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 9
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John H. Tweedy was born at Danbury, Connecticut, Nov. 9, 1814, and graduated at Yale College. In October, 1836, he came to Milwaukee, where he at once became active and prominent in the building up of the young city. In political faith he was an old-line Whig, and, in common with William A. Prentiss, shared in all the public offices of the city, except mayor. In 1841 and 1842, he was elected a member of the territorial council, and he was also prominent as a member of the convention that framed the constitu- tion of the state. He was by profession a lawyer, but was more prominent in the legislative halls than in court. He was also prominent in all of Milwaukee's early railroad enterprises, and realized the enjoyment of wealth and influence. He had a fine legal mind, was a ready and fluent public speaker, and in 1847 was
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elected territorial delegate to Congress, being the last incumbent in that position. He also represented the city of Milwaukee in the state assembly in 1853 and was considered in every respect an estimable citizen. He retired from actual business a number of years before his death, but he never lost his interest in the growth and prosperity of the city and state of his adoption, in the founding of which he took so prominent a part. He was a member of the Pioneer Association, and was twice elected as its president. Mil- waukee has had no better or more highly respected citizen than John H. Tweedy. He died on Nov. 12, 1891.
The following appointments in Milwaukee county were made by the governor in 1842: Joseph Ward, sheriff; D. Wells, Jr., deputy sheriff; Sylvester W. Dunbar, judge of probate; Joshua Hathaway, public administrator ; John A. Messenger, justice of the peace; Louis Francher, Cyrus Hawley, Charles Delafield, Henry Miller, Levi Blossom, I. A. Lapham and D. Wells, Jr., notaries.
At the session of the legislature in the early part of 1842 a law providing for the enumeration of the inhabitants of the territory was passed, and the governor was instructed to make an appor- tionment of the members of the Council and the House of Repre- sentatives among the several election districts in accordance there- with. The number of inhabitants in Milwaukee county was shown to be 9,565, those of Washington county 965, and together they were given three members of the Council and six members of the House of Representatives. The ensuing election was probably the most hotly contested one that had been held in the county up to that time, and the successful ticket was as follows: Hans Crocker, Lemuel White and David Newland, members of the Council; An- drew E. Elmore, Benjamin Hunkins, Thomas H. Olin, Jonathan Parsons, Jared Thompson and George H. Walker, members of the House ; Charles C. Savage, register of deeds; Clark Shephardson, treasurer ; George S. West, surveyor; Leveret S. Kellogg, coroner.
Hans Crocker came to Milwaukee from Chicago in 1836, and at once commenced the practice of law, his first partner being Horatio N. Wells, and he afterwards was associated with J. H. Tweedy. He was a good political wire-puller, and took a promi- nent part in all of the contests of those pioneer days, and served for a considerable length of time as a member of the territorial council. He was also canal commissioner under the old canal sys- tem, and was connected with the various railroad enterprises per- taining to the formation of the present Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul system. He served one term as mayor of the city. Upon the
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organization of the territorial government of Wisconsin he was selected as the private secretary of Governor Dodge and officiated in that capacity for some time. Upon the organization of the Wis- consin Marine and Fire Insurance Company, in 1839, he was ap- pointed by the legislature a member of the first board of commis- sioners of that institution. His death, which occurred March 17, 1889, left a void not easily filled, as his peculiar personal charac- teristics were such as to make him prominent in any capacity or position he chanced to occupy.
George H. Walker was a native of Virginia, born in Lynch- burg, Oct. 22, 1811. When he was fourteen years old his father removed to Gallatin county, Ill., so that he may be said to have been brought up in the West, and to have begun his career as a pioneer in early boyhood. He was an Indian trader at eighteen years of age, and was only twenty-two years old when he first penetrated the wilds of what was then Michigan territory, as far north as the site of the city which he helped to build in later years. After visiting Juneau's trading post in the fall of 1833, he turned back and spent the winter of 1833-34 at what was then known as "Skunk Grove," about six miles west of the site of the present city of Racine. His first visit to Milwaukee must, however, have im- pressed him favorably with that location, because in 1834, after spending some time at Chicago and other frontier trading posts of this region, he returned to this place with the intention of locat- ing here permanently. He accordingly selected a tract of land lying south of that portion of Milwaukee river which runs east- ward to the lake, on which he established a trading post, and to which he laid claim as first settler and "squatter," no survey of the land having been made at that time. The first improvement which he made on the land to which he hoped to acquire title in due time, was to build a small cabin, not unlike that which Juneau was occupying at the time, at what is now the intersection of South Water and Ferry streets, the site being that at present occupied by the Ricketson House. From 1835 to 1845 he divided his time between trading with the Indians, as a rival of Juneau, and fight- ing off the "squatters" who attempted to "jump his claim." It was not until 1849, after Wisconsin had been admitted into the Union as a state, that Walker finally obtained a patent from the Federal government for 160 acres of land, which cleared the title of all clouds. In 1845 he was appointed register of the Milwaukee land office, and held that important office until 1849. He was elected to the territorial legislature in 1842, and was made speaker
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of the lower house. In 1844 he was again chosen to represent the city at Madison, and was again elected to the speakership. In 1850 he was elected mayor of Milwaukee, and held that office for one term. In politics he was a Democrat, but at the breaking out of the Civil war he took a decided stand in favor of the preserva- tion of the Union. The city was largely indebted to him for the building of the Milwaukee & Mississippi railroad, he was at one time president of this railroad company, and long a member of the board of directors. He built the first street railway in Mil- waukee at a considerable loss to himself, and thus laid the founda- tion of the present splendid system. One of the last public acts of his useful life was to aid in securing the location here of the National Soldiers' Home, and his arduous labors in that connection undoubtedly shortened his life. He died at his home on Biddle street, Sept. 20, 1866.
At the census taken in 1842 for the purpose of legislative ap- portionment the returns showed the population of the towns which now constitute Milwaukee county to be as follows: Franklin, 448; Granville, 356; Greenfield, 667; Lake, 356; Milwaukee (2,500 in the village and 285 in the town), 2,785; Oak Creek, 389; Wauwatosa, 512 ; making a total population of 5.513. In 1840 it was 3,349, an in- crease in two years of 2,164.
CHAPTER VI.
TERRITORIAL ERA-(Continued.)
SKETCH OF EDWARD D. HOLTON-ELECTION RESULTS IN DIFFERENT YEARS, AND PERSONAL MENTION OF SUCCESSFUL CANDIDATES-CENSUS OF 1846-MEMBERS OF FIRST CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION-SKETCHES OF HORACE CHASE, FRANCIS HUEBSCHMANN, AND OTHERS-FIRST CONSTITUTION VOTED DOWN - SECOND CONSTITUTION ADOPTED- SKETCH OF GEN. RUFUS KING.
The territorial legislature, at a session held in Madison in March, 1843, passed an act providing for the election of probate judges, sheriffs, and justices of the peace, by the people, these positions having previous- ly been filled by appointment by the governor, "with the advice and con- sent" of the council. The election for sheriff and judge of probate was held in May of that year and resulted in the election of Ed. D. Holton as sheriff and Joshua Hathaway as probate judge.
Edward Dwight Holton, a distinguished pioneer of Wisconsin, was born at Lancaster, N. H., April 28, 1815, the son of Joseph and Mary (Fisk) Holton. In his earlier years he worked on the farm on which he was born, and when fourteen years of age was indentured to D. Smith, of Bath, N. H., for a term of four years as a merchant's clerk, his com- pensation to be a salary of thirty-five dollars per year. His facilities for obtaining an education were what the common schools afforded, but he was fond of books, and diligently applied himself to study during his spare hours, and thus gathered sufficient knowledge to qualify himself for teaching. At the close of his indenture he returned to his native vil- lage, where he taught school a year, after which he became clerk in a store in the town of Lisbon, N. H. In the spring of 1837 he proceeded to Buffalo and assumed the responsible position of bookkeeper and cashier in the shipping and forwarding house of M. Kingman & Com- pany, and continued to act in that capacity nearly four years. At the
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end of that period, in the fall of 1840, having determined to become a merchant, and believing himself qualified for a more independent place, he resigned his position, purchased goods on his own account and proceeded to Milwaukee, where he opened a store and carried on a prosperous and constantly increasing business until 1850. In 1849, be- lieving that something should be done to open up the rich prairies of the interior and develop the latent resources of the state, he interested him- self in the organization of a railroad company to construct a road that should traverse the state westward from Lake Michigan to the Missis- sippi, and labored earnestly to secure stock subscriptions for the pro- posed road. He became its active manager and financial agent, and re- mained connected with the great enterprise until it was completed to Prairie du Chien. As a member of the legislature of the state in 1860 he carried through a law called a readjustment law, by which the bond- holders were permitted to take possession of the road, with a new bond or preferred stock as they might select, they having a first lien, and the subsequent liens and ownerships to be preserved intact, and deriving div- idends in their order as first, second, third and fourth classes, the reve- nues of the property being employed for the payment of dividends on these classes ; and in the event of no revenue to either of the classes in any one year, there should be no loss of ownership or position, but it simply waited until revenue enough should accrue, when it should draw its dividend or interest. In 1852 Mr. Holton became the president of the Farmers' and Millers' Bank of Milwaukee, a small institution of $50,- 000 capital, then recently organized and in operation under the new banking law of the state, and continued in its successful management for ten years. Early in 1862 President Lincoln conferred upon Mr. Holton the appointment of allotment commissioner, Congress having authorized the appointment of three for each state, the object being to secure an allotment of soldiers' pay, or a part thereof, to their families or friends, and thus save from waste in the camp vast sums that would be valuable if sent home. Quitting his large and varied business, he gave himself personally to this work, followed the Wisconsin regiments from state to state, and with his associates was instrumental in securing large allot- ments from the regiments visited. In 1863, resigning the presidency of his bank-first having taken steps to bring it under the new law as a national bank-with his family he sailed for Europe, bearing influential letters from Secretary Seward and others. At the expiration of a year, with his family he safely returned from his European journey, and re- tired to his farm in the suburbs of Milwaukee. After the great Chicago fire he was called from his retirement to take the management of the Northwestern National Insurance Company, with a paid-up capital of
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only $150,000, and he brought it within three years to one of the strong- est and soundest companies in the country, its capital in this brief period being increased to $600,000. In connection with his services as manager of the Northwestern National Insurance Company, he took an important part in organizing and maintaining the International Board of Lake Underwriters, of which he was president from its organization to the date of his death. He was a prominent member of the National Board of Trade, having been its president, and often appointed upon important committees. In 1869 he made an able and telling speech before the National Board of Trade at Richmond, Va., on the subject of our na- tional finances and in favor of returning to a specie basis. Soon after his advent to the territory of Wisconsin, he was elected, without any solicitation on his part, sheriff of the county of Milwaukee, embracing at that time what are now the counties of Waukesha and Milwaukee. This was in 1843. He was frequently the candidate of the Liberty party, and ran for Congress in the infancy of that political organization. In 1853 he became the nominee of the Free Soil party of Wisconsin for governor against William A. Barstow, Democrat, and J. C. Baird, Whig, concentrating, for the first time in the history of the state, a large Free Soil vote. In 1856 he was nominated as one of the prominent candidates for United States senator, the other two being J. R. Doolittle and T. O. Howe. He, however, withdrew from the field, leaving Mr. Doolittle, who held similiar opinions, to be made United States senator. He became a staunch Republican ; but was not a politician in the com- mon acceptation of that term. In 1845 he married Lucinda C. Millard, a cousin of the late President Millard Fillmore. Mr. Holton died in Milwaukee in 1890.
At the September election for county officers the following were the successful candidates : Solomon Juneau, register of deeds ; Clinton Wal- worth, treasurer ; George S. West, surveyor ; and John A. Messenger, coroner.
The political contest of 1844 was a spirited one and resulted in the election of the following gentlemen to fill the various positions: Adam E. Ray, James H. Kimball, and James Kneeland, members of the terri- torial Council; Charles E. Brown, Pitts Ellis, Byron Kilbourn, Benja- min H. Mooers, William Shew, and George H. Walker, members of the House : Owen Aldrich, sheriff ; Solomon Juneau, register of deeds ; Burr S. Crafts, clerk ; Rufus Parks, treasurer ; Clinton Walworth, judge of probate ; George S. West, surveyor ; and Joseph R. Treat, coroner.
Among those who came to Milwaukee in 1841 was James Kneeland, who three years later was honored by election to the upper house of the territorial legislature, as stated above. From the day he landed in the
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future "Cream City" he was one of its most active and prominent citi- zens. He was a native of Leroy, Livingston county, New York, but came to Milwaukee from Chicago, where he had been previously en- gaged upon the Illinois canal as a successful contractor. He brought a large stock of general merchandise, the largest that had, up to that time been brought by any one firm, and he opened his place of business under the firm name of James Kneeland & Co., the partner being John Clifford. This firm was dissolved, however, on Dec. 1, 1841, Mr. Clifford re- tiring, and Nicholas A. McClure became a partner. This partnership, too, was of short duration, Mr. McClure soon retiring, after which Mr. Kneeland remained alone until 1847, when a new partnership was en- tered into for five years, with William Brown, or "Albany Brown," as he was usually designated, and Milton Edward Lyman, as the other partners, the last-named gentleman remaining so connected, however, but a short time. In 1852 Mr. Kneeland went out of the mercantile business, in order to devote his whole time to the improvement of his real estate, of which he had a large amount that was fast becoming very valuable owing to the influx of population, and to the improvement of this property and the enjoyment of the "unearned increment" he devoted the remainder of his active life. He did much to beautify and adorn Milwaukee in the way of ornamental shade trees, and his private resi- dence and grounds were among the finest in the city. He was quite prominent in the early municipal affairs, and as a member of the legis- lative council, in 1845, outwitted those who were engineering a bill in opposition to the city charter ; and he was successful in securing the passage of the bill under which the charter was adopted. In political faith he was a Democrat, and in religious faith an Episcopalian, being one of the pillars of St. James' church.
Byron Kilbourn came to Milwaukee from the state of Ohio in 1835. He was by profession a civil engineer, and as such held a high rank in the profession. He was prominent in the organization of the Prairie du Chien and LaCrosse railroads, particularly the latter, of which he might truthfully be called the father. He took a deep interest in politics as a Democrat, served as mayor of the city two terms, and to his liberality the city was indebted for the ground upon which stands the Kilbourn Park reservoir. Upon the organization of a village government for what was known as the West Side, in 1837, Mr. Kilbourn was chosen as the first president, and the same year he built "The Badger," the first steam-boat ever built in Milwaukee. The year 1838 found him a member of the board of trustees for the West Side village, and in 1854 he was elected mayor of the city. He became a member of the board of directors of the board of trade, when it was organized on Jan. 16, 1856. Mr. Kilbourn
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died at Jacksonville, Florida, Dec. 16, 1870, at the age of sixty-nine years, and his body was laid to rest in that city.
From the time of its creation until 1845 the county of Washington had been attached to Milwaukee county for judicial purposes, but at the session of the territorial legislature, convened in January, 1845, it was organized for judicial purposes and became a full-fledged division of the territory. At the same session a law was passed which provided for an election by the qualified electors of Milwaukee county, for or against the removal of the seat of justice. The vote was to be taken at the spring election in 1846, and if a majority of the votes cast were in favor of "removal," the seat of justice of the county was to be removed to Prai- rieville (now Waukesha). If any election was held in pursuance of this law the returns of it can not be found ; but it is probable that none was held, for the legislature of 1846, prior to the time set for holding the county seat election, passed an act dividing the county of Milwaukee and organizing the county of Waukesha, subject to the decision of the in- habitants of the proposed new county. The project carried, and thus, as has been stated on a preceding page, Milwaukee county was reduced to its present size, as regards territory, in 1846. Another act passed at this session of the territorial legislature specially authorized the board of supervisors of Milwaukee county to levy and collect $3,000, subject to the approval of tax-payers at town meeting, to be expended in the con- struction of roads and bridges. And by still another enactment, Joachim Grenhagen, his associates, successors and assigns, were authorized to erect and maintain a dam across the Milwaukee river, on sections 19 or 20, town 8, range 22 east, in Milwaukee county, at what has since been called Good Hope.
The election in 1845 resulted in the choice of the following gentle- men for the positions named: Curtis Reed, Jacob H. Kimball, and James Kneeland, members of the Council ; Samuel H. Barstow, Jolin Crawford, James Magone, Benjamin H. Mooers, Luther Parker, and William H. Thomas, members of the House of Representatives : William A. Rice, register of deeds ; Silas Griffith, treasurer ; Robert L. Ream, clerk ; George S. West, surveyor ; Joseph R. Treat, coroner.
On June 1, 1846, a census of the city and county of Milwaukee was taken, and the result showed a very flattering increase in the population. The official figures were as follows: Franklin, 747; Granville, 1,531 ; Greenfield, 1,032 ; Lake, 447 ; Milwaukee, 490 ; Oak Creek, 732 ; Wau- watosa, I,II2 ; city of Milwaukee, 9,501 ; making a total of 15.592 in city and county.
The September election in 1846, resulted in the choice of the follow- ing : Horatio N. Wells, member of the Council; William Shew, An-
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drew Sullivan, and William W. Brown, members of the House of Rep- resentatives ; George E. Graves, sheriff ; William S. Wells, register of deeds ; Isaac P. Walker, judge of probate; Charles P. Evarts, county clerk; Silas Griffith, treasurer ; John B. Vliet, surveyor ; Joseph A. Liebhaber, coroner.
At the January, 1846, session of the legislature a bill was passed, the principal feature of which was that on the first Tuesday of April, "every white male inhabitant above the age of twenty-one years, who shall have resided in the territory for six months, next previous thereto, and who shall either be a citizen of the United States or shall have filed his declaration of intention to become such according to the laws of the United States on the subject of naturalization," shall be authorized to vote for or against the formation of a state government. If a majority of all the votes were "for state government," the governor was to make an apportionment among the several counties of delegates to form a state constitution. The basis was one delegate for every 1,300 inhabitants, and an additional delegate for a fraction greater than a majority of said number, but there was to be one delegate to each organized county. The vote of the people in April was about six to one in favor of a state government, Milwaukee county giving a good majority, and upon the basis of the population given above the county was given twelve mem- bers in the constitutional convention. The election to fill these posi- tions was held on the day of the regular annual election, the first Mon- day in September, and the following gentlemen were the successful can- didates : Charles E. Browne, Horace Chase, John Cooper, John Craw- ford, Garrett M. Fitzgerald, Wallace W. Graham, Francis Huebsch- mann, Asa Kinney, James Magone, John H. Tweedy, Don A. J. Upham, and Garret Vliet. Upon the meeting of the convention in October Mr. Upham was elected president and served as such during the delibera- tions.
Horace Chase, one of Milwaukee's prominent representatives in this first constitutional convention, was born at Derby, Orleans county, Vermont, Dec. 25, 1810, and came of a New England family, descended from one of the colonists of 1629. Jacob Chase, his father, was a farmer, and the son was brought up to that occupation. Before he was seventeen years of age, however, he manifested a fondness for trade, and went to Barton, Vermont, where he became a clerk in a country store. In 1833 he went to Stanstead, Canada, and found employment there in the same capacity for a year or more, when he determined to "go south" and fixed upon Charleston, S. C., as a desirable place to locate. Through the representation of a friend, after he had proceeded as far as Boston, he was induced to change his plans, and came to Chi-
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cago instead of going to South Carolina. He remained in Chicago only a few months, being employed a portion of the time as a clerk in his friend's store and the remainder of the time in other similar capacities. In the fall of 1834 his attention was called to Milwaukee and in Decem- ber he set out for this place accompanied by Morgan L. Burdick and Samuel Brown. When he arrived at the Milwaukee settlement, he pro- ceeded to select a couple of tracts of land, on which he filed claims after the fashion of that period, after which he returned to Chicago where he spent a considerable portion of the winter of 1834-35. In April of 1835 he brought a stock of goods to Milwaukee, being compelled to cut a road through from Root river rapids to the mouth of Milwaukee river, in order to reach his destination by what he regarded as the most direct route. He served as a member of the first constitutional convention of Wisconsin, and also as a member of the first legislature of the state which convened in 1848. In 1861 he served as alderman and supervisor of the Fifth ward, and at a later date was for several years a conspicuous member of the city council. He was mayor of the city in 1862-63 and as a public official and an enterprising, public-spirited citizen, left a marked impress upon the city with which he became identified in the infantile stage of its existence. He died in September, 1886.
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