till 1878 when he was obliged to yield to the inevitable and died at the ripe age of seventy-eight years. He was known and respected by many, and by none more than the writer of this sketch, with whom he was asso- ciated from 1872 to 1876, during which time they jointly made diligent and thorough botanical ex- plorations of the state and laid the foundations of the present Milwaukee Homoeopathic Pharmacy.
Dr. Douglas was a man of literary and scien- tific turn of mind. He was an enthusiast in what- ever he undertook. He was of generous nature and would not hesitate to spend his last cent in the prosecution of scientific research or in the pro- mulgation of his latest theory or discovery. He was accustomed to " prove " his remedies by try- ing their effects on his own person when in health, this being one of the fundamental principles of the homeopathic school. His devotion to the principles of homeopathy was intense and was shown in his public debate with Dr. Garner, an able gentleman of the old school, in his Introduc- tion to his " Practical Homeopathy"; in his Lec- ture on Homeopathy and in his daily conversation.
Dr. Greves removed to California at an early day, where he lived many years. Dr. Hewitt, previous to his conversion to homeopathy, was president of the City Medical Society. In 1848 he had an office on Main street and boarded at Mrs. Thurston's. He was, in 1851, associated with one Dr. Burke. He died about 1854.
In 1855 the number of homeopathic physicians was increased by the advent of Dr. Daniel T. Brown, H. C. F. Perlewitz, John G. Guenther and George W. Perrine. Dr. Brown was a quiet, unassuming man of Swedenborgian faith, who had formerly practiced dentistry. His office was at the southeast corner of Main and Wisconsin streets, then No. 25. In 1862 he removed to what
255
256
HISTORY OF MILWAUKEE.
was then No. 41 Main, near Milwaukee, and later to No. 410 Milwaukee street, where he afterward put up a handsome brick block. He continued in practice until his death, about 1888. Dr. H. C. F. Perlewitz was located on the corner of Seventh and Walnut streets. He removed from the city after two years and is still practicing at Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin.
Dr. George W. Perrine came to Milwaukee in 1855, and continued in practice until his death in 1872. In 1856 he was associated with Dr. Tracy at No. 26 Mason street, in 1858 at the corner of Main and Wisconsin, in 1859 at No. 48 Wisconsin, and in 1860 at the corner of Mil- · waukee and Wisconsin streets. He was a volun- teer army surgeon, and for many years held the office of pension-examining surgeon. He did a successful practice and was highly respected. He died in 1872. Dr. Guenther was a German physi- cian of considerable ability, advanced in years. He was located in the Preusser Block, corner of East Water and Mason streets. After a few years he returned to Germany. Dr. Anton Lackey was another German physician,contemporary with Dr. Guenther. Dr. La Fayette Lake and Dr. Chipman located the same year on the South side.
In 1858, Dr. A. W. Gray came from New York. fields removed to California, being succeeded by state at the request of Dr. D. T. Brown, with Drs. Stanhope and Storke. whom he associated in practice at No. 25 Wiscon- sin street. He afterward removed to the corner of Mason and Jefferson. Dr. Gray was a man of unusual ability and was a brother of the celebrated John F. Gray, the pioneer homeopathist of New York city. He died in 1873 and has been ably succeeded by his son, Dr. N. A. Gray, who began practice in 1867. Dr. Ernst Kuemmel, a German homeopathic physician, located on the South side in 1859, where he is still engaged in practice. He is, therefore, the oldest homeopathic physician now practicing in Milwaukee. Dr. Frederick C., John, also a German physician, came to Milwaukee from Sheboygan in 1866, and located on the West side. His genial manner and mirthful disposition made him a general favorite in the sick room. He enjoyed a large practice among English as well as among German speaking people. He died in 1891 and was succeeded by his son, Dr. F. F. John, who has practiced since 1883.
Dr. F. Henry Dodge practiced in 1862 at No. 37 Wisconsin street. He reinoved shortly afterward to Lake Mills, Wisconsin, where he is now in practice.
Dr. C. A. Leuthstrom, a Swedish physician of marked ability and pleasing address, entered the field in 1862. Dr. Leuthstrom began practice at Columbus, Ohio in 1848, having attended medical lectures in the Eclectic School at Cincinnati. He removed to Waukesha in 1854, where he had a very large practice. His success in Milwaukee as a general practitioner was phenomenal. He retired from active practice in 1879 and is now residing at his country home in Waukesha county.
Dr. Richard B. Brown came to Milwaukee and located on the South side in 1866, removing to the East side in 1888. He had been a United States army surgeon during the Civil War. Although quiet and unpretentious in manner, he was emi- nently successful as a practitioner and inspired confidence, based on the belief in his ability and integrity. He was for many years surgeon of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad. He died in 1894. His departure was mourned by his fel- low physicians of every school.
Dr. A. Liliencrantz, a graduate of Rush Med- ical College of Chicago, adopted the homeo- pathic system soon after his graduation and opened an office on Grand avenue. He soon ac- quired a large practice, but, longing for richer
Dr. O. W. Carlson began practice on the East side in 1872, he being one of the first of the Mil- waukee physicians to receive a medical educa- tion in a homeopathic college. He is a native of Sweden, being a nephew of Dr. Leuthstrom, and, like him, has been very successful. Dr. Julia Ford, a graduate of the Cleveland Homeo- pathic Medical College, was the first homeo- pathic physician of the female sex in Milwaukee. She practiced on the South side from 1870 to 1894, the time of her death. She was a bright and industrious woman, an honor to her sex and an ornament to the profession. Dr. C. D. Stanhope began practice in 1874. Shortly afterward he asso- ciated with him Dr. Eugene F. Storke. Together they did a very large practice. Dr. Storke was a most industrious student and hard-working practi- tioner. Along with his extensive practice he found time for much literary work. He is now prac- ticing in Denver, Colorado. Dr. Joseph Lewis, Jr., graduated from Chicago Homeopathic College in 1875, and commenced practice shortly after, locat- ing on the South side. He is now president of
257
HOMEOPATHY IN MILWAUKEE.
the Homeopathic State Medical Society. Dr. Willis Danforth came to Milwaukee at the time of the retirement of Dr. Leuthstrom from visiting practice in 1879. He had formerly been a prac- titioner of the old school, surgeon of an Illinois regiment during the Civil War, later professor of surgery in the Hahnemann Medical College of Chicago, and being a man of long experience and unusual ability, ranked high as a surgeon as well as a general practitioner until his death.
Dr. C. C. Olmsted came from Wheeling, West Virginia, in 1878, locating on the East side, where he enjoyed a select practice till 1886, when he followed the star of empire to Kansas City, Mis- souri. He was succeeded by Dr. F. D. Brooks, from New York state, who has proved a very accept- able practitioner.
Dr. Robert Martin, a graduate of Starling Medical College, Ohio, was for many years our efficient health officer. He is now practicing on the South side.
Dr. A. J. Hare of the Boston University School of Medicine was for several years superintendent of the Milwaukee County Insane Asylum.
There are at the present time about forty physi- cians in Milwaukee who practice wholly or partly according to the homeopathic method. It is not the purpose of this sketch to make personal men- tion of all ; suffice it to say that there are among these, men of learning, talent and energy, who are now making history, and who will be known to the public as well as, or better, than those whose names we have mentioned.
First of the eye and ear specialists of the home- opathic school who have practiced in Milwaukee, was Dr. G. C. Dermott, who practiced in Milwau- kee in 1877 and 1881, after which he removed to Cincinnati and took the chair of Eye and Ear Surgery in Pulte Medical College in that city. He was succeeded by E. W. Beebe, who had been an acceptable general practitioner, and had taken special courses in New York to perfect himself in this specialty.
Of the women who have done credit to the profession besides Dr. Julia Ford, above men- tioned, we may note Dr. Mary E. Hughes, who began practice in 1876, and Dr. Almah J. Frisby, a talented daughter of the late Judge Frisby. Dr.
Frisby is now engaged in educational work in the University of Wisconsin. Dr. Helen Bingham, a deservedly successful physician, who practiced here for several years and who is now residing at Denver, Colorado; Dr. Belle Reynolds, now practicing at Santa Barbara, California; Dr. Evelyn Hoehne and Dr. Hannah M. Brown, the two latter of whom are still in practice and doing excellent work.
The Milwaukee Homeopathic Medical Society was organized at an early day and kept up for several years by the five or six active practitioners of the time. The Milwaukee Academy of Medi- cine was organized in 1879, mainly for the purpose of pursuing experiments in the action of drugs on the healthy, human body. Though it was not composed exclusively of homeopathic physicians, the membership was largely of this faith. This society has achieved a national reputation through the celebrated "Milwaukee Test" of the limits of the drug attenuation in the practice of medicine.
Homeopathic physicians have always contrib- uted a liberal share of the work of the charity hospitals, homes, dispensaries and other eleemosy- nary institutions. The Protestant Orphan Asylum, the St. Vincent's Orphan Asylum, St. John's Home, the Home for the Friendless, the Babies' Home, the Rescue Mission, House of Mercy and other similar institutions have received the gratui- tous services of homeopathic physicians. Although few of the larger hospitals in Milwaukee are under the exclusive management of the practition- ers of this faith, the system is practiced by visit- ing physicians at St. Mary's Hospital, the Wiscon- sin General Hospital, Trinity Hospital and other similar institutions, when demanded by patients.
Among the books written by homeopathic phy- sicians in Milwaukee are: "Douglas on Intermittent Fever"; "Douglas' Practical Homeopathy," now in its fifteenth edition; "Therapeutics and Materia Medica" by Dr. Lewis Sherman, now in the second edition ; "Heilkunde und Heilmittellehre" by the same author, and various periodical publications and brochures on medical subjects. Among the serial publications may be mentioned the Exposi- tor, published by Dr. Douglas, and the Bulletin of New Remedies by Dr. Sherman.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
BANKS AND BANKING.
BY WILLIAM W. WIGHT AND JOHN JOHNSTON.
A THREEFOLD division of the history of banks and banking in Milwaukee will be both convenient and natural, and will much facilitate its comprehension. The first sec- tion will be devoted to the early period-the period of hostile legislation-extending to about the year 1852; the second section will be occupied with the era of state banks; the third section will be concerned with what may be called the epoch of national banks, beginning in 1863.
The prejudice against banks in the Northwest territory during the thirties increased as the decade grew old, and survived until nearly the close of the forties. This was not an antipathy born pri- marily of the Western soil, but it had been brought with the settlers from their Eastern homes. Nor was it a hostility without some rational foundation. A goodly proportion of the pilgrims to these new regions had been driven hither by the wreckage of their fortunes, owing to the failure of banking institutions in the East. Not a few of the immi- grants brought with them, as a portion of their estates, promises to pay of banks in the older sec- tions of the nation-certificates of obligation not valuable enough to protest, and which would have proved no substantial asset in a court of insolvency.
Although a strong opposition to the establish- ment of banks came with the tide of settlement into this locality, it had not become potential in 1835, while Wisconsin was still a slice of Michigan, nor even in 1836, when the first legislature of the separated territory convened. The panic of 1837 was needed to give this prejudice co- herence and solidity. Thus, by act approved January 23, 1835, the legislature of Michigan (Laws of Michigan, III., 1348) granted a charter to the Bank of Wisconsin at Green Bay-the earliest institution of this character within the present limits of this state. The first Territorial Legisla- tive Assembly of Wisconsin, which convened at Belmont, October 25, 1836, passed enabling acts
for the establishment of three banks in as many ambitious neighborhoods-for the Miners' Bank of Dubuque, the Bank of Mineral Point, and the Bank of Milwaukee. These acts, which were ap- proved November 30, 1836, and December 2, 1836, fixed the capital stock of each bank at two hundred thousand dollars, divisible into two thou- sand shares, and permitted the issuance of circu- lating notes by each to a sum equal to three times the amount of the stock. Here, therefore, was provision for a maximum circulation of eighteen hundred thousand dollars-clearly an extravagant paper output for a region sparsely settled with civilized people .* For, be it remembered, the aboriginal inhabitants, more astute than their white neighbors, absolutely declined any other currency than coin.
The career of the four banks just mentioned was neither long nor honorable. What bills they issued they failed to redeem ; what loans they made were largely to land speculators, who were crushed in the crash of 1837. The inglorious his- torv of the Bank of Milwaukee is doubtless a fair delineation of the quartette. Ex uno disce omnes.
The act (Laws of 1836, chapter .15) organizing the president, directors and company of the Bank of Milwaukee, was minute and explicit in its detail of duties, in its prohibitions and permissions. The amount which the corporation could owe was not to exceed three times the sum of the capital stock subscribed and actually paid, over and above the specie deposit. The contraction of such excess indebtedness was to entail personal liability upon the directors whose votes countenanced it. Authority to issue notes and bills (the same being declared negotiable by endorsement) was coupled
* The notes which circulated in 1836, and later, were not the first experience of Wisconsin with paper money. In XI. Wisconsin Historical Collections, 274, 275, are fac similia of notes which floated about the western shores of Lake Michi- gan in 1814 and 1815, but which, payable as they were in Quebec, Montreal and London, were sadly at a discount dur- ing the second war with England.
258
Yours Truly
259
BANKS AND BANKING.
with the penalty of dissolution of the corporation if such obligations were not paid when due and demanded. No bill could be issued of a less denomination than five dollars, and the corporation was forbidden to take more than seven per cent. per annum on its loans and discounts, in advance. Oath for faithful performance of duty was to be a necessary qualification of all directors and other officers, and no emoluments could be voted except by the stockholders at a general meeting.
Such were some of the stringent, yet salutary, regulations of the law. Its first section appointed Rufus Parks, Horace Chase, James Sanderson, Giles S. Brisbin, Sylvester W. Dunbar, George Bowman, Jesse Rhodes, Cyrus Hawley and Solomon Juneau as commissioners to receive sub- scriptions to the capital stock and to act as the first directors. The first Monday of June, 1837, was fixed for opening the stock book. It appears, however, from inspection of the original minutes of the corporation, that these directors met, " pursuant to publick notice," on the first Monday of January, 1837, elected Mr. Dunbar president of the board and proceeded forthwith to arrange for receiving subscriptions. But nothing further was done until the time declared in the act, June 5, 1837. On that day Walter Shattuck, Rufus Parks, Solomon Juneau, Giles S. Brisbin, Horace Chase and James Sanderson each subscribed for one share, and each paid ten dollars on account thereof. Later, in the same week, Messrs. Dunbar, Bowman and Hawley followed suit, and on July 31, Alanson Sweet, Abraham B. Morton and Charles H. Larkin“ did likewise. Mr. Chase also subscribed for four additional shares.
To the guarded requirements of the statute, the directors added equally conservative by-laws. No paper could be discounted without two good in- dorsers approved by the board, and no indorser in default would be re-accepted until his former ac- commodation had been fully met. Such and simi- lar rules were doubtless efficacious in their tendency, but some uneasiness as to their severity is developed upon inspecting a resolution of the directors postponing for one year payment of all ninety days' discounts. One is not over-shrewd in guessing that these were the directors' own notes-the bank's capital stock.
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.