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 24
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those exhibited by present dealers. The city of Wauwatosa has a pop- ulation of two thousand nine hundred and thirteen according to the state census of 1905. It contains a number of handsome and expen- sive residences and other buildings, while the average homes evince the air of thrift and prosperity in their surroundings, in keeping with the industry and frugality of the occupants. The city contains fewer poor and squalid residences, indicative of poverty and misery, than most cities of its size. The sanitary conditions are excellent and the drainage system as good as can be had. The board of health and sanitary officers are vigilant in the discharge of their official duties, and the streets and alleys are kept in the most perfect sanitary condition. A well organized and trained volunteer fire department is equipped with the latest and best apparatus for the purpose designed. The efficiency of the department has been demonstrated on many occa- sions. A police force, the guardians of the public peace and property, although few in number, is noted for its efficiency in the line of official duty.
Nothing like an extended notice of the various religious organ- izations which have existed in the town and city of Wauwatosa can be attempted in this volume. The little leaven planted so many years ago has grown to mammoth proportions, and no community of like size in the state of Wisconsin possesses greater evidence of spiritual growth, or more devout and conscientious leaders in the great cause of Christian life. Several churches have been organized from time to time, in which the zeal of their promoters exceeded the demand for their services, hence they had but an ephemeral existence. But of the persisting organizations which have grown to prominence and influ- ence, there are several, and their present day status is the best evi- dence of their high standing and liberal support. The first preaching in the town is believed to have been by Rev. Crawford, a Presbyterian minister, at Mr. Warren's house. Preaching was also had about the same time on Mr. Johnson's farm, in section nineteen, in the first school house that was erected.
The public burial place of Wauwatosa is located just beyond the corporation limits, far enough away from the busy bustle of city life to give it the quiet and seclusion which one always associates with the burial place for the dead; hence the selection of the site, which has been beautified as the years passed, until it is now an ideal spot. It contains the mortal remains of several of Milwaukee county's most distinguished citizens, whose final resting places are rendered con- spicuous by the erection of worthy monuments. The private citizen and the soldier are equally honored by the reverence and sacrifice of
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surviving friends, to the end that this sacred spot is rendered beautiful in keeping with the sadly reverential purpose which made its exist- ence a necessity.
The business interests of the city of Wauwatosa are varied and ex- tensive. The mercantile houses compare favorably in extent, variety and quality of goods with any city of equal size in the state. The volume of business is very large when the close proximity of the city of Milwaukee is considered. The mercantile houses are generally backed with resources commensurate to their demands, and the element of losses from bad accounts is reduced to the minimum, by reason of the stable character of the buyers. Perhaps no city in the state, of equal size, has a smaller percentage of losses from bad debts. This is due, in part, to the fact that buyers are permanent residents, usually owning their own homes, though the element of honesty and business integrity among them is a dominant feature.
West Allis is an incorporated village on the Chicago & North- western railway in the town of Wauwatosa, six miles west of Milwau- kee. It has a population of 2,306 and is connected with Milwaukee by electric railway. The village was formerly called North Green- field. A portion of North Milwaukee is also in the town of Wauwa- tosa.
TOWN OF OAK CREEK.
On Aug. 13, 1840, the territorial legislature created the town of Oak Creek by taking from the town of Lake township number five north, range twenty-two east. This was the last of the civil divisions of the county to assume an independent position among the "powers that be." It lies in the southeast corner of the county, with the town of Lake on the north, the great lake to the east, Racine county on the south, and the town of Franklin on the west. Its southeast corner is the most easterly portion of the county, about 160 acres of it being in section thirty-one, town five of range twenty-three east ; it thus ex- tends about four miles further east than the mouth of the Milwaukee river.
The great water drainage of this town is to the east by the way of Oak creek, which stream receives nearly all the tributary streams of the entire town, and are emptied by said creek into Lake Michigan at the village of South Milwaukee. Oak creek has its rise in the eastern part of the town of Franklin, and running in an easterly and then northerly course through the town of Oak Creek, at the vil- lage of South Milwaukee becomes quite a stream of water, which in the days before steam, was utilized as the motive power for machinery.
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The soil of a considerable portion of the town is much less pro- ductive than some other portions of the county, and myriads of boulders, varying in size from a few pounds to several tons, cover several sections of its surface, and thus renders grazing about the only branch of husbandry that is available. The town was originally covered with excellent timber, and was one of the finest hunting grounds in the county. Game of all kinds known in the country was here to be found in almost exhaustless supply. The heavy growth of timber afforded ample cover and protection, and many are the "bear stories" and daring feats of frontier life remembered of the early pioneers of Oak Creek. They were brought daily in contact with bears, wolves, wild cats and panthers, and these were formidable enemies to the young domestic animals about the settlers' cabins, as well as dangerous companions in the lonely wilderness. Deer and wild turkeys were also to be found in great numbers, and these, with an occasional "bear steak," furnished the principal meat supply, to which the epicurean of to-day would have no occasion to object. Venomous reptiles, and especially the dreaded rattlesnake, were among the enemies of modern civilization, and these added their share to the discomforts and perils of pioneer life.
The settlement of the town began under the same discouraging circumstances which prevails everywhere in districts remote from the natural thoroughfares. The meager supplies of actual necessities had to be brought through trackless forests, infested with dangerous op- ponents of civilization. The pack-horse was the faithful friend who was the means of connecting the pioneers with the outside world, carrying to them the few articles of commerce which this simple mode of living demanded. Ammunition, meal and salt were the three articles most required, but the first was always an absolute necessity. The peri- odical trips to the "base of supplies" were always fraught with peril. both to the travelers who made them and to the helpless and defense- less ones who were left behind. Several days were ofttimes required to go and return with a cargo of supplies. The base of supplies for the early settlers of Oak Creek was at Milwaukee, which, considering the state of the roads and means of transportation, seemed a long way off. This, with the financial discouragements of 1837-8, retarded the settle- ment of the town to some extent, and by 1842 there had, perhaps, not more than forty families located within its limits.
As early as 1835, John Fowle, Joseph and Elkanah Dibley, Moses Rawson, and Elihu Higgins, and no doubt a few others had located in the northeast part of the town, some of them bringing their families.
John Fowle was a native of England. In 1835 he immigrated
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with his family to America, stopping first at Rochester, N. Y., where he had friends. After a sojourn there of several weeks he came by steamer "Thomas Jefferson" to Chicago, at which place he arrived early in June, 1835. After a stay of about ten days in Chicago he came by ox team to the site of his future home in the town of Oak Creek. From the present site of Racine, which was then known as Root River, he had to make his own road, as there was nothing but a footpath or trail. At Oak Creek he immediately set about erecting suitable build- ings for the comfort of the family, and while he was thus engaged the mother, four daughters and one son were taken to Milwaukee and domiciled in a log cabin erected and owned by Horace Chase, and which stood on the lake beach at the old river mouth. Mr. Fowle, assisted by his four sons, soon had the buildings erected, and then com- menced the improvement of the land which he had taken up, which comprised 550 acres and which was covered with a dense growth of forest timber. In 1840 he built a saw-mill about forty rods from the mouth of the creek and derived power from a dam on Oak creek, which furnished a fall of twelve feet. This power was also used to drive a small grist-mill which was put in about the time the saw-mill was completed, with one run of stone. It was purely a home-made affair, the mill stones having been made from "hard heads," or granite boulders, by Mr. Fowle, assisted by William Sivyer, of Milwaukee. Elihu Higgins built the first saw-mill on the creek, located about one mile west of Mr. Fowle's mill, but it was not as good a mill, owing to its having but an eight-feet head of water. Owing to the dam being carried out in the spring of 1852, the mill was abandoned, and later on two mills were erected, a saw-mill on the former site and a grist-mill further up the creek. Before the erection of the first mill it was customary to grind the corn either in the coffee mill or in a groove cut in a hardwood log, and the settlers made all their own sugar and syrup from the sap of the maple groves surrounding their homes. The log cabin erected by Mr. Fowle was a large and commo- dious dwelling for that period, and stood close to the edge of the bluff near the mouth of Oak creek, and Mr. Fowle kept a tavern and a stage station, it being the only place between Milwaukee and Racine where stage passengers could find accommodations, and where stable accommodations'and forage for the horses could be obtained. A gov- ernment survey of this land was made in June, 1836, by Elisha Dwelle. The tavern was conducted by Mr. Fowle for about five years, when it was abandoned, and owing to the constant wearing away of the bluff by old Lake Michigan both the old tavern and the road have long since disappeared.
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Joseph Dibley was also a native of England, and with his family accompanied John Fowle and family on their migration to America. With them the family stopped two weeks at Rochester, N. Y., where they had friends, and then proceeded to Buffalo, where they embarked on the steamer "Thomas Jefferson" and started for Milwaukee, but owing to rough weather on the lakes when opposite the little settle- ment at the mouth of the river of that name, the steamer ran on down to Chicago. Together the two families left Chicago for Mil- waukee by the usual ox-team conveyance. They had only reached Gross' Point, about the present site of Evanston, Ill., when Mr. Dibley and family parted company with Mr. Fowle and his family, Mrs. Dibley being taken suddenly ill. The Dibleys remained in camp at Gross' Point about two weeks, when Mrs. Dibley died and was buried there. The family then proceeded to Milwaukee by vessel and landed on July 5, 1835, at the old river mouth, where it joined Mrs. Fowle and children. The members of the family then proceeded to Oak Creek, where they remained until the fall of the year, when Mr. Dibley took his family up to Milwaukee and bought from Solomon Juneau a lot on Jefferson street, where the Layton Art Gallery now stands. Mr. Dibley was a carpenter and joiner, and worked at his trade in Milwaukee for about two years, when the family disposed of the Milwaukee home and moved to Oak Creek, where the father pur- chased 100 acres of land, on which the family resided until his death, which occurred on Dec. 31, 1884.
In 1836 settlement became more active. In that year came Jere- miah McCreedy, Joel Hayman, Thomas and Luther Rawson, John T. Haight, John Q. and Cyrus Carpenter, and several others whose names we are unable to give.
Jeremiah McCreedy was born at Oswego, N. Y., in 1812. He came to Oak Creek in 1836 and settled on a tract of land, after which he returned to Hannibal, N. Y., and married. He brought his wife back with him to Oak Creek and lived there the remainder of his life. dying at his home in that place on Feb. 2, 1888.
Luther Rawson was a native of Buckland, Franklin county, N. Y .. and came to Oak Creek in June, 1836. There he bought 400 acres of land, mostly from the government, and with few neighbors then in the new country proceeded to make a home there. He resided alone until 1846, when he married a most estimable lady, Miss Persis P. Howes, who was born in October, 1823, at Middlebury, Wyoming county, N. Y.
The sale of lands in this town began in October, 1838, or about four years after the sales in some other parts of the county. Of those pur-
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chasing during the first year were John Dibley, Luther Rawson, Joel A. Higgins, John Quincy Carpenter and George A. Cobb. During the year 1839 we find only Thomas Fowle, Elizabeth Haight, Herman Lee Bates, Samuel Dresden and William Howard making good their claims to their homesteads. A large number of claims, however, had been occupied long ere this.
The first town gathering was held on the first Tuesday of April, 1842, at the residence of J. J. Mason, with Asa Kinney as moderator. At this meeting it was voted not to fix the compensation of the of- ficers until after the election, and also that Luther Rawson have power to use all necessary means to keep the dogs from disturbing any meet- ing at the school house, and when the election came off it was formally recorded that he actually received six votes for "dog whipper." It is not known whether this was an office created by statute, or whether there was a particular emergency existing that was paramount to all statutes. After closing the polls, it was voted to pay the town officers one dollar per day, and to raise $125 for school purposes, and that all fines be not less than one dollar or more than ten dollars, "and col- lected by a justice of the peace upon the complaint of a freeliolder," and that "a moiety shall go to the complainant, and a moiety to the commissioner of highways." Whether it was competent for a town meeting to legislate as to the amount or disposition of fines, or who might make complaints against those guilty of crimes or misdemeanors, and pocket half the penalty, we are unable to say, but certainly outside of Oak Creek that is not the usage to-day. The officers elected at that first meeting were: Supervisors : E. D. Phillips, chairman, George N. Cobb, and Jeremiah McCreedy ; clerk, William Shaw ; treasurer, Leon- ard Stockwell; assessors, Leonard Stockwell and Asa House; com- misioners of highways, George N. Cobb and Jonathan Learned; com- missioners of schools, Asa Kinney and E. D. Phillips ; fence viewers : L. Stockwell, Luther Rawson and Jarius Chadwick ; constable and col- lector, John J. Mason ; sealer of weights, John Fowle.
At the annual meeting in 1843 there were but forty-seven votes cast, and so late as 1846 a town meeting voted but sixty dollars for the annual pay of the officers and contingent expenses, and but twenty- five dollars for support of paupers, which goes to show that ten years after it began to be settled the town was not a very large affair finan- cially. To-day the expense of assessing the revenue alone costs, per- haps, several times as much as the entire town government sixty-two years ago, while the population has increased to 7,241, including the city of South Milwaukee.
The village of Oak Creek was started some years after the first
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settlement on its site at the mouth of Oak creek, and although for years it never enjoyed nor was cursed with a "boom," its growth was steady, and the population was judged by its quality rather than quan- tity. It was a desirable trading point and was sustained by an excel- lent farming community, the principal claim to the distinction of being a village being a steam saw-mill, a postoffice, a store or two, and a number of comfortable residences in close proximity. The develop- ment of the place began in 1891 by the establishment of industrial plants there, and in a comparatively short time it achieved the dignity of a city and assumed the name of South Milwaukee. It has a popula- tion of 5.284, and is located ten miles south of Milwaukee, on the shore of Lake Michigan and on the Chicago & Northwestern railroad. It is also on the Milwaukee-Racine interurban electric line. It contains a bank and two newspapers, the South Milwaukee Times-News and the South Milwaukee Journal.
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOR, LENOK TILDEN FOUNDATIONS
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WELCOME
JALE PATION CO.
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CITY HALL
CHAPTER XII.
MILWAUKEE CITY.
PIONEER ANNALS-ORIGIN OF THE NAME-WHO WAS THE FIRST SET- TLER-JEAN BAPTISTE MIRANDEAU-SOLOMON JUNEAU-JACQUES VIEAU-THE SETTLEMENT-NARRATIVE OF HORACE CHASE-"KIL- BOURNTOWN" AND ITS FOUNDER, BYRON KILBOURN-"WALKER'S POINT"-RIVAL VILLAGES-ORIGINAL TOPOGRAPHY OF THE CITY- EARLY SETTLERS-PERSONAL MENTION-LAND SPECULATION-THE
"SINGLE TAX" AS AN EFFECTIVE REMEDY-FIRST CHURCH-FIRST BRICK BUSINESS BLOCK-MILWAUKEE AS A CITY-BOUNDARIES IN 1846-PROVISIONS OF THE CITY CHARTER-COMPLETE LIST OF MAY- ORS-LABOR TROUBLES-PUBLIC WORKS, BUILDINGS, ETC .- PUBLIC PARKS-ORGANIZED CHARITIES, HOSPITALS, ETC .- NOTABLE FIRES- FRATERNAL AND OTHER SOCIETIES-CEMETERIES.
The history of the city of Milwaukee properly begins with its incorporation and organization under the charter, Jan. 31, 1846, but a portion of the pioneer annals has been reserved for this chapter, in order that the record of the metropolis might not be disassociated from the earlier and important events. It was at a very early period that the site of Milwaukee first attracted attention. The name is of Indian origin, but there is much uncertainty as to its original form and the tribal source from which it is derived. The first well authenticated mention of the name appears to have been made in 1761 by Lieut. James Gorrell, a British officer stationed at Green Bay, who rendered it "Milwacky." The fact that a tribe of Indians dwelt at the mouth of the "Mellioke" river in 1679 is recorded in the journal of Father Zenobe Membre, who visited the Illinois country with La Salle in that year, and this reference is supposed by some to have been made to the site of the present city of Milwaukee. If this supposition is correct, "Mellioke" should be recognized as the earliest recorded form of the
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word. And the origin and significance of the word is also a matter of uncertainty, as the Indians, with whom the early traders and mission- aries came in contact, differed materially in their statements. Augus- tin Grignon was informed that the name was derived from Man-wau. an aromatic root, and that Man-a-waukee was the proper form of the word, which signified the place where the root grew. Louis M. Moran, an interpreter of the Chippewas, was authority for the state- ment that the name signified "rich or beautiful land" and should be rendered Me-ne-waukee. And Joshua Hathaway, who was consid- ered a very scholarly man among the early settlers of the place, as- serted that the name was of Pottawattomie origin, derived from "Mahn-a-wauk-ee seepe," meaning a "gathering place by the river."
The most important evidence that the version of Mr. Hathaway is the correct one is the fact that the site of Milwaukee, long before its discovery by the white man-as well as thereafter-was a popular meeting-place or "council ground" for different tribes of Indians. That one of the names given to the place should be that which signified "meeting place," in the Indian language is a reasonable and logical conclusion from the fact that the Pottawattomies were the occupants of the country at the mouth of the river ; and if Mahn-a-wauk-ee was the name used to designate the place by some tribes of Indians and Mel- lioke by others, Milwaukee could easily have been formed by the blending of the two.
Another question which has given rise to controversies of such magnitude as to be entirely out of proportion to the importance of the subject, is the one as to who is entitled to the honor of being handed down in history as the first settler on the site of the present city of Milwaukee. Many of the statements made in this connection bear the imprint of intense partisanship, rather than of historic research, and as there is little or no difference in the statement of facts by these partisans, their claims seem to become but a quibble over terms. "That Solomon Juneau was the magnet around which civilization clustered in the beginning, and that he laid the foundation of the settlement which has developed into the city of Milwaukee, is 1111- deniably true. That his settlement here was antedated many years by that of another white man who, although he has left no impress upon the community, and can hardly be said to have contributed anything to the advancement of civilization, was an actual settler here, is equally true." Long before Juneau came, Jean Baptiste Mirandeau-or Mor- andeau-regarded this as his permanent abiding place, lived here with his family, and reared several children, one of whom died in this city at an advanced age a number of years ago. This fact certainly
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emphasizes the distinction between him and the traders, who were in the habit of making temporary sojourns on the "council ground" at the mouth of the Milwaukee river, and entitles him to be considered a "settler" in the complete meaning of that term. As to the person and character of Mirandeau there is very little information that is considered entirely authentic, but the following from the pen of one who gave the subject considerable attention and weighed well the divergent statements, is considered as nearly reliable as any that can be given1 :
"Mirandeau was of French extraction, but whether he was born in France or Canada is uncertain; and nothing is known of his early life. While it is probable that he came to Milwaukee originally in company with some of the old Indian traders, he does not appear to have been known as a trader himself, but, as early as 1795, was a settler on the present site of Milwaukee, where he built a cabin and engaged, to a very limited extent, in tilling the soil. There is testi- mony to the effect that he was a man of some education, and that he brought with him to Milwaukee a small collection of books, to which he devoted much of his time. A tinge of romance is given to his his- tory by the statement-not well authenticated, however-that he plunged into the wilderness of the Northwest in his young manhood, to find surcease of sorrow when the course of true love failed to run smoothly with him, and that he found solace in the companionship of a Chippewa Indian woman, to whom he was legally married. What- ever may have caused him to immure himself in a Western wilderness, where he seldom saw the face of a white man, Mirandeau appears to have adapted himself readily to his surroundings, and to have had no desire to return to the civilization he had left behind him. He estab- lished friendly relations with the Indians, and having a knowledge of blacksmithing, made himself useful to them in the manufacture of knives, spears, and other things for which they had use, and in return for these and other favors he was promised by the Indians a large tract of land, to which, however, he did not live long enough to obtain title when the lands were ceded to the government.
"The cabin in which he lived for many years was situated on the east side of Milwaukee river, and if the testimony of his daughter, Mrs. Victoria Porthier, can be credited, occupied the site of the present Mitchell Bank building. Juneau also resided on the same plat of ground at a later date, and hardly any other spot in the city can claim equal prestige as historic ground. Here Mirandeau lived with his squaw wife, and reared a family of ten children, all but two of whom reached the age of adults. Here, too, he did work for the Indians, as a
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