History of Milwaukee from its first settlement to the year 1895, Part 6

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 6

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In the summer of 1835, a portion of this land, to which Juneau, Martin and Dousman acquired title, was platted-the plat being duly recorded Sep- tember 8th of that year-and named "Milwaukie," and thus were taken the initiatory steps toward the founding of a city. These three men acted in concert in laying out and building up the town, and together expended, within a few years after they became associated together, nearly one hun- dred thousand dollars in opening and grading streets, erecting the first court house, and making other improvements. Juneau having his residence here, and having personal charge of all these im- provements, naturally came to be regarded as the projector of the enterprise, and hence he has properly passed into history as the founder of Milwaukee.

Whether or not too large a share of the honor of founding a splendid metropolis has been ac- corded to him, may be left to critics to determine, but there can be no question that his public spirit, generosity, enterprise, and devotion to the up- building of the infant city, contributed vastly to its rapid growth and development. Among all the pioneers there was none more unselfish than Juneau. What he lacked in culture, education and intellectual attainments, he made up for in the warmth of his impulses, the kindliness of his nature and the rectitude of his purposes.

For some years after Milwaukee was laid out,

Juneau was prosperous in a financial way, his operations both as merchant and in real estate being exceedingly profitable. A vast fortune was within his grasp, but nature and education had not fitted him to retain it. Gradually his posses- sions slipped away from him and passed into the hands of shrewder and more sagacious men, and on the 14th day of November, 1856, he died at Shawano, Wisconsin, a comparatively poor man.

During the later years of his life he did not re- side in Milwaukee, but cherished the hope of end- ing his days in the city into which he had breathed the breath of life. Still engaged in the Indian trade, he had gone to Shawano to make a settle- ment with the Indians, and the pathetic story of his demise and burial there is thus told by Samuel Wotton Beall, who was with him during his last hours:

"Mr. Juneau was too old to endure the cold and hard fare he experienced for days and weeks. His age had begun to reflect the toils of his youth. His strength and vigor, as he frequently told me, had of late years gradually given away, unfitting him for the Indian trade and maturing his pur- pose to return to Milwaukee and his friends at an early date. His chief pride was in the city, and certainly his affections were mostly there. The day before his death, expressing his desire to be in Milwaukee, and referring to many of his old friends by name, he observed, 'I do not think I have an enemy in the place.'

" He evinced great anxiety in the result of the presidential election, and rode over bad roads and in a lumber-wagon twelve miles to deposit his vote. The day was inclement. He returned fatigued and wet, and was not well afterwards. The Menomonee payment was made two days before his death. From dawn to midnight of each day he was harassed by the Indians while engaged in making collections and superintending the sales of his two establishments ; and, retiring to his bunk, which was adjacent to my own, on Wednesday night, declared himself overcome with fatigue. He arose early, however, on Thursday morning, aroused and directed his clerks for busi- ness, and appeared animated and cheerful in the prospect we both had of a speedy return to our families. In a very few moments he suddenly complained of great uneasiness, attempting vio- lently and in vain to relieve his stomach. Parox- ysms of pain supervened, and his tortures were

THE COMING OF JUNEAU, FOUNDER OF THE CITY.

expressed in groans of agony, and streams of sweat bursting and pouring down his face. We removed him, as soon as a bed could be procured, to the home of Mr. Pricket, and surrounded him with every comfort and attention within our power. The superintendent, Dr. Heubschmann, applied the proper remedies, both himself and Dr. Wiley exhibiting the most kind and anxious care. But in a few hours the vanity of hope and effort were apparent. The stubborn intensity of his malady defied the devotions of skill and affection, and it became evident that the strong frame of our friend was yielding to the shocks of his last and only enemy.

"About four o'clock the priest was introduced, and being left together alone, at his own solicita- tion, the last consoling rites of his church, it is presumed, were administered. The type of his malady became milder at intervals. His reason, which had never forsaken him, became active in directing a disposition of his property on the pay ground, and in dictating messages of love to his children. Turning to me, he observed: 'It is hard to die here; I hoped to have laid by bones in Milwaukee ;' and immediately afterwards direct- ing his eyes aloft and crossing his hands upon his breast, with a sigh of profound and peaceful languor, he breathed : 'I come to join you, my wife.' The slumbers of syncope supervened, as the night moved on, and at twenty minutes past two o'clock, A. M., Solomon Juneau breathed his last.

"Perhaps no trader ever lived on this continent for whom the Indians entertained more profound respect. The grim warrior, with stately tread and blackened face, and the silent, bending squa w passed in review the corpse of their dead friend- and the chiefs, in solemn council, summoned their braves to attend his funeral. 'Never,' said old Augustin Grignon, 'have I heard of this before.' Many instances occurred of individual homage. In the middle of the night an old squaw of decent appearance-the wife of a chief-entered the apartment, and kneeling before the body clasped her hands in silent prayer ; then removing the cloths from his face, impressed kisses upon his mouth and forehead, and retired as noiselessly as she had entered. Another clipped off a lock of his hair and charged me to deliver it to his children. The place of his repose was selected by the Indians themselves, and the order of his

funeral which was entrusted to Mr. Hunkins, was as follows.

"1st. Priest in full canonicals, followed by In- dian choir, chanting funeral forms.

"2d. Ten pall-bearers, four whites and six In- dians (Oshkosh, Carron, Lancet, Keshenah and others).

"3d. The employes of the Agency, male and female.

" 4th. Indian women and Indians, two abreast, to the number of six or seven hundred.

" Appropriate services were rendered at the grave by the priest, and a few affectionate sen- tences of farewell interpreted to the Indians, at their request, were expressed by the Agent.

"Solomon Junean sleeps upon an elevation far above the Agency and Council House and burial- ground of the Indians, commanding a view of the ' Wolf,' as it defiles away in the wilderness of the distant hills, and overlooking the hunting-grounds, which in years gone by he had known and trav- ersed himself for many a league."

On the 28th of November, 1856, the remains of Solomon Juneau were removed to this city, and after an imposing ceremony had been held in the cathedral of the Catholic church, they were inter- red in the old cemetery on Spring street, from which place they were removed later to Calvary cemetery, where they now rest.

Of Junean's family not much need be said in this connection, because with the exception of Mrs. Juneau, none of them has made any marked impress upon the public mind. Mrs. Juneau, who was born the daughter of Jacques Vieau, in 1804, at Sheboygan, grew up without educational advan- tages and became a wife when she was fifteen years of age. Lacking education, she was never- theless a woman of character and good natural endowments, and was greatly esteemed among the pioneers for her kindliness and generous hospi- tality. Having in her veins a trace of Indian blood, and having through life-long association with them become thoroughly familiar with their language, customs and habits, she acquired a won- derful influence over the Indians, and this influence was always used to foster the interests of the white settlers, and promote the advancement of civiliza- tion.

She died in this city in 1855, one year before her husband's eventful career was brought to a close.

CHAPTER VI.

MILWAUKEE WEST OF THE RIVER.

BY THE EDITOR.

W HILE Solomon Juneau and his partners in the ownership of a "squatters" claim located on the east side of Milwaukee river, were contemplating the founding of a town, the lands on the west side of the river had attracted the attention of a man sagacious and far seeing and fitted by nature for the conduct of large enterprises. That man was Byron Kilbourn, a native of New England who had been brought up in Ohio, and beginning his business career under favorable auspices had been identified with some of the great public improvements made in the Buckeye State. His associations had been with men of large ideas and broad capacity, his educational attainments were of a superior char- acter and having traveled extensively, he came to the Northwest admirably fitted to pave the way for the rapid advancement of civilization. He had familiarized himself, to a greater extent per- haps than any man who had up to that time visited the portion of Michigan territory lying west of Lake Michigan, with its resources and advan- tages and his keen perceptions made him fully alive to the wonderful possibilities of development. He had traversed the lake shore from Chicago to Green Bay and his determination to lay out a town site on Milwaukee river was evidence of the fact that he regarded this point as the natural trade center of a vast area of territory destined to become a fruitful and productive region. The tract of land which he selected and of which he soon afterward became the owner was less attrac- tive in a state of nature than that on the opposite side of the river, much of it being of the marshy character described in a preceding chapter. Kil- bourn well knew, however, that physical difficulties such as the draining and filling of swamps and the leveling of hills are easily overcome to meet the demands of a growing city, and he fully expected Milwaukee to develop into a city of large pro- portions. His vision pictured the Milwaukee river as a highway of commerce and the West side

as the business centre of the future metropolis. The narrow strip of land lying between the lake and the river was regarded by him as too cramped in its dimensions to ever become other than a resi- dence portion of the future city and if he could have exchanged town sites with Juneau it is doubt- ful if he would have done so. On the tract of land which Kilbourn purchased at the Green Bay sales of 1835, more fully described elsewhere in this chapter, a sister settlement to the one on the East side sprang into existence shortly after Juneau's town was platted and Kilbourn thus became the founder of Milwaukee west of the river.

Kilbourn was a man of great energy and intense activity and at once became a recognized leader in business enterprises and public affairs.

*He was born at Granby, Connecticut, Sep- tember 8, 1801, and few native Americans have sprung from a more ancient and honorable lineage. Hasted, in his "History of the County of Kent," England, remarks: " It is a matter of history that the Kilbournes were originally of Kilbourne, in Yorkshire;" and Brayley, in his work on "England and Wales," says: "The family took the surname from Kilbourne, in Yorkshire, where they were originally seated." The word "seated" has a peculiar significance with English historians. It does not mean simply that the family lived in the place designated, but that they enjoyed an hereditary seat, or estate, there. Thomas Camp- bell, the British poet, wrote: "The proudest Briton of the thirteenth century was William de Kilbourne, lord of the manor of Kilbourne, in Yorkshire, whose disposition for show caused him to outstrip all the men of the north of England, in the parade of his equipage, and the sumptuousness of his entertainments. It is related that King John and his retinue. returning from the Northern wars, were received and entertained

"For the account of Kilbourn's antecedents, his early life and subsequent career, which appear in this connection, the writer is largely indebled to a history of Milwaukee pub- lished in 1881.

Bypon Silhvor

MILWAUKEE WEST OF THE RIVER.

by him with such gorgeous and profuse hospitality as to excite the envy of that vain and voluptuous monarch, who significantly remarked to his secre- tary, after taking his departure, 'The King will tolerate no rival with Royaltie.' The King died not long thereafter, or his implied threat might have been suinmarily executed upon his unsus- pecting host. His extravagance in due time de- pleted his income, and portions of his hereditary estates were privately leased to enable him to con- tinue living in style. In his old age, when told that death was even at the door, his ruling passion did not forsake him. Summoning his family and attendants, he deliberately gave minute directions as to his funeral, and the mode and place of burial. His body was to lie in state for five days; all the nobility and landed gentry within fifty miles were to be invited ; the Archbishop of York was to say mass; and for these and other funeral expenses, he appropriated three thousand pounds sterling, which he had specially reserved for that purpose." The family was afterward seated in Kent, where in the sixteenth century the arms of the Kentish branch were quartered with the ancient coat-of- arms of the family. In proof of this, among other things, is a letter now in possession of the family, from Sir Charles George Young, K. G., of date July 18, 1845, College of Arms, London ; and also the following from the Earl Marshall's Regis- ter : "This pedigree being authentically proved. is entered in the Visitation of London, A. D., 1834." In 1635 Thomas Kilbourne landed in America and settled in Connecticut, where, on the 19th day of October, 1770, his descendant, Hon. James Kilbourne (the father of Byron), was born. On November 8, 1789, James Kilbourne married in St. Andrew's Church, Simsbury, Lucy Fitch, daughter of the celebrated John Fitch, Esq., of Philadelphia and Kentucky, the inventor and builder of the first steamboat in the world. In 1802, he purchased sixteen thousand acres of land in central Ohio, whither he removed with his family and a colony, in the summer of 1803 (Byron, his son, being then two years old), and founded the village of Worthington, nine miles from the present city of Columbus and capital of the state. In 1805, unasked and unexpected, he received, from Albert Gallatin. Secretary of the Treasury. the appointment of United States Sur- veyor of an immense tract of public lands. In 1808 he was commissioned major of the Frontier

Regiment, United States Army, and soon after became lieutenant-colonel, and subsequently colonel. In 1812 he was appointed, by President Madison, a commissioner to settle the boundary between the public lands and the great Virginia Reservation. In the same year Colonel Kilbourne was elected member of Congress. In 1814 he was again placed in nomination for Congress, his opponent being General Philemon Beccher, who had previously been Speaker of the House. Colonel Kilbourne was re-elected by a vote of more than two to one. At the end of the Fourteenth Congress, he declined a renomination, having large property interests, factories, etc., which de- manded his attention. Such was the distinguished ancestry of Hon. Byron Kilbourne,* whose early prospects were as brilliant as those of any youth in America. But the treaty of peace, at the close of the last war with England (1812-1815) threw open the country to foreign manufactures, and the establishments of Colonel Kilbourne (in common with others throughout the country) went down, bankrupting him in their failure. The son had been carefully educated and had devoted much time to the study of mathematics, history and the law, giving considerable attention also to music, for which he had a natural fondness. The law was peculiarily his favorite study, but a strong prejudice in the mind of his father against. the profession prevented him from adopting it as the business of his life, and he directed his mind and energies into other channels. Having acquired some knowledge of surveying, in the year 1823, when the surveys were commenced by the state of Ohio for the stupendous system of internal im- provements, which was subsequently carried out, he entered the service of the state as an engineer. In that important capacity he was identified with the public works of Ohio, until the completion of the Ohio canal, from Lake Erie to the Ohio river, and of the Miami canal, from Dayton to Cincin- nati, in 1832.

In the spring of 1834, having obtained an ap- pointment as surveyor of the public lands, he started on an exploring expedition through the Northwest, and landed at Green Bay on the 8th of May of that year. The object of his explora- tion was to find, if possible, the natural commer- cial point for all that vast extent of country stretching from the lake westward to the Missis-

"The final "e" was dropped from the name by Mr. Kilbourn.

HISTORY OF MILWAUKEE.

sippi. A portion of the spring and summer he spent in the region adjacent to Green Bay, and in the Manitowoc and Sheboygan country, making government surveys, and the remainder of the season in exploring the lake shore. Having visited all the prospective trade centers between Manito- woc and Chicago, he reached the conclusion that the commercial metropolis of this region would be located near the mouth of Milwaukee river. He had traveled the country on horseback, carry- ing his camp blankets and provisions along with him, and wherever he was when night came, there was his home. At that time the only white men's habitations between Green Bay and Chicago were those of Solomon Juneau and four or five others who had recently settled on the Milwaukee river. Having decided to locate on Milwaukee river, Kilbourn made his selection of a tract of land lying west of the Milwaukee river, above the Menomonee river, in 1834, with a view to purchase when the land should come into market, his purpose and intent being, from the start, to lay out a town here. At the land sale at Green Bay in July and August of 1835, he purchased the southeast quarter of section twenty-nine, in town seven, range twenty-two, and by ex- change of a portion of his tract for a portion of Juneau's tract, acquired a mile of river frontage. He subsequently added to the original tract by purchases extending westwardly and northerly toward the interior, his entire purchase embracing in the aggregate three hundred acres, which con- stituted his plat of "Milwaukee on the west side of the river." He engaged actively in making improvements, and in 1837 organized a town gov- ernment, of which he became first president, this village being entirely independent of the village of the same name on the opposite side of the river. In 1840 Kilbourn was a candidate for delegate to Congress, but his opponent, Governor Doty was returned by a small majority. In 1845 he was elected to represent the county of Milwaukee in the territorial legislature, and rendered valuable services in the county and territory in that capae- ity. In 1846, the City of Milwaukee was chartered and Mr. Kilbourn was chosen a member of the first Board of Aldermen. On the 19th of August, 1846, the county convention met to nominate can- didates for varions offices. On the first ballot for

candidate to represent the county in the territorial senate, Mr. Kilbourn received a majority of the votes of the convention; but it being stated that his business arrangements for the season would not permit him to accept the station, H. N. Wells was nominated, and subsequently elected. In 1847 he was re-elected to the office of alderman, and was also chosen a delegate to the convention, which met at Madison on the 15th of December of that year, and formed the present State Constitution. In that body he was chairman of the committee on the general provisions of the constitution, and as such drew up the present preamble and declaration of rights, the articles on Boundaries, the articles on Banks and Banking and the articles on Amendments. In 1848 and again in 1854, he was elected mayor of the city of Milwaukee. In the former year he was also elected a delegate to and one of the vice-presidents of the Free-Soil Democratic National Convention which met at Buffalo.

When the public mind began to comprehend the importance of railroad communication with the interior, Mr. Kilbourn was by common con- sent designated as the most suitable person to head the first enterprise of that description, and was accordingly elected president of the Milwaukee & Mississippi Railroad Company, by unan- imous vote of the Board of Directors. He after- ward engaged with zeal in promoting, as director and chief engineer, another work of equal merit, the La Crosse & Milwaukee Railroad.

In February, 1855, Kilbourn was the regular Democratic candidate before the legislature for the office of United States Senator. He made a careful canvass, and went into the election with a majority (by promise) of nine electors, but after several unsuccessful ballotings, his competitor, the IIon. Charles Durkee, was chosen by one major- itv.

Mr. Kilbourn died December 16, 1870, at Jack- sonville, Florida, leaving a large estate as the result of his investments and extensive business operations. He was twice married; first to Miss Mary II. Cowles of Washington, Ohio, and after her death, to Miss Henrietta Karrick, of Balti- more, an accomplished lady, who came with him to Milwaukee in 1838, and survived her illustrious husband, living until 1887.

bro, A hacker

CHAPTER VII.

MILWAUKEE SOUTH OF THE RIVER.

BY THE EDITOR.

C ONTEMPORARY with Juneau and Kil- bourn as an original proprietor of one of the natural divisions of Milwaukee, was George H. Walker, who made his first visit to this locality in the fall of 1833 as an Indian trader. He was a native of Virginia, born in Lynchburg, October 22, 1811. When he was fourteen years old his father removed to Gallatin county, Illinois, so that he may be said to have been brought up in the West, and to have begun his career as a pioneer in early boyhood. He was an Indian trader at eighteen years of age, and was only twenty-two years old when he first penetrated the wilds of what was then Michigan territory, as far north as the site of the city which he helped to build in later years. After visiting Juneau's trading post in the fall of 1833, he turned back and spent the winter of 1833-4 at what was then known as "Skunk Grove," about six miles west of the site of the present city of Racine. His first visit to Milwaukee must, however, have impressed him favorably with the location, because in 1834, after spending some time at Chicago and other frontier trading posts of this region, he returned to this place with the intention of locating here perma- nently. He accordingly selected a tract of land lying south of that portion of Milwaukee river which runs eastward to the lake, on which he established a trading post, and to which he laid claim as first settler and "squatter," no survey of the land having been made at that time. The first improvement which he made on the land to which he hoped to acquire title in due time, was to build a small, cabin, not unlike that which Juneau was occupying at the time, at what is now the inter- section of South Water and Ferry streets, the site being that at present occupied by the Ricketson House.

For more than fifty years thereafter, and long

after his first claim was merged into the munici- pality off the present city, " Walker's Point " had an identity of its own in the minds of all the set- tlers who came here in territorial times. From 1835 to 1845 be divided his time between trading with the Indians, as a rival of Juneau, and fight- ing off the " squatters " who attempted to "jump his claim." The pre-emption law of that time, what there was of it, was dependent for its in- terpretation and application upon the treaties with the Indians, and was so carelessly drawn that claimants never felt secure in their posses- sions. It was not until 1849, after Wisconsin had been admitted into the Union as a state, that Walker finally obtained a patent from the Federal Government for one hundred and sixty acres of land, which cleared the title of all clouds. The first plat of "Walker's Point," as it appears on the county records, was filed in August of 1836, but was not finally recorded until March 7, 1854, although other plats of the same, or portions of the same land were filed and recorded in the interval between these two dates. The story of the struggle for the possession of his "Walker's Point" claim, and the different though unsuccessful attempts to dispossess him, would read like a romance, but is not important as a matter of history. In 1845 he was appointed Register of the Milwaukee Land Office, and held that important office until 1849. One of the nota- ble features of his administration of the affairs of the local land office was that he neither allowed himself nor any of his subordinates to make use of their positions to advance their private interests in the way of land speculation. The same strict probity characterized his conduct through life, coupled with broad liberality, which was an equally conspicuous trait of his character. He was elected to the territorial legislature m

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History of Milwaukee from its first settlement to the year 1895, Part 6

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