USA > Wisconsin > Milwaukee County > Milwaukee > History of Milwaukee from its first settlement to the year 1895 > Part 55
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HISTORY OF MILWAUKEE.
reversed and the black, slimy waters with their foul and sickening odors were pushed almost in a solid body down stream by the cold, clear water from the lake; within twenty-four hours the river was changed almost to its natural color and transpar- ency ; and it was not long before fermentation along its bottom and the forming of gases ceased, and it became at times as clear and blue as the water in mid-lake, and, as before it was befouled, it came to be filled with various kinds of fish. The beneficial effects of the flushing plan not only abated the Milwaukee river nuisance, but also im- proved the condition of the waters in the Meno- monee valley by bringing the volume of clear, cold water near to them. Thus the problem of disposing of the sewage was most satisfactorily solved, and with the abatement of the nuisances caused by it all danger to the city's water supply was removed. This happy consummation will be further enhanced upon the completion of the new water-works intake, now building, since the water supply will be drawn from a depth of sixty feet below the surface at a point one and a half miles farther out in the lake than the present intake.
The flushing works are operated about nine months of each year, from early spring till late in the fall; the annual cost of operating them, which in former years was about twenty-five thousand dollars, was greatly reduced by equipping the boil- ers with Hawley down-draft furnaces, which con- sume the smoke and allow the use of soft coal in- stead of the best anthracite, as was necessary be- fore. The entire cost of the flushing works, in- cluding the right of way, was a little less than two hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars.
Recurring to the matter of sewers, the latest published report of the city engineer shows that nearly twenty-five miles were constructed in 1893 at a total cost of nearly three hundred and twenty- two thousand dollars ; and that the total length of sewers in the city, exclusive of the Menomonee special sewer, at the close of that year was about two hundred and fifty-one and a half miles, con- structed at a cost of three million two hundred and ten thousand eight hundred and seventy-two dollars and forty-four cents. Each year witnesses an extension of the system to meet the growing demands, and it is a matter of civic pride that the sewerage system of Milwaukee, in its entirety, like her water-supply system, is equaled in complete- ness and utility by few and surpassed by none.
One of the perplexing problems that the pio- neer settlers of Milwaukee had to contend with was that of providing means of transit over the streams that divided the different settlements; and down to as late as 1846, when the legislature passed an act to regulate the building and man- agement of bridges in this city, that vexed ques- tion was a constant and fruitful source of petty rivalries and jealousies ; of wranglings and con- tentions between the people living on the east and west sides of the river, that at times assumed the form of mob violence in utter disregard of personal or property rights. The trouble began as early as 1835, when Mr. Byron Kilbourn located on the west side of the Milwaukee river the site for a town, which from the very first was regarded as a rival of the slightly older village on the east side. This feeling was heightened by the building of the first rude bridge across the Menomonee river, by means of which the new settlement was connected with the Chicago road, whereas the old town had to be reached by a ferry. This animos- ity grew apace with the increase of the population, and like Banquo's ghost, would not down. But the sectional and party animosity and rancor was controlled, as a matter of policy in the interest of business, sufficiently to secure the passage of an act by the territorial legislature granting to com- missioners, to be appointed, the necessary powers to construct a bridge, commencing "at the east end of the bayou, on Oneida street, and continu- ing in a direct line to Wells street." The com- missioners, Messrs. A. A. Bird, Rufus Parks, Pleasant Fields and Solomon Juneau, were ap- pointed, and proposals for the erection of the bridge advertised for; but the opposition was too strong and the effort failed. In 1838 the legisla- ture repealed the former act and changed the location of the bridge, authorizing the building of a draw-bridge at Chestnut and Division streets, to be completed by June, 1840, the work to be under the control of the trustees of the two towns and the cost to be borne equally by them. Before that time arrived, in 1839, the two villages were con- solidated by legislative act, but the people were still divided, and the bridge project was bitterly fought. Notwithstanding this, the bridge was built within the time specified and though a cum- bersome structure, served its purpose. The sides of this bridge, which were made of joists in the form of lattice work, were, in 1842, made into a
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floating bridge by being laid on the water, covered with planks and fastened to either shore. But it was always considered unsafe and nobody was sorry when a freshet, in 1843, carried it down stream. In 1844 was built a bridge at the foot of East Water street, with a draw which was opened by means of a windlass. Thus, from time to time, by force of necessity, means of transit between the two divisions were supplied ; but the sectional jealousies grew into positive hatred that found ex- pression in acts of vandalism, each party claiming to be in the right and unwilling to yield anything in the interest of unity and peace. In these con- troversies the newspapers of the town took an active part, and the following, taken from the Courier of May 14, 1845, shows the trend of sen- timent among the best people of all parties: "The bridge question is an old sore that has rankled and festered in this community ever since the first organ- ization of the town. It is a sort of a faction fight that some of the first settlers cannot forget, and only wonder why the new-comers cannot have as deep feeling in the matter as they have. Our town cannot be made great and prosperous by fighting among ourselves. * * * * We cannot feel the sectional jealousy and hostility that were engendered in earlier days. * *
* * We should become one town, with one interest and one feeling." Such sentiments and wise counsels on the part of leading men finally prevailed, though the old sores were long in heal- ing, and in 1846, a bridge bill was passed by the legislature, largely through the instrumentality of Mr. James Kneeland, then engaged in mercantile business on the East side, but who owned property on the West side. This act, which provided for the construction and management of bridges, specifying those to be built and granting all au- thority and powers deemed necessary, was sub- mitted to a vote of the people of the East and West wards on February 11, 1846, and by them adopted by a majority of one hundred and fifteen; the total vote being three hundred and thirty for the measure, and two hundred and fifteen against it. This happy consummation was a cause of uni- versal satisfaction, fittingly voiced by the Sentinel in the following words :
"The bridge question, we are happy to say, is at length settled. The adoption by the people of the East and West wards of the act passed by the last legislature disposes of the matter definitely.
* * We do not know whether the provisions of this law are more favorable to the East ward or the West, but we do know that the continued agitation of this bridge question and the spirit of rivalry, distrust and ill-will which it en- gendered, were seriously detrimental to the inter- ests of both wards. Therefore, it is, that without undertaking to pronounce upon the merits or de- fects of the new law, we are heartily rejoiced that its adoption by the people has settled a knotty and troublesome question. May it return to plague us no more."
Thus ended a controversy which, although it presents, as now looked back upon, numerous comical phases, seems absurd and provokes laughter, was, while it lasted, of absorbing in- terest and the cause of endless complications. Thenceforward a different spirit prevailed, and the inhabitants of the various sections of the city came to see that their interests were one; that theirs was a common cause, and that it was theirs to build a mighty city whose name should become far-famed, and the products of whose myriad in- dustries should be carried to all quarters of the earth. With this sentiment prevailing, a health- ful interest in the public welfare was engendered ; public enterprises were encouraged and multiplied; civic pride was fostered and grew, and in the ful- ness of time the marvels of architectural and en- gineering workmanship and beauty and skill, which one sees to-day in the city's public im- provements and works, became possible.
It were difficult, as one looks upon the numerous magnificent structures that to-day span the streams that divide, not separate rude villages but great parts of one great city, to realize that any other than a common interest in the city's general good ever could have prevailed. These structures, compris- ing both bridges and viaducts, have been built as the growing needs of the city have demanded, and it is paying but a deserved tribute to those who have been entrusted with the control of Milwau- kee's public works to say, that in both practical utility and architectural beauty, they are worthy of the city and in all respects equal, and in many ways superior to the best to be found in the older and more populous cities of our land. Of those recently completed, may be mentioned the viaduct over the Milwaukee river and valley, extending from Holton street in the Sixth ward to Van Buren street in the First ward. It was built at a
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cost of nearly one hundred and twenty thousand dollars. The superstructure consists of twenty- one deck spans, varying from twenty-six to seven- ty-four feet in length, and one draw span eighty- two feet long of the folding-bridge pattern, and which, when open, leaves a clear channel of sixty- six feet. It crosses the river at an elevation of seventy feet above its surface, and has a paved roadway of twenty-six feet, and two sidewalks, each nine feet in width. Another, the Folsom Place bridge, is a model of beauty. It is situated at the upper end of Riverside Park and connects the high banks of the Milwaukee river, affording a grand view of the magnificent scenery up and down the river. The superstructure consists of two abutments, two shore piers and two river piers. The superstructure is built with one span of seventy-nine feet, one of eighty-seven feet and three of one hundred and fifty-three feet in length with a twenty-foot roadway and two sidewalks, each eight feet in width, and cost nearly sixty thousand dollars. Still another is the Sixteenth street viaduct, damages for the right of way of which were assessed at over one hundred thousand dollars. The substructure comprises one long approach, one abutment, four river piers and two hundred and seventy-six shore piers, for the most part supported by pile foundations, some of which were driven to a depth of more than ninety feet. This viaduct has a length of four thousand one hundred and seventy feet, with a forty-foot paved roadway and two ten-foot sidewalks, and furnishes a direct line between the west and south divisions of the city at a grade on a level with the south bluffs. It cost about two hundred and thirty-seven thousand dollars. In all there are now -1895-fourteen bridges spanning the Milwaukee river, five across the Kinnikinnic and four across the Menomonee, within the limits of the city, and most of these bridges are provided with draws to enable Jake vessels to traverse the streams without being obstructed by these artificial roadways.
Milwaukee county has had two court-houses on the site which was conveyed to the county by Solomon Juneau and his wife and Morgan L. Martin, on January 12, 1837. The contract for building the first court-house was made April 5, 1836, between Solomon Juneau and Enoch G. Darling. The building was to be completed by August 15, 1836, and cost eight thousand dollars. It was a wooden structure, forty by fifty feet in
dimensions, with a porch of eleven feet on the front. It was two stories high; the first story was ten feet between joists and the second story fourteen feet, and it was surmounted by a cupola twelve feet square and had twenty-one windows of twelve panes each of twelve by eighteen glass. The first floor was divided into four jury rooms, and the court-room occupied the second floor. The building, which was plain and substantial, fronted south on what came to be known as court- house park, and with its four Tuscan columns in front, had a somewhat imposing appearance in its day. This primitive temple of justice was the scene of many exciting trials. Here were held the first sessions of the Territorial District Court under Judge William C. Frazer, who was succeeded in 1838 by Andrew G. Miller, and later by men renowned for their high characters and legal lore ; and its walls often resounded with the stirring eloquence of many of Wisconsin's legal lights. The first jail stood till 1847 when it was replaced by a new one which, with the old court house, stood till 1870, when both were torn down to make a place for the present more pretentious building. This structure stands on the northern portion of the square and faces south on the park. It extends from Jackson street on the west to Jefferson street on the east, a distance of two hundred and ten feet, and its greatest width from north to south is one hundred and thirty feet. It is constructed of Milwaukee brick, veneered with Bass Island sandstone, and on its several sides rise massive Corinthian columns which give to it a beautiful and classic appearance. It was built under the supervision of Mr. L. A. Schmidtner, architect, now deceased, and was completed in the spring of 1873. The wings are two stories, and the central portion three stories high. From the center of the roof rises a lofty dome which is sur- mounted by a gilded figure of "Justice," whose head towers two hundred and eight and a half feet above the ground. This gilded figure sug- gested the title, " The Golden Justice," for a novel by Mr. William Henry Bishop. This building cost six hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
The sessions of the Circuit and County Courts, and of one branch of the Superior Court, are at present (1895) held here. The Municipal Court and the other branch of the Superior Court have quarters in the Metropolitan building at the cor- ner of State and Third streets. The new Police
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Court also has its room outside the court-house. In the absence of a suitable city hall, the city has for some years occupied a part of the court-house with its offices, one large room originally intended for a court room being used as its council cham- ber. All these will be vacated when the new city hall on Market Square is finished, and restored to the use for which they were intended, and thus room will be secured sufficient to accommodate all the courts. The county jail was long ago re- moved from the court-house square. The present structure, which contains also commodious offices for the sheriff and his deputies, is situated at the corner of Broadway and Oneida streets. It was built in 1886, and is one of the handsomest build- ings in the city. The court-house park is laid out with well-kept walks, ornamented with grass plats and spreading elms, and further beautified with a handsome fountain, and taken all together, is one of the chief beauty spots of the Cream City.
Other county buildings are the Milwaukee County Hospital for the Insane; the Milwaukce County Asylum for the Chronic Insane; the Mil- waukee County Hospital, and the Milwaukee County Alms-house. All of these institutions are situated in the township of Wauwatosa, west of the village of that name. They are supplied with water from artesian wells, and get a portion of their other needed supplies from the county farm in the same locality.
For the last twenty years the municipal offices have for the most part been located in the present court-house ; but the rapid development of the city and the vast increase of municipal business long ago outgrew the limited facilities and space there afforded, and an urgent need of a permanent building, in which the business of the city's vari- ous departments could be transacted and her records be preserved, has long been felt. This demand for a substantial and permanent home assumed definite shape in 1893, when it was decided to erect a building that should be in all respects worthy of the city. The site selected was the triangular block bounded on the west by East Water street, on the north by Biddle and on the east by Market street. The building, now nearly completed, is being constructed by Mr. Paul Riesen, after plans and specifications pre- pared by Messrs. H. C. Koch and H. J. Esser, and presents an appearance at once substantial, imposing, handsome and unique. The style of
architecture is the modern renaissance. The heavy foundation rests on over twenty-five thousand piles, which are driven to depth sufficient to prevent any material settling of the superstructure. The building has a frontage of three hundred and thirty feet on East Water, one hundred and five feet on Biddle and three hundred and sixteen feet on Mar- ket street, and is eight stories in height. The base- ment and first two stories are of granite and lime- stone, and the other six stories are of pressed brick and terra cotta. The building terminates at the south end in a massive tower, fifty-six feet square and rising to the height of three hundred and fifty feet, and which is built of steel, stone and brick.
Besides the council chamber, which will be fifty by one hundred feet with ceilings of thirty feet, there will be, on the seventh floor, a public hall suitable for large assemblages. The building is supplied with numerous massive vaults, and throughout, the interior arrangements have been constructed after the most carefully studied plans with a view to convenience, comfort and artistic effect, with the result that everything has been secured that seemingly could be desired. The cost of the building, when finished, will be nine hundred thousand dollars, and Milwaukee is to be congratulated on having the finest public building of its class, in the West.
It is related, on what seems to be good authority, that the first meetings of the Common Council of Milwaukee were held in the basement of the old Methodist Church on Spring street (now Grand avenue). These meetings were held immediately after the organization of the city government, and a little later the "City Fathers " occupied quarters over George F. Oakley's livery stable, which oc- cupied a portion of the ground on which the Plankinton House has since been built.
They were driven from these quarters by a fire in 1850, and were later domiciled in the Martin block, at the corner of Wisconsin and East Water streets, and still later in the Cross block, at the corner of East Water and Huron streets. The Cross block was destroyed by fire in 1860, and many valuable city records were lost. Immedi- ately thereafter some of the city offices were es- tablished in what had been known as Market Hall, built in 1852 in Market Square, to be used as a city market. The Common Council began hold- ing its meetings in the same building in 1861 and it became known as the old city hall. This building
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was occupied by all the city offices until 1872, when some of them were removed to the court- house. Other departments of the city govern- ment continued to occupy quarters in the old city hall until it was torn down to make room for the new city hall, now (1895) nearing completion.
In writing of the public buildings of Milwaukee, mention should be made of the office accommoda- tions which have from time to time been provided for officials of the United States Government, and of the departments of the government represented n the city. The first government office estab- lished in Milwaukee was the post-office, and the first post-office was at the corner of East Water and Wisconsin streets, in a building owned by Solomon Juneau, who was appointed the first postmaster in December, 1834, by President Andrew Jackson. After the office was opened in the summer of 1835, mail arrived once a month at first, and a little later came from Chicago once a week. The postage, which was collected of the person receiving the letter or package, ranged from six to twenty-five cents. The first quarters receipts were not quite eight dollars, but within two years Milwaukee became an important distributing point, and six of the twenty postal routes established in 1836 termi- nated or passed through here. There was, how- ever, lack of system and regularity, and com- plaints were constant and bitter; these were mildly voiced by the Commercial Herald of October 6, 1843, as follows: "No mails east of Chicago seems to be the principal news these days. About every trip, the United States mail-boat, the ' Champion,' running between St. Joseph and Chicago, breaks down. We received our papers this morning by the ' Great Western,' which, notwithstanding she was three or four days behind her time, gives us three or four days the start of the mail." Indignation meetings were held and vigorous protests against what was regarded as inexcusable negligence on the part of the postal authorities, were made. Nor can this be wondered at when one reads such accounts as that which appeared in the Daily Gazette, February 10, 1846: " We have received from a friend in Chicago the following statement of the failure at that place of the Toledo mails ; that of January 27th brought nothing from east of Buffalo; that of the 28th has not been received ; that of the 29th nothing from beyond Toledo; that of the
30th brought New York dates of the 21st; that of the 31st failed at Hillsdale (the railroad terminus). The steamer "Hibernia" arrived at Boston on January 23rd and the foreign news brought by her reached Milwaukee February 3rd, by private express, but the mails have not yet (February 10th) made mention even of the steamer's arrival."
After Milwaukee was incorporated as a city in 1846, a daily line of service from Chicago was estab- lished. The rapid growth and importance of the office was shown in the report of 1851, which stated that the office contained eleven hundred boxes and thirty-seven private drawers, and constantly em- ployed during seventeen out of twenty-four hours six persons, including the postmaster ; that more than one hundred and fifty thousand letters passed through the post-office during the quarter ending April, 1851, besides more than three hundred dif- ferent newspapers and periodicals, subscribed for by Milwaukee's citizens, and that it was one of the most satisfactory and systematically conducted post-offices in the United States. Next to the in- efficiency and irregularity of the mail service, nothing in the early history of the office so much excited and exasperated the people as the re- moval, in 1843, of Postmaster Solomon Juneau and the appointment of Josiah A. Noonan, by President John Tyler. Juneau was looked upon as the father of Milwaukee; was universally re- spected and beloved, and the possibility of his removal from the postmastership had not entered the thoughts of his friends ; and when it was ac- complished without even their wishes being con- sulted, to gratify, as they claimed, a petty spite on the part of a few persons whose enmity had been incited on account of some personal differ- ences, their excitement and fury knew no bounds. 3 Meetings were held; protests were made; lengthy resolutions were adopted and the papers indulged in scathing tirades against the president and the new appointee and those who had caused the trouble. But after the extravagant . waste of breath and printer's ink, the storm blew over. Mr. Noonan assumed his duties and performed them to the satisfaction of everybody, and the affairs of the office moved steadily on just as though nothing had happened. Mr. Juneau's term of service continued from the summer of 1835, when his commission reached him, to August 7, 1843. ITis successors have been : Josiah A. Noonan, 1843 to 1849; Elisha Starr,
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1849 to 1851 ; John H. Tweedy, a short time in 1851; James D. Merrill, 1851 to 1853; Josiah A. Noonan, 1853 to 1857 ; John R. Sharpstein, 1857 to 1858 ; Mitchell Steever, 1858 to 1861; William A. Bryan, in charge several months in 1861 as special agent ; Jobn Lockwood, 1861 to 1864 ; C. R. Wells, 1864 to 1868; Henry C. Payne, 1876 to 1885 ; George H. Paul, 1885 to 1889; W. A. No- well, 1889 to 1894, and the present incumbent, George W. Porth, who received his commission in December, 1893.
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