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 29
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The rivalry which had sprung up between the East and the West sides was for the first time injected into politics this year. The inhabi- tants of "Walker's Point" had joined those of "Juneau's Place" against those of "Kilbourntown," and in the county convention held in another
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part of the county succeeded in having Gilbert Knapp and Alanson Sweet nominated as candidates for the legislative council. This action was repudiated by Byron Kilbourn and his friends, and they nominated George Reed against Sweet, who was particularly objectionable to them. But at the election the East Side gained a substantial victory over the West Side, and the result was far reaching in its consequence. The building of the court-house and the establishment of the postoffice on the East also contributed to its advantage, for the early settlers be- coming accustomed to transacting their business there, in later years the public was influenced to place the government, county and city buildings in that part of the city.
Although the Government land office was opened in Milwaukee in the fall of 1836, a peculiarity of the land laws of that period made it impossible for settlers to obtain even a shadow of the title to the lands which they occupied until such lands were offered for sale in 1839. Those who came here in 1834, 1835, 1836, 1837, and 1838, except such persons as purchased lots from Juneau and Kilbourn, were all "squatters" on public lands, in danger of being compelled to pay for the improvements which they themselves made, when the lands were of- fered for sale at public auction, or of being ousted from their possessions by those who could outbid them. The dangers which threatened them made it necessary for the early settlers to organize themselves into associations designed to facilitate the settlement of disputes among themselves, to protect themselves against lawless adventurers, and for the maintenance of their rights against the unrestrained competition of speculators. A full account of this movement and organization upon the part of the actual settlers is given in a previous chapter, and the success that crowned their efforts is an important incident in the history of Milwaukee and the country surrounding it. But in their accounts of this carly struggle between actual settlers and those who desired only to get a title to the land and then await the development of the community by others, when they would come into possession of the unearned increment, other historians have failed to mention a very im- portant fact, which had a decisive influence in giving the victory to the actual home-seekers. Daniel Wells, Jr., who was elected as a member of the Territorial Council in the fall of 1838, introduced and secured the passage of a law providing that all improvements should be exempt from taxation and that all taxes should be assessed against the unim- proved value of the land. This protected the actual settlers against non-resident land holders who had monopolized large tracts for specu- lative purposes during the land excitement of 1836, and preserved, while the law remained in force (until the territory of Wisconsin be-
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came a state), the right of free access to the soil to those who desired to till or otherwise improve it. This Wisconsin law was probably the first enactment of its kind passed by any legislative body in the world, but during the last thirty years the idea has grown rapidly in favor among students of political economy, the theory being com- monly denominated the "Single-Tax Philosophy." Forty years after the passage of this law Henry George wrote his "Progress and Pov- erty," in which he maintained that the unearned increment-i. e., the increase in land values that comes by reason of the greater demand caused by a growing population-is sufficient to sustain all the insti- tutions of any country ; that this value should be taken by the state, and that all other forms of taxation should be abolished. "This truth," said he, "has always existed, if economists could only see it." The action of the pioneer legislators of Wisconsin is a corroboration of Mr. George's theory. They saw the truth long before he expounded it.
Comparatively few new settlers came during the year 1837, and many of those who had been considered permanent settlers returned to their old homes in "the East," or went elsewhere in "the West." These movements were occasioned by the stagnation in affairs that followed the close of 1836. The "land craze" has been mentioned in a previous chapter, as has also the "hard times" that followed it. The activity in real estate suddenly ceased, business operations of all kinds were prac- tically suspended, and the situation became exceedingly uncomfortable for a large proportion of those who remained in Milwaukee during the winter. Everything the people needed to live on had to be shipped in from the older communities of other states, and when the transporta- tion facilities afforded by the open waters of Lake Michigan were sus- pended, prices became high and food hard to get at any price. It followed as a natural consequence that there was much suffering among the early settlers, and many of the worthy pioneers experienced hardships and privations during the winter of 1836-37, which they remembered to the end of their lives. And when the spring opened in 1837 they were doomed to be disappointed in their hopes and expec- tations of a revival and continuance of the "flush times" of the year before. The financial panic of 1837 was on, and there was a stagnation of business. everywhere. So far as the erection of buildings was con- cerned, little was done in the new settlement, but considerable progress might have been noted in other directions. On the east side of the river a village government was organized, 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 addition to the prevailing industrial depression, the antagonism of
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interests between Juneau and Kilbourn, and the feeling which it en- gendered between their friends and adherents, further prevented harmonious action for the general upbuilding 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.
Among the principal events of importance in the history of Mil- waukee in 1836 was the establishment of the Milwaukee Advertiser, which occurred on July 4. It is doubtful if the town had at that time grown to sufficient size to warrant such an undertaking, but Byron Kilbourn and others welcomed it as an aid in the contest for supremacy between the east and west sides of the embryo city. The owner of the enterprise was D. H. Richards, a practical printer, but its editors and contributors consisted of such talented men as H. N. Wells, J. H. Tweedy, Hans Crocker, Byron Kilbourn and others. It was a very grave task to undertake the publication of a paper at such a time. Paper and ink had to be brought a long distance, and there were few mails. The owners persevered, however, amid all discouragements, and the paper still lives under the name of the Daily Wisconsin, much heart- ier and stronger than when it was born. Many a similar venture has gone to the bottom in the more than sixty years that have since elapsed. It was like all the papers of its time-filled with news from abroad. The proceedings of the legislature are given with great fullness, and of foreign news there is an abundance; but of home news very little, and of editorials, practically none. Editors, then, did not write. Nearly everything original in any newspaper of that period is communicated, and the writers all have classical signatures-"Cato," "Brutus," "Cas- sius," "Cicero," etc. The young lawyers and doctors of that day prob- ably aired their college education in this way, and seemed to be hap- piest when they could stir up a controversy about something. The approach of an election is perceptible by communications on the danger the country is in, which can be averted only by the election of John Smith to the legislature. A rival newspaper, the Sentinel, was estab- lished on the Juneau side early in 1837, and the two engaged in heated controversies. The strife between the two sections continued unabated, 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 Milwaukee.
The county was organized for judicial purposes in 1837, with the designation of Milwaukee as the county seat, and the other principal
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events of the year were: The holding of the first session of the terri- torial court in Milwaukee by Judge William C. Frazier; the organiza- tion of a medical society by Drs. 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. Proudfit, F. Hawley, Wil- liam A. Kellogg, Robert Love, George H. Dyer, H. W. Van Dorn, Daniel Worthington, and Daniel Brown.
Dr. Thomas J. Noyes, who is thus mentioned in connection with this early medical society, came to Milwaukee in 1836 from Franklin, N. H., and at once became prominent in politics as well as eminent in his profession. In political faith he was a Jeffersonian Democrat, and served as justice of the peace for several years, the duties of which office he performed faithfully and fearlessly. He died while on the way to California in 1852.
Dr. William P. Proudfit came to the rapidly-growing town from Rome, N. Y., and immediately entered upon the practice of his pro- fession, a work from which nothing swerved him. "Buck's History of Milwaukee" says that at the time of the organization of the medical society in 1837, Dr. William P. Proudfit was its treasurer, but there are no known records of the association. During the inclement win- ter of 1842-43, pneumonia was unusually severe, and after great ex- posure required to reach a patient who was ill of this disease, Dr. Proudfit himself succumbed to it on March II, 1843, at the early age of thirty-seven years.
Increase A. Lapham, who was one of the most prominent of the early settlers of Milwaukee, became in later years a national figure, and it is fitting that more than a passing mention should be made of him here. According to the family record he was born in Palmyra, Ontario county, N. Y., on March 7, 1811. In 1818 his father removed to Penn- sylvania, where he had a contract with the Schuylkill Navigation Com- pany, but soon afterward returned to Galen, Wayne county, N. Y., where he was employed in the construction of the locks of the Erie canal. In 1826, the father secured for Increase a place as rodman on the Miami canal in Ohio, and he went by steamer to Cleveland and San- dusky. In December of the same year he went to Louisville, Ky., secured a better position on the canal around the falls, and attended the school of Mann Butler, the historian, of Kentucky. His first scientific paper was published in "Silliman's American Journal of Science," in
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1828; notice of the Louisville and Shipping-port canal, and of the geology of the vicinity. As Mr. Lapham had received only a com- mon-school education, his acquirements were the result of self-culture. Under these circumstances he was greatly surprised to receive a parchment from Amherst College conferring upon him the honorary title of LL. D. in August, 1860. In 1833 he was appointed secretary of the Ohio Board of Canal Commissioners, and in the performance of his duties in the office of the state treasurer was instrusted with large sums of money. In 1835-36 he was appointed one of the com- missioners to report on the best mode of carrying out the law author- izing a geological survey of the state of Ohio. In 1836 he came to Milwaukee, where he at once became a conspicuous figure among the early settlers and later among the scientific men of the state of Wis- consin. He made an extended survey of the most noted of the animal- . shaped mounds of Wisconsin, an account of which was published in the "Smithsonian Contributions" in 1855. In 1846 he made a donation of thirteen acres of land in the Second ward to the city of Milwaukee for a high school. In 1849 he made a series of very careful observations, by which he discovered in Lake Michigan a slight lunar tide exactly like that of the ocean. In 1869 he sent to Hon. Halbert E. Paine, member of Congress, a memorial representing the duty and necessity of some effort to prevent the loss of life and property on the great lakes; showing the practicability of predicting the occurrence of great storms. In 1873 he was appointed state geologist of Wisconsin and organized and conducted the survey for two years, during which time much valuable work was done and reported to the governor. Dr. Lapham's death occurred at Oconomowoc, Wis., Sept. 14, 1875.
James Higson Rogers was born on Jan. 11, 1794, in the city of Troy, N. Y. His business career may be said to have begun when he was sixteen years of age, because at that time he left home to make his own way in the world. With a cash capital of three dollars he began business in Glens Falls, N. Y., and built up a considerable mercantile establishment at that place. He next kept a hotel at Lake George, and must have accumulated some capital in these enterprises because he shortly afterward became somewhat prominent as a government con- tractor both in the carrying of mails and the making of public im- provements. In the spring of 1836 he started westward, the trip to Milwaukee being of the typical pioneer kind. As early as 1844 he erected a brick block three stories high, on East Water street, and shortly afterward he built the old United States Hotel, one of the fa- mous pioneer hostelries, at the corner of Huron and East Water streets. In 1837, with other enterprising citizens of the promising
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village which had sprung into existence here, he organized the Milwau- kee County Agricultural Society, nucleus of the present State Agricul- tural Society, becoming a member of the first board of directors. In 1857 he inaugurated the improvements which have given the city that splendid street known as Grand avenue. Mr. Rogers' death occurred on April 30, 1863, when he was a little more than sixty-nine years of age.
David S. Hollister came to Milwaukee from Newark, Ohio, in June, 1836, making the entire journey by land. He was an energetic business man, but his fondness for trading, together with an inordi- nate love of money, prompted him, as it did many others, to go into debt beyond his ability to pay, and, as a natural sequence, like many of his compeers, when the full force of the crash of 1837 came, he went to the wall, and in the end was compelled to leave for newer fields. In political faith, though acting with the Whig party in the main, he was an out-and-out Abolitionist, and as fearless and out- spoken upon the subject of slavery as any one who ever lived in Mil- waukee, not excepting Sherman M. Booth or the Hon. Edward D. Holton ; and he was among the first in Milwaukee to befriend a slave when fleeing from his master, always acting openly. He ran for the assembly in 1838 upon that issue, the Hon. C. H. Larkin stumping the county for him. Upon coming to Milwaukee he located upon the south half of block 99, in the present Fifth ward, where he erected, in the summer of 1836, the most substantial frame dwelling in that part of the town. There he lived until the fall of 1838, when he removed to a suburban residence erected upon the southeast quarter of section 36. town 7, range 21, Wauwatosa, afterward the homestead of Col. William H. Jacobs, and there he remained until June, 1839, when he left the country, temporarily, as he supposed; but fate had ordained otherwise, and he never saw Milwaukee again.
There were numerous evidences of recovery from the extreme depression of the previous year, in 1838. The settlers were reinforced before the close of the year by such sterling characters as Lewis Lud- ington, Judge Andrew G. Miller, Lyndsay Ward, David S. Ordway, Harvey Birchard, and others, who helped to make the history of the city and state in later years.
Harvey Birchard was born in the town of Bridgeport, Conn., in 1800, and received his education in the schools of his native county. He came to Milwaukee in 1838 in company with Lewis and Harrison Ludington, with whom he formed the co-partnership firm of Luding- ton, Birchard & Company, and opened a general store on the north- west corner of Wisconsin and East Water streets, in a building which
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occupied a site where the Pabst building now stands. Mr. Birchard retired from the firm in 1840, and with his available means, perhaps $20.000, which was considered a large sum in those days, commenced dealing in real estate and lending money in the city and surrounding country. His work in the way of building improvements was as follows : Birchard's Hall, corner of Grand avenue and West Water street, rebuilt by him in 1860 and again rebuilt by his wife and son in 1880, now a part of the Plankinton House block ; five brick tenements, built in 1858, on the north side of Grand avenue, between Eighth and Ninth streets; six brick stores, built in 1862, on the west side of West Water street, a few doors south of its intersection with Grand avenue. In politics he was a Republican, and took a very decided stand in sup- port of the Federal cause in the Civil war, but he always declined to be- come a candidate for any public office. Mr. Birchard died at his home in Milwaukee in 1864, and was buried on the family lot in Forest Home cemetery.
The close of the year 1838 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 shore at the terminus of Wisconsin street, the expenditure of funds for this purpose being the first outlay of money by the govern- ment for public improvements in Milwaukee.
There was a marked improvement of the condition of affairs in Milwaukee, with the opening of the year 1839. 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 multiplied that the town was preparing for a rapid and sub- stantial growth. But the land sale, which began on Feb. 16 and lasted until March 16, was the greatest event of the year. All the public lands of the district ready for the market were offered for sale, nine- tenths of it was purchased by actual settlers, and the total sales of the month aggregated in round numbers half a million dollars. The sales continuing, on March 19 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. In considering the progress toward an advanced stage of civilization, made by Milwaukee and the adjacent country prior to 1840, 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 over- looked, as it invited immigration and dispelled the fear that was always present of trouble with the red men.
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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" was the name given to it upon completion. The first fire en- gine was also brought to the city in that year, and was christened "Neptune No. I." 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. An event occurred just be- fore the close of the year 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 Norway, the advance-guard of the thousands who have since contributed so largely to the development of this city and state. In this company of immigrants there were 800 persons, and they came with money to purchase homes, or were prepared to labor in- dustriously to acquire homes.
The first brick business block ever built in Milwaukee was erected by John Hustis in 1840, and it was situated 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 first bridge joining the East and West sides was built in 1840, and spanned . the river at Chestnut and Division streets. Prior to this Byron Kilbourn had built a bridge across the Menomonee river, near its junction with the Milwaukee river, and this structure was the first bridge built in the vicinity of the future city. 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. Settlers on the east side were not pleased with this enterprise, and naturally enough it served to increase the animosity which had already sprung up between the two sections. After a time a ferry was established at the foot of Spring street, now Grand avenue, and this provided a means of com- munication which the growth of the two villages made an imperative necessity. The county commissioners had been authorized by an enactment of the territorial legislature in 1836 to construct a bridge which should connect Wells and Oneida streets, but the project was dropped for the time being, owing to the manifestation of intense op- position. When the two villages were consolidated by the legislative enactment of 1839, a 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
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county commissioners. It was originally constructed as a draw- bridge, but not being satisfactory in its operation, it was remodeled so that a span could be hoisted high enough to permit the two little steamers then plying on the river to pass under it. In 1843 a bridge was constructed at Spring street, and in 1844 another bridge was built, connecting Oneida and Wells streets. The consolidated village was divided into east and west wards, and the expense of maintaining these bridges was borne mainly by the people living on the east side; and this soon came to be regarded by them as a heavy burden, al- though they were unquestionably the principal beneficiaries, and they re- garded with disfavor an increase in the number of bridges. The Spring street bridge was seriously damaged in the early summer of 1845, the "draw" being entirely torn away by a schooner, and while the "east siders" claimed that the happening was purely accidental, the "west siders" charged them with having deliberately and intentionally instigated the act. The people of the east side awoke a few mornings later to discover that the west end of the Chestnut street bridge was being torn away, and that the west end of the Oneida street bridge had been already rendered impassable. So intense was the feeling of re- sentment among the "east siders" that they soon congregated on the river front, and some of the more vindictive and fiery spirits brought out a small cannon with which they proposed to bombard the home of Byron Kilbourn, who was looked upon as the prime mover in the act of destruction which had provoked their hostility. Consequences ex- tremely tragic in their nature might have ensued had not Daniel Wells, Jr., brought to the infuriated crowd the news that Kilbourn's daughter had died the night before and that the home they proposed to destroy was at that moment a place of deep grief and mourning. Jonathan E. Arnold appealed to the infuriated crowd, thus quieting the mob spirit that had manifested itself, and the assemblage dispersed for the time being ; but a few days later the Spring street bridge and the bridge over the Menomonce were destroyed, the "cast siders" apparently be- ing willing to suffer the inconvenience of doing without bridges entire- ly, rather than allow their west side neighbors to dictate where those means of travel and communication should be maintained. The con- troversy continued to be waged with much bitterness for many weeks thereafter, and it was accompanied by both serious and ludicrous in- cidents. In the interval which followed temporary expedients were resorted to, and it was not until the winter of 1846 that the matter was finally settled. Then, James Kneeland, who was a member of the Territorial Council, succeeded in obtaining a legislative enactment which restored peace between the sections of the village and amicably
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