USA > Wisconsin > Milwaukee County > Milwaukee > History of Milwaukee from its first settlement to the year 1895 > Part 60
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Of the five children of Mr. and Mrs. White, the only daughter-Mrs. VanPelt-and F. H. White, one of four sons, are now living, and both reside in this city.
ALLEN O. T. BREED, the first merchant to engage regularly in business in Milwaukee was born in the township of Manlius, Onondaga county, New York, February 31, 1804. He was the eldest son in a family of ten children, his parents having been Allen and Amelia (Teed) Breed of Manlius, natives of Stonington, Con- necticut. His ancestors on the maternal side served conspicuously in the battles of the Ameri- can Revolution.
A. O. T. Breed received a thorough education at Hamilton College, New York, and at an early age became a clerk and book-keeper in the store of Ruben Bangs, a successful merchant, contractor, and business man of Fayetteville, New York, and whose son, Anson Bangs was a noted civil engi- neer.
While in Fayetteville he received good com- mercial training, and became thoroughly familiar with the business of merchandising. From Fay- etteville he went to Buffalo and was engaged as clerk in a bank for two years. Leaving Buffalo at the end of that time he went to Monroe, Michigan, and purchased a farm. This he left in the hands of a neighbor-who later sold it and kept the pro- ceeds-and located in Chicago, Illinois, where he entered into partnership with a Mr. Kimball, under the name and style of Kimball & Brecd, general merchants. Later he disposed of his in- terest in this business to his partner and in Sep- tember, 1835, he settled in Milwaukee. Here he built the first frame store, and engaged in busi- ness on East Water street, between Michigan and Wisconsin streets, being the first dealer in general merchandise to establish himself in the infant city.
Mr. Breed conducted the mercantile business successfully for four years, when he disposed of
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his property and stock of goods and purchased a pre-emption claim, known as the southeast quarter of section twenty-three in the township of Wau- watosa, for a consideration of fifteen dollars, which claim he later improved and upon which he resided until his decease, September 27, 1875. His remains rest with those of other pioneers in beautiful Forest Home Cemetery.
A Republican in politics and a Baptist in relig- ious views, he was a successful man of affairs, and a much esteemed citizen.
He married Miss Margaret Shields, who was born in Hanover, Onondaga county, New York, in 1839, and Mrs. Breed survives her husband. Mr. Breed was one of the early supervisors of Milwaukee county, and was for several years also a justice of the peace in Wauwatosa.
WILLIAM P. MERRILL, a pioneer whose face and form are still familiar to the people of Milwaukee, was born in South Berwick, Maine, March 25, 1816. The Merrill family tree first took root in America in 1635 when Nathaniel Merrill came from England and settled in Newbury, Mas- sachusetts. More than two hundred years later the tract of land granted by the Crown to Nathaniel and John Merrill in 1635, was still in possession of Captain Samuel Merrill, a descend- ant in the male line, who died in 1892 at the age of ninety-six years. From Captain Merrill this historic homestead passed by inheritance to his daughter, Mrs. Mary A. Chase, and was in her possession as late as 1894.
The father of William P. Merrill was David, son of William Merrill. He emigrated with his family from Massachusetts to New York state in 1818 and settled in the town of Adams, Jefferson county. After remaining there fourteen years he removed to Massena Springs in St. Lawrence county, New York. The portion of New York state in which William P. Merrill was brought up was in those days a sparsely settled country, and his experiences from childhood up to man- hood, as well as in later years were of the pioneer type. His education was in the common schools, and of the practical kind designed to fit him for making his own way in the world. The knowl- edge which he obtained was of the useful rather than of the ornamental type, and starting out in life with keen perceptive faculties and broad common sense as endowments of nature, he was an apt pupil in the school of experience. Intense
activity and restless energy were marked charac- teristics of the boy, and something of the spirit of adventure took hold upon him as a young man. He was barely twenty years of age when he first came to Wisconsin, and before this he had gone to Prescott, Canada, to engage in busi- ness, being there when the cholera visited this country for the first time in 1832. Being com- pelled to return home on account of sickness he remained only long enough to fully recover his health and then set out for the West. Embark- ing on a St. Lawrence river boat at Ogdensburg he made his way to the mouth of the Genessee river, going from there to Rochester, and from Rochester to Buffalo by canal boat.
From Buffalo he went to Cleveland where he spent the winter of 1835-36. Early in the spring of 1836, he boarded the schooner N. C. Baldwin, and started on the exploring expedition which resulted finally in his settlement in Milwaukee. The trip was not only a perilous one, but one which brought with it much suffering and many long remembered hardships. When the schooner arrived at the foot of Bois Blanc, the captain found it impossible to proceed further on account of the ice in the straits, and Mr. Merrill and a fel- low voyager concluded to make an attempt to reach Mackinac by traveling on foot over the ice. They accordingly left the vessel early one morn- ing expecting to be able to reach Mackinac by three or four o'clock in the afternoon, having been informed that the distance they would have to travel was not more than ten or twelve miles. That their undertaking was a most dangerous one, to say nothing of the suffering to which they exposed themselves, soon became apparent. Fol_ lowing the indeutations of the lake shore they made slow and painful progress toward their destination, breaking through the ice at frequent intervals and suffering intensely from the cold which froze their wet garments and made their condition truly pitiable. As night approached the two young men felt that they must give up in despair, but a kind providence favored them by throwing in their way two friendly Indians, who for a sufficient consideration carried them across a strip of open water and gave them directions which enabled them to reach Mackinac. Here they rested and waited for several days for the " Baldwin," which finally came along and again took them aboard.
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Nearly a month later on the 2nd of April, 1836, they arrived at Milwaukee. This was long before the day of harbor facilities and the schooner anchored ont in the lake sending her passengers ashore in small boats. The lands adjoining the lake shore were covered with underbrush and pre- sented anything but an 'attractive appearance. Mr. Merrill was not favorably impressed and was on the point of returning to the schooner with a view of proceeding to Chicago, when he met two or three settlers whose enthusiasm concerning the future of the town which had been laid out here was contagious. Their representations as to the opportunities for investment in real estate and the prospective growth of the place, decided him to remain here for a time at least, to await develop- ments. Being a carpenter and builder by trade Mr. Merrill found profitable employment, and evinced his sagacity by investing a portion of his earnings in real estate. One of his earliest pur- chases was some lots near the present location of Schlitz Park, on which he built the first frame house in the village north of Walnut street on the west side of the river.
In the fall of 1837, being desirous of seeing more of " the great West" he left Milwaukee on another exploring tour going first to Chicago. His recollections of the great Western metro- polis, as he first saw it in the infantile stage of its existence are interesting in this connection. It was then a straggling village, surrounded by unsightly marshes, and altogether a most unat- tractive and uninviting place. When the fall rains came on, the cheap and shabby buildings seemed on the point of sinking out of sight in the mud, and the sluggish stream which found its way into the lake at that point gave little promise of ever becoming a great thoroughfare of commerce. Cord wood was piled alongside of the principal streets at frequent intervals and the trade in that commodity seemed to be the most important feature of the village commerce. It is not sur- prising that the impression made upon Mr. Merrill by Chicago at that time was not a favorable one, and that he should have pushed ont into the in- terior of the state in the hope of finding a more promising field for investment, or a more pleasing prospective place of residence. From Chicago he went to Rockford, Illinois, then a new settlement in which the only hotel was a log house with ex- ceedingly limited accommodations. The following
spring, in company with two other gentlemen, he purchased a canoe, and loading it with provisions, blankets and other things necessary to their com- fort, they proceeded down Rock river to Rock Island, where they found but few settlers at that time. Landing on the bank of the Mississippi river, they took the first steamer passing up the river and went to Galena, then the metropolis of the lead mining district of Illinois and Wisconsin, and by reason thereof one of the largest and most important towns west of Cincinnati. Mr. Merrill remained in Galena until midsummer of 1838 and then concluded to continue his exploring expedi- tion up the Mississippi river. He accordingly took passage on the steamer "Brazil," Captain Orin Smith, which proceeded leisurely up the river, stopping at Prairie du Chien and numerous Indian. villages, the trip being an exceedingly pleasant and enjoyable one. Going ashore while the boat lay at anchor in Lake Pepin, he acquired the shadow of a title to a thousand acres of land in the famous "Carver tract " and signalized this acquisition by planting some beans on the land, the first " seeding" probably done by a white man in that region of country.
After leaving the mouth of the Wisconsin river on this trip, he saw no settlement of white people until he reached Fort Snelling. Here companies "A," "E," "F" and "I" of the Fifth United States Infantry Regiment were then stationed under command of Major J. Plympton. The harsh treatment of a soldier at the Fort, who for some misdemeanor was given fifty lashes with a rawhide whip on his bare back, had his head shaved and was then drummed out of camp, was one of the few incidents of this trip which left upon his mind an unpleasant impression. Among the passengers on the boat were two daughters of Governor Henry Dodge, who had been appointed governor of Wisconsin by Presi- dent Jackson in 1836, who also served as terri- torial delegate to Congress and who was one of the first United States Senators from this state. The governor's daughters and other passengers with Mr. Merrill interested themselves in the un- fortunate culprit, and he was taken back to Dubuque, where he was given employment and an opportunity to redeem his good name.
After visiting the Falls of St. Anthony, Minne- haha Falls and other places of interest in what was at that time a wildly beautiful and picturesque
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region, Mr. Merrill returned to Galena and from there went to Comanche, Iowa, a settlement in which he found half a dozen houses, and near which he "filed a claim" on a tract of land. Sat- isfied with his travels he returned to Milwaukee in the fall of 1839, and shortly afterward opened a general store at what was known as Baxter's prairie in the town of "Summit" then in Milwau- kee county. He erected there a building which was the first frame building erected for commer- eial purposes in Wisconsin, west of Waukesha. This business he sold out after a time and re- turned to Milwaukee where his residence since that time has been continuous. He purchased here eighty acres of land and filed a claim on another eighty acres to which he afterward se- cured title from the government, all of which is now in the city of Milwaukee and a portion of which he still owns.
An old tax receipt, signed by James McCreedy, tax collector, shows that in 1846, the total amount of taxes assessed against this land for territorial, county and town purposes was three dollars and eighty-eight cents for that year. When one takes into consideration the fact that the taxes assessed against the same lands, exclusive of improvements for the year 1894, approximates seventy-five thou- sand dollars, an object lesson is presented which foreibly illustrates the enormous development and appreciation of values in a rapidly growing west- ern city.
The sagacious investments made by Mr. Mer- rill and his capable and conservative conduct of his affairs, have resulted in the accumulation of a large estate, which he contemplates with the sat- isfaction of one who has wrought worthily and successfully in a field wherein most of the men of note have been the architects of their own for- tunes ..
During his long residence in Milwaukee he has been in hearty sympathy with the spirit of pro- gress which has advanced the city to a leading place among Western municipalities. A Repub- lican in politics, he has been steadfast to the prin- ciples of that organization, but caring nothing for political preferment, has held office only as a member at different times of the city legislature. Recognized as a friend of educational, charitable and benevolent institutions, he has at all times tempered his zeal with discretion, and while giv- ing liberally of his means to such enterprises as
commend themselves to his wisdom and good judgment, he has abstained from that indiscrimi- nate bestowal of charities which experience has demonstrated does more harm than good.
Honest, upright, and conscientious in his busi- ness relations, intelligent, affable and courteous in social intercourse, he has grown old gracefully, and during the latter years of his life has rendered a particularly valuable service to the public through his efforts to perpetuate the pioneer his- tory of the city and county and the personal his- tory of those who have proven themselves worthy of a place in the annals of the pioneers.
He was married in 1841 to Miss Elizabeth Har- ris, who also came to Milwaukee in 1836. She was a native of Vermont, a most estimable lady, much beloved by the people of the city in which she lived with her husband for more than fifty years. She died in 1893. The two sons of Mr. and Mrs. Merrill, Zachara and David L. Merrill, are both residents of Michigan.
LEWIS LUDINGTON, although never a citi- zen of Milwaukee in the sense of having trans- ferred his homestead to this city, was for so many years a conspicuous figure in developing the re- sources and advancing the civilization of Wiscon- sin, and withal was so prominently identified with the early commerce of Milwaukee that his history is of interest in this connection.
Mr. Ludington was the youngest of the twelve children of Col. Henry Ludington, who won re- nown in the revolutionary struggle, and was born June 25, 1786, in Fredericksburg, Dutchess-now Putnam-county, New York. Educated in the country schools he was fitted for a business career, his acquirements being of the practical kind de- signed to qualify him for engaging successfully in trade. When he was twenty years of age, in company with an older brother, he opened a store near the old homestead in New York state, the partnership thus entered into continuing in exist- ence for more than thirty years. He married Polly Townsend and for some time lived in a cottage not far from the home of Col. Ludington, but at a later date removed to the village of Carmel and purchased property which is still in possession of members of his family.
Being by nature a man of broad enterprise, his attention was early attracted to what was then Wisconsin territory, and from the meager infor- mation which reached the Eastern states in those
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days concerning its resources, he was favorably impressed with its prospects of development. In 1838, in company with his nephew, Harrison Lud- ington, and Harvey Birchard, he came to Milwau- kee and at once arranged to obtain full informa- tion as to the character of its tributary country and satisfy himself as to the likelihood of the am- bitious village becoming a trade center of conse- quence. Making his headquarters at Milwaukee, he explored the interior territory to a consider- able extent on horseback during the succeeding winter, purchasing several tracts of government land as a result of his prospecting trips.
So well satisfied was he with the outlook in Milwaukee, that in 1839 he established the pio- neer merchandising firm of Ludington, Birchard & Company, of which he was senior partner, and Harrison Ludington junior partner. A year or two later Mr. Birchard retired from the firm, and the business was continued for more than twenty years thereafter under the name of Ludington & Company. Harrison Ludington, of whom ex- tended mention is made elsewhere in these vol- umes, and who achieved distinction in later years as Mayor of the city and Governor of Wisconsin, and Nelson Ludington, for many years a leading banker and lumberman of Chicago, were partners with Lewis Ludington in a business which grew to large proportions, and laid the foundations of handsome fortunes for all three of the partners. Both the younger men were nephews of Lewis Ludington, and both those eminently successful business men were largely indebted to him for their start in life.
Mr. Ludington also became largely interested in the manufacture of lumber and in Wisconsin timber lands which, in later years, brought him rich returns. Retaining his residence at Carmel, New York, he built a home there which was com- pleted in the fall of 1855, from lumber cut from his lands in Wisconsin, sawed in his mills at Oconto, shipped by the schooner " Lewis Luding- ton" to Buffalo, and from there on the Erie Canal and lIudson River by boat of the same name, to Mott Haven on the Harlem Railroad, the train of coincidences being both interesting and peculiar. Ile was owner at one time of an extensive tract of land in Columbia county, in this state, and laid out the city of Columbus, the plat of which was filed in 1844. In promoting immigration to this and other portions of Wisconsin he was al-
ways an important factor, and for many years he was so closely identified with various important interests in this state that he was almost as much a citizen of Wisconsin as of New York. He died in this state in 1857, while sojourning tem- porarily at his farm near Kenosha, and is remem- bered as one of the most enterprising of the Eastern capitalists who contributed so largely to the development of the present commonwealth of Wisconsin, during the pioneer era of its history.
James Ludington, founder of the city of Lud- ington, Michigan, for many years well-known as a citizen of Milwaukee, was a son of Lewis Lud- ington, and was identified with him in building up the city of Columbus and was afterward a mem- ber of the firm of Ludington & Company. Charles H. Ludington, another son, was one of the founders and for many years a partner in the famous importing and wholesale dry goods house of Lathrop & Ludington of New York City. This was one of the business houses of New York which achieved the distinction of being "black listed" as "abolition houses," in the Southern states, on account of their outspoken loyalty to the Union just before the War of the Rebellion.
HIIRAM F. STORY was one of the farmers who lived in close proximity to Milwaukee when the place was a village. Ilis home was an outlying land mark in later years and there he died Sep- tember 20, 1887.
Born in Randolph, Vermont, November 10, 1818, Mr. Story belonged to the old New England family of the same name which became identified with American history during the Colonial period, and of which the renowned Justice Story, W. F. Storey, the journalist, and W. W. Story, the poet and sculptor have been distinguished representa- tives. Mr. Story's grandfather, Asa Story, was one of the early emigrants from Massachusetts to the territory which afterward became the state of Vermont. He was a pioneer settler of Randolph and lived there many years, a man of local pro- minence and a worthy citizen who died at an advanced age leaving to his descendants the herit- age of a good name. His son Asa Story, married Fanny Fisk and Hiram F. Story was one of the children born of this union.
The community at Randolph was one of small farmers, among whom industry was accounted a cardinal virtne and the conditions by which they were surrounded were such that unremitting toil
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seemed essential to the maintenance of an exist- ence. Hiram F. Story was brought up on one of these small farms, and his educational advantages were limited in early childhood to attendance at the country schools in the summer and winter months, and later to attendance during the winter months only. In these rural schools, however, and in the Orange county Grammar school, which he also attended several terms, he acquired a fair English education and laid the foundation for intelligent effort when he began life on his own account.
Although he was naturally of an enterprising turn of inind and early inclined to seek a field of labor promising a more substantial reward for industry than that in which he had been brought up, he felt that certain family obligations rested upon him, and these kept him at home until he was twenty-five years of age. He then left the old homestead and came West, stopping for a time in Waukesha, Wisconsin.
From Waukesha he came to Milwaukee where he found employment as clerk in a merchandising establishment. Having, however, been brought up to farming, he preferred this occupation to any other, and believed at the same time that his small capital invested in farming lands would yield satisfactory returns. In 1845 or per- haps in 1846 he purchased a quarter section of land just west of the city, and established there the homestead which he retained as long as he lived. Whether fortune favored him, or whether he was aware when he made this purchase that a mine of wealth was hidden beneath the soil, is uncertain, but the fact developed within a few years after the land came into his possession. In 1855 good building stone.was discovered on the farm and investigation proved that the quarry was an extensive one. The rapid growth of Mil- waukee made the demand for building stone active, and Mr. Story's quarry being in close proximity to the city and easily accessible, the development of an important and valuable indus- try followed close upon the heels of the dis- covery.
To this business and the conduct and manage- ment of his farm he gave his entire time and attention, and the result was the accumulation of a large fortune. A quiet, matter-of-fact business man, he was highly esteemed by those who came into contact with him in the ordinary course of
business or in the social circle. Following in the footsteps of several generations of his ancestors he became a member of the Congregational Church early in life and was a prominent member of that church during the many years of his resi- dence here. He contributed to its progress and advancement both by his personal efforts and in- fluence, and through his liberal benefactions in aid of its religious and educational work.
A man of pronounced views and strong con- victions, he was conscientious always rather than politic, did whatever he believed to be right under all circumstances and was esteemed by his contemporaries for his probity, honesty and fairness in all the ordinary affairs of life.
Having an aversion to office holding, he held no public positions of consequences, but his strong sympathies were with the Free Soil party prior to the war, and with the Republican party from the time of its organization until his death. He was in no sense a politician, but his political views were well known to his neighbors and friends, and his vote and influence were always given to the party which in his judgment represented the advanced thought and sought to promote the best interests of the country.
He was married in 1850 to Nancy M. Tiche- nor, daughter of Moses Tichenor, of Waukesha, who survived her husband until the first of January, 1894, and continued to reside at the old homestead. The business established by Mr. Story is continued under the conduct and manage- ment of his sons, A. L. and W. E. Story.
DAVID MERRILL was a pioneer who fol- lowed his son W. P. Merrill to the West, and thus found a home in Milwaukee. In the early history of the city, the coming thither of an ad- venturous young man not infrequently resulted in the transplanting of an entire family from one of the older settlements of an Eastern state to the " broad empire of the West " with its limit- less resources and boundless possibilities. This was what happened in the case of the Merrill family, and made pioneers alike of the father- who long since passed away-and the two sons who are still honored residents of the city to the evolution of which from a condition of primitive wilderness they have been witnesses. William P. Merrill, as has already been stated in this chapter, came to Milwaukee in 1836. A year later he was joined by his father and other members of the
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