USA > Wisconsin > Milwaukee County > Milwaukee > History of Milwaukee from its first settlement to the year 1895 > Part 61
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family, and David Merrill, the father, spent the remaining years of his life here.
He was born in Maine in 1793, and mar- ried Eunice Lord, who was also of New England ancestry. Leaving New York state in 1835, his intention was to come as far West as Mil- waukee at that time, but reaching the con- clusion that the place was then too near the border line of civilization to be anything ap- proaching a comfortable place of residence for his family, he stopped in Cleveland, Ohio, and re- mained there two years. In the fall of 1837 he determined to make the contemplated settlement in Milwaukee, and loading his goods and wares, together with his family into wagons, he made the long trip overland, arriving here late in the season. A log house on the Menomonee river, which had been vacated by a more fortunate pioneer, was the only house he could find avail- able as a place of residence, and in this the family was domiciled-with blankets hung at the open- ings cut for doors and windows-during the first six months of their residence in Milwaukee. At. the end of that time more comfortable quarters were secured, and the following spring Mr. Mer- rill became the proprietor of a log hotel, where for a time he dispensed old fashioned hospitality, at old fashioned prices. About 1840 or 1841, however, he engaged in a new enterprise, for which earlier experiences had given him a taste, and which developed in a few years into an in- dustry of considerable magnitude.
Before leaving New York state he had engaged to some extent in the business of shipping live stock by boat to Montreal, Canada, and had thus become identified with the carrying trade of that region. As soon as he was able to command suf- ficient resources, he turned his attention to marine matters, and was one of the earliest vessel build- ers in Milwaukee. In company with another gentleman he built and put into the carrying trade on Lake Michigan, the schooner " Marvin," which old settlers will remember as one of the first vessels launched at Milwaukee. He next built "The Michael Dousman," and later built for himself and others numerous vessels employed in the lake traffic. In addition to his ship-building and carrying trade, which he developed to con- siderable proportions, he was interested also in merchandising operations, and was a capable and enterprising man of affairs, who is held in kindly
remembrance among the survivors of the pioneer period. An active and enthusiastic member of the Masonic fraternity, he was among the organ- izers of one of the first lodges established in the State of Wisconsin, and prominent for many years among the Masons of Milwaukee. He died in Milwaukee, March 12, 1872.
JOHN B. MERRILL, son of David and brother of William P. Merrill was a boy twelve years of age when he came to Milwaukee in 1837. He was born in Adams, Jefferson county, New York, and went with the family to Massena Springs and later to Cleveland, Ohio, coming thence to Milwaukee.
The educational facilities of that period were by no means first-class and the sons of Milwau- kee pioneers had manifold tasks to perform, but Mr. Merrill managed to secure a fairly good Eng- lish education in the old time school kept by Eli Bates-afterward a wealthy lumberman of Chi- cago-in a room of the court-house. The room occupied by the school was that assigned to the jury when court was in session and vacations were necessary at frequent intervals, when the machinery of justice was in operation.
After about three years attendance at this school Mr. Merrill turned his attention to business, and his father being at that time engaged to a con- siderable extent in ship-building, he began work- ing as a ship carpenter. The ship-building industry was then in its infancy at all western lake ports, and but few vessels of any kind had been built in Milwaukee. Only a few years earlier, "The Solomon Juneau," the first sailing vessel constructed at this port, had been launched and the first steamboat had been built here in 1837 for river work. All the vessels built in those days were of small capacity, capable of carrying from one to two hundred tons of freight. That it was the day of small things as compared with the present, is evidenced by the fact that a schooner which would carry twenty-five hundred or three thousand bushels of grain was looked upon as a large one, whereas some of the immense floating warehouses of to-day have a carrying capacity of more than one hundred thousand bushels of grain. Through his connection with the ship-building industry John B. Merrill became identified with the business to which he has since given the greater share of his time and attention, and in the conduct and management of which he has been signally
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successful. Although a mere boy at the time, he mastered all the details of vessel-building and was efficient both as a dranghtsman and superintend- ent of construction. While connected with this branch of marine business he spent one winter at Kenosha, where he assisted in building the " Sam Hale," the only vessel ever built and launched at that port.
After devoting seven or eight years to vessel- building he engaged in the marine insurance busi- ness, as an employe of the Merchants' Mutual Marine Insurance Company, which was next to the first insurance company of this character or- ganized and chartered in Milwaukee. For this business his thorough knowledge of all kinds of lake craft, his familiarity with the important features of the carrying trade, and well-balanced judgment, admirably qualified him, and he was entirely successful from the start. After an ex- perience of several years in this capacity he formed a partnership with R. P. Fitzgerald in the vessel agency and insurance business, which they have continued together to up to the present time, and in which they have become widely known, their agency being one of the oldest now in exist- ence at any of the lake ports. In addition to the agency and insurance features of his business, Mr. Merrill, in company with Mr. Fitzgerald and other gentlemen, is the owner of a line of eight steam- ers engaged in the lake traffic, four of which have been built in Milwaukee. For many years he has also been a member of the Board of Trade, and as a representative of the conservative element of that organization has sought to promote the healthful growth and development of trade and commerce while keeping in check dangerous spec- ulative tendencies.
His good judgment and judicious counsels have commended him to his associates of this great or- ganization of traders, and he has wielded an im- portant influence in shaping its policies and controlling its action. As a business man he has been eminently successful in a field which he en- tered as a pioneer, and his long and active career has brought to him at the same time a comforta- ble fortune and the warm regard of the associates of a life time. Modest in his demeanor, quiet and mild-mannered, he has at the same time been forceful, energetic and enterprising, and has taken no unimportant part in the building up of a great community, a rich and prosperous city.
As a member of the Pioneer Association of Milwaukee, Mr. Merrill has been one of the men to whom the public is most largely indebted for the preservation of much that is of interest and value in the history of the city. His New England origin, or more properly speaking perhaps, his in- heritance from a New England ancestry, has given him a thorough appreciation of the impor- tance of preserving the annals of a community in the best form possible, and to every intelligently directed and honest effort having this object in view, he was given support and encouragement. Having been a close observer of events all his life, systematic in his efforts, and accurate in his judg- ments of men and affairs, his information relative to everything of consequence which has happened in Milwaukee within the past fifty years is almost cyclopedic in its character.
A retentive memory and a pleasing style of re- lating the events of the past have made him con- spicuous among the pioneers whose reminiscences are always attractive, and " who could and they would," as the saying goes, give us pen portraits of the early settlers of Milwaukee which would be charmingly true to life.
Mrs. Merrill came to Milwaukee the same year that her husband came here. She was Miss Mary J. Porter before her marriage, came of Scotch- Irish ancestry, and was born in St. Johns, New Brunswick, coming to Milwaukee with her parents in early childhood. The home of Mr. and Mrs. Merrill has been one of the hospitable old homes of the city, and in all the relations of life they have merited the high regard in which they are held in the city in which both have passed all the years of their mature lives.
HARVEY BIRCHARD was one of the inter- esting characters of the pioneer period of the city's history, whose name has been handed down to the present in substantial and lasting improve- ments.
In the year 1635 Thomas Birchard sailed from England in the ship "True Love" with his wife and six children, and landed in New England the same year. He is subsequently found at Say- brook, and was deputy from that township to the general court in 1650-51. After that no record of him is found except an account of a very exten- sive land sale in 1656 to William Pratt, of Mar- tha's Vineyard, wherein he quits claim for himself in behalf of his son, John Birchard. This son,
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John, was one of the ten inhabitants of Norwich, doubtless have continued had he lived. His work Connecticut, accepted as freemen, and he was deputy to the general court in October, 1691. The marriage of John Birchard and Christian Andrews, July 22, 1653, and the birth to them between 1654 and 1680 of fourteen children, is re- corded in Norwich, Connecticut.
Harvey Birchard was a descendant of John Birchard, who was one of the proprietors of Nor- wich, Connecticut, and who received a share of the " nine mile tract" of land which was deeded " unto the town and inhabitants of Norwich " by the Indians, June 6th, A. D. 1659, and which was settled by the Tracys, Taylors, Hunting- tons, Birchards, Binghams, Wades and others. Harvey Birchard was born in the town of Bridge- port, Connecticut, in 1800, and received his edu- cation in the schools of his native county. For several years after finishing his education he was in business with an elder brother in Carmel, Put- nam county, New York. He subsequently made his residence in Philadelphia, where he met his friend, Mr. Welsch, and became largely interested in a traveling menagerie, being a member of the celebrated firms of Welsch, Birchard & Company, and Welsch, Howe & Company. Dur- ing his connection with this business he made sev- eral voyages to Europe to obtain animals for the menageries in which he was interested, and is said to have imported the first polar bear and the first horned horse that were ever exhibited alive in this country.
He came to Milwaukee in 1838 in company with Lewis and Harrison Ludington, with whom he formed the co-partnership firm of Ludington, Birchard & Company, and opened a general store on the northwest corner of Wisconsin and East Water streets, in a building which occupied a site where the Pabst building now stands. The firm was successful, the Ludingtons continuing the business established by themselves and Birch- ard until 1857, when it was voluntarily given up. Mr. Birchard retired from the firm in 1840, and with his available means, perhaps twenty thou- sand dollars, which was considered a large sum in those days, commenced dealing in real estate and lending money in the city and surrounding coun- try. He followed this business till the time of his death, and accumulated a large property.
completed in that direction was as follows : Birch- ard's Hall, corner of Grand avenue and West Water street, rebuilt by him in 1860, and again rebuilt by his wife and son in 1880, now a part of the Plankinton House block; five brick tenements, built in 1858, on the north side of Grand avenue, between Eighth and Ninth streets; six brick stores, built in 1862, on the west side of West Water street, a few doors south of its intersection with Grand avenue. Prior to the building of the above mentioned structures he had built a large wooden dwelling, near the corner of Ninth and Grand avenue.
Mr. Birchard was a man of marked eccentricity of character and independence that amounted almost to contempt for the opinions of the out- side world. This forced his faults, which were not peculiar to him alone, into undue prominence in the eyes of strangers, from whom unfortunately, his palliating virtues were hidden. After the lapse of many years, his old partners and inti- mate friends speak of him with a kindly affec- tion, which bespeaks for him the possession of those higher traits of character which alone could keep his memory green so many years in the hearts of those who knew him long and well. Mr. Birchard was a man of exceptionally fine personal address with a remarkably intelligent face, and his appearance did not belie him, since his great business success is entirely attributable to his unerring judgment of human nature.
By temperament and education Mr. Birchard was a connoisseur in art. His love of art was most sincere ; he loved it for its own sake. In politics he was a Republican, and took a very decided stand in support of the Union in the Civil War, but always declined to become a candidate for any public office. In religion he affiliated with the Episcopal Church.
He married in 1854 Miss Matilda Ormand Taylor, a daughter of the late Tracy Taylor, an eminent jurist and magistrate of Philadelphia, who died in 1832. The latter was a grandson of Andrew Tracy. "The Tracys and Taylors," com- piled by Chancellor Reuben H. Walworth, proves that they were direct descendants of the Saxon kings of England. The descendants of Andrew Tracy are very numerous, and are to be found
During the later years of his life he had com- . in many cities of the United States. Of those menced building on his lots, which he would of his daughter, Mary Tracy, who married
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Nathan Taylor, many are living in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her son, Tracy Taylor, parent of Mrs. Birchard, was the first to leave his New England home. He settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, whither his brothers, George and William, soon followed him. They were all inter- ested in the iron business. The mother of Mrs. Birchard was a daughter of John Henry, who was a merchant in Philadelphia in the early days of that city. He left a large property, which was distributed among his many descendants in Philadelphia and Rising Sun. Mrs. Birchard, who survives, is like her husband, a lover of art, and as an amateur has drawn and painted much from nature, and, for one living so far from art centers, she is truly a critic. She has been an extensive traveler, visiting nearly all the points of interest in this country and Europe, and being a lady of keen observation, has profited by it, as any one will see on visiting her home. She wields the pen with the same ease and ability which characterized her gifted father, and has compiled and published a volume giving the genealogy of the family of Lieutenant Thomas Tracy, of Norwich, Connecticut, and also of the Hydes, Tracys and Taylors. This publication is a work of great merit, and has the endorsement of such noted persons as Byron Sudely and Sir Ber- nard Burke, C. B., LL. D., Ulster, King of Arms, Dublin Castle. as the following letter will show :
DUBLIN CASTLE, IRELAND, November 3, 1888.
Dear Mrs. Abbey :- I am and have been so ill, since I last wrote you, that I am obliged to use the pen of an ama- nuensis. I do not like waiting until I am better and able with my own hand to express how much I am pleased with your admirable history of the great house of Tracy. I have care- fully gone through the volume, and my estimate is formed on a minute perusal. With esteem and regard,
Yours most truly, J. BERNARD BURKE,
Ulster.
Harvey Birchard died at his home in Milwaukee in 1864, and was buried on the family lot in Forest Home Cemetery.
After remaining a widow for some time, Mrs. Birchard married Col. D. C. Abbey, and he too has been called away by death.
ROBERT HANEY was for nearly forty years a familiar figure among the old merchants of Milwaukee, and few of them did more to develop the commerce of the city or were more perfect types of the thoroughly upright, capable and in- telligent merchant.
Mr. Haney was born June 8, 1809, in Batavia, Genesee, New York, grew up in that state, and began his business career there. His parents John and Jean Hoehna-or Haney as the name appears in its anglicized form-were natives of Holland, who came to New York state early in the present century, and settled on the tract of land in Genesee county which was known as "The Ilolland Purchase." John Haney was killed at Buffalo, when that place was burned by the Brit- ish forces in the war of 1812, and his son Robert, then three years of age, grew up under the guardianship of bis mother, who survived until 1856 and died in Batavia. His boyhood and early manhood were passed in Batavia, where he re- ceived a fair English education, being graduated from the Boys' Academy at that place. In 1839 he began business as a hardware merchant in Batavia and continued in that business until 1850. In 1848 he brought a stock of goods to Milwau- kee, which was left in charge of Mr. John De Bow, with whom he had entered into a part- nership, until two years later, when, after a dis- astrous fire in Batavia, he removed both his family and his business to Milwaukee. Engaging in the wholesale and retail hardware trade, he first did business in a store located on one of the lots on which the Plankinton House has since been built, and two years later removed to East Water street, where he continued in active business up to the end of his life. Beginning in a small way, he built up a large establishment, and the hard- ware house of R. Haney & Company was for many years well known throughout the north- west and its trade extended over a wide area of territory. Mr. Haney always gave to the business his personal attention and supervision, although capable and intelligent men were associated with him from time to time as partners. He belonged to the class of merchants enterprising enough, and shrewd enough as financiers, to reap the full benefit of activity in trade, who are at the same time conservative enough to avoid disaster in times of business depression. As careful and conscientious as he was capable and sagacious, he passed safely through financial crises like those of 1857 and 1873 which proved so disastrous to the mercantile interests of the country. He had a fine, old-fashioned sense of honor, which made him feel that every obligation which he assumed must be discharged in full, no matter how much
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inconvenience it might occasion him or how easy it might have been to effect advantageous com- promises. This phase of his character was forci- bly illustrated early in his career in Milwaukee, when a disastrous fire left him, for the time be- ing, seriously embarrassed financially. The loss which he sustained at that time aroused the sym- pathies of those who had claims against him, and many of them proposed to discount their bills in order to assist him in getting a new start. He refused, however, to take advantage of the pro- posed discounts and insisted upon paying dollar for dollar every obligation, as soon as he found himself able to do so. An incident in this con- nection illustrates the degree of confidence which he had in his own resources, and also the confi- dence which he inspired in those with whom he had business relations. While his store was burn- ing he sat on a curb stone near by, making out the schedule of a new stock of merchandise which he proposed to order. When the order reached the house of Phelps, Dodge & Company, in New York, the head of the firm was asked if it would be safe to send so large a bill of goods to a firm which had just passed through a disastrous fire experience. The answer returned by the shrewd old New York merchant was: "Send Robert Haney all he asks for until his head is burned off." The goods came promptly and before navigation closed for the season one hundred and fifty thou- sand dollars worth of iron was safely housed in a new store room, in which Mr. Haney had resumed business. His career thereafter was a prosperous one and at his demise, which occurred January 7, 1885, he left a handsome fortune as well as a good name. A quiet, reserved, undemonstrative man, a comparatively small number of his business as- sociates and contemporaries became intimately acquainted with him, but those who knew him well had a thorough appreciation of the purity of his life, of the kindly impulses of his nature, and of the strict probity which governed his action, in the conduct of all his affairs. His relations with his employes-of whom he had from time to time a large number-were such as to cause them, almost without exception, to become warmly at- tached to him, and many of them were indebted to him for a start in life, which brought to them abundant prosperity in later years.
A Democrat of the old school he adhered firmly to that political faith, but only once allowed him-
self to accept any kind of official preferment. That was in 1861, when he was chosen a member of the House of Representatives from the First ward of Milwaukee, and served through the im- portant session of the legislature, which was charged with the responsibility of putting the state on a war footing. His religious affiliations were with the Protestant Episcopal Church.
In 1844, four years before he first came to Mil- waukee, Mr. Haney married Miss Delia Cornelia Dickinson of Batavia, New York, and they began their permanent residence here in 1850. Mrs. Haney, who survives her husband, still resides in this city, and their only child is now the wife of Hon. James G. Flanders, whose career as one of the leading lawyers of the state has been sketched elsewhere in this chapter of the history of Mil- waukee.
CHRISTIAN WAHL, SR., was born in 1802 at Pirmasenz, a small town in Rhenish Bavaria, better known as the Palatinate, which at that time, however, belonged to France. His father, Caspar Wahl, served under the great Napoleon as a captain in the campaign against Spain, during which he was wounded and lost his eyesight. The son, Christian, was trained in the local public school (then under French control), where he ob- tained a good education and a perfect command of the French language. Aside from his regular studies he early developed a great love for music, and applied himself assiduously to the practical study of the bassoon, one of the most difficult of all orchestral instruments, upon which, however, he acquired a fine technique, and in later years played as a regular member of the orchestra of the Milwaukee Musical Society.
After completing his education he entered the Bavarian Revenue service (the Palatinate mean- time having become a part of Bavaria), in which occupation he remained uninterruptedly until bis emigration to America in 1846, having married Miss Elizabeth Fuhkmann in 1826. On landing in this country he proceeded with his family di- rectly to Milwaukee, in which city he arrived May 2, 1846, and where he remained until his death, engaged in the manufacture of glue. He devoted himself so closely to business that he had little or no time for other occupations, and the only public position which he held was as a mem- ber of the School Board. He was a man of broad religions views personally, but exceedingly toler-
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ant of the beliefs of others, and in politics he was a life-long Democrat. His only important jour- ney was his one voyage across the ocean, so he could not be considered as a traveler; and in the consideration of his social characteristics, while he was a very pleasant and genial companion and a delightful talker, his most prominent trait was his devoted love for music. Being one of the original founders of the Milwaukee Musical Society, he was steadily enthusiastic and faithful in assisting its progress, and served repeatedly as its presi- dent, never missing a single rehearsal, although his house was three miles from the hall. Although steadfast in retaining a love for his natal land, he became an admirable American in every sense of the word, and at the time of his death in 1871 he was sincerely regretted as a business man of the strictest integrity and a citizen not easily to be replaced.
CHARLES HENRY LARKIN was one of the pioneers of Milwaukee, who achieved unusual distinction in the course of a long and useful life, and he was hardly less prominently identified with state and county affairs than with the municipal affairs of the city. Born in the famous old town of Stonington, Connecticut, May 2, 1810, he came of good New England stock, and was a typical representative of the element which has done so much for the advancement of American civiliza- tion in all portions of the United States. His grandfather, Abel Larkin, was a native of Wales, and among the early residents of Westerly Rhode Island. His maternal grandfather, James Rhodes, was also an early citizen of that place, where Jonathan Larkin and Nancy Rhodes, parents of our subject, were born. Jonathan Larkin was engaged, when a young man, in the Newfound- land fisheries, in which he met with considerable success. After farming for some years at Stoning- ton, he removed in 1825 to Alden, Erie county, New York, where he became a large farmer, and was much respected as a man of affairs. He was active in the management of town affairs, and died there full of honors.
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