USA > Wisconsin > Milwaukee County > Memoirs of Milwaukee County : from the earliest historical times down to the present, including a genealogical and biographical record of representative families in Milwaukee County, Volume I > Part 21
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Detroit, bound for Green Bay, on which vessel we embarked (it being Saturday). Had a good run to the mouth of the bay. The captain (Campbell), a stranger on the lakes being somewhat fearful of running aground. let her lay to (a sailor's phrase), it being near night. By the next morning she had drifted away near to the Fox islands, nearly 100 miles from the mouth of the bay. Hoisted sails and steered for the bay again, arriving at the place where we were the night before. The captain ventured in, finding the water very shallow at the mouth. On Monday, 26th, we arrived at the bay. Before landing, Mr. Menus from Ohio, a house-builder, came on board to see if there were any on board who could handle saw and chisel. I engaged to him at twenty- six dollars per month. After working for him half a month, the founder of Milwaukee, Solomon Juneau, came to the bay to prove up and procure a title to his claim, on which the city of Milwaukee now stands. Juneau said to my brother and myself, that if we would go with him he would do what would be better, by us, than to stay at the Bay and work for one dollar per day. Green Bay was an old French town, with about 1,000 inhabitants ; a very likely place and the only village in the territory of Wisconsin except an Indian trading post at Prairie du Chien. The government fort (Howard) was across the river from the Bay, Captain Scott (afterward Gen. Winfield Scott) commanding. It was commonly reported that the captain was the best shot in the world ; that he could and did shoot an apple from a man's head at a distance of ten rods, without injury to the man. To the ladies of Green Bay belongs the honor of organizing the first temper- ance society in Wisconsin, the organization taking place on Sunday, the roth of June, 1835, with seventeen members-fifteen ladies and two men, the names of the men were, Thomas H. Olin and Nelson Olin. The ladies' names ought to be secured and hung as high as Haman, so that all could see who had the courage to make the first move in the temperance cause, as early as 1835, in the then wilderness of Wis- consin.
"The 17th day of June, the steamer 'Michigan,' lay at the wharf, at the bay, bound for Chicago, Captain Blake commanding. Juneau says to him: 'Captain, if you will take me and five or six more on board your vessel, and land us at Milwaukee, I will give you your choice in village lots on my claim.' The captain at first said he would not do it, as he could not get into the mouth of the river, and the vessel being a large one, had not sufficient anchors to hold her in case of storm ; but concluded if the weather was calm he would run in as near shore as he dare and set us ashore in the yawl. At 2 o'clock p. m., she left the dock and steamed down the bay into Lake Michigan
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on our way to the new place called Milwaukee. Everything went love- ly until we arrived in sight of the North Point. The pilot began ring- ing the little bell to hold up on the steam and let her run into the bay very slow until she came near the cut, as it was then called, not far from where the harbor was afterward built. The captain ordered a boat lowered and set the passengers ashore, who consisted of Solomon Juneau, Alfred Orendorf, Thomas H. Olin, Nelson Olin, and five or six others whose names I have forgotten. The passengers and trunks filled the boat. As there was a very heavy sea on, we were washed back into the lake as often as we would run ashore, but at the third time trying, when near the beach, the sailors jumped out and pulled the boat ashore by main strength. The boat filled with water as did also our trunks. Every one of us was wet to our armpits, but finally suc- ceeded in landing from the first steamboat that ever ran into Milwaukee harbor, on the 17th day of June, A. D., 1835. The captain did not go on shore that evening to locate the village lot, but in the course of the season it was located. He chose the corner lot, east of the Newhall House, corner of Wisconsin and Main, now Broadway, streets. He sold the same in the course of the year for $1,000.
"Mr. Orendorf had claimed a fraction on the lake, at the cut-off, as it was called, at an early day, and spent some time in digging a hole through from the beach to the river, which proved to be the place where the harbor was finally located. Our first night in Milwaukee was spent in Mr. Orendorf's claim shanty, on the fraction above stated, in wet clothing, smoke and mosquitoes. I never knew before the number of mosquitoes that could be crowded into a shanty, with a strong northeast wind, and smoke too thick for comfort. When we killed one it seemed as though a million came in place of it. The next morning we went over the bluffs to the river, there we found a few white men and a great many Indians.
"The first store that was opened in the town was then in process of building and owned by A. O. T. Breed. William Burdick had the job of erecting said building. Charles James and myself engaged to Mr. Burdick to enclose the building while he was making ready the in- side for the goods. The store was located on the corner of Wiscon- sin and East Water streets, where Martin's Block now stands. There were about fifty white men in town at that time I think and twenty Indians to one white man. Harmon & Hayden came very soon after with another stock of goods. Solomon Juneau had a frame up for a house. Breed's store was the first building enclosed on the east side of the river. P. Balser was the first baker in town. He came from Michigan City in a boat containing his family and goods. Thomas
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Holmes came with him. The boat was drawn by a horse, with the beach of the lake for a tow-path. George Sivyer was the first white male child born in the city. Milwaukee Smith, daughter of U. B. Smith, was the first girl born in Milwaukee. When she became of marriageable age she took a partner by the name of Bernard Hochel- berg, of California. The first person buried was James Porter. The first painters and glaziers were James Murray and T. H. Olin. Nelson and T. H. Olin and B. F. Wheelock dug the first cellar and built the first wharf for Juneau, in July, 1835. The first brick was made at the foot of Huron street by Nelson and T. H. Olin, and Loomis & Reed, September, 1835. Samuel Hinman and James H. Rodgers came to Mil- waukee, October, 1835. In November, 1835, Nelson and T. H. Olin contracted with Juneau to build and grade East Water street from Huron street to the river, opposite Walker's Point. We worked but a few days when we sold out to Sylvester Pettibone and Alvin Foster, who came into town a few days previous. This was the first grading done in Milwaukee. My brother and I then entered into a contract with George Reed, Juneau's agent, to build and grade Wisconsin street from Spring street bridge east to the lake, for the sum of $3,000.
"I left Milwaukee Feb. 27, 1836, for St. Lawrence county, N. Y., for my family, and arrived there the 19th of March. Started for Milwaukee again the 25th of April. On my way back, in Ohio, I con- tracted for horse-carts and other necessary tools, and arrived at Mil- waukee on the first day of June, ready for action. C. C. Olin, of Waukesha, came to Wisconsin with me at that time, and was in our employ in building said street.
"The Olins made the first streets, did the first grading, dug the first cellar, and made the first wharf in the city of Milwaukee.
"Oct. 5, 1835, Ellsworth Burnett was killed by the Indians on Rock river, now called Theresa. He was cut up and buried in a marsh near where he was killed. Narcisse, one of Juneau's sons, said to me ten years afterward, old Ash-cab-way, the Indian who killed Burnett, told him where they put him in the marsh, and he had seen his head very near the surface. The hair was on his head the same as ever.
"About the 25th of May, 1836, three men were drowned near the mouth of the Milwaukee river in attempting to cross. T. H. Olin was rowing and steering the canoe in which were three other occu- pants, Henry Shaft, David Lyons, and a young man whose name I have forgotten. When midway of the river, the current being strong out in the lake, Lyons, being a little excited, and fearing they would be drawn into the lake, took up a paddle and pulled the boat into the
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lake in spite of Olin at the helm. And the consequence was, when the canoe reached the breakers, Lyons, Shaft, and the young man jumped out of the boat, being swimmers, and started for the shore, but were not able to reach it. All three were drowned within five rods of the shore, with any number of people near them, but not able to lend them assistance. In jumping out, the boat was capsized and turned bottom side up; but Olin, not being a swimmer, hung to the boat and drifted out about three miles. When the boat capsized he lost his paddle, consequently had nothing to propel it with but his hands. He made calculations, however, to land at or near South Point, but was rescued when about three miles out. Jonathan Wheelock, a tavern-keeper at Green Bay, was standing on the deck of the schooner 'Wisconsin,' about two miles away, and saw the whole affair. He said to the sail- ors : 'Let down the yawl, there has a boat gone out into the lake and capsized-be quick'! The order was obeyed. Uncle Jonathan, as he was called, took the helm; the sailors pulled for dear life and came up with my brother. very unexpectedly to him, and he was saved. This circumstance, without the details or names, I heard when on my way to Milwaukee, between Michigan City and Chicago. The thought came to me in a moment that my brother Thomas was one of the three who had found a watery grave; but when I arrived at Patterson's tav- ern (Gross Point). eighteen miles north of Chicago, I heard that Thomas H. Olin was the only one saved of the four who were carried out into the lake.
"The first court house was built by Juneau. M. L. Martin, and Geo. D. Dousman, in the summer of 1836. Deacon Samuel Brown had the contract and commenced it in the fall of 1835. There was no snow in the winter of 1835 and 1836, to amount to anything like sledding. Teaming was principally done on the river and that was very unsafe, the ice being very rotten the most of the time."
Alfred Orendorf, whose name appears often among the early set- tlers, came to Milwaukee in 1835 and settled upon the northeast quarter of section thirty-three, township seven, range twenty-one. The entry of this claim bears date, on the record, March 17, 1837, just four days subsequent to the great claim meeting held at the court house, March 13, to organize for self-protection against the specula- tors, and at which he was one of the leading spirits. He also entered the southwest and southeast quarters of the same section, afterwards known as the Russell Sage farm. Mr. Orendorf was a native of Kentucky, and possessed in no small degree the reckless spirit for which the people of that state are so noted. James S. Buck is authority for several anecdotes concerning him, among which is the statement
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that he would frequently swim his pony across the river at Wiscon- sin street, even after the ferry was established. He was a splendid woodsman and famous hunter. He was one of the party who volun- teered to go out after and arrest the two Indians who killed Ellsworth Burnett on Nov. 5, 1835, and take them to Green Bay, and upon this occasion there occurred an incident that showed the metal that was in him when once aroused. The Indians were taken to Fort Howard for safe keeping until they could be tried, but the commanding officer at first declined to receive them, giving as a reason that if they had killed Burnett they no doubt had sufficient provocation. At this an- nouncement all the lion in Orendorf was aroused in a moment, and stepping in front of the officer, rifle in hand, his whole frame quivering with excitement, he looked him steadily in the eye, and hissing out his words between his clenched teeth, addressed him as follows: "You're a nice man-you are-for the government to send out here to protect the frontier-you d-d white-livered scoundrel! You just let them two Indians go, if you think best (here he elevated his voice and put in an adjective that made the officer's hair lift), and I will shoot them both before they can get across Fox river." It was not often that a United States officer had to back down in those days, particularly upon the frontier, but this one did. While on a trip to Green Bay in 1836, Mr. Orendorf entered the cabin of a settler named Smith to obtain a night's lodging. He was cold, wet, hungry, tired and used up gen- erally, his countenance representing such a woe-begone aspect as to cause Mrs. Smith to inquire what had happened. She asked if he had been in a bear fight, or treed by wolves, or beaten by some squaw in a game of moccasin, or blown up with gunpowder, or struck by lightning, or what? To which he replied: "Narry one; but you better believe, Madam, that I've had the worstest luck, and the mostest of it that, perhaps, by jim-eni, that you did see." It was upon his claim that so many swarms of bees (twenty-eight) were found in one day, in June, 1837. The woods were literally filled with bees in those days. Mr. Orendorf was not a man to settle down in one place for any great length of time; he was too fond of excitement for that. Consequently, no sooner had the rough and tumble of the first few years worn off than he got restless and uneasy, and finally went to California, where he died.
In 1835 Joel Butler, Stephen Peck, Peter Lyon, George Reed, John Hodgson, J. H. Seargent, John R. Robinson, Alexander Stewart, James Clyman, Thomas Martin. Archibald Clyburn. Henry Merrill, Gabriel Long. Samuel W. Beall, Garrett Denniston, and a number of others purchased land in township eight, or the north half of the
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town. A few of those named were merely land speculators, who bought without the slightest view of ever occupying the lands; but the bulk of them came to the county either at that time or within the next few years. A number of these, however, resided at or about the village of Milwaukee, just then beginning to give promise of becoming an important point.
Among the first settlers in the town may also be mentioned, M. Lynch, native of Ireland, who came in 1835; Frederick Stoltz and William Sauer, of Germany, also in 1835; E. Souneman, Germany, 1838; and William Stange, Germany, 1839. Among other early citi- zens of township eight, the time of whose coming to the county we have not learned, were: G. Mathias, Jasper and John B. Vliet, James W. Jones, Buel and Samuel Brown, Isaac Williams, Reuben M. Keene, Martin D. Webster, Charles H. Dill, J. D. Whiting, Anson W. Buttles, and a few others.
We have no means of coming at the population of the town of Milwaukee for the first few years, as it was included with the village of Milwaukee for the first ten years of its existence. Judging from the smallness of the vote cast in 1846, it had scarcely inhabitants enough to fill all the offices without bestowing two or more on some of the individuals. In 1850 the population had increased to 1,349; in 1860, to 2,468; 1870, to 3,096; 1880, 3,472; 1890, 6,403 ; 1900, 5,122; and the state census of 1905 showed a population of 5.945. A part of the town of Milwaukee was annexed to the city following the censiis of 1890, and this fact explains the reduction in population in 1900 and 1905.
Whitefish Bay is an incorporated village in the town of Milwau- kee, six miles north of the city, and is connected with the latter by the Chicago & Northwestern railway and also by an electric line. It is on the shore of Lake Michigan and has a population of 527. The village of East Milwaukee was organized in 1900, and lies contiguous to the city on the north, comprising a population of about 500. There are several energetic and enterprising business establishments in each of these villages.
TOWN OF GREENFIELD.
Topographically, this town in general is level. Kinnickinnic and Root rivers and Honey creek, with their tributaries, drain the terri- tory and flow respectively in an eastern, a southern, and in a northern direction. Root river enters the town at its western boundary and flows across it until the water finally makes its way to Lake Michigan. The other two streams have their source within the limits of the town.
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The valley or bottom lands adjacent to these streams are especially fertile, highly improved and very valuable. Some other parts are not so rich for agricultural purposes, but the town in general is really a very fine body of land, scarcely second to any in the county. The streams mentioned above afford the drainage of the surrounding country.
The principal varieties of timber which abounded in exhaustless supply and excellent quality were hickory, walnut, butternut, ash, poplar, sugar maple, oak of all kinds, cherry and sycamore.
With the advent of the first white settlers, the woods abounded in game of all kinds known in the country. Deer and wild turkeys, exceedingly plentiful, afforded the principal meat supply of the early settlers. Every man and boy and some of the female population were expert hunters, and many are the tales told of hair-breadth escapes from, and single-handed contests with Bruin, the arch enemy of the young domestic animals about the settlers' cabins. Wolves, panthers and wildcats also made night hideous and nocturnal travel precarious with their prowling, stealthy and deceptive methods of attack.
The first settlement of the town of Greenfield antedates its organ- ization by about three years. The town was created on March 8, 1839. At the time of its creation the town was named Kinnickinnic, and in territory the division included what are now the towns of Franklin and Greenfield. The town of Franklin was erected on Dec. 20, 1839, thus reducing the size of Kinnickinnic to its present limitations, and on Feb. 19, 1841, the name was changed by legislative enactment to Greenfield. The town comprises the full Congressional township No. 6 north, and of range 21 east, and lies south of Wauwatosa, west of the city of Milwaukee and the town of Lake, north of Franklin, and is bounded on the west by Waukesha county. A small portion of the town was canal lands.
The earliest white settlers known to enter the town did so in 1835, but the number who came prior to 1836 was very small. Reuben Strong came with his family in October, 1836, and found already in the town. Joseph C. James, Albert Fuller and Erastus Montague with their families, and Joseph Guild, Harvey Hawkins and William Strathman, all single men. George S. West and a few others arrived at about the same time. William Strathman was the first German immigrant in the county. In 1836, also came F. D. Weld, William S. Trowbridge, Sidney Evans, and a number of others.
William Salisbury Trowbridge, son of Calvin and Margaret ( Packard) Trowbridge, was born in New Hartford, Oneida county, N. Y., Dec. 25, 1812. When the boy was seven years of age, his father
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removed with his family to Vermilion county, Ind., locating on the bank of the Vermilion river, where they remained for about nine years, and where the boy's experience of pioneer life really began. The un- healthfulness of the climate, together with the financial depression prevailing in the country at that time, proved so serious a consideration, as at last to induce Mr. Trowbridge to abandon the idea of a perma- nent home in Indiana, and so in the autumn of 1827 they returned to New York, and New Hartford became again the family residence. Entering now upon his sixteenth year, and having become the eldest son through the death of his brother Horace, three years his senior, the youth was employed in assisting his father-whose varying fortunes made such service most grateful-and, at the same time, he was look- ing toward his own future. At one time he was a student at an acad- emy in Cazenovia, N. Y., but he completed the course of study in civil engineering-which fitted him for his chosen occupation in life-at the Liberal Institute in Clinton, Oneida county, N. Y. The last days of September. 1834, found the young man on the way from the place of his birth and early association toward the site of the present city of Chicago. From Detroit, our young Trowbridge chose the most prim- itive of all means of transportation and made the entire distance, 300 miles, on foot. The exact date of arrival in Chicago is not obtainable, but it must have been during the first half of October, 1834, for in November following he was one of a party of government engineers, whose chief was a Mr. King, and who were detailed to survey govern- ment lands in and about the place now known as Sheboygan, Wis. On their way north the party was wind-bound here. Nov. 9. 1834, and, at that time Mr. Trowbridge made the first survey of lots in the present city of Milwaukee, viz: blocks one, two, three and four in the First and Seventh wards. The survey in Sheboygan and vicinity occupied the whole winter, so that it was not until April, 1835, that the party returned to Chicago. In December, 1835, Mr. Trowbridge returned to Sheboygan for another winter. In 1836 he visited the East, return- ing in the autumn of the same year to Milwaukee as a permanent resi- dent. In 1837 he again returned to his early home, and in April of that year, married Miss Abigail C. Richardson of New Hartford, and in June following returned with his young bride to their new home. This home was in the town of Greenfield on Thirty-third avenue, south from National avenue. Mr. Trowbridge was the first city surveyor elected in the city of Milwaukee, which office he held until the passage of an ordinance requiring that officer to be a resident of the city. His last work was the re-survey of the town of Wauwatosa, completed in 1880. In religious belief he was a Universalist and in politics a Re-
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publican of the most pronounced type. His earthly record was closed by death on Sept. 10, 1886.
The land sales in this town began March 13, 1839, and twenty- four pieces were disposed of, while on Oct. 18, following, no less than sixty-eight tracts were bid off, and on April 30, 1840, forty-five addi- tional tracts found purchasers.
Among the purchasers in 1839 were: Frederick Eggart, George Baird, A. W. Morgan, W. H. Bennett, Eleazer Chase, C. F. Elsworth, David Curtain, Edward Welsh, Henry Martin, George Smith, James Fohay, Ebenezer Hale, Seneca Hale, Michael Hacket, William Mero- sey, Philip Minser, John Furlong, Martin Ward, Nathan Cobb, Peter Jordan, John Conoly, Hiram Dayton, James Delisle, Samuel Milling- ton, Ira Blood, Luther Ayers, J. H. Leavenworth, John Julian, Rufus Scott, James G. Herbert, John Sheldon, Antoine Doville, John Arm- strong, Reuben Strong, and about twenty-five others.
Seneca Hale was a native of Onondaga county, N. Y., born Oct. 5, 18II. He came to Wisconsin in 1837 and settled in the town of Greenfield, where he remained on his farm up to the time of his death, which occurred when he was seventy-nine years old. He had been a member of the school board a number of years and was one of the first settlers in the town.
John Furlong was born in the village of Buttevant, County Cork, Ireland, on March 26, 1812, being one of three children of George and Martha (Gorman) Furlong. The family came to Quebec, Canada, in 1821, and soon afterward Mr. Furlong bought a large tract of land near the head of Lake Champlain, in the state of New York, where he was engaged in farming until 1832. At that date he moved West and settled on land at Conner's Creek, near Belle Isle, which is now within the municipality of Detroit, Mich. The family tarried here only four years, and then yielded to the impulse which has moved the star of empire westward, and which has prompted so many to seek new homes in the undeveloped richness of new countries, they once more turned their faces toward the setting sun, and traveled to the west shore of Lake Michigan-where the city of Milwaukee has since sprung into exis- tence-in time to be among the very earliest of the pioneers of this county. After a short residence in the town of Greenfield, John Fur- long returned to Milwaukee, which became his permanent home, and he then engaged in the contracting business, and together with Richard Hackett, did nearly all the grading of streets done in this city up to 1857. He also constructed a lime kiln on his farm and was the pioneer of this region in that industry, but sold out his business at the date last mentioned. He was engaged in the wholesale grocery business from
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1848 to 1860, and then engaged in a packing enterprise, the packing house which he built on the lake shore being now a part of the Schlitz malt house. In 1866 he established himself in the business of whole- sale dealer in fish at Nos. 197 and 201 East Water street, occupying one of the oldest landmarks in Milwaukee, the Dousman warehouse, which was built in 1837. Five years later his sons, Morgan and John M. Furlong, were admitted as partners in the business. In 1873 they pur- chased Washington Harbor on Washington Island and a part of St. Martin's Island in northern Michigan, which was used for a fishing station, the firm having an extensive trade in both lake and salt-water fish for many years. Mr. Furlong died suddenly on Dec. 26, 1883. In politics he was a Democrat, but office-holding had but little attraction for him, and his public service in that way was confined to the common council in the early days of Milwaukee's history. He was a devout Catholic, and was one of the first to suggest and support the building of St. John's Cathedral, to which he contributed very largely, and to- gether with John Dahlman, Edward O'Neill and Bishop, afterward Archbishop Henni, he founded St. Rose's Orphan Asylum, which was incorporated in 1851.
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