USA > Wisconsin > Sheboygan County > History of Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, past and present > Part 30
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The town of Mitchell was organized with the present town of Lyndon in 1849. In 1850 it was separated from Lyndon and organized under the name of Olio, with the following officers: Peter Donahoe, chairman; Wil- liam E. Akin and William Austin, supervisors; C. W. Humphrey, town clerk and superintendent of schools; Stephen Gray, treasurer; and Peter Preston, assessor. The name of Mitchell was given to the town in 1851 as a token of respect to the great Irish patriot, John Mitchell. The first settlers here were Albert Rounseville, Benjamin and James Trowbridge, John and Daniel Sanborn and James O'Cain, who with their families formed a little colony in the state of New York to immigrate to this country and located near the center of section 12 and adjacent to a number of springs of pure and sparkling water. This little settlement was increased in Sep- tember of the same year by John Smith, James Angus, John Horn, Alfred Launsdale and E. L. Adams, with their wives and children, from Sodus, New York. They located in the immediate vicinity of the first colony of
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J. L. SEXTON'S CABIN IN WHICH HE WAS MURDERED, JUNE 28, 1911, IN TOWN OF RUSSELL
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settlers and it was their intention to all join their interests in a community with the objects and aims of a society then known as the Fouerierites. With this object in view eleven families united in a petition to the territorial legislature to grant them a charter under the name of the "Spring Farm Phalanx." Harrison C. Hobart who was then the representative in the legis- lature from Sheboygan county, fathered the bill, but he was defeated in his efforts and as a result the colony was in a measure disintegrated and some of its members left for other localities.
Benjamin F. Trowbridge had gone to the gold diggings in California and on his return in 1852 was lost at sea between Havana and New York city. In August, 1846, R. Fritz settled on section 14 and his brother Edward on section 23. C. W. Humphrey came in February, 1847, and was fol- lowed by E. Siekens in March, and U. Cous in May of that year. Mr. Humphrey came from Oneida county, New York, and preempted a claim, upon which he built a cabin and "kept batch" until his marriage in 1848, to Marian Elizabeth Van De Mark. He was one of the early commissioners for Sheboygan county, served as sheriff, supervisor, superintendent of schools and member of the Wisconsin assembly.
Laurence Riley, a native of Ireland, located on section 34, in 1847. His father joined him sometime thereafter and made his home with his son, where he died. William Chambers, also a native of Ireland, settled on section 36 in this same year. His petition for the east half of section 36 bears the date of May 13, 1847, and is the earliest known in the town. James Gillen, a native of Ireland, settled in the town in 1848. John M. Saeman, with his wife Elizabeth and two children, Christina and John, left his native place in Germany in 1849 and entered a large tract of land on section 13, a part of which became the site of the village of Batavia. Richard R. Phalen, who was born in Ireland, came to the United States when sixteen years of age and settled on a farm in the town of Mitchell in 1850. Austin Hinkley, a native of Ohio, located on what is known as Spring Farm in 1854 but later removed to the town of Lyndon.
In 1848 imigration into the town increased quite rapidly and consisted principally of natives of the Emerald isle-a frugal, peaceful and industrious people.
Juliette, a daughter of U. Cous, was married to Almon Andrews, of Plymouth, August 18, 1848, 'Squire Oran Rogers performing the ceremony. This was the first marriage in the town. The birth of George O'Cain, son of Isaac and Cynthia O'Cain, which occurred in May, 1848, was the first of the white race to occur in Mitchell. The death of an infant son of John and Sarah Hurn, September 8, 1846, was the first in the town. Sarah Hurn in the fall of 1846, taught the first school.
Mitchell has no incorporated towns. There is a small village-Parnell -near the center on the line of sections 21 and 22, where there are two hotels, general stores, blacksmith shop, schoolhouse and town hall. There are two hamlets-Pius, on section 8, and Rathbun, on section 5. Mitchell had a population in 1910 of 969.
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ST. MICHAEL'S CHURCH
This church is a mission of St. Mary's church at Cascade, being attended from that congregation. It was established in 1860 by Rev. Patrick Petit. The congregation is composed almost entirely of Irish.
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CHAPTER XV
THE COUNTY SEAT
VILLAGE AND CITY OF SHEBOYGAN - POSTOFFICE - FINANCIAL INSTITU- TIONS-CARNEGIE PUBLIC LIBRARY-THE SCHOOLS-THE CHURCHES-IN- DUSTRIAL SHEBOYGAN-FRATERNAL ORDERS AND SOCIETIES-THE VILLAGE OF KOHLER.
VILLAGE AND CITY OF SHEBOYGAN
No especial attempt will be made to write any further of the history of Sheboygan town, as all that has been heretofore related of the early settle- ments in this part of the county takes in the town of Sheboygan. The men and women who took up their abode here were the pioneers of the village and they and their children made possible the building of the present flour- ishing and beautiful city.
The site upon which Sheboygan stands was early recognized as an ideal spot for the founding of a city and the hardy forerunners of the present industrious and ambitious people laid the foundation stones securely and well. The choice of this spot was a most excellent one. A magnificent nat- ural harbor had already been provided by nature. The waters of Lake Michigan and the Sheboygan river were teeming with fish and the forests of pine and hardwoods were on every hand. The woodsman took to his ax and the fisherman his nets, and soon a village rose upon the shores of the lake and river, and the foundation of Sheboygan's great industrial inter- ests was laid.
In 1845, a traveler on his way from Green Bay to Chicago wrote to an eastern paper his impressions of this locality, formed while passing Sheboy- gan on the lake. Among other things he said: "This I found to be a place about which not so much has been said, yet it is one of the most romantic and promising villages on the entire lake. More natural advantages center here . to make this, in time, a large and splendid city, than any other place within my knowledge." How prophetic in his vision was the keen observer! The "Chair City" is a living, substantial, flourishing realization of the traveler's forecast.
Dr. J. J. Brown, one of the pioneer settlers and physicians, was a man of strong intellectual attributes, was always alive to the importance of things and had a true eye and appreciation for the useful and beautiful. Writing for the Sheboygan Mercury in 1846, he had the following to say of the future lake city: "The Sheboygan lighthouse is the first that is made by
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vessels on their way up the lake and will be their last on their way down. Two piers with storehouses are already built to accommodate landing, etc., and some two thousand or three thousand cords of wood getting ready for steamboats. The village of Sheboygan is chiefly on the right bank of the river, with an elevation of about twenty feet. Its site is all that fancy could dictate; being high, level and dry, the soil a sandy loam covered with beau- tiful second growth pines, maples, etc. Never did nature furnish more splendid locations for private dwellings than are found in the suburbs of this village and they will not long remain unoccupied, for at the rapid rate of settlement, which this place has experienced for a few years past, it must be one of the most populous and important points on the lakes. In 1844 there were but seventy-five inhabitants; it now contains seven hundred, with almost all the comforts and conveniences of an eastern city."
There were few, if any, of the pioneers who came to the county that did not first appear in the settlement at Sheboygan. Many of them later on re- moved to Sheboygan Falls, Plymouth and other sections of the county. William Paine, however, after having built his mill near the Ashby place in 1834, erected a cabin that since found itself within the present confines of the corporation of Sheboygan. Later "General" Harrison put up a cabin on the south side of the Sheboygan river, but both he and Paine lost their property, their claims to the tracts of land not having been properly filed. Hence, their residence here was hardly long enough to designate them as permanent settlers in the village.
The plat of the village of Sheboygan was made in the winter of 1835-6 by William Trowbridge, for the owners of the land, George Smith, Daniel Wells, Jr., Daniel Whitney, Robert Forsythe and other alien speculators, and many of the lots were sold at public auction in Chicago, in June, 1836. Houses were built and the prospects of the town builders were quite flatter- ing, until the panic of 1837, referred to in a former chapter.
In 1846 a village charter was granted by the legislature to the ambitious settlement and on the 9th day of February, 1846, an election was held, at which time the question of accepting the charter was submitted to the voters. Eighty-four votes were polled and seventy-nine of them were cast in favor of the proposition. At this first election the following officers were chosen : President, H. H. Conklin; clerk, Donald U. Harrington; treasurer, Van Epps Young; constable, Robert Watterson; trustees, William Farnsworth, J. L. Moore, Warren Smith, R. P. Harriman.
Among the most important acts of the new village legislative body was to levy a tax of six mills on the dollar to defray the expenses of erecting a "free bridge" across the Sheboygan river at Eighth street.
The village grew, schoolhouses, churches, store buildings, warehouses, commodious homes and mills were built. Of the latter, Messrs. Dean & Crossell put up the first grist mill in the village in 1851 and in December of that year the first grain was ground. This was a power mill and stood on the south side of the river, near its mouth. The first vessel to ply on the lakes from this port was built here by Captain Powell in 1845, and this marked the beginning of Sheboygan's great lake traffic.
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THE CITY OF SHEBOYGAN
By 1853, and less than a decade since Sheboygan had taken on the dig- nities of a village government, her people had become of greater ambition and felt strong enough to assume greater responsibilities. In furtherance of this laudable ambition a city charter was granted and the first election under the charter was held April 5, 1853. The borough was divided into two wards. Following was the result of the first election: Mayor, H. H. Conklin; clerk, C. E. Morris; treasurer, Kasper Guck; marshal, George Throop; police justice, D. Manville; superintendent of schools, J. J. Brown. The aldermen were: First ward, G. H. Smith, James Feagan, John Dietzel; second ward, James Hogan, Joseph Schrage, John Gee. Since then the ex- ecutive chair has been filled by the following: Michael Winter, 1881-83; Thomas M. Blackstock, 1883-85; James Bell, 1885-87; John M. Saeman, 1887-89; James Bell, 1889-91 ; John M. Kohler, 1891-93; Frank Geele, 1893-95 ; Charles A. Born, 1895-1905; Theodore Dieckmann, 1905-12.
At the time Sheboygan became a city there were only two wards, which cast at the first election 427 votes. The city was at this time without fi- nancial resources and industries were very much in their infancy. The mode of travel was by stage coach and freightage was by wagons. Traffic with eastern marts was by the lake, bridge piers extending into the lake being used by vessels touching at this port. Public improvements were a negligible quantity. In the years 1854 and 1855 considerable street grading was ac- complished and the newly-created city saw a bright future and prosperity was the word until 1857, when the country was overwhelmed by a panic, from which it took the community over a decade to recover. The horizon did not show evidence of clearing until 1868-9, when the city's indebted- ness was honorably readjusted by a compromise and a new era was inau- gurated. Industries gained a new and grateful impetus, which has continued until the present day and Sheboygan is noted far and wide as an important manufacturing center. The two wards have been increased to eight, the least of which has a population almost equal to the population of the city at its inception. Railroad facilities have so developed that the community has connection with the outer world equal to its demands. Vast sums of money have been expended on the harbor and vessels of immense burthen may enter at any time in season. The bonds of the municipality find a ready and lucrative market. Well appointed and regulated fire and police depart- ments, sewerage, paving, waterworks, electric and gas lighting systems, place the city in the front ranks with others of the state.
THE MUNICIPAL COURT
The municipal court of Sheboygan was created by law in 1887 and the tenure of its judges is four years. The jurisdiction of the municipal court is over "all actions of law, where the amount claimed shall not exceed the sum of $600 and to try and determine all criminal actions, when the crime was committed in said city ; and that are not punishable by commitment to the state prison and to arrest and examine and to hold to bail all parties Vol. 1-18
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charged with other offense against the laws of the state as provided by law. And the said court and judge thereof shall also have exclusive juris- diction of all offenses and actions under the charter of said city, and the or- dinances, rules and by-laws of said city, and exclusive jurisdiction of all criminal trials and examinations for offenses committed within said city, subject to appeal to the circuit court of said county, and the statute of re- moval of causes, either civil or criminal, applying to justices of the peace, shall not apply to said judge of his court and there shall be no removal therefrom. He also has jurisdiction co-extensive with justices of the peace and powers to sentence and commit the same as a circuit judge or justice of the peace."
The first incumbent of the office of municipal judge was August Pott, who was elected in 1887 and served until 1895. His successor was Otto J. Trilling. Judge Trilling remained on the bench until 1903, when he gave place to the present incumbent, Judge John M. Giblin.
CITY HALL
Almost sixty years have passed since Sheboygan was first governed un- der a city charter, yet in that time there has been nothing done in the way of erecting a building for the use of municipal officers and safe keep- ing of the city's archives. During all these years the various departments of the city have been relegated to rented rooms in business blocks and at this time several of the city offices are on the second floor of the German Bank building, where each department crowds upon the other, from which confusion and inconvenience ensue. This state of things became intolerable and in the spring of 1912 the question of issuing $75,000 in bonds, for the erection of a city hall, was submitted to a vote of the citizens and was car- ried almost unanimously. For some years the city has owned a valuable building site on the corner of Center avenue and Ninth street, and here a magnificent $100,000 structure will soon stand, a monument to the progress- ive ideas of the taxpayers of Sheboygan, and their representatives in the present administration.
THE FIRE DEPARTMENT
A systematized, well-appointed fire department is one of the indispen- sable essentials of a modern city and in this respect Sheboygan is well up to the standard. Protection against fire was early considered by the citizens and along about 1854 or 1855 a hand pumping engine for fires was purchased for the volunteer fire company that had long been in existence. This engine was supplemented by another in 1866 and in 1872 a steam engine was pro- cured, from which period it may be said the present paid department took its start. From time to time additions have been made to the paraphernalia of the department and today it is thoroughly equipped for fighting the destroy- ing element. In 1907, a magnificent central fire station house was built on the corner of New York avenue and North Ninth street, which cost the city $20,000. Here is the office of the chief, Edgar Bedford, the electrician,
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Opera House Masonic Temple St. Nicholas Hospital
Public Library Post Office Elks' Club House
GROUP OF SHEBOYGAN PUBLIC BUILDINGS
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Samuel Fairweather, and the home of No. I Hose Company, of which John Burkard is captain; also Hook and Ladder Company, No. 1; Henry Traute, captain. No. 2 Hose Company is stationed at the corner of Indiana avenue and South Fourteenth street, Charles Brandt, captain. No. 3 Hose Com- pany has its station at the corner of North Tenth street and Lincoln avenue, Frank zum Buttel, captain.
THE POLICE DEPARTMENT
It is certainly food for favorable comment to know that the city prison occupies but a part of a small frame building which bears the name of the police station. The writer visited this bastile one morning recently and dis- covered no tenant of the cell room. That speaks well for a city of 28,000 people and over one hundred saloons.
In 1860, seven years after Sheboygan became a city, there was a popu- lation of 4,262. At the start the city had two wards, and they were sparsely inhabited. Today, there are eight wards, which have 26,398 inhabitants, taking the United States census as an authority. The city has grown steadily and substantially and ranks high in all the attributes of the modern municipality. The people are industrious and prosperous, have high ideals as to mental and physical culture, are a church-going, law-abiding citi- zenry; and their civic taste for the best in all that goes towards the making up of a high-class community is apparent on every hand.
The need of a large police force has never been realized and today the police pay roll of the city is comparatively a small one. The department is made up of twelve men, which includes the chief, August Scheck, a lieu- tenant, desk sergeant, driver of patrol wagon and day and night patrolmen. The equipment of the department includes a patrol wagon and an ambulance. At present the police station is in a frame building on the corner of Center avenue and Ninth street.
THE WATERWORKS
On November 16, 1886, the American Water Works & Guaranty Com- pany was granted a franchise by the city council of Sheboygan, to construct a system of waterworks. The works were built and within one year there- after there were twenty-nine miles of pipes laid by the company and about 250 fire hydrants. By and under the franchise the city was given the priv- ilege of purchasing the plant every five years during the life of the franchise. This privilege was taken advantage of and as early as the year 1899, a com- mittee was appointed by council, composed of F. A. Dennett, Carl Zillier, Henry Luther, Paul Krez and Theodore Dieckmann, "to investigate the feasibility of purchasing the city waterworks and the manner of raising money to pay for the same." This committee was kept in existence until the final act in the project was completed. Prior to the year 1905, the city had made an offer to buy the waterworks, which was rejected and then plans were made by the authorities to build a plant of its own. This lead the City Water Works Company to reconsider the city's proposal to buy and on
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February 13, 1905, the city was notified that the plant would be turned over to the city on the payment of $360,000 in cash. This proposition was ac- cepted and, in accordance therewith an ordinance was passed by the council, September 27, 1907, for the issuance of $360,000 twenty-year bonds, bear- ing five per cent interest, payable semi-annually. The city had performed every act imposed by law in the premises. The question of buying the plant had been submitted to a vote of the people and was carried by a vote of six to one. Provision had been made for securing the purchase price and, ac- cording to the conditions demanded by the water company, on the second day of January, 1908, Mayor Dieckmann, John M. Steimle, city clerk, mem- bers of the City Water Works Commission and the city's legal representa- tives, met the president of the water company, J. H. Purdy, and the com- pany's secretary, Roy J. Miller, at the place appointed and there notified the company's representatives that the city desired to examine the records of the company, to ascertain if all legal requirements had been observed by the company, in the proceedings for the transfer of the property. This the company refused to do and then the city brought action against the company for specific performance of contract.
In October, 1908, the company offered to settle the matter in litigation, by turning over the plant to the city for $425,000, on condition that the city dismiss its suit against the company. This offer was not acceded to and a few days later the company proposed that the city pay $385,000, plus $30,- 000, the latter sum being the agreed value of extensions and improvements made since 1905. After considerable controversy in the council and out- side opposition, this proposition was accepted by the council and the matter submitted to the people at a special election, held February 4, 1909. The result of the election is given below and speaks for itself :
THE VOTE
Yes
No
Ist ward
407
128
2d ward
.200
80
3d ward
109
44
4th ward
327
82
5th ward
404
25
6th ward
238
18
7th ward
275
43
8th ward, Ist precinct
259
34
8th ward, 2d precinct
415
30
2,634
484
By the election returns it was plain to be seen that the people can do business for themselves when given a chance. They demonstrated, in no unequivocal language, their desire for the waterworks on the terms set forth and by their voice of approval the authorities were fortified and went ahead and closed the deal.
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Since coming into possession of this valuable utility the city has made a number of changes and improvements. The intake, which had been out in the lake at a distance of 1,800 feet from the shore, has been extended to 5,000 feet and now the intake is at a depth of forty-six feet, on the bottom of Lake Michigan, while theretofore it was at a depth of twenty-six feet. This insures pure, sparkling, ice cold water at all seasons of the year. An- other improvement of vast benefit was the construction of an intercepting sewer, from the main sewer on Michigan avenue, which had its outlet directly into the lake, to the Sheboygan river, thus diverting that part of the city's refuse from the lake to the river and by so doing preventing the pollution of the lake water.
The city authorities claim the waterworks at the price paid, was a good investment, and that it is an earning proposition that will in a few years pay for itself. That the number of consumers is steadily increasing and the interest on the bonds, which sold at a premium of $2,500, is being met promptly when due and money besides is being constantly placed in a sink- ing fund for the lifting of each bond when payment thereof is due. The buildings, pumps and mains are in good repair and only one mishap has oc- curred, that of the falling down, in January, 1912, of the 140-foot water tower. This will not be replaced, as water is now pumped by direct pres- sure into emergency reservoirs.
THE SEWERAGE SYSTEM
A well-devised, properly constructed sewerage system is essential to the health and well being of a community, especially given over largely to manufactories. Sheboygan has many factories of various descriptions, which require an outlet for refuse matter that continually accumulates in large quantities. Business establishments and residences cannot be kept in good sanitary condition, unless properly arranged with outlets for waste fluids that contaminate and breed disease. To meet the needs of a growing city a system of sewage was inaugurated here in 1889, which combines for storm and sanitary purposes and needs. And, the natural topography of the land admitting of splendid drainage, the system in Sheboygan can be well said to be almost perfect.
The first sewers were built on Jefferson avenue and North Eighth street, in 1889, and since then the city has been cobwebbed with drains, varying in sizes from 4x5 feet concrete sewers to eight-inch pipe. At this writing there have been laid approximately fifty miles of sewers, at the approxi- mate cost of $450,000. These sewers have for their outlets Lake Michigan and the Sheboygan river.
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