USA > Wisconsin > Milwaukee County > Milwaukee > Pioneer history of Milwaukee > Part 31
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MILWAUKEE UNDER THE CHARTER.
The following resolution was then offered by Mr. Michael Mc- Dermot :*
Resolved, That all the clergy and elders of this city be requested to meet on this evening, to take into consideration whether or not the Rev. Mr. Leahy ought to deliver his lecture on the confessional, as set forth in his notice.
Which was rejected by an overwhelming majority.
Geo. E. H. Day then offered the following, which was adopted :
Resolved, That we approve of the sentiments expressed in the card published by the Catholic clergy and laity of this city, and of the remarks of the Rev. Mr. Ives at this meeting.
A resolution was also offered requesting the common council to make an appropriation to the Methodist Church sufficient to defray the expense of repairing the same.t After which a committee con- sisting of Herbert Reed, Leonard Kennedy, H. D. Garrison, and John B. Vliet, were appointed to confer with Rev. Mr. Leahy, and invite him to deliver his lecture in the Free Congregational Church on Main Street, after which the meeting adjourned.
E. B. WOLCOTT, Chairman.
HERBERT REED, Secretary.
Mr. Leahy's lecture was delivered in the Free Church.
Mr. Leahy delivered his closing lecture yesterday afternoon. It was quite a tame performance. The church was about two-thirds full, and a considerable crowd were assembled outside. By way of precaution, one hundred spe cial con- stables, and the whole fire department were stationed around the church, under the order of Dr. E. B. Wolcott, and when the lecture was over they escorted Mr. Leahy to his lodgings. Not the slightest disturbance occurred, and the only unusual noise heard was the repeated cheers given for Dr. Wolcott, law and order, the firemen of Milwaukee, and other popular personages, at the close of the exercises. Mr. Leahy leaves us this morning, and with him, we hope, all cause of disquiet and unkindness will disappear from our midst.
This ended his career in our city. That he was a crank, there can
* Mr. McDermot was one of the four rioters, who were afterward arrested and tried before Judge Hubbell, as will be seen further on.
+ In discussing this affair, when a claim for damages was presented to the com- mon council. May 10, 1851, Alderman McGarry said that the claim ought not to be allowed, as that Mr. Leahy was known to be a dangerous character, and left blood in his track wherever he had been, and if the Methodist Church opened their doors to such a man and got damaged in consequence, they ought not to come here for payment. The claim was not allowed at that time, but was subse- quently paid.
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MILWAUKEE UNDER THE CHARTER.
be no doubt, his subsequent career in this state fully proves, as he afterwards got into the penitentiary for the crime of manslaughter. He returned, I believe, to the bosom of the church he was at that time so anxious to destroy, and died in the faith.
The writer was present at this meeting in the Free Church, and will never forget the reply of Sheriff John White when asked why he or the Catholic Church objected to Mr. Leahy's lecturing, as this was a free country. It, the reply, was composed principally of adjectives altogether too strong for print, and will have to be handed down to posterity, if at all, by tradition.
If the writer of this had previous to that, ever entertained any doubts in regard to Sheriff John White's piety, they were all re- moved by that reply. It established his orthodoxy beyond a ques- tion, and if St. Peter, or whoever has the charge of the seating in the next world, fails to give Sheriff John White one of the highest, then in the opinion of the writer, great injustice will have been done a very worthy man and Christian.
TAXATION.
As an illustration of the manner in which the city taxes were levied and collected from 1849 to the adoption of the new charter, I have inserted the following taken from the Wisconsin of May 2, 1851 :
We have been shown, says the editor, a receipt for taxes paid for the year 1849, on lots 16 and 17, in block 34, Third Ward. The amount paid on lot 16 was $149.02, and on 17, $83.97. The taxes levied and claimed to be due for 1850, on lot 17, (after deducting $83.97, together with $5.47 for interest paid in 1849) was $123.62, while nothing is levied nor any deduction made for the $149.02 paid in 1849 on lot 16. There is also a charge against lots 15 and 17 in the same block, for sidewalks $38.92 on lot 15 and $30.24 on lot 17, no sidewalks ever having been known to the owner to have been either made, or ordered to be made. Lots 14, 15, 16 and 17 are all fronting on the same street, and no sidewalks charged against 14 and 16, or any made. We are informed that there are other instances of a similar kind. Why this is so we are unable to determine, but that there is some gross error cannot be doubted.
HERE IS ANOTHER.
To the Tax Payers of the Third Ward :
I am informed by one of the aldermen of that ward that there are no less than $12,000 of special orders at present outstanding, and in the hands of some per-
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MILWAUKEE UNDER THE CHARTER.
sons, for abating nuisances and other special purposes in that ward, and that the whole of this work has been certified to by a certain engineer in this city without the first particle of clay having been put on the lots so declared as nuisances. The owners of the nuisance lots find that the lots were never filled, but that a certain public engineer certified that they were filled and permitted certain individuals to draw orders to the amount of $12,000 for work which they never performed.
Comment upon such barefaced plunder is unnecessary. If required the writer of this article will furnish the name of the alderman, and no doubt the truth of the staterrent can be fully substantiated.
Milwaukee, May 2, 1851.
THIRD WARD TAXPAYER.
This is but one of a thousand ways in which the people were plun- dered in those days. But a man that will spend $ 1000 to be elected must get it back in some way. The same foolish law is, however, in force to-day (viz :) NO PAY TO OUR ALDERMEN.
A lengthy as well as a windy discussion followed that letter of "Third ward Tax Payer," in which Alderman McGarry and John B. Vliet,* crossed blades, much too lengthy, however, as well as not entirely appropriate for a full insertion here. It is sufficient to say that it, like all discussions of the kind, left the matter when the battle was over, in the same crude state as before. They both wasted lots of ink but won no laurels. The taxes were there and had to be paid. The Third ward has cost more in proportion to its real worth than any other ward in the city.
A DUCKING.
Two prominent gentlemen of the common council having an errand up the Menomonee, and thinking that more pleasure could be found in traveling by water than by land, unmoored a little skiff ly- ing at their warehouse and started.
The first one got in all right, but the other who will be called No. 2, (although he would hardly have graded that) having a disre- gard of the laws of equilibrium, was not as successful, and the result was that both disappeared in the murky depths of the raging Mil- waukee. The damage was a new suit of clothes, a Silkman hat, a Jenny Linder each, and a gain of no little experience in managing a canoe.
* Who was then city engineer and who supposed he was the engineer meant, although it turned out that he was not.
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MILWAUKEE UNDER THE CHARTER.
MUNICIPAL.
The Wisconsin of March 15th has the following in reference to the city finances.
PRIMARY MEETINGS.
We publish a call for the primary meeting in every ward in the city and we cannot be too urgent in recommending to the laboring class (nearly all of whom are Democrats) to attend these meetings and see that such men, and such only are non- inated, as will not only promise but will carry out real reform, for unless some. check is put upon the present order system, the city will soon be engulphed in hopeless bankruptcy. Reform must be commenced now ; another year it will be too late.
It all ended in wind, the same old crowd held the fort another year, or at least of the same stripe.
Mayor-George H. Walker.
City Treasurer-Lucas Seaver.
City Attorney-Henry L. Palmer.
City Marshal-William Wedemeyer.
City Clerk-Alfred Johnson.
Police Justice-Clinton Walworth.
BOARD OF ALDERMEN.
First ward-James Johnson, Francis J. Jung, Samuel S. Daggett.
Second ward-Leander Comstock, Francis Randall, Jacob Bierberich. Third ward-Andrew McCormick, Joseph H. Cordes, Edward Hackett. Fourth ward-John Plankinton, Samuel C. West, John H. Tesch. Fifth ward-Richard M. Sweet, Edward Wunderly, Geo. G. Dousman.
COMMITTEES OF THE BOARD.
Finance committee-Daggett, Comstock, Cordes. Judiciary committee-Randall, Wunderly, West. Committee on schools-Johnson, Wunderly, Jung. Committee on police-Sweet, Hackett, Tesch.
Committee on fire department-Comstock, Sweet, Daggett. Printing committee-Dousman, Tesch, Randall.
Committee on licenses --- Jung, McCormick, Dousman.
Almshouse committee -- Johnson, Comstock, Cordes, West, Randall.
Bridge committee-Plankinton, Dousman, Hackett, Jung, Bierberich.
WARD ()FFICERS.
ASSESSORS.
First ward-Eliphalet Cramer, E. B. Dickerman, Mathias Stein. Second ward-David Knab, C. Pfeiffer, Thos. Drew.
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MILWAUKEE UNDER THE CHARTER.
Third ward-Richard G. Owens, William A. Prentiss, Charles Lee. Fourth ward-John Fishback:, Priam B. Hill, John E. Force. Fifth ward-Michael Page, Henry Shew, Stoddard H. Martin.
JUSTICES OF THE PEACE.
First ward-C. Walworth. Second ward-C. F. Bode. Third ward-J. L. Doran. Fourth ward-H. Powers. Fifth ward-O. Parsons.
CONSTABLES.
First ward-August Seifert. Second ward-C. A. Brockett. Third ward-T. Shaughnessy. Fourth ward-J. B. Winton. Fifth ward-W. G. Parsons.
STREET INSPECTORS.
First ward-J. W. Dunlop. Second ward Henry Supps. Third ward-Patrick Guerin. Fourth ward-J. McCafferty. Fifth ward-Isaac Stoddard.
SCHOOL COMMISSIONERS.
First ward-Joshua Hathaway, Frederick Fratney, James Johnson. Second ward-I. A. Lapham, Francis Huebschmann, Benjamin Church. Third ward-John McManman, Rufus King, Edward McGarry. Fourth ward-Edward D. Holton, James II. Rogers, Haven Powers. Fifth ward-Daniel Wait, Charles H. Larkin, Jeremiah B. Zander.
FIRE DEPARTMENT.
Chief Engineer-John S. Fillmore. First Assistant-L. N. Dewey. Second Assistant-Duncan C. Reed. Third Assistant-D. N. Neiman.
COMMON COUNCIL.
The following formed a part of the proceedings of the session held March 17th:
On motion of Alderman Jas. Kneeland, the Council proceeded to take up the unfinished business of the previous session, when Alderman Nelson Ludington called up the resolution (which had been offered at the previous meeting and laid over under the rule) from the table, authorizing the city treasurer to receive in payment of taxes all orders issued by the city indiscriminately, to pass which required a two-thirds vote from each ward-defeated by the Second Ward.
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MILWAUKEE UNDER THE CHARTER.
It appears from the proceedings, that in place of a majority vote of all the wards being sufficient to pass a bill, that it required the majority of each ward, voting separately by wards, so that one ward could defeat a measure if they wished. (i. e.) They could prevent it from becoming a law in their ward.
This action of the council was brought about by the Wisconsin, which had taken them to task in a strong article a short time previous, condemning the course of the council in issuing orders and then refus- ing to take them for taxes. It called them anything but honest men.
There was more truth than poetry in what the Wisconsin stated, for a city that will issue orders with no provisions for paying them, and then refuse to take them in payment for taxes, was not only un- business-like, but dishonest, as well as mean. But they did it.
It was all fixed, however, May 15, by Alderman Johnson's report as chairman of the select committee appointed to settle this question, and Alderman Lynde's resolution, which provided that the city treasurer should receive all orders drawn against the several funds (except the special fund) in payment of taxes due in said wards. Adopted May 15, 1851.
There was also raised at this meeting for ward purposes, as follows : Ist Ward, $6,227.00 ; 2d Ward, $2,646,00; 3d Ward, $6,719,00; 4th Ward, $3,682 ; 5th Ward, $1,979.00.
This was one of the best sessions held for a long time, the mem- bers all being on their good behavior. No clash of arms that night.
SALARIES.
The salaries of the city officials for 1851 were fixed as follows : City clerk, $700.00; city marshal, $300.00, and 3 per cent. on all moneys by him collected ; police justice, $400.00 ; street inspector- 4th Ward, $100.00, and $1.00 per day for each man employed ; Ist Ward, $250.00, and $1.00 per day for each man employed; 3d Ward, $365.00, and no fees; 5th Ward, same; 2d Ward, $ roo, and $1.00 fee. How does that compare with to-day ?
COMPLAINTS.
There was much complaint this year, in May, about the way the grading was done, particularly on Division Street. Some one, in commenting upon it, intimates that Bishop Henni was getting his lots filled at the expense of the city.
345
MILWAUKEE UNDER THE CHARTER.
It will be remembered, he says, that this work was commenced to drain the marsh lots on the blocks bounded by Jackson, Jefferson, Martin and Division Streets. Now, I should like to know, he continues, why the lots in question were not filled up at the expense of their owners, the same as other lots are, or has the work been commenced in order to give labor to some fifty hands to keep the water from running into the Bishop's garden ?* If his lots are too low, why does he not fill them up, as others are compelled to do ? I am told that $300 has been expended there already.
ENQUIRER.
DAVID ROSS MURDERED.
David Ross murdered April 14th, by Wm. Radcliffe. This was a cold blooded, deliberately planned murder, committed for the paltry sum of $600 in gold. The victim of this atrocious crime was kept in sight for several days prior to its commitment. No trial in the country ever caused more excitement, and although the jury, for some cause best known to themselves, cleared the monster, yet no one, including his counsel A. D. Smith and J. E. Arnold, had any doubt of his guilt, and they would probably have preferred to have seen him convicted. He confessed the crime shortly before his death, a few years later, at some town in Iowa. He was a Welshman and a man whom most people would shun at first sight. The trial lasted 12 days and was held in Gardiner's Hall. See the following in relation to him :
WILLIAM B. RADCLIFFE IN TOWN.
Radcliffe, who was tried in 1852 for the murder of Ross, and acquitted, then tried and convicted in company with Thompson, at the same term of court for burglary and larceny in Bradley & Metcalf's store, was brought to this city yes- terday, under arrest, by Sherift Conover, on a capias.
There are two indictments against Radcliffe, one for highway robbery, the other for larceny. His sentence for burglary, three years, he has served out, but kept hanging around Waupun till arrested yesterday.
THE GULLEN MURDER.
This cruel deed (the result of a drunken brawl) occurred in the Third Ward on the sixteenth of July, 1851. The victim visited the house of one of the defendants, Patrick McDonald-as some thought at the time to renew an intimacy with McDonald's wife, but of this nothing definite is known. They werejoined by Jas. Connaughty, and
* The old place on Jefferson Street, between Biddle and Martin.
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MILWAUKEE UNDER THE CHARTER.
the three went in to make a night of it. The result was, of course, a quarrel ending in Gullen's being beaten to death, after which his body was thrown in the river, from whence it was taken a few days later.
A coroner's jury (of which the writer was one) was summoned, who after a somewhat lengthy sitting fixed the crime upon Patrick and Mary McDonald and Jas. Connaughty, who were arrested and held for trial, previous to which, however, Mrs. McDonald was re- leased on a habeas corpus issued by Judge H. N. Wells, and at once left for Canada.
McDonald and Connaughty were tried before Judge Levi Hubbell at the May term, in 1852, convicted and sentenced to be hung De- cember 15th. A new trial, however, was granted (the prisoners in the mean time having been taken to Waupun) pending which Mc- Donald was released on a habeas corpus issued by the judge of Dodge County, and was not long in joining his wife in Canada. Connaughty's second trial resulted in a ten years sentence at Waupun, from where he was subsequently pardoned. Thus ended this farce called a trial. A more cruel murder was never perpetrated, neither was there any doubt in the mind of any one who heard the testi- mony as to their guilt, but as usual the sympathy was all on the side of the murderers, and not of the murdered. The writer will not for- get the interest manifested by certain parties during the examination of the witnesses before the coroner's jury. McDonald was a hard- looking citizen, and Mrs. McDonald was one of the most repulsive looking women the writer remembers to have ever seen belonging to the white race. Connaughty was the best looking of the trio. This and the Ross murder occurring the same year and the murderers in both cases escaping the penalty of their crimes through the meshes of the law, caused many of our best citizens to feel almost willing to have Judge Lynch open his court for a few days and clear the docket, but the excitement finally died away and the injustice done to the outraged law was soon forgotten. But as sure as the sun shines, this morbid sentiment of tenderness on the part of the masses towards the criminals, will culminate some day in a fearful outbreak, unless those appointed to execute the law will do so regardless of nationality, religion, politics or previous condition of servitude.
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MILWAUKEE UNDER THE CHARTER.
CHARTER ELECTION.
The following is the vote upon the new charter (spoken of in pre- vious chapter) May 20, 1851.
For. Against. Total.
First ward
34I
387
678
Second ward
124
581
654
Third ward.
141
284
425
Fourth ward
95
I34
230
Fifth ward.
49
184
233
Total
750
1570
2220
750
Majority against
820
This was followed by a proclamation from the mayor on the 26th, declaring it adopted in the Seond and Fifth wards and rejected in the First, Third and Fourth wards.
Upon the rejection of the charter May 20th, the matter rested until the session of the council, July Ioth, when on motion of Ald. Jas. Johnson, it was again brought up, and a resolution adopted for each ward to appoint delegates to a city convention to frame a new one, in accordance with which, special meetings were held in each ward for that purpose on the first day of August, at which the fol- lowing gentlemen were appointed as such delegates :
First ward-Lindsey Ward, Moritz Scheffler and Jas. S. Brown. Second ward-F. Huebschmann, Riley N. Messenger, and August Greulich.
Third ward-Hans Crocker, W. W. Graham and Andrew McCormick.
Fourth ward-Haven Powers, C. H. Williams and Alex. Mitchell. Fifth ward-Duncan C. Reed, Chas. H. Larkin and John Rosebeck.
These delegates met at the common council room, on the 4th, and organized by the election of Hans Crocker, chairman ; and Haven Powers, secretary ; after which a committee consisting of H. Crocker, F. Huebschmann, James S. Brown, Chas. H. Williams and D. C. Reed, were appointed to draft a charter, after which they adjourned until called together by the committee.
SPECIAL TAX.
The vote on the special tax bill, for the construction of streets, alleys and sewers, passed by the legislature and approved, March 15th, 1851, and submitted to the people was as follows :
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MILWAUKEE UNDER THE CHARTER.
For. Against.
First ward.
2I
192
Second ward.
385
217
Third ward.
6
31
Fourth ward
124
175
Fifth ward.
I33
'6
SHERBURNE S. MERRILL.
This gentleman, who as a railroad superintendent and general manager has made such a famous record, came, as did many others who have made their mark in the great West, and through whose energy and good judgment its vast resources have been so rapidly developed, (particularly in the laying out and construction of those " metallic arteries" which cover the land like a net,) from New England, he having been born at Alexandria, Grafton County, New Hampshire, July 28, 1818. It was the intention of Mr. Merrill's parents to make of him a farmer, but the drudgery, as well as the monotony of that vocation had no charms for him, he was too am- bitious for that, and at the early age of sixteen he left the paternal roof and struck out for himself, with very indifferent success, how- ever, (as far as reaching the objective point he had in view was con- cerned,) until he landed in Milwaukee in the fall of 1851,* and took charge of a gravel train, used in the construction of the then Mil- waukee & Waukesha Railroad, afterwards the Milwaukee & Missis- sippi, and now the Prairie du Chien division of the Chicago, Mil- waukee & St. Paul, his train being employed in filling the present Prairie du Chien yard, which was originally an impassible marsh. It was then that he first struck the trail leading to the goal of which he was in search, viz: wealth and position, as the zeal with which he performed the duties of this, his first command, as well as others with which he was intrusted during the winter of 1851-52, proved to be the first step in the ladder whose top he was so anxious to reach. Neither was he long in commencing the ascent, as the new engineer and superintendent of this then "pioneer enterprise," the Hon. Edward H. Brodhead,t was not long in discovering in Mr. Merrill,
* Not 1850, as the Chicago History has it.
+ Mr. Brodhead took charge of the road in May, 1852, and remained in charge until it reached Prairie du Chien in 1857, when he was elected president, and William Jervis was made the superintendent, which position he held until the appointment of Mr. Merrill in 1865.
B & mwill
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MILWAUKEE UNDER THE CHARTER.
who at that time was in charge of a freight train, the germ of those qualities that, if developed, never fail to make of their possessor a good executive man, and he was at once promoted to the passenger, vice Edwin H. Bridgeman, removed .* This was in the fall of 1852, from which to assistant superintendent was but a step, which he reached in 1853, and which he held until the completion of the road to the Mississippi, April 15, 1857.t He was now fairly upon his feet, and such was his record that the position of superintendent of the Milwaukee, Watertown & Baraboo Valley Railroad, now a part of the La Crosse division of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, then just getting into operation,¿ was tendered him, and which- as the prospect of advancement on the Milwaukee & Mississippi appeared somewhat doubtful, as well as the almost prospective cer- tainty, on account of its financial embarrassment, of its passing out of the control of its present proprietors-he accepted and re- tained for a season, but the difficulty of procuring capital wherewith to carry on the extension beyond Columbus, owing to the crash of "1857, finally put a stop to the work, and in 1862 Mr. Merrill took the position of superintendent on the " La Crosse," which had reached the Mississippi in 1858, under general manager Edwin H. Goodrich, where a want of appreciation, (although he labored hard to please,) on the part of Mr. Goodrich, finally compelled him to resign, after `which he took charge of the Winona & St. Peters Railroad, now a part of the Chicago & Northwestern, which he held up to 1865, when the war of the " red and white roses," to use a metaphor, had resulted in consolidating the La Crosse and Milwaukee and Missis-
* Edwin H. Bridgeman was the first conductor in the State, and ran upon this road until the withdrawal of Mr. Kilbourn (who was his firm friend) from its board of directors, when as stated he was removed by Mr. Brodhead, after which he went to the La Crosse as its first conductor, and where he remained until his death, which occurred October 16, 1859.
+The first passenger train that reached the Mississippi was April 15, 1857, on which occasion there was a formal opening, and a big lime generally.
į This road reached Oconomowoc December 15, 1854, and Watertown Octo- ber 1, 1855.
CHANGE OF TIME.
On and after Monday, October 10th, trains on the Milwaukee, Watertown & Baraboo Valley Railroad, will run as follows : l'assenger trains leave Milwaukee at 4:40 P, M., arrive at Milwaukee at 11:35 A. M .; freight leave Milwaukee at 7:00 A. M., arrive at 1:30 P. M. S. S. MERRILL, Superintendent.
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MILWAUKEE UNDER THE CHARTER.
sippi under one board of directors, with Alex. Mitchell as president, who at once placed Mr. Merrill in charge as general manager .*
Mr. Merrill had now, to use a western phrase, struck oil. He had reached the place he long had sought, (viz:) a position as manager in a corporatiou with whose executive head (the president) he could harmonize and who appreciated his sterling qualities. The shackles, so to speak, that he had worn up to this time, and the pressure of which caused by the want of appreciation on the part of some, as well as by the envy of others who were constantly seeking his down- fall, had often been keenly felt, were now stricken from his limbs, it was the hour of his triumph over all his foes, and from thence his march has been onward and upward, until he stands to-day at the head of one of the most powerful corporations in this country. And as a railroad manager has no superior, Jay Gould or William H. Vanderbilt not excepted. He is the right man in the right place.
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