USA > Wisconsin > Milwaukee County > Milwaukee > History of Milwaukee from its first settlement to the year 1895 > Part 9
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"ART. 7. That a board of arbitrators, consist- ing of five, shall be elected by the people of their district. The duty of said arbitrators shall be to have all summons legally served coming from judge or justice of the peace, to sit as a board of arbitrators, to hear and try any case brought before them, within the meaning of this constitution. The judge or justice issuing the same shall preside over said board, and record all testimony and de- cisions of the same. A majority of said arbitra- tors shall constitute a quorum, and proceed to business after being duly sworn according to law; and in case the whole number of arbitrators are present, each party may have the privilege of re- jecting one member of said board; and in case that one party has no objection to any one mem- ber, the other may reject two of the same; the
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HISTORY OF MILWAUKEE.
oldest claimant so contending shall have the pref- erence, provided he has made a legal claim, and in all cases the decision of the board shall be final. All proceedings of said board shall be made a rule of court, and the judge or justice shall proceed accordingly; and each member summoned and appearing to sit upon any such case, shall be en- titled to two dollars.
"ART. 8. That each member and clerk of this convention shall be entitled to two dollars per day while attending, including the time of going to and returning from said convention, to be paid equally out of the funds of each treasury of the districts sending the same, by the members pre- senting a certificate signed by the president and clerk of this convention.
"ART. 9. That all decisions of the Board of Arbitrators, in conformity to any of the foregoing resolutions, shall be put in force and complied with, peaceably if can be, and forcibly if must be. In case forcible means shall be resorted to, all reasonable expenses, so made, shall be paid out of the treasury of the district where such expenses are made.
"ART. 10. That in case any difficulty should arise, in regard to claims, not comprehended in the foregoing resolutions, the Board of Arbitrators shall have universal jurisdiction over the same, and their decision shall be final, as provided in the foregoing resolutions.
"ART. 11. That any person who has a family of three or four children, shall be entitled to hold one claim for such children, provided, the oldest of such children does not exceed the age of eigh- teen or sixteen years, and that he or she shall have complied with the foregoing resolutions."
This constitution was signed by Gilbert Knapp as chairman and B. B. Cary and J. C. Knapp as secretaries of the meeting; by Alanson Sweet, B. W. Finch, Albert Fowler, Horace Chase and Henry C. West, delegates from Milwaukee; by Gilbert Knapp, Levi Mason, Walter Cooley and William Luse, delegates from Root River; by Jason Lath- rop, Waters Towsley, G. P. Post and George W. Griffin, delegates from Pike River; by John Fowle and John P. Haight, delegates from Oak Creek and by Symmes Butler, delegate from Skunk Grove.
There were no printing presses in the Territory at that time, so far as known, with the exception
of that on which the Intelligencer was printed at Green Bay. It was desirable that the purposes of the organization should be fully known and under- stood, and to attain this object it was deemed im- portant that the constitution of the "Union" should be printed and circulated among the set- tlers. Jason Lathrop of Pike River undertook to do the printing and improvised a press, at a cost of less than ten dollars, on which the work was done in such a way that it subserved the purpose for which it was designed, however crude it may have been as a specimen of the printer's art. A copy of this printed constitution of the Claimants' Union-the only one in existence so far as known-is now in the library of the State Historical Society at Madison.
Many of the citizens of Milwaukee and imme- diate vicinity were not entirely satisfied with the provisions of this constitution, and a year later adopted a new code, which was drawn up by I. A. Lapham .. Under this code the county was divided into precincts, each having a club which appointed committees to hear and determine disputes which might arise over land claims. A "judiciary" committee was also constituted with headquarters in Milwaukee, to which claimants might appeal from the decisions of the precinct committees. The decisions of the "Judiciary Committee" were to be regarded as final, and as a matter of fact commanded at the time as much respect as if they had been decisions of a Supreme Court. All the members of this committee were well known and prominent pioneers, their names being as fol - lows: A. A. Bird, Doctor Enoch Chase, Solomon Juneau, N. F. Hyer, Samuel Brown, Albert Fow- ler, D. H. Richards, A. O. T. Breed, Samuel Hin- man, W. R. Longstreet, H. M. Hubbard, James Sanderson, Chauncey H. Peak, Daniel Wells, Jr., and Byron Kilbourn.
Under the provisions of the code governing this association of settlers, one could hold his claim to a quarter-section of land by erecting thereon a cabin and cultivating three acres of ground, and to a half-section by cultivating seven acres more. All claims were duly registered, and so loyally did the settlers stand by each other and so bravely did they fight each other's battles, that nearly all were enabled to retain their legitimate holdings and to purchase them at the land sales of 1839, at the government price.
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SPECULATION SUBSIDES AND DEPRESSION FOLLOWS.
CHAPTER XI.
SPECULATION SUBSIDES AND DEPRESSION FOLLOWS.
BY THE EDITOR.
[N 1836, the expressive, if not very elegant word I
"boom," had not been coined and it did not, therefore, occur to any one to designate by that name the wild speculation of that year in Milwaukee realty. The events of the year, how- ever, and subsequent occurrences, justify the state- ment that one of the earliest products of Milwau- kee was a colossal "boom." With the close of navigation, in 1836, came a change as distressing as it was surprising to most of the inhabitants of the ambitious villages, on either side of the river. The activity in real estate suddenly ceased, busi- ness operations of all kinds were practically sus- pended, and the situation became exceedingly un- comfortable for a large proportion of those who remained here during the winter. So rapid had been the increase of population during the preced- ing summer and fall that very inadequate pro- vision had been made for the newcomers in the way of food and shelter. Only here and there could be found a bit of ground in Milwaukee county, which had been cultivated during the summer, and those who had raised anything in the way of farm products needed all they had for home con- sumption. Everything the people of Milwaukee needed to live on, had to be shipped in from the older communities of other States, and when the transportation facilities afforded by the open waters of Lake Michigan were suspended, prices became high, and food hard to get at times, at any price. It followed as a natural consequence that there was much suffering among the early settlers of the overcrowded village, and many of the worthy pioneers experienced hardships and pri- vations during the winter of 1836-37, which they remembered or will remember to the end of their lives. Anxiously they all looked forward to the coming spring, all hoping and some confi- dently expecting a revival and continuance of the "flush times" of the year before. In this they were doomed to be disappointed. The balmy breath of spring, the warmer breath of summer
even, failed to revive prospects which had been blighted by the frosts of winter.
The financial panic of 1837 was on. Specula- tion was for the time being, at an end, and there was stagnation of business everywhere. Carried away by their enthusiasm as to the future of Mil- waukee, scores of people, hundreds of people in fact, had discounted a somewhat remote future, and in 1837 they awoke to a bitter realization of this fact. They had paid for lots and other prop- erty in a straggling settlement-which was without commerce, without manufactories, without business of any kind, in fact-prices which ought only to have ruled in a well-established city of consider- able proportions and known resources. Thrown on the market by the large number of persons who had overtraded their capital, this realty would bring only a fraction of its original cost, and ruined investors were to be seen on every hand. Men who had considered themselves rich a few months before, found it necessary to do something to gain a livelihood, and no small number of them drifted away to other places to seek the employ- ment they could not find here. A few of those who had made more or less extensive investments during the preceding year, had tempered their enthusiasm with discretion, and having looked into the future and estimated its probabilities with admirable precision, were content to hold their possessions and await developments.
It may be said, however, that the depression of 1837, distressing as it was in many respects, was not an unmixed evil. When the speculative fever subsided, reason returned to a majority of the naturally thrifty, resourceful and self-reliant set- tlers, who had been affected by the prevailing contagion, and they turned their attention to development of the resources of the town and sur- rounding country. Comparatively few new set- tlers came during the year 1837, and many of those who had been considered permanent settlers returned to their old homes in "the East," or
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HISTORY OF MILWAUKEE.
went elsewhere in " the West;" but those who re- mained had faith in the future of Milwaukee and sought to make the best of the situation. Little was done during the year in the way of making improvements, so far as the erection of buildings was concerned, but considerable progress in other directions might have been noted. On the east side of the river a village.government was or- ganized, of which Solomon Juneau became the official head, and on the west side the same logic of events made Byron Kilbourn head of a similar municipal organization. In this connection it may be remarked, without injustice to either Juneau or Kilbourn, that in the early years of their enterprise as founders of Milwaukee, both exhibited a narrowness of view in one respect, in striking contrast to their breadth of view in other respects. Each seems to have cherished the illu- sion that his town-site could only flourish at the expense of the other ; that their interests were an- tagonistic ; that if one enterprise went up the other must go down, or that in any event one must far outstrip the other. The result of this feeling was entire independence of action on the part of the proprietors of the separate divisions of Milwaukee. The most unfortunate result of this independence of action in laying out the town-sites, was the irregularity of streets and the confusion in street nomenclature, which strangers, visiting the city at the present time, find it difficult to understand or account for, which has added materially to the cost of bridging the river and marred the beauty of the city.
The antagonism of interests between Juneau and Kilbourn, and the feeling which it engendered, extended to their friends and adherents, and pre- vented harmonious action for the general upbuild- ing of the community. When Kilbourn put the first steamboat (" The Badger") on the river, in 1837, for the purpose of conveying passengers to and from the lake vessels, which, in the absence of harbor facilities, anchored in the bay, the little steamer was not permitted to land its passengers on the east side. Rival newspapers (the Advertiser and the Sentinel) came into existence and engaged in heated controversies, and it was not until a legislative enactment consolidated the two villages under one government, in 1839, that an era of harmonious action dawned upon Mil- waukee.
The principal events of the year 1837 were the
organization of Milwaukee county for judicial purposes and the designation of Milwaukee as the county-seat ; the holding of the first session of the territorial court in Milwaukee by Judge William C. Frazer; the organization of a medical society by Doctor Thomas J. Noyes, Sullivan Belknap, S. H. Green, William P. Proudfit and others; the organization of a county agricultural society by Byron Kilbourn, Solomon Juneau, S. Pettibone, Hugh Wedge, I. A. Lapham, James H. Rogers, George D. Dousman, J. Manderville, John Ogden, D. S. Hollister, William R. Longstreet and Henry M. Hubbard ; and the organization of the first temperance society by S. Hinman, W. P. Proud- fit, F. Hawley, William A. Kellogg, Robert Love, George H. Dyer, H. W. Van Dorn, Daniel Worth- ington and Daniel Brown.
In 1838, there were numerous evidences of re_ covery from the extreme depression of the pre- vious year. A better feeling prevailed among the settlers and they addressed themselves to the task of building up a prosperous community with renewed vigor. They were reinforced before the close of the year by such sterling characters as Lewis Ludington, Judge Andrew G. Miller, Lyndsay Ward, David S. Ordway, Harvey Birch- ard and others, who helped to make the history of the city and State in later years. The close of the year brought with it the opening of a road to Madison-a government appropriation having been made for that purpose-and other roads were also opened and improved into the interior, and north and south along the lake shore. A light- house was built on the lake shore at the terminus of Wisconsin street, the expenditure of funds for this purpose being the first outlay of money by the government for public improvements in Mil- waukee. Eli Bates, at a later date, a noted citi- zen of Chicago, was the first keeper of this light- house.
With the opening of the year 1839, there was a marked improvement of the condition of affairs in Milwaukee. There was an influx of capital, and money circulated much more freely than in 1837 and 1838. During that year docks were built, streets graded, new stores and business- houses opened, the Milwaukee and Rock River Canal project was inaugurated, and evidences mul- tiplied that the town was preparing for a rapid and substantial growth.
The greatest event of the year was the land
A. O. T. Brud .
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SPECULATION SUBSIDES AND DEPRESSION FOLLOWS.
sale, which began on the 16th of February and lasted until the 16th of March, when all the public lands of the district ready for the market were offered for sale. This was an event to which the settlers on lands in the neighborhood of Mil- waukee had looked forward with mingled hope and anxiety. All hoped that they should be able to purchase the lands on which they had settled, and all were more or less fearful that speculators and men of means would bid the lands up to prices which they would be unable to pay. The settlement of the country and the growth of Mil- waukee had made all lands in the immediate vicinity worth much more than the government price, but the ability of the settlers to make pay- ment was not proportionate to this increase of values. By economizing in every possible way, working hard and enduring numerous privations, many of the settlers had succeeded in saving barely money enough to pay for their claims-the "ten shillings" per acre, which was the minimum government price. If a higher figure was bid they would be compelled to sacrifice whatever improvements they had made, as well as the lands in which they had a vested right. To pro- tect themselves against threatened despoilment and eviction, the settlers in all parts of the coun- ty, through representatives from each precinct, had formulated a plan for harmonious action, at a meeting held in Milwaukee November 10, 1838. In accordance with this plan, all claims were reg- istered and each precinct selected a "bidder," who was furnished with a plat of the registered claims in the precinct which he represented. This "bidder" was instructed to be present at the land sale, and when the lands in his precinct were offered at auction, to bid "ten shillings" per acre, and no more, for each claimant. Pursuant to the adoption of this plan of action. a resolution was adopted at the above-mentioned meeting held in Milwaukee, binding the settlers to be present at the sale "to aid and assist in carrying into execu- tion" the plan agreed upon, and it was declared that "no person should be permitted to bid on any lands save the agents aforesaid." Arbitrary as this action was, it appears to have been rendered necessary by the exigencies of the occasion, and to have been prolific of good results. When the 16th of February, 1839, arrived, A. B. Morton, Registrar of the Land Office, began offering the lands for sale, all moneys being paid in to Rufus
Parks, who was the Receiver of Public Moneys at Milwaukee. The settlers were present in force, prepared to enforce the mandate that none save their duly appointed agents should bid on lands, and few speculators or designing interlopers were courageous enough to attempt to bid against them. As a consequence nine-tenths of the land sold was purchased by actual settlers, and the total sales for the month aggregated in round numbers half a million dollars. The sales con- tinuing, on the 19th of March reached a total of $600,000, and the total sales for the year 1839 amounted to nearly $800,000, the Commissioner of Public Lands at Washington declaring this to have been "the largest and most remarkable sale of lands known to the department" up to that time.
The removal of the Indians to the country west of the Mississippi river, in 1838, was an event, the importance of which should not be overlooked in considering the progress toward an advanced stage of civilization, made by Milwaukee, and the adjacent country prior to 1840. As long as the red men remained in close proximity to the vil- lage it had a tendency to discourage immigration from the Eastern States, because while they had been in the main of a peaceable disposition, the Indian temper was always regarded as uncertain, and many timid people looked upon settlement in Wisconsin as something extremely hazardous. There was a general feeling of relief therefore among the settlers when the savages finally packed their tents and moved away toward the setting sun.
The first church erected in Milwaukee was built in 1839, on Martin street, west of Jackson, Rev. Patricius O'Kelly being the priest in charge of the Catholic congregation which erected it, and "St. Peter's" being the name given to it upon completion. The first fire-engine was also brought to the city in that year, and was christ- ened "Neptune No. 1." George D. Dousman was the first foreman to take charge of this engine which was kept in service some years and then sold to a town in the interior of the State, where it was still in use a few years since.
Just before the close of the year occurred an event which was to have a marked influence upon the future of the city. This was the arrival of a colony of immigrants from Germany and Nor- way, the advance-guard of the thousands who
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HISTORY OF MILWAUKEE.
have since contributed so largely to the develop- ment of this city and State. There were eight hundred persons in this company of immigrants, and they came with money to purchase homes, or prepared to labor industriously to acquire homes. The gold and silver money which they brought with them was put into circulation and had a vivifying effect upon all kinds of business.
In 1840 the first brick business block ever built, in Milwaukee, was erected by John Hustis, on the northwest corner of Third and Chestnut streets. It was three stories high, and one of the floors was occupied as the first theater of the town. The building was a notable improvement and ushered in an era of substantial improvements. From that time forward the urban aspect of Mil- waukee continuously improved, and it was not many years before it had come to be looked upon not only as one of the most important, but as one of the handsomest cities in the Northwest. The first bridge joining the East and West sides was built in 1840, and spanned the river at Chestnut and Division streets. Much historic interest at- taches to this structure which involved the pioneers in controversies assuming at times a threatening and dangerous aspect. What has passed into local history as the " bridge war," was in fact a war of contending factions strangely blind to the best interests of the infant city as a whole, and of rival sections each seeking to obtain a temporary advantage over the other. The first bridge built in the vicinity of Milwaukee, was built by Byron Kilbourn across the Menomonee river near its junction with the Milwaukee river. It connected the Chicago road with the road which terminated in the village on the west side of the Milwaukee river, and its tendency was to divert travel from the road which led up to a ferry at Walker's Point, and terminated in Juneau's village on the east side of the river. Naturally enough, settlers on the East side were not pleased with this enterprise, and it served to increase the animosity which had already sprung up between the two sec- tions. The growth of the two villages, however, necessitated a means of communication, and after a time a ferry was established at the foot of Spring street, now Grand avenue. In 1836 the County Commissioners were authorized by legis- lative enactment to construct a bridge which should connect Wells and Oneida streets, but so much opposision to the project was manifested
that for the time being it was dropped. In the legislative enactment of 1839, consolidating the two villages, provision was made for the building of a bridge at Chestnut street under the auspices of the new village government, but no action was taken under this authority, and in the face of much opposition the bridge was finally built under a contract let by the county commissioners. It was originally constructed as a draw-bridge, but not being satisfactory in its operation, it was re- modeled so that a span could be hoisted high enough to permit the two little steamers then plying on the river to pass under it. A bridge was constructed at Spring street in 1843, and in 1844 another bridge was built, connecting Oneida and Wells streets. The expense of maintaining the bridges was borne mainly by the people of the east ward-the consolidated village being divided into east and west wards-and soon came to be re- garded by them as a somewhat heavy burden. Al- though they were unquestionably the principal beneficiaries of the bridges, the burdens of main- tenance caused them to regard with disfavor the increase in the number of bridges. In the early summer of 1845 the Spring street bridge was seri- ously damaged, and the "draw" torn away entirely by a schooner, and while the "east siders" claimed that the injury to the bridge was purely accidental, they were charged by the "west siders" with hav- ing instigated an act which was deliberately and intentionally committed.
Retaliatory action followed, and one morning in the spring of 1845, the people of the east side awoke to discover that the west end of the Chest- nut street bridge was being torn down, and that the west end of the Oneida street bridge had been rendered impassable. The excitement which had resulted from a long controversy as to the location of bridges, was at fever heat, and the inhabitants of the west ward seemed to have determined to break off communication by way of the Chestnut and Oneida street bridges, with their neighbors on the opposite bank of the river. The "east siders" soon congregated on the river front, and so in- tense was their feeling of resentment that some of the more vindictive and fiery spirits brought out a small cannon with which they proposed to bom- bard the home of Byron Kilbourn, who was looked upon as the head and front of the movement which provoked their hostility. The field-piece was charged and brought to bear on Kilbourn's
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SPECULATION SUBSIDES AND DEPRESSION FOLLOWS.
home. Tragic consequences might have followed shortly had not Daniel Wells, Jr., brought to the highly wrought up crowd the news that the shadow of death rested upon the Kilbourn home- stead, Kilbourn's daughter having died the night before. Then Jonathan E. Arnold, the silver- tongued pioneer lawyer, appealed to them not to become transgressors of the law, and others coun- seled calm and judicious action. The crowd dis- persed for the time being, but some days later again assembled and destroyed the Spring street bridge and the bridge over the Menomonee, being willing, apparently, to suffer the inconvenience of doing without bridges entirely, rather than allow their west side neighbors to dictate where bridges should be maintained.
For many weeks thereafter the controversy continued to be waged with much bitterness, ac- companied by both serious and ludicrous incidents, and temporary expedients were resorted to in the interval which followed, until the winter of 1846, when James Kneeland, who was then a member of the Territorial council, succeeded in obtaining a legislative enactment which settled the bridge question and restored peace between the sections of the village, which was then about to assume the name and dignity of a city. The law passed at that time provided for the construction of bridges connecting East Water with Ferry street, Wisconsin with Spring street; and North Water street with Cherry street. The Chestnut street bridge was to be vacated as soon as the North Water street bridge was completed, and the Oneida street bridge was to be removed within five years from the date of the enactment. The cost of maintaining the bridges was apportioned among the wards, and the entire plan of settle- ment of this vexed question was submitted to vote of the people of the east and west wards at an election held February 12th, 1846. It was ratified by a decisive majority, and comparative harmony has since prevailed in locating new bridges, and in providing for the expenses of their construction and maintenance.
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