The History of Waukesha County, Wisconsin. Containing an account of its settlement, growth, development and resources; an extensive and minute sketch of its cities, towns and villages etc, Part 58

Author: Western Historical Co., pub
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago : Western Historical Company
Number of Pages: 1050

USA > Wisconsin > Waukesha County > The History of Waukesha County, Wisconsin. Containing an account of its settlement, growth, development and resources; an extensive and minute sketch of its cities, towns and villages etc > Part 58

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PLANK-ROADS.

In the early days of the settlement of Waukesha County, little was known or thought of railroads. Plank-roads were the best highways then built, and to them the people, therefore, gave their undivided attention. Although lasting but a comparatively brief period, they were actually of considerable importance in their day, enabling farmers to hanl respectable loads to market, at a fair rate of speed-something they otherwise could not have done.

One of the first plank-roads in Waukesha County was incorporated in 1846, as the Lisbon & Milwaukee. Afterward, the Lisbon & Hartland road was incorporated, and still later, in 1854, the two were consolidated. But one of the most important was the Milwaukee & Wau- kesha Plank-road, incorporated in 1852, by Joseph Cary, George Burnham, C. A. Hastings, C. C. Dewey, Bigelow Case, Ditmar Fishback and Joseph Guild. It extended through Brook- field, the southwest corner of Pewaukee, and to Waukesha Village.

The branch to Watertown turned northward in Section 30, in Brookfield, and passed through Pewaukee, Delafield and the southern portion of Oconomowoc.

The Milwaukee & Waterford passed through the town of Muskego. It was incorporated in 1848.

The Milwaukee & Janesville road, incorporated in 1848, extended through New Berlin, Vernon, a small corner of Muskego and Mukwonago. It was a good thoroughfare, and has carried an incalculable amount of trade and travel to Milwaukee.

In 1854, the county had some trouble with the plank-roads then in existence, as to taxa- tion, the assessors listing them as liable to the county and town taxation. Under the statutes, the plank-road companies refused to pay the taxes thus levied, and Edward G. Ryan, now Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, decided that the tax of I per cent on gross earnings exempted railroads and plank-roads from all other taxation.

The only roads in Waukesha County which now maintain toll-gates are the Milwaukee & Brookfield and the Milwaukee end of the old Milwaukee & Watertown roads. This latter road was a great help to Oconomowoc.

RAILROADS.

Waukesha is one of the few counties that owe but little of their wealth and importance to the railroads. The great market of Milwaukee is so near that much more than half of all the products raised in the county is taken by the farmers themselves direct to the commission men and warehouses of that city, thus saving the waste of handling twice, as well as the cost of transportation. Nevertheless, Waukesha has made liberal use of her railway facilities, which privileges and facilities she has enjoyed longer than any other county in Wisconsin.

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HISTORY OF WAUKESHA COUNTY.

Milwaukee & Waukesha Railway .- The very first railroad ever attempted or completed in the State, and which still has existence in this county in the Prairie du Chien Division of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway, was conceived in the desire of Milwaukee to have a. better communication with the surrounding country-on which she was depending for her com- mercial greatness-than plank-roads. This first railroad was built by the Milwaukee & Missis- sippi Railroad Company, which was organized early in 1849. Its first Directors were Byron Kilbourn, John H. Tweedy, Dr. Lemuel W. Weeks, Anson Eldred, James Kneeland, Alexander Mitchell, Erastus B. Walcott, E. D. Clinton and Edward D. Holton. Byron Kilbourn was its first President.

Perhaps the most authentic account of the inception of what is now a branch of one of the greatest railway corporations in the world, and which was the pioneer line in Wisconsin, is the following extract from a speech, delivered in 1858, at the Chamber of Commerce in Mil- waukee, by E. D. Holton, on railroads :

" It was a great undertaking for that day, under the circumstances. We were without money, as a people, either in city or country. Every man had come here with limited means- each had his house, his store, his shop, his barn, to build, his land to clear and fence, and how could he spare anything from his own individual necessities ? Some wise men looked on and shook their heads, and there were many croakers. But in the minds of those who had assumed the undertaking, there was a sober, earnest purpose, to do what they could for its accomplish- ment. It was demanded of our people that they should lay aside all their feuds and personal- ities, and, one and all, join in the great work. To a very great extent this demand was com- plied with, and gentlemen were brought to work cordially and harmoniously together, who had stood aloof from each other for years. The spirit of union, harmony and concord exhibited by the people of the city was most cordially reciprocated by those of the country, along the con- templated line of road. Subscription books were widely circulated and the aggregate sum sub- scribed was very considerable. I said we had no money ; but we had things, and subscriptions were received with the understanding that they could be paid in such commodities as could be turned into the work of constructing the road. This method of building a railroad would be smiled at now, and was by some among us then. But it was, after all, a great source of our strength, and our success, at any rate for the time being. The work was commenced in the fall of 1849, and for one entire year the grading was prosecuted and paid for by orders, drawn upon merchants for goods, by carts from wagon-makers, by harness from harness-makers, by cattle, horses, beef, pork, oats, corn, potatoes and flour, from the farmers, all received on account of stock subscriptions, and turned over to the contractors in payment for work done upon the road. A large amount of the grading, from here to Waukesha, was done in this way.

" Upon seeing the work go on the people said everywhere, why, there is to be a railroad, surely ; and the enterprise arose in public confidence. The Directors having concluded they could make headway against all difficulties, in casting up the road-bed, the pressing inquiry was, how can the road ke ironed ? Iron costs money, and money we have not got. In this emer- gency a mass meeting of stockholders was called at Waukesha, in the spring of 1850. About three hundred people assembled, mostly farmers. The question propounded was, how can $250,000 be obtained for the purchase of iron to reach from Milwaukee to Whitewater.

" It was during this meeting, and after much discussion, that Joseph Goodrich, of Milton, said : 'See here; I can mortgage my farm for $3,000, and go to the East, where I came from, and get the money for it. Now, are there not one hundred men between Milwaukee and Rock River, who can do the same ? If so, here is your money. I will be one of them.'

" This was a new idea. It was turned over and over. It had serious objections, but, after all, it was the best thing that was presented, and the plan was adopted. And here arose, so far as I know, the plan of raising farm mortgages in aid of the construction of railroads. The one hundred men were found, who put up the required number of mortgages, and an attempt was made to negotiate them. This was found, at first, impossible. It was a class of security

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HISTORY OF WAUKESHA COUNTY.

entirely unknown, and no market could be found for them. In the attempt to negotiate these mortgages it was found that while they would not sell, the bonds of the city of Milwaukee would sell. Whereupon an application was made to the city to come forward and issue $234,000 of her bonds, in aid of the road. The city promptly and cordially responded. The bonds sold for cash at par ; the money was at once invested in iron, at very low prices, and the success of the Milwaukee & Mississippi Railroad was set down as fixed."

The preliminary survey of the line was finished July 9, 1849, to Waukesha, and the road was completed, in a rough way, to the village of Waukesha, and cars were running in Febru- ary, 1851 ; to Eagle in January, 1852, and to Milton, in Rock County, during the year 1852.

To return to the corporate concerns of this branch of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway : The first bill to incorporate the company was introduced in the Territorial Legis- lature in January, 1847, and approved by Gov. Henry Dodge, February 11, of the same year. Its text was said to have been written by Alexander W. Randall. The commissioners named in the original charter were William A. Barstow, Norman Clinton, Alexander W. Randall, and Alexander F. Pratt, of Waukesha County, and Paraclete Potter, Daniel Wells, Jr., Edward D. Holton, Byron Kilbourn and Lemuel W. Weeks, of Milwaukee County. On the 23d of Novomber, 1847, the commissioners opened books at Waukesha and Milwaukee, for subscrip- tions. The next year the company's charter was amended, so that the road might be extended to Madison and the Mississippi River, and to allow its capital stock to be increased to the sum of $3,000,000. On the 5th of April, 1849, the commissioners announced that the $100,000 re- quired, had been subscribed and 5 per cent of it paid, and that an election could therefore be had. The election resulted : Byron Kilbourn, President ; Lemuel W. Weeks, E. D. Holton, Alexander Mitchell, E. B. Wolcott, Anson Eldred, James Kneeland, John H. Tweedy, E. D. Clin- ton, Directors. Benjamin H. Edgerton was chosen Secretary and Walter P. Flanders. Treas- urer. In February, 1850, the name of the company was changed, by act of the Legislature, to the " Milwaukee & Mississippi Railway Company." At that time, individuals had paid over $300,000, and the city of Milwaukee $244,800 in bonds and cash. On April 15, 1857- about seven years after ground was broken at Milwaukee, the road was completed from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River, at Prairie du Chien. The road had cost $5,500,000, and its equipment a trifle over $1,000,000.

In 1860, Lewis H. Meyer, William P. Lynde, Allen Campbell, William Schall, John Wil- kinson, John Catlin, Hercules L. Dousman and N. A. Cowdrey formed an association for the purchase of the Milwaukee & Mississippi Railway, and the new company took the name of the Milwaukee & Prairie du Chien Railway Company, L. H. Meyer, President. This corporation managed the road until 1866, when it was absorbed by the present Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Company, of which Alexander Mitchell has been always President, and S. S. Merrill, General Manager, and forms a part of the largest line of road in the world controlled by a single corporation.

Of the original commissioners of this, the first line of railroad in Wisconsin, Edward D. Hol- ton, of Milwaukee, Edmund D. Clinton, of Brodhead, Lemuel W. Weeks, of Oconomowoc, and Daniel Wells, Jr .. remain in the land of the living. They undoubtedly did not suppose, when announcing with much emphasis that for March, 1851, the receipts of the road were over $45 per day ; $55 to $60 per day for April, and at the middle of May had reached the aston- ishing figure of $114 per day, that the company would, in less than thirty years, own more miles of road than any other, and count its earnings by millions. Cars began running twice a day between Milwaukee and Wankesha April 15, 1851. They lived also to see no small amount of trouble grow out of the farm mortgages given by farmers to aid in constructing this pioneer railway. The original company received $40,000 in these mortgages in Wankesha County, and, in a comparatively large number of instances those who thus early mortgaged their farms were unable to lift the incumbrance, and therefore lost them.

The celebration had at Prairieville March 4, 1851, on the occasion of the formal opening of the Milwaukee & Mississippi Railway, was an elaborate affair. Don A. J. Upham was

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HISTORY OF WAUKESHA COUNTY.

President of the meeting, and J. Turner, Rufus King, J. Goodrich, Hans Crocker, S. B. Grant and Rufus Cheney, Vice Presidents. Among the speakers were A. W. Randall, Joseph Goodrich, E. D. Holton, Sherman M. Booth, James S. Brown, Rufus Cheney, Mr. Martyn and D. A. J. Upham. Nearly every person in the county was present, and the occasion was one of noisy and long-to-be-remembered enthusiasm.

The line passes through the towns of Brookfield, Pewankee, Waukesha, Genesee, Eagle and a small corner of Mukwonago-a rich, populous and beautiful region of country. On Section 22, in Eagle, a branch of the Western Union (a division of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway) forms a junction with the Prairie du Chien Division, this making connections for the southwest.

Milwaukee & Watertown Railroad .- This railroad company was chartered by an act approved March 11, 1851, which appointed E. D. Holton, Alexander Mitchell, Eliphalet Cramer, James Kneeland, Daniel Wells, Jr., Hans Crocker, John H. Tweedy, George H. Walker, Byron Kilbourn, Daniel H. Chandler, J. W. Medberry, of Milwaukee County, and William Dennis, Daniel Jones, B. F. Fay, Luther A. Cole, Simeon Ford, Peter Rogan, P. V. Brown and Edward Gilmore, of Jefferson County, as Commissioners to form the corporation. They were authorized to construct a line of road from Milwaukee, or some point on the Mil- waukee & Mississippi Railway in Waukesha County, to Watertown. The first President was John S. Rockwell, of Oconomowoc; E. D. Holton, of Milwaukee, the first Secretary, and Joshua Hathaway, Treasurer. The preliminary survey of the line was made in January, 1853, and, in March, the construction of the road was begun at Brookfield Junction, in the town of Brook- field, fourteen miles from Milwaukee. In December, 1854, the road was opened for traffic to Oconomowoc, and, October 1, 1855, to Watertown. In 1856, Congress made a large grant of public lands to aid in the construction of roads in Wisconsin, and the vigorous struggle between the Milwaukee & Watertown and Milwaukee & La Crosse roads to secure its ample benefits, resulted in the practical consolidation of the two rival lines. In 1859, the name of the com- pany was changed to Milwaukee, Watertown & Baraboo Valley Railway Company, and, June 8, 1863, the whole line and its appurtenances passed completely into the possession of the newly created Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Company, where it has since remained as the La Crosse Division of their great railway line.

The road passes through the towns of Brookfield, Pewaukee, Delafield, Summit and Ocon- omowoc, a region of country of unsurpassed loveliness.

The original corporation had no small amount of trouble with those who mortgaged their farms to aid in its construction, a serious mob disturbance being at one time imminent.

Milwaukee & Beloit Railroad .- The barest mention of the name of this mythical rail- road will recall more history to a large number of farmers in Waukesha County than will ever be written. A railroad was to be built from Milwaukee to Beloit, through Muskego, Vernon and Mukwonago, by a company chartered for that purpose in 1855. Work was begun, and during 1856-57 the managers, or their agents for them, on the strength of the work already done and numerous glowing promises, secured scores and scores of mortgages on the farms of those near the proposed line of road. The road never was built; and, among other harsh things, the swindled inhabitants do not hesitate in saying that there was never an intention of building it. One of the county newspapers-the Waukesha Freeman-put the case into history thus briefly but plainly :

" In 1856-57, the Milwaukee & Beloit Railroad Company began work on their new road to pass through the Mukwonago. It is impossible to speak with any patience of the abominable swindle, whose managers induced the farmers along the route to mortgage their farms by the fairest promises, and who afterward violated their contracts, seriatim, by disposing of the mort- gages at a small percentage, putting the charter in a situation to render the building of a road for many years a simple impossibility, pocketing whatever proceeds were available, and leaving these men who had befriended them-many of them to utter ruin, and all to years of sacrifice and labor which could only avail them to keep the officers of the law from their doors. The

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HISTORY OF WAUKESHA COUNTY.

names of the villains who carried out this scheme ought to be preserved (though the last of the ' farm mortgages' is now settled), that they might bear the eternal stigma of infamy, and be a warning to future swindlers and rascals who should be inclined to purchase wealth by the loss of honor. I hope sometime to be able to give a tolerably complete history of this matter ; but for the present must content myself with a passing allusion. Suffice it to say, that the New England and New York stock which had already carried this part of the county, in a few years, from bar- barism to an enlightened prosperity, was found sufficient for the task of removing the incubus of debt which a civilized scoundrelism had loaded upon their shoulders."

This is strong language to be handed down in history, but anything else would be a libel, for the records in the Register's office at Waukesha are mottled with the entries, in the red ink always used for this particular purpose, of the foreclosures made by holders of Milwaukee & Beloit Railway mortgages, for which no farmer who lost his farm, or any portion of it, or who paid the mortgage and saved his land, ever received a dollar in return in any manner whatever. When the State ordered the compilation of railway statistics, the following report was made for Waukesha County :

" In accordance with an act of the Legislature, statistics of farm mortgages given in aid of railroads are being collected. In this county the amount of mortgages for the Milwaukee & Mississippi road was $39,997; for the Milwaukee & Beloit, $27,600; for the La Crosse & Milwaukee, $16,838.50; for the Milwaukee & Watertown, $4,600; making a total of over $89,000. It will be remembered that the Beloit road was never built, so that the farmers were not only swindled out of their money by the company, but the officers were so greedy as not even to lay a track in order to develop the country at large."

During the rebellion, when strong efforts were making to clear the property of these incumbrances, farms changing hands very rapidly in those days, an association to resist payment of these railway farm mortgages, on the plea of fraud, or to compromise them, was formed in this county, and regular meetings were held during a year or more. First and last, however, the agitation and resistance lasted nearly twenty years. A few, believing that the contingencies upon which the mortgages were given had been so nearly fulfilled as to make the incumbrances good in law, compromised, some for 25, some for 35 and some for 50 per cent, without interest.

At one of its early meetings, this farm-mortgage association made the following report of the mortgagors to Milwaukee & Mississippi Railroad Company : N. & E. D. Clinton, $5,000; Alfred Galpin, $2,500; William Sherman, $2,000; Jonathan Parsons, $2,000; Israel W. Porter, $1,500; Leverett Sherman, $500; David Norris,* $1,000; Daniel F. Melendy, $500; Ebenezer F. Wells, $500; Ahira R. Hinckley, $2,000; Stillman Smith, $1,000; Isaiah Skidmore, $1,500 ; Ebenezer Thomas, * $3,000; George Underhill, $500; John M. Wells, $1,500;'Nathan Whitcher, $1,000; A. C. Nickell,* $3,000; Francis Draper, $1,000 ; Bradley P. Balcom, $500; Ferrand Bigelow, $500; Henry Sneider,* $500; Thomas P. Turner, $500; James McWilliams, $1,000; Verus Henry, $1,000; John Denvir, $400; Osman M. Hubbard, $1,500.

Mortgagors to Milwaukee & Beloit Railroad Company : Royal L. Bayley, $300; Ira Blood, $500; Wilder C. Chapin, $1,000 ; Duncan Cameron, $500 ; John Dodge,* $300; Lyman Hill, $500; Whiting Hudson, $1,000 ; Simon Jones, $500; John A. Mckenzie, $500; Samuel Winch, $1,000 ; John Stewart, $500; Allen Porter, $500; G. Mudget, $1,000; George W. Porter, $500; Evander T. Taylor, $500; Martin Field, $1,000; Finley Fraser, $500; Angus Mc- Naughton, $1,000 ; Amos Putnam, $1,000 ; Nathaniel Putnam,* $1,000 ; Daniel Perkins, $500 ; Charles Vanderpool, $500; Bailey Webster, $500 ; William Purves, $200; James S. Cummings, $500; James Begg, $500; William M. Frazier, $1,000; John Andrews, $1,000; Prucius Put- nam, $1,000; Isaac Cate, $500; Asa Hollister, $1,000; Almon Welch, $1,000; Alexander Stewart, $500; Sewall Smith, $1,000; Peter Frayer, $1,000; Peter Van Buren, $1,000; Perry Craig, $500 ; Asa Wilkins, $500 ; A. Minor Stillwell, $1,000; William Talcott, $300 ; Porter Daniels, $300; William A. Vanderpool, $1,000; Riley Demmon, $500; Eli Welch,* $1,000.

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HISTORY OF WAUKESHA COUNTY.

Mortgagors to Milwaukee & Watertown Railroad Company : John S. Rockwell, $7,200; settled.

Mortgagors to Milwaukee & La Crosse Railroad Company : Thomas S. Redford, $1,600; Arthur A. Redford, $1,000 ; Henry Redford, $1,600; Presley N. Reag, * $1,000; Cyrus S. Davis, $1,000 ; Theophilus Haylett, $1,500; William Little, * $700; John McLane, $1,000; John Martin, $1,000; J. B. Nehs,* $500 ; Frederick Nehs, $1,000; Charles Nehs, $500; G. O. Nelson, $600; William M. Saunders, $1,000; Arthur A. Redford, $400; H. S. Smith, $1,000; John Mendar, $800; Benjamin Harmon, Jr., $200 ; Silas S. Johnson,* $800 ; Herman Harmon, $500; Benjamin Harmon, $300 ; John Reynolds, $138.50.

Various laws, at the instance of the association and of the railway company, were passed, looking to a settlement of the difficulties, some of which were declared unconstitutional, and others repealed.

Milwaukee, Waukesha, Jefferson & Madison Railway Company .- By an act, approved March 29, 1853, Charles H. Wheeler, J. D. Webster, Duncan C. Reed, William H. Hawkins, Alanson Sweet, William A. Barstow, Elisha W. Edgerton, Alonzo Wing and Leonard J. Far- well were authorized to construct a line of railway from Milwaukee, through Waukesha and Jefferson, to Madison. The capital stock was fixed at $2,000,000. The historian will have done his duty well enough when he has added that this line of railroad never was constructed, although some preliminary labors were performed or attempted.

Fond du Lac & Warkesha Railway Company .- By an act, passed March 7, 1857, Major J. Thomas, Elihu Enos, Jr., E. N. Foster, George Cairncross, James M. Lewis, J. W. Hunt, D. M. McDonald, H. Totten, C. C. Barnes, George W. Weikert and J. D. Reymert were given authority to build " one or more tracks of railroad," from Waukesha to Fond du Lac. The capital stock was fixed at $200,000, and fifteen years were given in which to complete " one track." Perhaps the financial crash of 1857 may be offered as the reason why the road never was built.

Fox River Valley Railroad .- One of the most elaborate railway charters ever granted was one, approved March 29, 1853, incorporating the Fox River Valley Railway Company, consisting of Preston Denton, Andrew E. Elmore, Winchell D. Bacon, Charles K. Watkins, W. K. Wilson, Pliny M. Perkins, Peter Forbes, Richard E. Ela, Philo Belden, J. C. Mckesson, Arthur Mc- Arthur, William S. Hawkins, William A. Barstow, William A. Vanderpool, C. C. Olin, H. H. Camp, Stephen Sayles and Alexander F. Pratt. The capital stock was fixed at $800,000, and the next Saturday after the passage of the act of incorporation C. C. Olin took $20,000 in subscriptions to the stock. The company had power to construct a " single or double track " to the State line, from Waukesha, and from Rochester, in Racine County, to Milwaukee. The main line was to follow the valley of the Fox River. The historian hardly needs to add that the road never was built. So many other roads were then in process of construction that suffi- cient capital for the enterprise could not be enlisted. It would have been, however, a valuable road for Waukesha, opening a more direct route to Chicago.

MILWAUKEE & ROCK RIVER CANAL.

Although the Milwaukee & Rock River Canal was never constructed, for some years it was the main topic of conversation in Waukesha County, and was the only issue dividing political parties. " Canal " and " anti-canal," or "Sweet " and " Kilbourn," were the parties. Byron Kilbourn, of Milwaukee, was the father of a scheme to dig a canal from Milwaukee to the Rock River through Waukesha County, and Alanson Sweet opposed it.

Early in 1836, Byron Kilbourn, of the then village of Milwaukee, passed over the county between Lake Michigan and the Rock River, to discover the best route for a canal to connect those two waters. He concluded the cheapest and most feasible one was that from Milwaukee up the Menomonee River, through Waukesha County to near the present site of Oconomowoc,

* Settled.

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HISTORY OF WAUKESHA COUNTY.

with a branch to Waukesha. He drew up a petition praying the Legislature to grant a charter for such an undertaking, and on the 29th of November, 1836, a bill granting the necessary authority and power was introduced in the House of Representatives, in session at Belmont, Iowa County, which was laid on the table. The next year Dr. Increase A. Lapham made a preliminary survey and estimate of the probable cost of the canal. These, with strong arguments by Byron Kilbourn, were thoroughly published in the Milwaukee newspapers, the Advertiser being the acknowledged organ of the canal projectors. Another bill was intro- duced in the Legislature, in November, 1837, which became a law in January, 1838. It conferred the necessary power upon the Milwaukee & Rock River Canal Company "to construct, maintain and continue a navigable canal, or slackwater navigation from the town of Milwaukee to the

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The History of Waukesha County, Wisconsin. Containing an account of its settlement, growth, development and resources; an extensive and minute sketch of its cities, towns and villages etc, Part 58

Author: Western Historical Co., pub Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Chicago : Western Historical Company Number of Pages: 1050

Author: Western Historical Co., pub
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago : Western Historical Company
Number of Pages: 1050