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Early Milwaukee
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Papers from the Archives of the
Old Settlers' Club of
Milwaukee County
Published by the Club
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MILWAUKEE, MCMXVI
PUBLIC LIBRARY
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1929
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Prefatory
The formal organization of the Old Settlers' Club of Milwau-
kee County dates from July 5, 1869. There had been a tentative
organization before that time and no fewer than eighty persons —
possibly more — had taken part in it. It possessed a written con-
stitution. This appears from the following call which was pub-
lished in the newspapers prior to the date set forth above :
"Old Settlers' Club.— There will be a meeting of the Old
Settlers' Club of Milwaukee County, at the Court House, on Mon-
day, July 5, 1869, at 11 o'clock A. M., for the purpose of electing
officers and completing the organization of the club. All who
have signed the constitution, and all others who settled in Milwau-
kee County previous to January, 1839, and desire to Join the club,
are requested to be present."
To this call were appended fourteen signatures, followed by the
words "and sixty-six others." The fourteen were men still well
remembered by the older residents of Milwaukee — Samuel Brown,
Eliphalet Cramer, S. Pettibone, Harrison Ludington, Elisha Starr,
J. A. Noonan, D. A. J. Upham, W. A. Prentiss, Fred Wardner,
Levi Blossom, Horace Chase, George A. Trayser, Cyrus Hawley and
Richard L. Edwards. The Court House in which they met was
not the present building, but the historic structure on the same
site, described in "McLeod's History of Wiskonsan" as "a large
and spacious building of finished workmanship," "built by Mr.
Juneau in 1836, at a cost of six thousand dollars, which he gave
to the county as a present, with two and a half acres of land."
Adjoining it on the east was the old county Jail, the scene in 1854
^ of the Glover rescue, one of the conspicuous incidents illustrating
'~^ the conflict of sentiment on the subject of slavery which brought
- on the Civil War.
p^ At the meeting in the old Court House Judge Andrew Galbraith
*- Miller presided, and Fenimore Cooper Pomeroy acted as secretary,
tand the organization of the Old Settlers' Club of Milwaukee
:s County was perfected. Its object, as set forth in the preamble to
p, its constitution, was the reviving of old associations and the renew-
ed
4 EAELY MILWAUKEE
ing of the ties of former years. Under the constitution which it
adopted any person of good moral character who had settled in
Milwaukee County, as organized before January 1st, 1839, might
become a member of the club by signing the constitution and pay-
ing the initiation fee and the annual dues.
Milwaukee County as organized before the 1st of January, 1839,
comprised an expanse of territory which by comparison would make
European principalities look small. The name was first used to
describe a political division in 1834, two years before the erection
of the territory of Wisconsin, and when what is now Wisconsin was
part of the territory of Michigan. On September 6th of that year
the Michigan territorial Legislature passed "an act to establish
the Counties of Brown and Iowa, and to lay off the County of Mil-
waukee." The County of Milwaukee created by the act extended
from the northern boundary of Illinois to about the present north
line of Washington County, and west to a line that would include
what are now knowTi as Madison and Portage City.
Under this constitution the club flourished until 1881, the
original organization of old settlers and pioneers, the only associa-
tion of Milwaukeeans with the object of preserving the associations,
the memories and the traditions of old Milwaukee. In that year
it adopted an amendment to its constitution, with the object of
making the organization perpetual. The resolution proposing this
amendment was as follows:
"Eesolved, That all male descendants of those who settled in
Milwaukee County prior to January 1, 1843, of good moral char-
acter, upon attaining the age of 21 years and complying with the
conditions of this constitution, shall be eligible to membership upon
the recommendation of the executive committee."
Nearly coincident with this expansion of the scope of the Old
Settlers' Club was the institution of another organization
identified with the preservation of old associations per-
taining to the settlement of Milwaukee — the Early Pioneer Asso-
ciation of Milwaukee County. This organization confined its
standard of eligibility to male persons who had reached the age
of fifty years prior to January 1, 1879, and were of good standing
in the community and who had become residents of Milwaitkee
PREFATORY 5
County previous to January 1, 1844. A large number of the mem-
bers of the Old Settlers" Club became members of the Pioneer Asso-
ciation. The membership of the Old Settlers' Club was for several
years considerably reduced. But the spirit of the Old Settlers'
Club was preserved in the Pioneer Association, and the Old Settlers'
Club continued to exist. Moreover, a resolution of the Pioneer
Association, adopted on January 1, 1880, the date of its organiza-
tion, provided that its members should wear the badge of the Old
Settlers' Club. The two organizations held their annual banquets
together for several years — "twin cherries on a single stem." Their
objects were identical, the only difference was in respect to the
requirements for membership — the Pioneers restricted their mem-
bership to pioneers, and the time would, arrive when an association
of pioneers must become extinct. The Old Settlers aimed for per-
petuity. They had planned an organization that should last as
long as Milwaukee lasts, and that should carry on from generation
to generation the traditions and memories which bind old Milwau-
keeans together, and stimulate civic pride and incite civic pat-
riotism.
From 1882 to 1889, inclusive, the annual banquets of the Old
Settlers' Club and the Pioneer Association were held jointly, and
the names of members of the respective organizations were printed
on the menu cards. From the menu card for the banquet of
February 22, 1882, it appears that the membership of the Old
Settlers' Club had shriveled to fourteen, while the Pioneer Asso-
ciation at that time had fifty-two members. The number of living
members of each of the clubs whose names were printed on suc-
ceeding banquet menu cards were as follows :
1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889
Old Settlers 19 30 32 38 47 83 82
Pioneers 57 ' 54 54 51 44 33 43
That the life of the Old Settlers' Club at one time seemed to
tremble in the balance may be inferred from a newspaper report
of the annual meeting of 1887, which states that Pet^r Van Vech-
ten said he hoped the movement threatening to disorganize the Old
Settlers' Club would not succeed, and that John A. Dadd said he
hoped the term of residence making persons eligible as Old Settlers
would be shortened to twenty-five years. "After some discussion,"
6 EAELY MILWAUKEE
the report states, "a, committee consisting of John G. Ogden, W.
B. Miller and John A. Dadd was appointed to revise the constitu-
tion of the Old Settlers' Club." The incorporation of the Old
Settlers' Club was effected on the 19th of September, 1887. The
membership of the club has approximated five hundred for a num-
ber of years.
The rooms of the Old Settlers' Club, which since 1891 have
been in the Loan and Trust building, contain an interesting and
valuable collection of books, pictures and relics pertaining to the
history of HJilwaukee. Numerous additions have been made since
the publication of the catalogue compiled by M. A. Boardman in
1895. Yerv useful for reference are the file of city directories and
the collections of scrap books presented by James A. Buck and
Peter Van Vechten, Jr. The Van Vechten scrap books are rich
in biographical material relating to Milwaukee old settlers, and the
information which they contain is made easily accessible by care-
fully compiled indexes. The pictures include photographs, paint-
ings and prints of old-time Milwaukee buildings and several hun-
dred portraits. The relics are of a wide variety, many of them
vividly recalling the cruder conditions of living in former days.
The club rooms are open on week days, furnishing an agreeable
place of resort for members. They are also the scene of the stated
monthly meetings and the annual New Year's reception. At the
New Year's reception of 1912 a committee, of which Jeremiah
Quin was chairman and spokesman, presented a testimonial ad-
dress to Frederick Layton, thanking him, in the naiAe of the people
of Milwaukee, for the Layton Art Gallery and the Layton Hospital
for Incurables, erected and endowed by his generosity. The pro-
ceedings at this meeting were recorded by means of the phonograph
and are preserved in the archives of the club, so that at some dis-
tant time it may be possible for later residents of Milwaukee to
hear the voices of old settlers who expressed themselves on that
occasion.
The annual banquets of the Old Settlers' Club have been given
on Washington's Birthday since 1879. They have been held at
different times at the Newhall House, the Kirby House, the Pfister
Hotel, the Hotel Wisconsin, and the Plankinton House. These
banquets have been the occasions of many noteworthy addresses and
PREFATORY 7
have lieft a long train of pleasant memories. Another social fea-
ture of yearly occurrence is the annual basket picnic of Old Settlers
and their families on the grounds of the National Soldiers' Home.
The Old Settlers' Club has been interested in the marking of
historic sites by suitable tablets. It contributed to the erection of
the memorial log cabin near the site of the old Jacques Vieau resi-
dence in Mitchell Park, which is not far from where the old Chi-
cago and Green Bay trail crossed the Menomonee river. With the
generous assistance of George W. Ogden it was instrumental in
procuring the memorial recently erected for Professor I. A. Lap-
ham in Lapham Park. Bronze tablets which it has affixed are lo-
cated as follows : On the Milwaukee County court house, Jackson
street, noting the sites of the old jail and court house ; on the Pabst
building, marking the site of the first house on the east side of the
river, built by Solomon Juneau; on the Uihlein building, East
Water street near Michigan, marking the birthplace of the first
white child born in Milwaukee; on the First National Bank build-
ing, marking the birthplace of Milwaukee's first white boy.
Following is a list of the officers of the Old Settlers' Club for
every year since its organization:
1869.
President, Horace Chase ; vice-presidents, Samuel Brown,
George Bowman and Enoch Chase; secretary, Fenimore C. Pom-
eroy; treasurer, Clark Shephardson.
1870.
President, Samuel Brown ; vice-presidents, George Bowman,
Enoch Chase and William A. Prentiss; secretary, Fenimore C.
Pomeroy; treasurer, Fred Wardner; marshal, James S. Buck,
1871.
President, Enoch Chase; vice-presidents, Henry Miller, George
Bowman and William A. Prentiss ; secretaiy, John M. Miller ; treas-
urer, Frederick Wardner; marshal, James S. Buck.
1872.
President, Andrew G. Miller ; vice-presidents, William A. Pren-
tiss, John Crawford and George Abert; secretary, John M. Miller;
treasurer, Fred Wardner; marshal, James S. Buck.
8 EARLY MILWAUKEE
1873.
President, Andrew G. Miller ; vice-presidents, William A. Pren-
tiss, John Crawford and George Abert ; secretary, John M. Miller ;
treasurer, George Bowman; marshal, James S. Buck.
1874.
President, Increase A. Lapham ; vice-presidents, Hiram Haertel,
Morgan L. Burdick and Robert Davies ; secretary, John M. Miller ;
treasurer, George Bowman ; marshal, James S. Buck,
1875.
President, William A. Prentiss; vice-presidents, John Furlong,
Giles A. Waite and Abner Kirby ; secretary, John M. Miller ; treas-
urer, George J. Rogers; marshal, James S. Buck.
1876.
President, Daniel Wells, Jr.; vice-presidents, George Abert,
Matthew Keenan and L. H. Lane; secretary, John M. Miller;
treasurer, George J. Rogers ; marshal, James S. Buck.
1877.
President, Don A. J. Upham ; vice-presidents, Morgan L. Bur-
dick, Herman Haertel and John Dahlman ; secretary, John M.
Miller; treasurer, George J. Rogers; marshal, James S. Buck.
1878.
President, Morgan L. Burdick; vice-presidents, Rufus Cheney,
George Abert, Uriel B. Smith; secretary and treasurer, John M.
Miller; marshal, James S. Buck.
1879.
President, William P. Merrill; vice-presidents, Rufus Cheney,
George Abert and Uriel B. Smith; secretary and treasurer, John
M. Miller; marshal, James S. Buck.
1880.
President, William A. Prentiss; vice-presidents, John H.
Tweedy and William P. Merrill ; secretary and treasurer, John M.
Miller; marshal, James S. Buck.
PEEFATORY 9
1881.
President, Daniel W. Fowler; vice-presidents, T. H. Brown, T.
H. Smith and George Abert; secretary and treasurer, Charles D.
Simonds ; marshal, James S. Buck.
1882.
President, George H. Chase ; vice-president, George A. Abert ;
secretary and treasurer, Charles D. Simonds; marshal, James S.
Buck.
1883.
President, Tully H. Smith ; vice-presidents, Thomas H. Brown.
George A. Abert, M. A. Boardman ; secretary and treasurer, C. D.
Simonds; marshal, James S. Buck.
1884.*
1885.*
1886.*
1887.
President, M. A. Boardman ; vice-presidents, J. A. Dadd and
Hugo von Broich; secretary and treasurer, C. D. Simonds; marshal,
James S. Buck.
1888.
President, John A. Dadd; first vice-president, Hugo von
Broich second vice-president, C. A. Place; secretary and treasurer,
James M. Pereles.
1889.
President, John A. Dadd; vice-presidents, C. A. Place and
Hugo von Broicli ; secretary and treasurer, James M. Pereles.
1890.
President, John A. Dadd; vice-presidents, N. Masson, M. Bod-
den; secretary and treasurer, George H. D. Johnson; marshal, W.
H. Wallis.
*Eecords missing.
10 EAELY MILWAUKEE
1891.
President, Ninian Masson ; first vice-president, John B. Merrill ;
second vice-president, John Black; secretary and treasurer, Henry
M. Ogden; marshal, M. A. Boardman.
1892.
President, Ninian Masson; first vice-president, Peter Van
Vechten, Jr.; second vice-president, Daniel W. Fowler; secretary
and treasurer, Henry M. Ogden; marshal, Morillo A, Boardman.
1893.
President, Ninian Masson; first vice-president, Peter Van
Vechten, Jr., second vice-president, Daniel W. Fowler; secretary
and treasurer, Henry M. Ogden; marshal, Morillo A. Boardman.
1894.
President, Ninian Masson; first vice-president, David Adler;
second vice-president, F. Y. Horning; secretary and treasurer, F.
W. Sivyer; marshal, Morillo A. Boardman.
1895.
President, Peter Van A^echten, Jr. ; first vice-president, D. W.
Fowler; second vice-president, W. M. Brigham; secretary and treas-
urer, Frederick W. Sivyer; marshal, M. A. Boardman.
1896.
President, Peter Van Vechten, Jr.; first vice-president, Joshua
Stark ; second vice-president, W. M. Brigham ; secretary and treas-
urer, George W. Lee; marshal, M. A. Boardman.
1897.
President, Joshua Stark; first vice-president, W. M. Brigham;
second vice-president, John Black ; secretary and treasurer, George
W. Lee; marshal, M. A. Boardman.
1898.
President, Joshua Stark ; first vice-president, W. M. Brigham ;
second vice-president, John Black; secretary and treasurer, George
W. Lee; marshal, M. A. Boardman; historian, Henry W. Bleyer.
PPtEFATOEY 11
1899.
President, A. G. Weissert; first vice-president, J. M. Pereles;
second vice president, George W. Ogden; secretary and treasurer,
A. G. Wright; historian, Henry W. Bleyer; marshal, M. A. Board-
man.
1900.
President, A. G. Weissert; first vice-president, J. M. Pereles;
second vice-president, George W. Ogden; secretary and treasurer,
A. G. Wright; historian, Henry W. Bleyer; marshal, M. A. Board-
man.
1901.
President, J. M. Pereles; first vice-president, George W. Ogden;
second vice-president, Jeremiah Quin ; secretary and treasurer,
A. G. Wright; historian, Henry W. Bleyer, marshal, M. A. Board-
man.
1902.
President, J. M. Pereles ; first vice-president, George W. Ogden ;
second vice-president, Jeremiah Quin ; secretary and treasurer, A.
G. Wright; historian, Henry W. Bleyer; marshal, M. A. Boardman.
1903.
President, George W. Ogden; first vice-president, Jeremiah
Quin ; second vice-president, Gerry W. Hazelton ; secretary and
treasurer, A. G. Wright; historian, Plenry W. Bleyer; marshal, M.
A. Boardman.
1904.
President, Jeremiah Quin; first vice-president, G. W. Hazel-
ton ; second vice-president, B. B. Simpson ; secretary and treasurer,
A. G. Wright; historian, Henry W. Bleyer; marshal, M. A. Board-
man.
1905.
President, Gerry W. Hazelton ; first vice-president, E. B. Simp-
son ; second vice-president, F. W. Sivyer ; secretary and treasurer,
A. G. Wright; historian, Henry W. Bleyer; marshal, M. A. Board-
man.
12 EARLY MILWAUKEE
1906.
President, Edward B. Simpson; first vice-president, William
George Bruce; second vice-president, George W. Lee; secretary and
treasurer, George W. Young; historian, Henry W. Bleyer; marshal
M. A. Boardman.
1907.
President, William George Bruce; first vice-president, Julius
Wechselberg; second vice-president, John H. Kopmeier; secretary
and treasurer, George W. Young; historian, Henry W. Bleyer;
marshal, M. A. Boardman.
1908.
President, Julius Wechselberg; first vice-president, John H.
Kopmeier; second vice-president, James A. Bryden; secretary and
treasurer, George W. Young ; historian, Henry W. Bleyer ; marshal,
M. A. Boardman.
1909. "^
President, John H. Kopmeier; first vice-president, James A.
Bryden; second vice-president, E. P. Matthews; secretary and
treasurer, George W. Young; historian, Henry W. Bleyer; marshal,
M. A. Boardman.
1910.
President, James A. Bryden ; first vice-president, John G.
Gregory; second vice-president, Fred Scheiber; secretary and treas-
urer, George W. Young; historian, Henry W. Bleyer; marshal, M.
A. Boardman.
1911.
President, John G. Gregory; first vice-president, Ered Scheiber;
second vice-president, Frank P. AVilbur; secretary and treasurer,
George AV. Young; historian, Henry W. Bleyer; marshal, M. A.
Boardman.
1912.
President, Fred Scheiber; first vice-president, Frank P. Wilbur;
second vice-president, Simon Kander; secretary and treasurer,
George W. Young; historian, Henry W. Bleyer; marshal, M. A.
Boardman.
PREFATORY 13
1913.
President, Frank P. Wilbur; first vice-president, Simon
Kander ; second vice-president, George W. Lee ; secretary and treas-
urer, George W. Young; historian, Henry W. Bleyer; marshal, M.
A. Boardman.
1914.
President, Simon Kander; first vice-president, George W. Lee;
second vice-president, F. C. Winkler; secretary and treasurer,
George W. Young; historian, Henry W. Bleyer; marshal, M. A.
Boardman.
1915.
President, George W. Lee; first vice-president, Lawrence W.
Halsey; second vice-president, Charles W. Norris; secretary
and treasurer, George W. Young; historian, Henry W. Bleyer;
marshal, M. A. Boardman.
1916.
President, L. W. Halsey; first vice-president, C. W. ISTorris;
second vice-president, Henry Fink ; secretary and treasurer, George
W. Young; historian, Henry W. Bleyer; marshal, M. A. Boardman.
This book, compiled by a committee of the club appointed for
the purpose, presents a selection of papers, bearing upon the history
of Milwaukee. The originals of these papers, with many others
of similar character, are preserved in the archives of the club.
JOHN G. GREGORY,
HENRY W. BLEYER,
GEORGE W. YOUNG,
GEORGE RICHARDSON,
Committee.
14 EAELY MILWAUKEE
Here is appended a memorandum which was handed to the
special committee by the late T. J. Pereles:
OUE CLUB PEIOR TO INCOEPOEATION :— Several of our
older members were persuaded by the old fire marshal and his-
torian, the late James S. Buck, to become members of the Old
Settlers' Club. The Club at that time was not incorporated, but
it was part and parcel of the old Pioneers' Club, which was com-
posed of those sturdy Milwaukeeans who did much in building up,
and through their o^vn actions, promoting the welfare of the
"Cream City of the West." They met annually on Washington's
Birthday to join in a dinner and relate their personal experiences
of early hardships, privations and the comforts of life, — how they
built for themselves and their small families a comfortable early
home and partook of the rights of citizenship and in the upbuild-
ing of this city, so that those who might come after them would
enjoy all of the pleasures of what we today call "civic pride." At
no time, in the relating of these early hardships, was the important
part taken by the wife of the pioneer overlooked to be commented
on. At these annual dinners there were invited the members of
the Old Settlers' Club, composed of the sons of those pioneers and
those early residents who came here later. These meetings were
harmonious and most pleasant, and did much to inspire the younger
element with a greater desire to help in building up our then small
city and making its existence more conspicuous upon our State
map. We, of the Old Settlers' Club, would look forward to these
gatherings, they became a fixed custom, — when, on a certain even-
ing in July, 1887, without prior notice or intimation, we were very
plainly informed that our presence at the Pioneer meetings would
no longer be permitted. The suddenness of this notice, — unex-
pectedly to those present, — was such a surprise that it took us some
moments to recover. We immediately retired to Parlor A. of the
Plankinton House, and discovered that we had no legal rights and
no cause to complain of such peremptory informality. At that
gathering there were present Daniel W. Fowler, M. A. Boardman,
Charles D. Simonds, George W. Ogden, my brother James M. Pere-
les, Dr. John A. Dadd, William B. Miller, Hugo von Broich, John
G. Ogden, and your humble self. Two of the members thought
PREFATORY 15
consensus of opinion was in favor of a permanent organization, in-
corporated under the laws of our State, and one that would live to
become a factor in making and preserving the local history of our
city. My brother suggested that he be given an opportunity and
he would within two weeks secure a membership that would insure
life to the organization. "We held several conferences or meetings,
which to a certain extent, had resolved itself, without intention,
into a little debating society, and it was one of the humorous oc-
casions when our genial old friend, Dr. Dadd, would propose or
make a suggestion to become part of the object of our Club, to
immediately hear his neighbor, William B. Miller, express in logical
argument his opposition to the same.
The Club was incorporated on the 19th of September, 1887,
and it was a pleasure to the few of us who met at the first in-
formal gathering, to notice that among those desiring membership
were many of the members of the then Pioneers' Club. The record
of the names, the copy of the Incorporation, and the By-Laws,
you will find in the Minute Book of the first Secretary, kept by
my brother. Our first President was Dr. John A. Dadd, the pioneer
druggist ; our first Vice President was Hugo von Broich, the pioneer
photographer and artist; the second Vice President, C. A. Place,
who was, I believe, the first paymaster of the old Milwaukee Road ;
Secretary and Treasurer, James M. Pereles; and our first Marshal
was James S. Buck. The executive committee was composed of
John G. Ogden, our present Marshal M. A. Boardman, and Thomas
P. Collingbourne, and from that time on, the Club grew not only
in numbers but in sociability, and took the front rank as a historical
club ; and we did more, we invited for many years, the Pioneers
Club to join with us on the evening of Washington's Birthday to
celebrate that great historical day. Regular monthly meetings
were held, and at each occasion, a paper on some early Milwaukee
topic, was read by one of the members. The Club, that we have
today, is the one that was then incorporated.
Of the organizers of the Club, the survivors are our uncle Peter
Van Vechten, Jr., George W. Ogden, and myself.
We have never had any cause to regi-et; on the contrary, we
have always been proud of our Club, and we still hope that some
day in the near future, we may have a home owned by the Club,
in which all of the pleasures of companionship and membership
may be enjoyed to the fullest extent, and to which many more of
the early historical relics can be added. rp j pERELES
16 EARLY MILWAUKEE
CONTENTS
1 Prefatory
2 Early Settlers Peter Johnson
3 In the 'Thirties H. C. White
4 Pioneer Land Speculation Silas Chapman
5 Boyhood Memories A. W. Kellogg
6 Girlhood Memories Mrs. M. D. Ellsworth
7 A Popular Street Corner D. W. Fowler
8 Anecdotes of Pioneers Peter Van Vechten
9 Waterfront and Shipping M. A. Boardman
10 A Sailor's Narrative Capt. William Callaway
11 Milwaukee's First Railway James Seville
12 First Locomotive Built in Milwaukee G. Richardson
13 An Up-River Mystery Jeremiah Quin
14 Early Physicians and Druggists John A, Dadd
15 First Small-pox Epidemic Dr. J. B. Selby
16 Milwaukee in the Mexican War H. W. Bleyer
17 Dr. I. A. Lapham W. W. Wight
Early Settlers
Paper Eead by Peter Johnston Sept. 6th, 1897.
Henry Legler, in his excellent "Story of the State," gives a par-
tial history of some of the early pioneers of Wisconsin from the
Seventeenth to the Nineteenth Century. But they were not settlers
in the proper sense of the term. They were exploring adventurers
and agents and employees of various fur companies of Canada and
the United States and were sent by them to trade with the Indians
for furs and peltries. And th^y had no desire or intention of open-
ing the country to permanent settlement or to civilization. In fact
it was their intent and aim to keep as far from that as possible, be-
cause the fewer the settlers the more Indians and the more furs
and better trade and larger profits.
By treaty with the Indians at Chicago in 1833 they ceded to
the government the title to their lands in the State, excepting some
reservations to which they could retire and live more closely and
sociably together and where the Great Father at Washington could
look after them and care for them until they became extinct or
nearly so — as at present.
It was not till 1834 that lands were surveyed and opened to
settlers, and the first land sale was at Mineral Point in 1834. The
population of the state was only 4,795. and it was scattered at a
few places, the lead mines and trading posts along the rivers and
at Green Bay.
In June 1835, the first steamboat landed at Milwaukee and
from that time we may date the first waves of immigration that
during the succeeding quarter of the Century rolled on these
shores. I think it is James Fenimore Cooper, who in a couplet in-
troductory to his novel of the Pioneers describes the situation at
that time very well :
I hear the tread of Pioneers,
A mig-hty Nation yet to be,
The first lone waves upon the Shore,
Where soon shall roll a human Sea.
In 1836 eight hundred and seventy-eight thousand acres of land
had been sold to settlers and speculators. But the waves of immi-
gration did not assume large proportions till after 1840. At that
18 EAKLY MILWAUKEE
date the population of the State was only 31,000. In 1846 it was
155,000, in 1850 it was 305,000, in 1855 it was 552,000, and in
1860 it was 776,000. In the early forties the advice of Horace
Greeley to "Go West Young Man Go West" began to be heeded.
And the tide of immigration to Wisconsin increased from year to
year till it assumed vast proportions and the state was being set-
tled rapidly with an enterprising and industrious population. I
speak first of the foreign immigration. From what countries did
it come and who and what were they as a class? They came from
the best and most intelligent nations of Europe. Probably the great-
est number were those speaking the German language. Germans,
Austrians, Bohemians, Hungarians, Belgians and Hollanders.
Scandinavians from Denmark, Sweden and Norway, English,
Scotch and Irish from the British Isles. Some from Switzerland
and France. And a few from some countries not mentioned.
In most of those nations education of the masses is general and
very few of the immigrants were without some education in their
own language.
There were few old people. They were from middle age to
younger, married and single, young men and maidens and children.
They were intelligent, enterprising and industrious. None were
paupers or tramps. They intended to better their fortunes in
Wisconsin by honest industry. They were of all trades and pro-
ficient farmers, mechanics, lawyers, teachers and preachers, mer-
chants and sailors. No better class ever settled a new state. Webster
says that an immigrant is one who moves from one country to an-
other or from one state to another in the same country. I call the
latter domestic immigration. There was a great tide of immigra-
tion from the Eastern states during those years. They came largely
from New England and the empire state, some from Pennsylvania
and from Canada. They were from the best families and blood of
those states, descendants of pilgrims and Eevolutionary ancestors.
They came west for room to expand and grow up with the country.
It is of no use to tell you what they did here. Their work speaks
for them.
There is another class of early settlers who were not immigrants
that came here during those years. They were very few in num-
ber at first, but they increased to many thousands as the years
EAELY SETTLEES 19
rolled on, and I give in illustration of the class the early history of
our friend Capt. J. V. Quarles, as told by himself at the banquet of
the Old Settlers' Club in February, 1896. As near as I remember
he said in part :
"I came here in 1843. I was a very small boy and I came
alone. I was a stranger and I had no money, and no clothes to
mention. A kind family took me and cared for me. They were
farmers and I helped on the farm. I did some milking and I
raised much provisions — with a spoon. They were good to me and
sent me to school and educated me to be a lawyer."
I hope that others of his class had a different fate. But I don't
know. I do know lawyers are very plenty.
In 1861 when our Southern brethren attempted to destroy this
nation and commenced war against it, no state responded more
quickly to the president's call for troops than did Wisconsin, and
no better or braver men ever followed the flag than Wisconsin
soldiers. And no state lost more men, killed, wounded and by the
accidents of war, in proportion to their number than Wisconsin.
Her soldiers were nearly all early settlers of native and foreign
birth, and their sons who were old enough to go to war. There was
no difference in the ranks. All were Americans.
In illustration of the loyalty of foreign born citizens to the
country, I will relate one instance — and to me it Is a sad memory
and the example is not extreme — there were thousands of similar
cases. When the war commenced in 1861 I had four brothers,
native born Scotchmen and adopted citizens of Wisconsin. Three
of them enlisted in the early regiments and one later. Two of
them returned when the war ended and two were killed in battle
and sleep where they fell in unknown graves in Tennessee and
Virginia. Could any men do more for their country ?
It is generally supposed that settlers suffered many hardships
during early years, but I doubt if they were aware of them to any
great extent. It is true they worked hard, but they were able and
willing to work and did not count it hardship. They had plenty
of good plain food and did not suffer hunger — good warm clothing
and did not suffer cold. They had few luxuries for the table be-
cause they were not to be had and few fine clothes for the same rea-
20 EARLY MILWAUKEE
son. But they were contented with what they could get and did
not consider it any hardship. Many of them came from large cities
and densely populated districts where a struggle for existence was
their only prospect in future. But here they had a feeling of free-
dom and independence and assurance of future welfare that was
' new to them, and more than balanced any privation or hardships
they might encounter. But they suffered some privations incident
to a new country. Markets were few and distant, roads were bad,
schools and churches were few and often far away, and in sickness
or accidents, medical aid might be hard to get. Farming tools and
machinery were crude but no better were in use anywhere. The
strong arm of the farmer scattered the seeds, the scythe and grain
cradle were mowers and self-binders and the flail and old horse-
power thresher prepared the grain for use.
To be fashionable did not trouble them very much. Men were
fashionable in satinet, jeans or hard times, ladies in alpaca, de-
laines or calicos. There were no high hat laws and their heads were
level. Boys and girls were not yet masters and misses, and the
new woman was not yet invented. The old woman was perfectly
satisfactory, and divorce courts were a luxury reserved for the
present generation. They took their pleasure rides on the old
buckboard or spring wagons or by Foot and Walker's line in place
of bicycle, phaeton or electric car.
Money was scarce and hard to get. Gold and silver were at par,
but 16 to 1, they had none of it. But an order on the store was
just as good and easier to get. In fact they were not aware how
much they were suffering and where ignorance is bliss ^tis folly to
be wise.
The early settlers found Wisconsin a wilderness. They made
it a cultivated, beautiful and prosperous state. They created state
and local governments; they enacted wise, just and liberal laws;
they founded public schools and the higher institutions of learning ;
they built hospitals and asylums for the insane and other unfor-
tunates, churches for the good and prisons for the bad. And all
that has been added in later years is built on the foundations laid
by them, and to them belongs the credit of the state.
At the close of the Civil War in 1865 the population of the
state was about 900,000. By immigration and natural increase it
EARLY SETTLERS 21
has more than doubled and also doubled in wealth, commerce and
production. All the early settlers now living are indeed Old Set-
tlers, and a younger generation of men must guide the Ship of
State.
May they be as wise, prudent and honest as their Fathers were,
and guide her in the safe channel of equal rights and justice to all,
and all will be well with the State.
In the 'Thirties
Paper read by C. H. White at Old Settlers' Picnic, Aug. 18, 1898.
You may be unable to reconcile my age which is twenty-seven
with these reminiscences of the early days, still I was quite a chunk
of a boy when I came to Wisconsin in 1836 during John I. Eockwell
and S. V. E. Ableman's terms of office as United States Marshal,
for I was deputy under each of these officers during the exciting
trial of Sherman M. Booth. I had charge of the jury, and I think
Booth and myself are the only parties living who figured in that
trial.
My father, Peter White, Sr., emigrated from Home, New York,
in May 1835 to Green Bay, Wisconsin. He established a store and
returned in the fall to spend the winter in Kome. The following
May he set sail again with his oldest son — your humble servant.
That year the ice proved very severe on boats bound for the
upper lakes. We lay in sight of Buffalo two weeks, not able to
move, on account of being locked in fields of ice, extending as far
as the eye could see.
The middle of June on Sunday morning, we anchored at the
point where now lies the City of Green Bay — being the first boat of
the season, every inhabitant that was in sight of the Bay or in
hearing of church bells was on the dock to receive us.
The Indians outnumbered the whites by hundreds. My first
visit to Milwaukee was in the summer of 1838. I drove a team
and took Andrew J. Vieau and family from Green Bay to Mil-
waukee. Vieau was a brother-in-law of Solomon Juneau — who
lived in a log house situated about where the Marine Bank now
stands. AH I can recall of Vieau's familv is that he had a lumber
wagon full of children !
One year later I visited Milwaukee and took refuge in the Cot-
tage Inn — kept by R. P. Harrison and George Vail, it was located
on J]ast Water street. On this occasion I took a load of fresh white-
fish for speculation. Left the Bay with a whole ton of fresh shining
fish, a brand new sleigh, a span of good horses and plenty of cour-
age.
IN THE 'THIRTIES 2Z
The snow gradually melted from day to day until I reached
Summit. There I ran into a rain storm, I was obliged to hire a
wagon of a brother of H. N. Wells, who at that time was one of
Milwaukee's noted lawyers. After a drag of 30 miles from Sum-
mit to Milwaukee through the rain and mud, I made a desperate
effort to sell my fish ; frozen and thawed fish do not present a very
inviting or appetizing appearance.
After driving from house to house for three hours, and making
but one sale, I became thoroughly convinced it was only "fisher-
man's luck," and in desperation I drove down to the river, cut a
hole in the ice and dumped the load, then started on my return
trip. Paid Mr. Wells 10 dollars for the use of his wagon, left my
new sleigh and double harness in his care, rented a dilapidated
saddle and started for Green Bay — with the firm resolve that if
Milwaukee folks wanted fish they would, as far as I was concerned,
be obliged to come to Green Bay for them. When I reached homo
I found it necessary to employ a veterinary surgeon to cure the
damage the old saddle was accountable for. The surgeon charged
me $15. The horse died within two weeks. The sleigh and harness
have never been heard from to this day.
Ton of fish $ 60.00
Sleigh $30.00, harness, $25.00 55.00
Use of wagon 10.00
Surgeon 15.00
Dead horse 125.00
Expenses on road 30.00
$295.00
All for the fun of lugging dead fish to this, then, benighted town.
My next visit to Milwaukee was when the Hotel, called Mil-
waukee House, stood on the summit of the city. I was sent by an
uncle, who was a farmer, a hotel keeper and preacher. He lived
on the edge of Calumet Prairie, 12 miles north of Fond du Lac.
He was an extensive breeder of hogs and sent me with one of his
sons to purchase a drove. He had a breed that was called Caseknife
or Eazorback. They would devour their weight in grain daily and
not increase in weight. They would jump a six rail fence or lie
down and squeeze between the rail, a space of about three inches.
24 EARLY MILWAUKEE
For some reason we started home without purchasing the drove.
Some man who was a guest of the Milwaukee House at that time,
advised us to try the Indian trail leading to Fond du Lac, he said
we would save fifty miles that way. We started, sixteen miles out
of the city we passed the last house, we rode until night overtook
us and concluded to camp; we were without food for our horses
or ourselves ; we gathered brush for the horses and sat by a fire until
daylight. During the night we were sure we saw and heard at least
a thousand wolves. It was in October, the leaves had filled the trail
so it was difficult to trace it, when the morning came, the trail
was utterly obliterated. To make the story short, the night of the
3rd day, we found ourselves back at the sixteen mile house out of
Milwaukee, nearly famished; during the time we were lost, if it
had been possible to have gotten our clutches on one of those wolves,
we felt equal to devouring it.
We concluded that the "furtherest way round was the nearest
way home," and went via Watertown.
I took the contract for carrying the mail between Milwaukee
and Green Bay that was carried otherwise than on a man's back in
a mud wagon. I was allowed six days for making the trip. At
that time postage on one letter was 25 cents. The trip is made in
as many hours now.
Pioneer Land Speculation
in Milwaukee
Paper by Silas Chapman, Read Before the Old Settlers' Club,
Dec. 5, 1893.
For some time previous to the year 1836, money, or what is
sometimes called money, the bills of banks of issue, was very
abundant. Speculation ran rampant, prices of everything went
upward, and this speculation culminated in 1836 by platting and
throwing on the market lots, not only in cities and villages, but
on mountain tops and under water. It mattered not where the
real estate was, it became real to the speculator, and his credit, if
not his money, was invested in it. It was supposed to be a fact that
lots were platted and sold that were then, and are to this day under
water. It was nearly true of lots in Milwaukee. As a take off it
was gravely announced one morning in a New York paper that
two paupers had escaped from a county asylum, and before they
could be recaptured, each had made $40,000 by speculating in lots.
The land where our city now is had just been surveyed, and
was an enticing field for speculation. The place was outside of
civilization and only reached by tramp boats on the lake. The land
was platted, the plats booked well on the map, and the maps were
ready. All the present Seventh, Third and Fifth and parts of the
Fourth, Second and Sixth wards were platted, and ready for sale.
In all nearly 5,000 lots were in the market.
It mattered very little to the original settler or buyer where
the great city of the future was to be, if, indeed, he concerned him-
self about the future. Only the owners of the south part of the
Fifth ward named their plat "Milwaukee Proper" — insisting that
this was the true place for the city, and some of us — uninterested —
agreed with them.
Then began the furious and reckless sale of lots. Sellers were
as reckless as buyers, for everybody was a seller, and everybody
was a buyer. There was no limit to the prices and expectation of
prices. Lots were sold for a given price with a guarantee that
within a named period they could be sold at a certain per cent ad-
26 EAKLY MILWAUKEE
vance. Mr. Juneau is said to have sold lots with such guarantee,
and afterwards, according to his ability, honorably redeemed his
pledge. Stories have come down to us, the truth concerning which
I am glad I do not know, that business men would deny themselves
to their customers and in their back room, with their bottle of wine,
make themselves famously rich in trading in town lots. Having
seen the results of such transactions, should some old settler press
me hard, I should acknowledge a belief therein.
We can hardly realize it to be true, that while these lots were
sold, and warranted titles given no individual owned in his own
right one foot of ground, the title was still vested in the United
States.
At that time the United States recognized no preemption claims.
A settler might squat on an 80 acre tract or any other number of
acres, build his cabin, and make all his improvements, and yet if
he had not actually paid for his land in gold, any other person
might pay for the same, oust the settler, and seize the land and
improvements, without paying anything for those improvements.
On the east side, Solomon Juneau claimed all now the Seventh
ward with a narrow strip south of Wisconsin street, Peter Juneau
the rest of the Third ward, George Walker and others certain frac-
tional lots now the Fifth ward and Byron Kilbourn was the first
to perfect his title — the Juneaus followed soon after. Walker's
title was not settled till 1842, and then by an act of congress, some
other claimant having "jumped" upon it.
Late in 1836 business circles throughout the country began to
fear a financial panic. It could not be averted. 1837 came in with
great and extensive failures. There was crowding and rushing to
cover. I was then a resident of New York City, saw the swirl in that
center of whirlpool and the memory of that excitement will not
leave me should I live as long as this Old Settlers' Club, that is, a
thousand years. Land speculation came to a sudden close. The
supposed values of real estate in Milwaukee all at once disappeared.
Owners of lots in Milwaukee were living in eastern towns and
cities. They had given value for that which was of no value —
something for nothing. Land was down nearly to its original acre
value — lots could not be given away.
LAND SPECULATION 27
A carpenter named Thurston, doing business here in 1836, had
done some work for and had a claim against a neighbor. The
debtor could not pay. Thurston obtained judgment, the claim and
costs amounting to $175. The debtor having a lot, offered to pass
that over to Thurston for satisfaction of judgment. Mr. Juneau
was consulted but being in the depths himself, could hardly give a
fair judgment. He told Thurston to let the lot alone — Milwaukee
had gone to the dogs never to come back. Thurston did not take
the lot — nor anything else. The lot is the one on which the
old insurance building now stands. Some few years ago I met
Thurston directly in front of that building. We looked at it, but
neither of us said a word about it.
The recovery of real estate value was very slow. In 1841, four
years after the crash, I met a gentleman of Salem, Mass., who said
to me : "I have six lots in Milwaukee, my title is good, but there
are some taxes still unpaid. If you will take these lots off my
hands and save me from further anxiety I will give you a quit claim
deed." I declined to relieve him. The lots are on West Water
street, south of Grand avenue.
One could hardly be in an eastern city, without meeting owners
of Milwaukee lots. As late as 1850, thirteen years after the failures,
being in Philadelphia, a capitalist who had held on to his invest-
ments, wanted to know if he could get 50 per cent of what the
lots cost him in 1836. "Doubtful." was my reply.
In 1845 I purchased the northwest quarter of block 133, First
ward, the block on which was Juneau's home — ^now the property of
John Black, for $300.
Milwaukee did recover from the madness of 1836. It has since
kept its real estate at a fair but not speculative value. What the
condition is now and will be for the next ten years, I leave to the
essayist who shall read to this club in 1950.
Boyhood Memories
Paper by A. W. Kellogg Eead April 3d, 1889.
I was bom in the little hamlet of West Goshen in the some-
what noted Litchfield County, Connecticut, which lies on the rough
back-bone of the state between the broad Connecticut river valley
on the east and the narrower Housatonic on the west. Among my
early recollections is one of going through the orchard and across the
lot back of my father's house without once touching the ground;
not on wings to be sure but by stepping and jumping from stone
to stone the whole distance. And as I was less than seven years
old the stones must have been very thick, the fences already having
been built of them. And I recall the remark of an old salt of a sea
captain who said after living in the place for awhile, "That he had
sailed around the world but had never been so long out of sight of
land before !"
But yet I have ever kept a warm place in my heart for the
good old "land of steady habits," which I once put into these simple
rhymes :
"Backward, turn backward, oh time in thy flight,
"Make me a child again just for to-night."
In the last days of October 1836, my Father, Leverett S. Kel-
logg, with his family left the dear old state and starting westward,
traveling by the fastest conveyances then to be had with one small
exception, was just four weeks making the journey. Teams took
us and our goods from Goshen to Alban}'-, N. Y., then we took the
old strap railroad to its end at Schenectady, then the canal packet to
Buffalo, where we shipped our goods by the last schooner for the
season bound round the lakes, and ourselves got on board the old
steamer Columbus for Detroit. There father bought a team of
horses and a lumber wagon and kept up with the stage during the
daytime and only got behind by not traveling nights. Of the inci-
dents of that long journey I recall two or three distinctly, viz: the
long climb of the locks at Lockport, N. Y., and the packet captain's
cry of "Low bridge" as we swept under some bridge that nearly
touched the deck of the packet; the first venison steak ever tasted,
at Ipsilanti, Mich.,. which, as it was cooked that morning, was as
BOYHOOD MEMOKIES 29
dry and tasteless as a chip; of the hard climb of the long sand
hills as we struck Lake Michigan a little this side of Niles ; and of
one night's lodging with thirty or more other travelers in a log
tavern of two rooms, each about 12x14, where father, mother and
the three children occupied the only bed in the house, the landlord's,
cut off by a sheet in the corner and given to mother as the only
woman and nearly sick, while the rest were lodged in bunks one
above another three or four high all around the walls, like the
berths in a Canal packet. Father had thought some of stopping in
Chicago, but the ground was so low and the mud so deep that we
stopped only for a night. And I can see now, the chicken tracks in
the mud on the kitchen floor of that old "Lake House," as I have
since seen on a wet day the men tracks in the mud on the thronged
sidewalks of Chicago, something less than an inch deep.
"We reached Southport (now Kenosha) about sundown November
26th, and, as the weather had turned suddenly cold that after-
noon, were nearly frozen when two miles this side we drove up
to the log cabin of my father's brother who had come west the
year before. After a day or two Father came on to Milwaukee, but
mother and the three children stayed for a month in that one
room log-house with a ladder-reached attic, in which there was al-
ready a family of husband, wife and five children, and the im-
pression remaining in memory is not that of being so greatly
crowded, but rather of having had a nice visit.
Besides cracking hickory and butter-nuts, one of our amuse-
ments was to go down through the trap door in the floor into the
cellar, and, lifting the flat turnips by the roots, to judge by their
weight which were solid and which pithy, to bring up the sound
ones and scrape them with a table knife in lieu of apples, and I
can almost taste now the cool, juicy flavor of those soft, white
mouthfuls.
Father having found his schooner sent furniture which went
by to Chicago and had to be brought back, moved it into some
rooms over a store on the river-bank on West Water street opposite
what is now the Second Ward bank — the only vacant place he
could find — came for us and the family arrived at Milwaukee the
first of January 1837. Of that first winter I recall this incident.
30 EAELY MILWAUKEE
One day I came bursting into the sitting-room, heard mother's
"hush" and then saw on the bed in the corner a face almost as
white as the pillow on which it lay surrounded by an aureole of
silver hair, and it seemed to me that a saint had come out from one
of the pictures of the old masters with the halo about his head
and gone to sleep there.
Mother told me he was the presiding elder, the Eev. John Clark,
and that he had said after sitting a few minutes, "Sister Kellogg, I
have slept or tried to sleep beside a log in the woods for three nights
on my way from my last appointment at Green Bay, and your
feather-bed looks so tempting I must ask for the privilege of a nap
on it even before dinner if you please," and the tired old man slept
the restful sleep of the conscience free till long after my dinner
was over and I was off to school. His district then covered the whole
eastern half of the state, but soon after the old hero went to Texas,
where in the scattered cabins and huge camp meetings he wrought
a grand work for the Master, until worn out he at the last came
back to his old friends in Chicago where feeble, but triumphant and
greatly beloved, he waited a few months and then pitched his final
camp on the heavenly hills. That winter my brother and I crossed
the river on the ice every day to attend Eli Bates' school in the
old Courthouse, which stood on the site of the present one, and
was the northernmost limit of habitation. The river at that point
was nearly or quite twice as wide as now, there being a bayou on
the east side with a deep channel and separated from the main river
by a marshy point or bar stretching down from Division street
covered with rushes and wild rice. The east bank was steep and
high, except for a depression near where Oneida street now is,
which made it practicable for us to climb. At the foot of this
flowed a fine spring whence we used to get our drinking water
across the ice in winter and by use of a canoe in summer. It was
a general resort for good water and long afterward furnished the
water for the public pump in Market Square. In this valley-like
situation, close by the bluff bank, was the one ball-alley — bowling
alley these politer days — of the town. And between it and Wiscon-
sin street, where the Ferry landed us in summer, was a very high
bluff — a good deal higher than the top of the Kirby House — which
was so steep as to be almost impossible for even boys to climb. Mr.
BOYHOOD MEMORIES 31
Bates, the school teacher, was also keeper of the Lighthouse, a round
brick tower which stood on the bluff at the foot of Wisconsin street,
which bluff was then as high there as at any other point on the lake
shore. Mr. Bates was a tall, large-framed man with great dignity
of manner, but with one cork leg which gave to his walk a peculiar
swinging hitch, and I can see now Gal. Miller — Judge Miller's
oldest son — with the true American boy's want of reverence, fol-
lowing close behind him into school one day and imitating the
motion to perfection greatly to the amusement of the crowd. Mr.
Bates was a type of the old-fashioned pedagogue, dignified, severe,
respected, who understood thoroughly the branches he was ex-
pected to teach, chiefly the old Yankee's three R's. — Reading Riting
and Rithmetic — but he lacked the enthusiasm in his work which
would inspire in his scholars the eager desire to push into the realms
beyond.
He loved his pipe and a quiet game of cards and his lighthouse
home was therefore a frequent resort for some of the older boys and
young men, which some parents, mine among them, were disposed
to warn against. He afterward lost his lighthouse home, probably
with the change of administration, in 1840, gave up his school and
went to Chicago as a clerk in Chas. Mears' Lumber Yard and Office.
After two or three years of faithful work at some $30 or $40 a
month, a neighbor offered him an advance of $10 a month, and
when he told Mr. Mears about it that gentleman replied "I am
sorry to have you go but I can't afford to pay any more, but I'll tell
you what I'll do I'll give you an interest in the business if you'll
stay." And that interest resulted for Mr. Bates in a large for-
tune, $30,000 of which was bequeathed to erect the beautiful bronze
statute of Abraham Lincoln by St. Gaudens which was set up in
Lincoln park a year or so ago.
That next summer we used to make frequent parties of small
boys to the tamarack swamp, which stretched from Wells street to
Chestnut, just under the bluff, to gather gum and wintergreen. And
we had to be careful to keep on the bogs or roots of trees to pre-
vent from getting into the water and mire. And I remember that
Just east of the swamp our cow got mired one afternoon and nearly
died before she was found, the next day, and by the help of neigh-
bors, with planks, was lifted out of the mire and sand. That re-
32 EAELY MILWAUKEE
minds me that father kept two cows, each having a different toned
bell, and we boys used to have a good deal of travel and trouble to
find them, sometimes among the brush of Chestnut street or Third
street hills, and once when they had strayed beyond the second
gulley — on what is now Grand avenue at Thirteenth street, they
were out over night — and not found till the next day, as we could
not believe they had gone so far away.
That summer a fever smote my darling three year old sister,
the pride and joy of our home and the sunshine of the neighbor-
hood, and after two weeks of suffering — (it seemed almost as much
from the medicine as from the disease) — her freed spirit took
wing and soared away, leaving only the smile-crowned clay in the
desolate home. As there was yet no regular cemetery we laid her
to rest under the great oaks on the hillside beyond what was after-
ward Cicero Comstock's home on Galena street for so long.
Among my earlier recollections is one of seeing father sweep
out the shavings from his carpenter shop Saturday nights and
putting boards on nail kegs across the room, preparing it for the
Methodist services for Sunday. That shop stood on posts set in
the water on the southeast corner of East Water and Huron streets,
and was reached by a plank from the sidewalk. From that point
down to the ferry for Walker's Point ran a narrow roadway, and I
have skated over the whole marsh from that point south to the
river and east to the lake, though the marsh was generally too
thickly covered with rushes and rice for skating. But sometimes
a storm would drive the water in from the lake and cover it, which
afterwards freezing, would make glare ice for the boys. That shop
was afterwards converted into a school house for week days and a
Methodist meeting house for Sundays, their first regular meeting
place.
In the fall of 1837 the great panic swept like a prairie fire over
the whole country and was specially severe in the new settlements
of the west, bankrupting nearly the whole community. All the
money in circulation was of the wildcat or reddog variety and
became entirely worthless.
My father had contracts for several stores and other buildings
nearly completed, on which he had paid out all his own means and
gone into debt besides for labor and materials and, in the general
BOYHOOD MEMORIES 33
ruin, he was left largely involved. Too conscientious to take the
benefit of the bankrupt law which Congress hastened to pass to
relieve the general distress, he struggled on in debt for years, often
praying that God would let him live long enough to see the last
debt paid; which prayer was granted, he having taken up the last
note — (for a debt which by the neglect of his lawyer he felt that
he had had to pay twice) — the summer before he died in 1854.
One man for whom he built a store and house on East Water
street, though able, refused to pay, and when suit was brought
pleaded the "baby act," proving that he was under age and so es-
caped payment.
The winter of 1837 and 8 was known as the hard winter all
through this section, when many families considered themselves
fortunate in getting enough potatoes and salt to maintain life, and
this was the chief food for the community.
Our family was more fortunate in having a merchant friend,
Mr. Vinton, who had two dry goods boxes, the one filled with buck-
wheat and the other with shelled corn, to which he allowed us two
brothers access. And taking a hand sled and a tin pail, we would
bring home a large pail of buckwheat, grind it in a coffee mill, sift
in a hand sieve and make pancakes, varied with corn treated in
the same way, and made into "johnny cake." And father having
secured a firkin of butter in the fall, we were regarded the specially
favored family as living like fighting cocks. It was that same
winter that father, one bitter cold day, put a dry goods box on a
hand sled and went after some potatoes on the ice, away up the
Menomonee river, somewhere. Perhaps he got more than he ex-
pected, at any rate, overtaken by a driving snow storm on the way
home, his sled stuck fast and he was obliged to leave it and come
home for help. Not daring to leave it till morning for fear of them
freezing, tired as he was, he took a lantern and the two boys and
went back and, after a great effort, succeeded in getting the box
of potatoes home about midnight before a bitter cold morning. The
same winter a farmer from near Southport brought in some freshly
made butter, in which luxury Byron Kilbourn indulged himself at
the cost of 75 cents a pound, an unheard of price in those days.
'Twas either this or the next winter that we brothers went to school
in Kilbourntown, just north of Chestnut street, on Third, taught
34 EARLY MILWAUKEE
by a man named "West. The older boys annoyed him greatly by
going skating and coming in late after recess. He had forbidden
it and threatened punishment. Bill Smith, a youth of 18 or 19,
and much larger than the master, persisted in disobedience and
having come in late one afternoon the master waited till nearly
time for school to close and then called Bill up and told him to
take off his coat. He reluctantly obeyed, but when the master
took a rawhide from his desk Bill caught up a big iron fire shovel
by the stove and defied him. The teacher took a long hickory club
from his desk which was so much handier a weapon that Bill offered
to put down the shovel if he would put away the club. But as the
teacher struck him with the rawhide, Bill clinched him, and they
had a fearful tussle, rolling over and over on the floor amid blows
and kicks and bites, during which the teacher had two of his front
teeth knocked out. But at the last the teacher came out on top,
and then reaching for his rawhide, stood up and as Bill lay on his
back on the floor (turning up his feet and turning round as the
master walked round him) gave him a most severe lashing. One
of his blows was so hard as to cut Bill's cotton shirt-sleeve nearly
the whole way round his arm as clean as though cut with scissors.
But Bill was subdued, promised to keep the rules and from that
time there was no more trouble from that kind of disobedience. In
the spring Mr. West gave up the school and we went back to the
East Side for education. Mr. West now lives at Appleton, where
he owns a nice property on the south side of the river. Bill went
to the pineries and I lost sight of him.
WTien we first came to Milwaukee the high-toned hotel of the
town was the American House, which covered nearly the whole tri-
angular block where the Second Ward bank stands (not to be con-
founded with the other American once owned by J. L. Bean and
afterwards kept so long by the Kanes, and which stood on part of
the Plankinton House site). This old American had for its rival
Vail's Cottage Inn next to Juneau's house on East Water street,
about the middle of the Mitchell Bank block. Both were eclipsed
later by the Milwaukee house, which stood on the hill, which was
much higher than now, and somewhat back from the street where
the Library block stands next the postoffice.
But to come back to the old American. The panic knocked the
BOYHOOD MEMORIES 35
life out of it, perhaps because it was too far from business and it
stood empty for a long time, except as some few of its rooms were
rented to families for housekeeping. I remember a family of Gra-
hams from auld Scotia once occupied the north end which had been
the kitchen, and as we then lived opposite on Third street, I had
to pass it several times a day on the way to school or town. And it
impresses me now that I never passed it morning, noon or night
without hearing old man Graham's fiddle. He played well, but
never anything but sacred music — psalm tunes, the boys called
them — and though the young bloods tried to get him to play for
their dances, which were much more common then than now, he
resolutely refused.
Among the several boys and girls in the lean old fellow's family
I most distinctly recall a big strapping young man named Joe, from
this simple incident. One Saturday afternoon — for school kept a
half day Saturday then — a lot of us boys were having a grand
game of pom-pom-pullaway on skates on the marsh which began at
Spring street and the river, reached back to Third and Fourth
streets, and stretched away down past the Menomonee to the high
ground on Walker's Point. I was chasing Joe and pressing him
hard when he turned for the river, but to reach it he had to cross
a sort of higher ridge in the marsh on which was an upper layer of
ice from beneath which the water had sunk away, and as he struck
that he broke through and fell flat on his face and I tumbled on top
of him, protected by his huge frame from the shallow water below
in which he was about half submerged. He had to leave the game
and go home for some dry clothes, while I got off with the wetting
of only one arm to the elbow.
With one more suggestion I will close. I am often asked "how
it is possible that coming here at so early a day your father did not
get hold of some real estate the rise of which would have made you
a fortune." There are many answers and among them these : When
Juneau moved his home from the Mitchell bank corner — where we
boys often had great sport watching and teasing two tame bears
that he kept in his front yard — to the comer now occupied by
Mayor Black's residence, he was anxious to have our family for
neighbors as mother and Mrs. Juneau had become good friends;
and he offered to sell father either one or two lots — I am not sure
36 EARLY MILWAUKEE
which — on the opposite corner for $50 and let him take his own
time for payment. But mother, after going up to look at the place,
concluded that it was so far up in the woods, out of the way, that
she wouldn't take the lots for a gift and be compelled to live on
them. Another answer is, that hampered by the debts resulting
from the panic, he was like the man in Chicago a few years ago,
who was telling a friend that he was once offered the lot where the
Sherman house stands in exchange for a pair of boots.
'^lay in thunder didn't you take it ?" asked the friend.
"I didn't have the boots," was the answer."
A third answer is that when he died in 1854, father did have the
title to eighty acres of land in what is now the northwestern part of
the city, on which he had made a small payment and on which he
had carefully estimated there stood white oak piles enough to pay
for the land at the agreed price, but his premature death prevented
completion of the contract. That eighty acres is worth $2,000 to
$3,000 an acre now.
But the fourth answer is that he chose to spend quite a sum for
those times of his hard-earned savings to send his two boys away to
Eock Eiver seminary at Mt. Morris, Illinois, for two years. And
I have often thanked him in my heart for that choice of investment,
for the stimulus and help of those school years in enabling me to
get a broader outlook on life, a deeper and wider sympathy with
my brothers of the human race, both of the past and present gener-
ations; a higher appreciation of the possibilities of manhood, a
fuller knowledge of the thoughts of God as revealed in His wondrous
universe, in short, to get a larger, richer, higher life, have brought
me more real treasure than could possibly have come from the same
investment even in Milwaukee real estate.
I have often been thrilled with the reply of an old Vermont
farmer to the question of a traveler from the west.
"What on earth can you raise here among the hills and rocks,
where even the sheep's noses have to be sharpened to keep them
from starving among the stones ?"
Straightening himself up and looking the stranger-questioner
BOYHOOD MEMORIES 37
full in the face, he thundered out : "We build schoolhouses and raise
men."
And I concur with President Andrew D. White in the belief that
one of the great dangers to our American nation, if not indeed to
our modem civilization, is what he calls the mercantilism of the
age. That is the narrowing and soul-destroying disposition to
measure everything by its mere financial value, instead of asking
what will it add to manhood, or what will it bring to the real and
eternal treasure of grand character?
Girlhood Memories
Read by Mrs. Martha D. Ellsworth, Nov. 7, 1898.
Connecticut, dear native state, thy name
Pronounced in western ears calls up such shams
As wooden nutmegs fresh, or basswood hams,
Or hick'ry oats, or some such Yankee game.
Who thus connect I cut, and fearless claim
'Tis only thus because she waiting stands
With Yankee genius guiding deftest hands
Prepared to furnish what the world demands,
From pins and buttons, pegs, and tacks and matches,
Or hats and rifles, pistols, clocks and watches,
To peddlers, poets, pedagogues and preachers.
To match the world, we need but name the Beechers.
It is only from the standpoint of a child that I may address
you tonight, dear friends, for it was not my good fortune to remain
a sojourner in the city which today is noted for the beauty of its
location, its genial home atmosphere, and the health and enterprise
of its people. These added its large-hearted hospitality form at-
tractions within its gates that can nowhere be outrivaled; nay, not
even in Paris, where, it is said, cordiality abounds more unques-
tionably than in any other corner of the round globe. Had this con-
dition been contrariwise, I should never have presumed to appear
in the ranks of the "Old Settlers' Club" of Milwaukee County, for
which privilege I now publicly extend thanks to each and every
member thereof.
Although my initial wail disturbed not the waves of Milwaukee
air, I am sure that my four-year-old cry of home-sickness upon my
first night in the new Eldorado must have, literally, made the
rafters ring, for the shelter in which we pioneers were lodged,
boasted neither lath nor plaster. Although so small a morsel of
humanity as was I upon my advent into the far country, I dis-
tinctly remember many incidents in connection therewith. Most
delightful of all was the trip hither in a comfortable steamer, whose
crude motor power heaved and sighed in tones so sonorous that
there was need of neither whistle nor bell to warn landings of her
approach. Doubtless, there be steamers of finer construction and
finish than the one of my infant trip, but doubtless I have never
seen them. In my recollections, never has there been a boat so
grand, deck so enjoyable, nursery so cozy, colored mammy so tender.
GIRLHOOD MEMORIES 39
chandeliers so dazzling, hoe-cake so delicious, sailors so kind
What would I not now give to appreciate the good things of this
earth as did I my first trip o'er the blue waves of Erie, Huron and
Michigan.
Yet the impress of such recent delights could not keep home-
sickness from the heart of a weary little girl who had nightly been
comfortably tucked into a cozy bed surrounded by familiar objects.
Now here she was — her first night in Milwaukee, lodged upon the
hard floor of an unfinished hostelry whose space was covered by
the recumbent forms of fellow-pioneers. Several times during the
night was Polly as she, little girl, shall herein be known, disturbed
by awkward feet picking their way over the sleepers to some remote
unoccupied floor space beyond. Often since that eventful night
have I heard mention of the "soft" side of a plank; but I am sure
that none of the planks in this especial tavern were of such order.
Fortunately, some of the mothers of the numerous broods secured
accommodations upon cots or straw-ticks, but the men-folk and
children were strewn about the floor with coats rolled up for pillows.
However crude the accommodations, it was not long before a
nasal orchestra made the air musical with annotated snores, varied
by drowsy or exceedingly wide-awake cries of children, lowing of
cattle, barking of dogs, or what, to the little ones, was a blood-
curdler : the entrancing notes of a screech-owl, that had chosen this
especial ridge-pole for his nightly serenade. Never before had Polly
heard this sweet songster, and most energetically did she manifest
her disapproval of such entertainment. But nature's sweet restorer
which nightly knits up the raveled sleeve of care, came to her aid
through the merry blinking of the stars, that in their passage across
the heavens sent loving rays through the chinks' in the roof, and
seemed to breathe good-night benedictions upon the weary, home-
sick little traveler. Yet, whether we have joy or pain, fortune or
misfortune, this stern old earth rolls on bringing daylight to those
who would sit in darkness, and darkness to those who worship the
sun.
The little girl of whom I write may be reckoned in the latter
class, for certes, no Aztec of ancient times could have welcomed the
approach of Phoebus' chariot more devotedly than did Polly upon
40 EAKLY MILWAUKEE
her first awakening in the new country. Scarcely had the eastern
sky flushed with roseate hue, ere the whole body of sleepers were
upon their feet ready to plunge into the healthful air bath of a
bright June morning. Pater familias with Polly in hand reveled
in the delightful sensation of new sky, new earth, new faces and
exceedingly new houses ; not so Polly. Her world was slightly out
of gear, and she was not yet mature enough to realize that it was
due to the absence of home comforts and the sweet companionship
of a dear old grandpa left in the home country. Happily, the
troubles of childhood vanish like the morning dew. After the crude,
substantial breakfast, Polly was herself again, ready for any ad-
venture that life in the wilderness might offer. Mater familias with
heart sorely tried over comforts no longer in possession, was glad to
accept the hospitality of a friend, until time when she might possess
shelter of her own. Nightfall, therefore, foimd her and her little
ones domiciled with a Kilbourntown family, the members of which
afterwards became prominent residents of Berlin, Wisconsin.
And now came the distressful period of stowing away a family
of eight persons into space destined for but one or two at the most.
Fortunately, this condition was to exist only through a period of
housebuilding, and, in the 40's, neither architect nor plumber hin-
dered progress. Provided with material — somewhat in the rough,
I confess — amateur carpenters could in short time construct a very
comfortable house for the decades 30 and 40.
During the 50's began the I'm-going-to-have-a-better-house-
than-you period — the period which aroused a spirit of en\T, hatred
and malice in the bosoms of less fortunate dwellers by the lake, that
in a measure destroyed that purely enjoyable feeling of comrade-
ship which exists among a people who together have blazed the
path to civilization.
Polly's new home lay upon an upper floor of a store building on
East Water stret, near the Cottage Inn ; and with neighbors, remem-
bered, three: of which one family is in prosperous circumstances
near Oshkosh, another, root and branch, has entirely disappeared
from the earth. The third has also gone the way of all flesh. The
only child of this delightful couple (whose bones repose in Forest
Home) awaits in an ocean's bed the final reveille. During the Civil
GIRLHOOD MEMOEIES 41
War, with many another brave boy in blue, he gave up his life for
his country's cause. At the final roll-call, God grant them all med-
als of honor.
Polly's new home lay upon the river's shore. Here would she
linger an interested spectator of the ease and grace with which the
red man guided his bark canoe; now among the rushes, and anon
shooting into mid-stream with the admirable nonchalance of a
water fowl. Occasionally, too, was she allowed to watch the war
dance of these strange people, who bewitched her through their
grotesque costumes and contortions. Then, as now, the white man
and fire-water were the Indian's chief enemies. Often would Polly
lie o' nights heart pounding in fear at sound of the wild man's
orgies. In no particular does he so completely imitate his white
brother as in his extravagant use of liquor. Alike, its effect makes
a brute of savage as of civilized man.
Months slipped on, and the fair village by the river grew to fine
proportions. But in an unguarded moment an enemy swooped down
upon the unsuspecting victim and with one fell stroke laid it low
in ashes. Never will Polly forget that spell of fright and horror
cast about her as she sat out upon the cold sidewalk, within the pro-
tecting arms of a servant, and watched the monster fire through its
work of destruction. Memory's eye can still see the long line of
indefatigable workers passing from hand to hand the buckets of
water that other toilers filled at the river's brink.- Memory's ear
can still hear the roar and crackle of the leaping tongues of flame,
the shouts of command, the terror-stricken cries of women and
children.
After this terrible lesson to her citizens, Milwaukee was not
caught napping again. Cream-white brick were drawn from her
ample lap and built into beautiful structures, that, being seen by
the stranger, wafted abroad the merits thereof. A fire brigade,
though crudely equipped, was marshaled into being, and all pre-
cautions taken to make the dread monster "fire" a good servant,
where erstwhile it had been a bad master.
From now on the growth of the town was greatly augmented
through the advertising this calamity had given it. Prills and fur-
42 EARLY MILWAUKEE
belows appeared in such profusion that the burg might well have
exclaimed: "Am I I, or am I not I?"
Shortly after the fire episode Polly's parents built a home in the
residence portion of the town, in the block with Clark Shepard-
son's palatial home. Herein flowers bloomed the year round, and
a little child whose soul longed for the bright and beautiful things
of earth was oft made happy through the kind thoughtfulness of
the dear lady of the manor.
A few years ago grown-up Polly called upon this then vener-
able lady, who was living in solitary comfort in her South Side
home; and there she found reproduced, in almost every detail, the
familiar sitting-room of the East Side home. The rag carpet was
of the same hue and weave as that of old, the tall black walnut
bookcase was the very same that stood in the angle at the right of
the bay-window, and here it stood at exactly the same pose as erst.
Here was the bay too, but, perhaps, of more generous proportion
than the old, and here were the same, the very same old plants with
the singing birds swinging above, at least, so grown-up Polly
thought.
But this is not the same brisk lady who presided over the long
ago; no, this hostess has a slow step, wrinkles upon her face, and
whitened hair. These stubborn facts bring the visitor back to the
knowledge that time is fleeting and that she herself has changed
from an adoring child to a matronly matter-of-fact woman. If we
only might keep the freshness and enthusiasm of youth throughout
our life's journey, what a dear old world this would be !
Of all dreaded visitors in the life of a household, the one whose
impressions are most enduring to young and old alike is the reaper
Death. Stealthily, silently did he enter Polly's home and in two
short days his scythe had done its deadly work. A dear brotlier of
mature age bad been laid low, and the atmosphere of loss pervaded
all things. Within doors were sad faces, subdued voices, measured
footfalls. A seamstress busy with sable garments, and, more de-
pressing still, that long, long figure beneath the white sheet. Oh,
what did it all mean ? And why, before the funeral guests arrived,
were all the pictures and mirrors turned to the wall? Even Heav-
en's bright-hued messengers were relegated to an obscure corner
GIKLHOOD MEMORIES 43
where their brightness might not offend his majesty — Death. And
then the doleful music, the black garments of wee Polly, and at the
grave the cruel torture of listening to the thud of the sexton's toil,
as he dropped shovelful after shovelful of Mother Earth upon that
terribly resonant box which hid away the once bright form of dear
Brother Winny ! No wonder, poor Polly long afterward trembled
with fear at the mere mention of Death.
The dear brother was laid away in what was then a far-distant
grave-yard, on Spring Street hill, afterwards one of the first bodies
to be removed to that ideal cemetery. Forest Home. Upon a re-
cumbent slab near the entrance gates to this God's acre may be read
the name "Winfield Scott," a name which the illustrious general
himself bestowed upon the infant boy.
During these early days much sickness abounded in the settle-
ment, and over-careful mothers almost invariably drew their chil-
dren into the path of the grewsome juggernaut — funerals — hoping
that some salutary lesson to their soul's salvation might be learned
therefrom. Thus, it happened that Polly was often subjected to
this form of discipline. Chief among these occurrences was attend-
ance at the obsequies of a dear playmate — Martha Miter. In con-
tradistinction, wedding festivities were a forbidden pleasure to
young fry ; at least Polly thought so, for she never had the pleasure
of attending one, although the rumor of their occurrence sometimes
reached her.
That the child is father to the man is clearly proven in the
hankering after forbidden sports. Polly and her brother had oft
been told that the creature with the cloven hoof and forked tail lay
in wait for offenders along the line of card-playing. Yet, in spite
of this bug-a-boo warning, a group of children with Polly on the
outskirts, for she was the youngest, collected in an upper chamber
and dared the Evil One. Guessing a card's value from the exposed
back was the game in hand, and everything was progressing satis-
factorily to the little sinners until an unusual sound disturbed the
circle. A brave ( ?) brother who held the pack and led the crowd,
outdid any general of my knowledge in beating a retreat. His note
of warning, to-wit, that the Devil was under the bed, sent the de-
moralized squad helter-skelter through the hall and down the stair-
44 EAELY MILWAUKEE
way, while Polly's short legs in vain tried to join the stampede.
With hair standing on end and eyes ready to leap from their sockets,
she stretched every nerve in the attempt to outstrip the terrible
creature behind her, whose sulphurous breath she actually smelled
and whose cloven hoof made the air resound. And, oh, didn't she
get a shaking when the brave brother was obliged to return to her
rescue ? Such things I've known, I, who speak to ye ! In particu-
lars of this last incident, I can confidently state that since Polly's
time brothers have not materially improved.
Polly has remembrance, too, of this brother calling "Indians,
Indians," upon the occasion of her having run away from school
with him and others to visit the tamarack swamp which lay upon
the west side of the Milwaukee river. The sweetness of the gum
vanished at home-coming with the disgrace of being housed with
the dog imder the table until time to go, supperless, to bed. The
complete ruin of a brand new green cloak (through mud spatters),
and the necessity of wearing the same through the live-long winter,
was a continual reminder to Polly of her naughty escapade. At
recollection of such trials, she would not request time to reverse.
During these early times the environs of Milwaukee were para-
disiacal to youthful wanderers. In summer their nimble feet scoured
hill and valley to gather in the harvests from woods and fields or
wandered to the lake blufPs where the wonderful light-house was
located. Near this structure was platted the most beautiful posey
garden in all the world, with its rows of sweet William, blue-bells,
marigolds and poppies. Here, too, were the delightful grassy
parterres of the bold bluffs, adown which the children would roll
until they reached the flight of steps that led to the pebbly beach,
whereon lay wealth of stone and shell to everlasting damage of shoes
and pockets. Yet, nothing ever so bewitched these young explorers
as did the sight of fishermen's huts and paraphernalia which clung
as securely to the step declivities as do barnacles to the side of a
ship. It mattered not how odorous the atmosphere of this locality,
how shiny the foot-path or how incongruous the surroundings, here
the small adventurers would linger until darkness or a messenger
summoned them home.
Such ideal spots for picnicking as lay all about Milwaukee ! And
GIRLHOOD MEMOEIES 45
yet Polly remembers but one, and that was distinguished as a Sun-
day-school celebration. A staidly proper thing, to which, by couples,
the children were marshaled in a long procession that stretched its
demure length over an uneven path to a grove on Spring Street
hill. Here, it was ranged upon roughly constructed seats to listen
to the customary Sunday-school exhorter, who, unwittingly, led little
ones to believe that good children die young; therefore, no child
within ear-shot cared to be good. Picnics were not then so much
a necessity to the savage side of humanity as are they now. Then, a
person might enjoy flies, mosquitoes and other insects within his
own domain ; and as to drinking from over a stone wall, home cups
were nearly all of that order. There were always a few choice pieces
of tableware hidden away as sacred to the use of the minister or
other infrequent visitor.
This one event of the picnic marked an era in Polly's life as she
marched among her mates, proudly conscious of being a "jiner."
The lettered blue-silk badge that fluttered from her shoulder told
all the world that she was a member of Plymouth S. S. of Mil-
waukee in Wisconsin Territory.
For the sake of dear old long ago, I hope that the infant church
which was located on Spring street near the bridge was never con-
verted into a livery stable. Query. — Do the good folk of Milwaukee
relegate their erstwhile sanctums to such base use because Christ was
born in a manger ?
One questionable pastime of Polly and her mates was to visit a
hill on the East Side, at the foot of which stood an unoccupied
house ; or, rather, occupied only by the ghost of a man who had been
murdered therein. "What condition can more fully contribute to the
entertainment of a harum-scarum, venturesome child than that
which contains a spice of horror? As long as the dreaded house
stood at the foot of the hill, so long it remained a target for sticks,
stones and jeers of an unruly crowd of youngsters, who, standing
afar off, made the air resound with naughty jibes and jests. That
the ghost finally became desperate over these demonstrations, was
evidenced through the appearance against an upper winder pane of
a giant, mutilated bloody hand. If these children had each pos-
sessed the one thousand legs of the renowned worm, they could not
46 EAELY MILWAUKEE
have vanished from that vicinity more speedily than did they vanish
upon this exhibition, with each his own two legs.
This house was afterwards renovated. It was moved to another
part of the lot on which it stood, but all of no avail ; that ambitious
ghost still clung to his habitat. You may move, you may alter
the house if you will ; but the taint of the ghost will cling to it still.
If Milwaukee were a children's paradise in Summer, it certainly
deserved an equal, if not a higher, reputation through its Winter
attractions. Girls were not so completely in evidence through this
season's sports, but boys — boys held high carnival on frozen marsh
and river, while the girls hung about the edges wishing with all their
might that nature had made them boys. Thank fortune, that con-
ditions in the world of sport have greatly changed since Polly's play-
days. But there were times, places and conditions when it was good
to be "nothing but a girl," to-wit, a brilliantly moon-lit Winter's
eve, a softly-padded, diamond besprinkled coasting hill, a youthful
admirer, the proud possessor of the "bulliest sled upon the hill."
And then if during the racing which inevitably followed, there
came, when part way down the incline, a general mix-up of broken
sleds and bruised girls and boys, what mattered it ? Father's money
would repair the sleds, and mother's plasters would repair the
youngsters, while the latter would have the satisfaction of telling
how it all happened and who was to blame, although no two of them
could possibly agree upon these details. In the nowadays, Polly can
scarce repress a tearful sigh at recollection of the vanished pleas-
ures of Milwaukee Street hill.
Polly's first experience of school was at the tender age of four
years. In the early days, no doubt children were expected to be
models of propriety, training or no training. Unfortunately, Polly
was not built that way, and in a very unlucky moment she sniggered
aloud — four years old, too, and her first day at school ! This mat-
tered not. The brave pantalooned creature — called a teacher —
snatched the small offender from off the front form and admin-
istered a strapping that stings to the present day. But she had her
revenge; for years afterward she had the extreme satisfaction
(whilst on a lake excursion) of meeting her old persecutor to whom
she introduced herself as the quondam little girl whom he lashed
GIRLHOOD MEMORIES 47
upon her first day at school. Polly thinks that he did not enjoy the
encounter quite as much as did she.
Of the educational institutions that Polly attended regularly
the first was in the basement of the church that once stood upon
ground now occupied by Chapman's store. This was presided over
by a lady in corkscrew curls and white kid gloves. To Polly's great
amazement and probable admiration, she wore the latter during
school hours, and withal, wielded the rod of correction quite as
dexterously as did the male teacher afore mentioned.
Another school "for girls only" was located in a private house
on Michigan street. Here, Polly learned little of books, but much
of kindly care and the use of the needle. At the present day, she
can show you a most wonderful sampler whose birds and flowers
have no counterparts upon the face of the earth, and, I should hope,
none in the heavens above. However, the spirit of love and affection
in which this teacher presided over her flock, will linger in the
memories of her pupils so long as reason has its sway therein.
Polly's next adventure on the high road to learning was with
the dear sisters of St. John's school. Here, church, creed and cat-
echism were held paramount to the three R's, and though none of
the attendants progressed rapidly in book learning, they caught in-
spiration along the line of kindness and charity. Here, Polly dis-
tinguished herself through receiving a prize for scholarship at the
hands of the good priest who watched over the flock. The book re-
ceived was loaned to Julia Rooney and went up in the smoke of her
ruined home.
Polly was next sent to a stem professor who practiced dumb-bell
exercises with the forms of small boys, his scalp-lock performance,
by which he lifted some poor little offender off his seat to send him
flying over unoffending heads of front rows was really worthy of at-
tention by any athlete however accomplished.
Polly, sniffing danger in the air, pleaded pathetically for yet an-
other change in her educational career. This time her steps were
directed into the classical shades of French, Latin, Greek and other
brain-puzzling pursuits, as set forth by Professor Larigo. With
these, however, she had naught to do. Bullion's grammer and Emma
48 EAELY MILWAUKEE
Willard's history being sufficiently formidable stumbling blocks in
Iter pathway to knowledge.
Prizes for good scholarship were quite the fad of those days,
and again did Polly receive substantial reward for her parrotlike
recitations. This roused the ire of the Franco-Latin contestants to
such degree as to necessitate a bodyguard for the safe conveyance of
the prize into the home haven. Fortunately, for Polly's scholastic
reputation acquired in the Cream City, she was, soon after this
victory, removed to a distant outpost in the Pioneer field.
It was during the last year or two of her residence in Milwau-
kee that she became stage-struck. Her first introduction to the de-
lights of the theatre was at the appearance of Julia Dean in the
grand "histrionic" temple that stood upon Broadway between Michi-
gan and Wisconsin streets. Polly has long since lost the name of
the play, but the impress of the beautiful actress's charm still
lingers with her. But the spectacle paramount in her youthful
memory is one that in the 40's so delighted Milwaukee youngsters,
to-wit, "Beauty and the Beast." Through a playmate whose father
presided over the wonderful abode of Terpsichore afore mentioned,
Polly was allowed to awaken the echoes of zinc thunder, and to
bring forth from the tin cylinder the sound of pattering rain.
Although through this freedom of the play-house she became
familiarized with many a stuffed stage monster, there was one real
live one whose vicinity she shunned — that of a wolf chained to a
stake in the theatre yard. It happened upon one beautiful moon-
lit night that Polly's mother went to prayer-meeting, leaving her
little girl in charge of a big brother, who, perhaps, had an engage-
ment with somebody's else sister ; for soon after mother's departure
he left the premises to Polly and solitude. Polly, resenting this
slight to her powers of entertainment, sought the street in search of
company, which, to her discomfiture, she soon found in a ditch by
the wayside. Master Wolf had escaped his chains and was out to
enjoy a moonlight escapade. Had he possessed the tact and suavity
of Red Riding Hood's wolf, all might have gone well with him ; but
he was altogether too ardent in his demonstrations, which brought
from our lone little wanderer a series of screams that hastened forth
to the rescue all the hangers-on at the theatre office. One kindly
GIRLHOOD MEMORIES 49
gentleman gathered the child into his protecting care, bore her home
and remained with her until mother came with comforting words.
It cannot with truthfulness be stated that big brother enjoyed his
come-coming upon that night.
In the nowadays, wee-bit Polly and grown-up Polly oft commune
together of the long ago wherein skies are ever blue, nature is ever
bright and friends are ever true. Thus, may it continue until at
the Golden Stair may these twain merge into one — that one being
a care-free child trustfully treading the unknown path that the
great Pioneer blazed for all his children nearly 1900 years agone.
May none of us ignore His leadership ! Yea, may we all meet to-
gether in that new Eldorado — The Hereafter.
A Popular Street Corner
By D. W. Fowler.
The old Milwaukee house, as the pioneers of Milwaukee are
wont to designate the first hotel of importance erected in this city,
was built in the year 1836, by Solomon Juneau, and Morgan L.
Martin, and stood on lots 7 and 8, and perhaps a part of lot 9, in
block 12, in what is now the seventh ward of the city of Milwaukee.
And which is geographically described as being on the corner of
Wisconsin Street and Broadway, where the Miller block now stands.
The hotel faced to the south, and stood quite a distance to the
northward of Wisconsin street, leaving a plaza in front, which
was used in the early days by the farmers in which to stand their
wagons while the horses or oxen were being fed in the barns in the
rear of the hotel, and it was no uncommon sight to see coralled
there as many vehicles as there could be found room for, while the
owners were partaking of the hospitalities of the inn, or attending
to the business which brought them to the city.
In the year 1850, this hotel, having perhaps passed the zenith
of its usefulness, was divided into three parts and sold, to be moved
off the premises on which it stood. The main part of the structure
was moved to the northeast corner of Main and Huron streets, or
Washington Avenue, as some people in those days attempted to
christen it anew, but the name would not stick, and it remains
Huron street, to this day.
This part was continued in use as a hotel, and was nm in the
year 1851, by the firm of Skinner & Co.
The east wing, was bought by Andrew McCormick, and moved
by him to the northeast comer of Main and Detroit Streets, and
continued in the hotel business under the name of the Keystone
hotel, and was conducted for many years by the proprietor and
owner.
The kitchen part of this ancient hostelry was removed to Detroit
street near Broadway, on the north side of the street, and was con-
verted into what was for many years known as the Baltic House,
POPULAE STEEET COENEE 51
and was kept by a man by the name of J. Mc D. Smith. Later it
was again removed to the southwest corner of Main and Detroit
streets, where it remained until torn down, or was again re-
moved to make way for the erection of the present Jewett & Sher-
man building.
Juneau & Martin having become indebted to the Farmers' and
Mechanics' Bank of Detroit during the years previous to the year
1850, for which they had pledged a large amount of seventh ward
real-estate as security, were at last obliged to dispose of the property
to meet their obligations to the bank, and thus it came about that
a large number of lots passed into the possession and ownership of
the late James S. Brown, who at once proceeded to dispose of them,
as fast as possible, to such as might wish to buy, or had use for
them.
On November 23, 1849, the Farmers' & Mechanics' Bank of
Detroit, Mich., deeded to Mr. Brown besides others, lots 7, 8, 9,
and 10, in block twelve, in the Seventh ward, and which may be
geographically described as the first four lots on the east side of
Broadway, and from Wisconsin street, north a distance of 240 feet.
The deed above referred to, was not recorded by Mr. Brown and
seems to have been forgotten by him, until May 18, 1861, although
the property changed hands many times during the interval, each
purchaser in turn being apparently satisfied with a warranty deed
given by the grantor, and it was not until the Northwestern Life
Insurance Company came into possession of one of these lots, that
the fact was discovered.
It was necessary to obtain a certified copy of the original deed
from the bank, and which as before stated was put on record May
18, 1861.
On June 25, 1851, it is of record that Mr. Brown, and Wm. P.
Young entered into an agreement as to party walls, Mr. Young
having bought from Mr. Brown, lots 7 and 8, in block 12 it is said
for $3,000. Mr, Young at once proceeded to erect a building which
is known in the history of the city as the first "Young's Block."
It had not yet been fully completed, when on the evening of
the 10th of February 1852 the German Musical society gave a con-
52 EARLY MILWAUKEE
cert therein which was followed two days later by the annual ball
of Fire Engine company No. 1. These were the only entertain-
ments ever held in this hall, for on the Sunday following the ball,
at about 5 :30 P. M. a fire broke out said to have been caused by the
stoves used in drying the plastering, and in a remarkably short
space of time the whole building was in flames, and was completely
destroyed, the north wall falling upon the dwelling of Lucas Seaver
adjoining and doing much damage.
The Musical society having intended to repeat their perfor-
mance had left many valuable instruments and much music, in the
hall during the interval. These were totally destroyed, and the loss
on instrumental music alone, it is claimed, was upwards of $2,000.
Mr. George Papendeick, lost a violin valued at $500. Mr. George
Durige a violin worth $300, and a violoncello, worth an equal
amount.
Lots 9 and 10 were divided up into five lots of 24 feet each
facing on Broadway and an agreement was entered into with the
purchasers to erect jointly a block of five dwellings thereon, which
were to be two story and basement houses, with attics. The first
story or basement as it might be called, was almost entirely above
ground and the entrance to the second story was made by a flight
of stairs leading from the ground. Mr. Brown, it is believed,
erected the first two, which were located on what is now 414 and
416 Broadway, and the next one to the north was erected by
Philetus Yale, and the next at 420 Broadway was erected by George
W. Mygatt, and the last, or north one, was built by Ashael Finch.
Mr. Brown appears to have sold his house soon after its completion
to Lucas Seaver, who again sold it to Philip A. Hall,
March, 1853. No consideration named, and he in turn gave a
power of attorney to Seaver to sell the same, which he did Sept.
12, 1853, to A. B. Van Cott, for the sum of $896.39, subject to
a mortgage to James S. Brown on which was due at that time the
sum of $2,000.63. A. B. Van Cott took up his residence there and
tived there for about ten years when he transferred the title to
A. H. Gale & Co., of New York for $10,350. Somebody forgot
to pay the taxes about this time and the late J. V. V. Platto,
appeared promptly on the ground to pay them for the owner. He
POPULAR STREET COENER 53
obtained a tax deed which he relinquished to the owner October
16, 1863. A. H, Gale & Co., transferred the property to Geo.
W. Peckham in August 1866, for $9,000. August 5, 1876, Rufus
Peckham administerator, quit claimed to Mary P. and Geo. W.
Peckham to each an undivided one half, and they sold to Judson
A. Roundy the present owner for $9,500, the same year. These
are the premises now known as 414 Broadway.
The premises at 416 Broadway went from Mr. Brown to J. P.
Whaling, Feb. 5, 1851 for $1,000 and from him to D. H. Chandler,
May 2, 1852 and from the latter to Allen Wlieeler for $3,000 Jan.
1, 1853. He deeded it to Fred Clark for the same amount Jan.
1, 1853, and the same day Fred Clark deeded it to his wife Roxana
Ann Wlieeler. She died, and Allen Wheeler was appointed guard-
ian of her children Dec. 26, 1856. It was next sold by order of the
court to Henry Cadwell for $9,000 and the next time it was sold
it was by Herman L. Page, then sheriff of Milwaukee county on
forclosure of a mortgage to Eliphalet Cramer for the sum of
$5,900, August 14, 1858. Mr. Cramer was given a deed of it by
A. J. Langworthy, sheriff, Nov. 5, 1859. November 10, 1859,
Eliphalet Cramer deeded it to Oliver Al Blake, no consideration
being named, and on May 3, 1865, Lewis A. Blake and wife deeded
it to the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company, for the
sum of $9,000. February 11, 1868, the Insurance company deeded
it to Mrs. Marilla Hewitt for $13,000 and she to Judson A. Roundy,
August 13, 1876, no consideration named.
Philetus Yale, our venerable fellow citizen, who still survives
at the age of 87 years, was the purchaser from Mr. Brown, of the
premises at 418 Broadway, and erected his house there in 1851.
He writes to me in regard to the matter as follows :
"I think the attic of my house was finished when built. There
were five houses alike — two stories with basement. Everything
was cheap then; the bricks were but $3.50 per thousand and bought
of our old friend James H. Rogers; masons $1.75 per day, laborers
fifty cents, good carpenters $1.25 and common ones at $1.00.
James S. Brown owned four lots in block 12 and sold the two
comer lots located on the comer of Main and Wisconsin street,
to Wm. B. Young for $3,000. The two lots on which we built
54 EARLY MILWAUKEE
our five houses were valued by Mr. Brown at $2,500. Myself
and Ashael Finch and Geo. W. Mygatt bought three lots of 24
feet each at $1,000 and Mr. Brown kept two. The five houses
covered the sixty foot lots and were built in the year 1851. I
lived in the house that I built nine years when I converted it into
a store which still stands on the premises at 418 Broadway.
George W. Mygatt, well known to all old settlers as one of the
first architects of this city, bought the lot at 420 Broadway, and
lived in the tenement that he erected many years ago. He used
the lower story of his house for an office, where he conducted
business for many years. Henry C. Koch, one of most distin-
guished men in his profession, could at an early day be seen there
learning the rudiments of his art, which has brought him fame
and fortune. Mr. Mygatt sold to Mat Keenan, Oct. 6, 1873, for
$10,000. The north 24 feet of lot 10, was sold by Mr. Brown to the
late Ashael Finch, who built that tentment of this once famous
row. AMiether he ever resided there I am unable to say, but I think
that he did and for several years. On August 6, 1858, he sold
it to Wm. J. AMialing, who lived there for a time, and one of whose
daughters died there. Mr. Whaling sold to Alfred Chapin, and
Mr. Chapin at once deeded it to his wife, August 9, 1858, and they
in turn to Mrs. Mary Shanks, ^ov. 2, 1865, for the sum of $8,000.
Mrs. Shanks kept it until Feb. 23, 1867, when she deeded it to
Eomanzo B. Rice for $12,000. The following December he sold
it to Geo. W. Peckham, for $13,000. Geo. W. Peckham conveyed
it to Rufus P. Peckham, Jan. 19, 1871; W. H. Peckham, et al
May 1, 1876, to Amelia R. Maschauer for $10,500, and she to Chas.
H. Haskins, and he to the Wisconsin Telephone company, Oct. 18,
1882 for $11,500. The house had been converted into a store about
1862 or 1865 and in this store the celebrated firm of Wadsworth
Adams & Co., commenced in the wholesale and retail grocery and
liquor business, that at a later day ended so disastrously to the
members of that firm. Allen Wheeler before named was an in-
surance agent and conducted business at the comer of Huron and
East Water streets.
Lucas Seaver was the proprietor of the Commercial Advertiser,
which expired about the year 1851. He was afterwards city
POPULAR STREET CORNER 55
treasurer. He was an excellent singer, and he and Mrs. H. D.
Torry sang at the concert given in Gardiner's hall December 30,
1850, for the benefit of the Fireman's Protective association in
which the sum of $1,000 was raised for the relief of volunteer fire-
men who were disabled. The concert was under the direction of
Hans Balatka, and H. N". Hempsted. At that time Miss Helen
Matthews also sang an original song composed for the occasion by
Mrs. Mary H. C. Booth, who was the wife of Sherman M. Booth,
the then editor, and proprietor of the Free Democrat. The air
was that of the old time song "Roll on Silver Moon." Mrs, H. D.
Torry also sang an orignal fireman's song written by her husband
H. D. Torry, who was at that time an artist with his studio in
the "Emporium" on Mason street, near East Water street. Mr. and
Mrs. Torry left the city very soon after this time. Mrs. Torry, and
Lucas Seaver, were general favorites in Milwaukee in that day, and
usually sang together at most of the entertainments given to amuse
the citizens of this then ambitious city.
This story would scarcely be complete without a further
mention of the second, and third, "Young's Block." Mr. Young,
with characteristic energy, at once commenced the erection of
anorther building after the destruction of the first. This was com-
pleted in the year 1853. In it was a hall for public use, which was
known as "Young's Hall," and which soon became the most popular
place of amusement in the city. This new structure soon fell a
victim to the unsparing element of fire, and was again totally
destroyed on the 21st of June, 1859. Again Mr. Young bent his
energies to the construction and erection of another building, which
he commenced in the year 1859, and completed in the year 1860,
and which still remains a monument to his industry and genius.
The frequent losses which he had sustained caused him to become
embarrassed financially, and the ownership of this property soon
fell into other hands. Mr. Young, removed to St. Louis, where
he died, his fortune, like those of many other and no less energetic,
and ambitious pioneers, having melted away.
The Miller Block as it is now known, has already passed from
the possession of the first generation of owners of that name, into
that of the second, and has become one of the most valuable prop-
56 EARLY MILWAUKEE
erties in the city, which it is predicted will be greatly enhanced
during the coming years.
Philip A. Hall bought the south 24 feet of block 9, Oct. 10,
1851, and the building thereon for the sum of $2,800. He bought
it of Mr. Brown. He did not remain in Milwaukee very long but
he continued to own the house until 1853, when on the 18th day of
March of that year he gave a power of attorney to sell the property.
The Bellview hotel, afterwards called the Milwaukee House,
was commenced in the year 1835, and was not fully completed
until 1837. The first proprietors were Daniel Wells, and Dr. T. J.
Noyes, of whom it is said that they kept it 'Tiike hell" for a short
time, and then sold out to Henry Williams and B. H. Edgerton,
and they to George E. Meyers, and he to Capt. L. H. Cotton and
Luther Childs. They in turn sold out to George Myers and Charles
Hurley, and they transferred it to George E. Graves, Nov. 22nd,
1839. Graves transferred it to Daniel Wells, Jr., and he to Hurley
and Eeam and they to Jones Whitney and Caleb Wall, in the year
1842.
Wall & Whitney transferred the hotel lease to Peleg G. Jones
of Waukesha in October 1845. P. G. Jones was the last proprietor
of the old Milwaukee House and continued to manage it until it
was finally closed up which was quite a time before its removal from
the original site on Wisconsin Street.
Anecdotes of Pioneers
Read by Peter Van Vechten, Jr., in 1894.
There were no old men in Milwaukee in 1845 — that is, men over
50 years old. John Dunbar, the father-in-law of Jason Downer,
was the oldest man I recollect. A gray-headed man was a rarity.
But all those young men then are gray-headed now.
There were many queer signs on stores, and advertisements in
the papers to attract attention. H. N. Connant was in the cloth-
ing, gents' furnishing goods and hat business on East Water street.
He had for his sign three hats instead of three balls and announced
that there was "great excitement" at his place. Uncle Ben Throop
had his store a few doors north, on the ground now occupied by
A. C. Feldt. He had a stuffed deer skin, with head and horns, set
up and it looked like a live deer. His advertisement read : "No ex-
citement ; all perfectly cool. No flattery at Uncle Ben's."
Edward Emery, the confectioner on Wisconsin street, sold his
candy two sticks for a cent apiece, and every week he entertained
us with a fresh supply of machine poetry.
B. F. Fay, No. 139 East Water street, sold dry goods, groceries,
etc.; notified the people that he had 100 barrels of whiskey, the
latest brands, a staple article for the West; S. L. Eood had 10,000
goose quills, from which pens could be made that would kill more
men politically than the same number of swords. John Ogden
would give you a fresh cut of beef steak at the Red Market on East
Water street, north of Wisconsin street. R. W. Pierce made friction
matches in the West ward. They were also called Loco Foco matches,
and it also was the name given to the Democratic party. At one of
the meetings in Tammany hall. New York, the lights were put out
suddenly, and a man whose name was Job Haskell had a box of
Loco Foco matches in his pocket. He immediately struck a light
with his friction matches. That act gave the name of Loco Foco
party to one branch of Tammany. Job Haskell lived in Milwaukee in
1845 and went to Port Washington in 1848 and died there. The
fire department was frequently called upon to stop the friction and
put out the fire in Pierce's match factory.
58 EARLY MILWAUKEE
Fred Wardner announced that he had experienced a 'Tieavy
earthquake," caused by the fall in prices of his goods. Royal
Houghton's advertisement was "West ward, ho, forever," for his
dry goods and groceries. R. D. Jennings' "West Ward Store" had
made new arrangements by which he could undersell everybody.
Henry Sayers said : "The cry is still : 'They come to the People's
Store.' " Joe and Lindsey Ward were perfectly willing to ex-
change their goods for wheat. "War, war, war, with Mexico !" had
not affected the prices at A. G. Dayan's store in Heide's block, so that
he could supply all that came to him for relief. The great fire
in New York had not destroyed the stock of E. C. Kellogg ; his gro-
ceries were safe in his store on East Water street; below Huron,
Ludington & Co. held the corner store, and their customer, John T.
Perkins, had his planing mill on the canal ; John Lapointe and Alex-
ander Bangley their sash, blind and door factory; Locke & Rich-
mond, pail and tub factory. Nearly all the merchants sold sash,
doors, pails and tubs. They paid for them in goods by orders drawn
on them by the manufacturers, given to their workmen. All stores
had running accounts with each other, and the manufacturers and
the carpenter and mason contractors drew orders on the stores to
pay their men. At the end of the year the accounts were settled,
and the balance paid by a due bill. George W. Mygatt was an archi-
tect and contractor. At the end of the year he always managed to be
in debt when the accounts were settled, due bills given for the bal-
ance and receipts passed. He would give a sigh of relief as he said :
"Thank God, that bill is paid."
Among the new firms that came that Fall was Sexton & Crane.
They opened the first exclusive wholesale dry goods store in Mil-
waukee, November 17th, 1845, in the United States Hotel block,
first door north of the hotel entrance. No. 132 East Water street
(now 338). Their store was 20 by 50. They occupied only the first
floor and basement or cellar. Lorin Sexton of the firm did not come
to Milwaukee, but sent out Mr. Crane and Milton E. Lyman to open
up and commence business. Six or eight months of western life
was enough for Mr. Crane. I never saw so homesick a man as he
was, all winter. He went east in the Spring of 1846, sold out his
interest to John Wing, Jr., and never came here again. Wing came
out with his family, and the firm changed to Sexton & Wing. They
ANECDOTES OF PIONEERS 59
stayed there until 1848, when they moved to No. 139 East Water
street, in the store vacated by B. F. Fay when he went to Prairie
du Chien or Bridgeport, Wis.
M. E. Lyman took a prominent part in Odd Fellowship and in
all public matters of interest to Milwaukee. Thirty years ago he
moved to Bailey's Harbor, Wis., where he was still living in 1893.
Christian Preusser had his jewelry store on East Water street, south
of the postoffice, in a frame building, on the ground where George
Burrough's trunk store now stands, and he is the only one in busi-
ness in 1845 that has not changed his line of business and is in the
same business today.
The farmers about Milwaukee had more oxen than horses. It was
something new to an eastern man to see an emigrant with his family
and farming implements in a wagon, drawn by oxen, coming to the
west to make himself a home. Another novelty was the prairie
schooners, loaded with pig lead from Mineral Point, Shullsburg, and
vicinity, drawn by four or six yoke of oxen. The bull whackers with
their long handled whip stock made the air ring cracking their whips
like pistol shots. They became very expert and delighted to show
their skill in picking a fly off the left ox's ear without hitting the ox.
The lead at that time was all shipped from here to Buffalo, and the
ox teams hauled loads of goods back for country merchants.
There were nineteen lawyers practicing law in 1845. Of that
lot, only two are living — A. R. R. Butler and Wilson W. Graham.
Ashael Finch and William Pitt Lynde were the leading law firm.
Jonathan E. Arnold was the leading criminal lawyer; A. D. Smith,
Isaac P. Walker and Don A. J. Upman were prominent. James
Holliday came about this time. Soon after his arrival he was en-
gaged in a case in which Ashael Finch was opposing counsel. Mr.
Finch had a bad habit of calling the opposing counsel a liar. Some-
one told Holliday that it would probably occur with him. True to
the prediction, when they were engaged in an animated discussion,
Finch called Holliday a liar. Holliday coolly and deliberately
walked up to Finch and knocked him out in the first round. Judge
Frasier called time, brought both before the bar, and fined them
fifty dollars. Holliday immediately paid his fire and resumed his
60 EARLY MILWAUKEE
argument as if nothing had happened. Mr. Finch never repeated
it, either in or out of court.
The last notable event of 1845 was on the 30th of December, the
robbery of R. K. Swift, banker and broker, who had his office over
where Houghton Brothers' bank is now located. During a tem-
porary absence, $580 was taken. The man who took it was con-
science stricken and about one week after went to Bishop Henni and
gave up the money, which was returned to Swift. It was pretty well
known who the man was, but Swift received his money and the man
ease of mind when he found he was not to be prosecuted. It was
surmised that the hounds of the law were on a warm scent and that
rather facilitated the movement of the fellow's conscience.
In 1846 it was certain that the Dutch had taken Holland, and
the Germans, Germany, and there was danger of their encroachment
upon the American liberties in Milwaukee. There were two military
companies in Milwaukee — the Washington Guards, Capt. David
George, and the Milwaukee Rifles, Capt. Henry Miller, George Bros-
ius, first lieutenant. The rank and file were all Germans. The
people were not as well acquainted with the foreign element then
as they are now, and in the minds of some those foreigners had not
been here long enough to forget the fatherland and become Ameri-
canized, and in case of any trouble, could they be depended upon?
It was a matter of considerable discussion, and it was thought ad-
visable to have a Yankee company. All Americans here were called
Yankees in those days.
A call to organize a military company was circulated and fifty
or more names were obtained. We met in the old Military hall on
Oneida street. Gen. Rufus King was elected captain ; lion. James
B. Kneeland, first lieutenant; J. N. Bonsteel, second lieutenant; H.
C. Abay, orderly; Wni. P. Lynde, quartermaster, and Hiram Auch-
moody was drill sergeant. Auchmoody had been a marine soldier,
but he had been on land long enough to get off his sea legs. Our
uniform was made by Giesburg & Brocus. We met for drill in the
Military hall. The Mexican war broke out in 1847. Most of the
members of a warlike spirit went to Mexico and the company soon
dwindled down to its officers and one private, and disbanded.
The Winters were long. Shut up from November until May,
ANECDOTES OF PIONEERS 61
except the old stage wagon and tri-weekly mail from Chicago, we
had to spend the time in dancing parties and mischief. To get a
sell on someone and particularly on some eastern man who happened
to be here, or some new comer, was a pleasure not to be omitted.
Winchell, the delineator of character, was here, giving an enter-
tainment. He was as sharp as most people that are on the road.
It was a difficult matter to catch him. Uncle Ben Throop had an
Indian whistle which had been the means by which considerable
amusement had been furnished for a dull Winter, It was made of
part of a reed fish pole and painted with Indian hieroglyphics in
gorgeous style. Double-headed Brown borrowed it, took it down to
the United States hotel where Winchell stopped, put it in the office
in a conspicuous place over Clerk Churchill's desk. When Winchell
came in, it caught his eye, and he said to Churchill : "What's that ?"
Churchill said: "An Indian whistle." Winchell said: "Let's see
it. I used to be quite an expert on those things when I was a boy."
He filled himself with wind enough to blow the cylinder head out of
a steam engine and blew a cloud of powdered charcoal in his face,
eyes and mouth. The music that was made by the people watching
him was not such as Winchell expected to come out of the whistle,
that he paid too dear for. It cost him several bottles of cider and he
said he would buy a basket for them if they would only keep it still.
Winchell immediately wanted to negotiate for it, but Churchill could
not sell it without Uncle Ben's consent. It was finally given to him,
and I made another for Uncle Ben.
Water Front and Shipping
in the '50s
Eead Before the Club July 6th, 1888, by M. A. Boardman.
^A^ate^, whether it be a lake or sea, a river or a brook, and the
craft that float thereon, has a fascination for a full-jeweled boy.
The ideal Jack with his curling locks, expansive shirt collar and
flowing pants is as attractive to the wonder-eyed lad as the beau
ideal of ye gentle savage as pictured by Cooper.
Many an hour and many a day have I spent midst our shipping,
and the aroma from pitch and tar is as sweet smelling today aa in
the days of youth.
Like most boys I had an undefined itching to become a "jolly
sailor man," and I was always a good sailor — from the shore, even as
the boastful baseballist who plays best from the grandstand.
Of course the mariner of today is not the same man he was thirty
years ago, so far as our inland seas are concerned. Steam is so far
succeeding sail that expert seamen are not required and even the
schooner has now so much wire rigging that the man before the
mast barely needs to know how to make a splice or run a bow-line,
and for this reason it looks as though the projectors of a naval school
who have agitated the subject lately are "off their reckoning." What
is there to be taught a boy in school about ships? Do our ship-
masters sit up nights looking for a clear sky to manipulate their sex-
tant and quadrant to learn their latitude or longitude? Shall the
boy of Wisconsin be taught the uses of a marlinspike, or how to
figure a logarithm? Hardly; and it looks somewhat like a jest to
advocate such a scheme.
My first knowledge of Milwaukee and Milwaukee's nautical
affairs was attained in August, 1847, arriving at the old "North
Pier" with my elders on the side-wheeler Nile. To follow the subse-
quent history of this steamer would be to bring up memories of the
past and our surroundings of that — to me — early date. Screw boats
were not on the lakes at that time, and we landed at a pier in the
WATERFRONT AND SHIPPING 63
lake because the river in its natural state was too small, shallow and
winding for good sized boats to ascend.
The little hookers, at this time, warped up the stream, running
their line ahead from spile to spile, creeping up the tortuous stream
from the mouth to their destination. This mouth was near Bay
View on the site now occupied by the Menomonee Iron Company's
docks and the stream led up via the present yard of Wolf & David-
son. The steamer Nile went ashore at the foot of Michigan street in
1848, was raised and floated to just about this spot, viz., the foot of
Washington street, where the famous yellow warehouse stood. It
was intended to repair the steamer, but some malcontented workmen
fired her — 1850 — when she burned at her dock and sank, demoraliz-
ing the old yellow house at the same time. She was raised again and
was to be metamorphosed into a schooner, but the hull was found
warped, and so she was towed up the river to the island just north of
Cherry Street bridge, where she was supposed to have reached her
final resting place ; but not so, for the rains fell and the floods came
and a Spring freshet was too much for her and she drifted down into
the draw of the Red bridge and proved herself a nuisance, and ac-
cordingly she was hauled into the lake and swallowed up. (I have
some well-preserved oak from her. )
Skating rinks were unknown and we needed none for we were
supplied with good ice on the river to all points — from the mouth to
the second dam at Humbolt. Now the presence of vessels, the warm
contributions from the sewers and the swell from the lake have taken
this field almost entirely from us. These same causes with the inter-
ference of numerous bridges have robbed us also of our Winter race
course. The stretch from Spring Street bridge to Walker's Point
was the chief resort for many years, and all classes gathered here for
trials of speed.
Spring freshets are among the bygones. Having fewer bridges,
more ice and a greater supply of rapidly accumulated water, we then
experienced rapid currents, ice gorges, broken bridges and damaged
cellars and some battered shipping, but those incidents have passed.
The island referred to where the Nile lay is now Cape street from
Cherry to Pleasant. The Red bridge is historical. The color of its
coat gave it its name. The draw was unlike any other, it being lifted
64 EARLY MILWAUKEE
to a perpendicular instead of a floating swing. This was the place
wliere the "bridge war" culminated, and cannon were brought out to
shoot or intimidate the enemy who proposed to make the east and
west sides of our town a dual city.
The bridges in existence in the early 50's were the Red at Chest-
nut, and carried across the stream on spiles. A float at Spring streets
also one at East Water and Ferry called Walker's Point bridge, and
also two stationary ones, at foot of West Water and one at the south
end of Kinnickinic avenue, across the creek of same name.
All of the territory south and west of this Menomonee bridge is
"made" ground. From Reed street over the old Union depot west-
ward, in 1851 and 1852, not a building existed. In the Menomonee
valley where we have so many miles of slips and docks the classic
Menomonee silently meandered in an indefinite bed, surrounded by
flags and cattails. Norman Richmond's brick paper mill stood near
the foot of Second street and in wet weather, water stood over much
of the territory from here to the American house, on the site of the
present Plankinton house, and the few buildings were approachable
at times of flood only by elevated walks. Having told the story so
many times I have taught myself to believe that my assertions are
true that I have skated from Spring street to the Menomonee.
A short bridge spanned the bayou at Oneida and River streets,
and where River street strikes north, was water enough to float the
biggest of schooners. This bayon ran north nearly to Juneau ave-
nue and was crossed by a bridge also at the foot of Martin street,
for there was a good stretch of solid land between the bayou (River
street) and the river proper. Quite an extensive lumber yard occu-
pied this territory west of the bridge. It was run by a man named
Englehardt, if I remember correctly. Scores of times I have crossed
here to deliver the Evening 'Sconsin and the Commercial Adver-
tiser. About this time Pierce ran for President and in political
harangues it was stated that he had once been a printer and it oc-
curred to my boyish mind, Why cannot I be President in the proper
time, for I am a brevet printer? How nearly my thought has been
fulfilled you will know when you are reminded of who filled the
chair for four years previous to our Dr. Dadd.
Boylike, in my early rambles, I became familiar with many of
WATERFRONT AND SHIPPING 6^
the craft plying into this port and in my desire to retain a memory
of them I kept a record of their movements in the season of 1854.
This marine list I give verbatim with the following facts:
"Port opened March 2nd and closed December 15th. Number
of schooners launched, 7. No other vessels built. Number of ves-
rels arrived, 193, which shows an increase of 14 over last season.
Each vessel is a different one." In detail these craft were 89
schooners, 26 brigs, 10 barks, 40 props., 17 steamers and 1 sloop.
My old yellow manuscript gives the full list of these ships with
the name of their hailing ports and their masters.
You will notice that I called the season open when the first
craft left. We didn't wait for the straits to thaw out for we placed
considerable stress on the local trade. There were no eastern con-
nections by rail. We have no opening now for our steamers run all
Winter.
The brigs, barks, sloops and side-wheel steamers have all gone to
their rest and the schooner or steam-barge now does the bulk of our
work.
I cannot refrain from mentioning some of those old ships for
you will be reminded of these jolly good craft as they are brought to
mind.
The only sloop that hailed from here was the Oh Bull, Captain
Larsen. She was a clinker built boat much like an overgrown
double-ender Norwegian fishing boat. She broke from her moor-
ings one gusty night and drifted into the lake and retired to Davy
Jones' locker. Only two full-rigged brigs existed, the Robert Burns
and the Algonah. They were black chunky craft, in all respects old
style. Although not lost here, the Algonah went ashore here on
the Third ward beach and laid high enough on the sand for me to
walk around her dry-shod after the subsidence of old Michigan.
The cause of her going ashore, according to legend, was the regular
disappearance of the one candle in a designated shanty in the old
Third. A jolly party in the said shanty could not get their "drop
of the crater" except they went into the cellar to get at their source
of supply, and such was the regularity of their trips below that the
brig's master mistook the flashes for a revolving light and thus his
misfortune.
66 EARLY MILWAUKEE
Among the schooners are Congress, Captain Doyle; Eliphalet
Cramer, Captain West; D. 0. Dickinson, Captain Lewis; Kitty
Grant, Captain Johnson; Fred Hill, Captain Adlam, and Norway,
Capt. Tate. These three last were of nearly one pattern of a modem
cut and were built on the site just north of Wolf & Davidson's. The
C. Harrison was another familiar craft to me, and is yet in commis-
sion. I saw her when she wedded Neptune. She was the first craft
I ever saw launched. She dipped the water, stem first, at the east
end of Oneida Street bridge, where the wood yard is now. The
next craft I saw introduced to the water was the top sail schooner
H. K. White, which slid diagonally into the river from the foot of
Fowler street.
So closely united is the history of our marine with the men of
those times that I mention a few more vessels. For instance, in my
list I find the Josephine Lawrence, Captain Saveland ; Lewis Lud-
ington. Captain Mclntyre; Milwaukee Belle, Captain Lewis; Dan
Newhall, Captain Waffle; Republic, Captain Cross; J. & A. Stron-
ach. Captain Corbett, and the Napoleon, Bennett, master.
Captain Adlam, of the schooner W. B. Hihhard, died last month
[Jime, 1888], His craft was one I have on my list.
The Napoleon seems to have outlived all her consorts for she
was in commission imtil last Summer when she went on the beach
down the lake. The Republic was the first to adopt the patent
double-threaded screw steering wheel. Previous to this steering was
done with a tiller or at best with a wheel tackle.
All the three-masted schooners were called barks. The Badger
State, Captain Shorts, was the most familiar to me. I saw her bap-
tized in the placid Menomonee just west of Reed street where the
sheds of the Western Transportation Company now stand. Many a
time I have seen her burgee flying from her peak as she lay at
anchor outside waiting for a tug as all the larger vessels had to do ;
and in referring to the larger class we must bear in mind that ship-
ping has changed radically in thirty years. A good sized schooner
in 1855 took aboard only 18,000 to 20,000 bushels of grain in con-
trast now with 60,000 or 70,000 or even 100,000.
Another bark that attracted attention at this time was the Great
West, possibly of 500 or 600 tons. At all events she looked big and
WATERFRONT AND SHIPPING 67
her owner thought she was immense for she had a steam engine on
deck to make sail and break bulk. One more man tried steam. He
put a screw in and proposed to do his own towing, but it did not
work. You may never have heard of this man, but it was "Old
Kirb," and his ship was the Cream City. Although he only intended
to drive her in port or in the rivers, by steam, yet I am not so sure
but we might call him the father of steam barges. (I am the pos-
sessor of her flag, given the Cream City Ball Club, by Captain Fitz-
gerald, 1870.)
At the head of Wisconsin street the bluff was as high as it yet is
at the Juneau statue and on the summit beside the brick light-
house was a shanty where hotel runners, glass in hand, watched and
waited for the appearance of passenger boats. The iron horse had
not reached us and these steamers came with fair regularity and
were watched for with interest, especially from below. When they
hove in sight and were recognized, these watchmen took to their
heels to advise the hotels, which in turn would scurry and bob away
to the pier to solicit patronage from homeseekers and pilgrims
bound for this great unknown country.
Those scenes are all gone now. Huron and Erie streets were the
great thoroughfares then and they have improved but little in forty
years, for the people who floated up and down those streets to see
and do business with these wheezy puffing old steamers have other
paths to tread now. Besides these piers the only other notable
landing place was at foot of Washington street, where the old yel-
low warehouse stood. This place was used especially in heavy
weather when the swell was too boisterous in the bay.
Referring to these puffy old side-wheelers, let's recall just a
few of them who hauled in here in 1854. For instance, the steamer
Arctic, Captain Jones ; Cleveland, Captain Robinson ; Fashion, Cap-
tain Newbre ; Globe, Captain Pratt ; Lady Elgin, Captain Chamber-
lain ; Pacific, Captain McQueen ; Sultana, Captain Appleby, and the
Traveler, Newbre, master.
In the propeller line, only one was built in this decade (date
1856), which was the Allegheney. Other screw-boats landing here
in the year of my record, viz., 1854, I will mention only the Buffalo,
Captain Conkey; Bucephalus, Captain Alexander; DunJcirJc, Cap-
68 EARLY MILWAUKEE
tain Hathaway; F(yrest City, Captain Pheatt; Granite State, Cap-
tain Cadwell ; Illinois, Captain Dixon ; Milwaukee, Captain Mars-
den ; Pocohontas, Captain Clark, and the Sun, Captain Anderson.
In 1856 we tried the experiment of shipping grain direct to
Europe. Laden with wheat the schooner Dean Richmond sailed
direct with considerable flourish of trumpets. One or two boats fol-
lowed in a year or two with grain and products of the forest, but
the ventures established no permanent trade.
Another epoch was the arrival of a tow-boat. The tug G. W.
Tifft was the pioneer, putting in an appearance about 1853. Fre-
quently I saw her with five or six and even seven little hookers toil-
ing up the undefined course of the old river. She took her own time
for sharp competition was yet to come. Soon after this the straight
cut was opened, making it much easier for little craft to make port
and sail, perhaps, directly to her dock. At this time came those
wonderful creations, the steamships Detroit and Milwaukee, to do
us duty across the lake, giving us close and comfortable passage
across old Michigan. Simultaneously came the blast from an iron
horse which had crept up from the south'ard and found a temporary
stopping place at the spot now called Bay View, from whence pas-
sengers came citywards across the marsh on scows towed by our one
all-important tug which landed baggage and passengers at foot of
National avenue where the Milwaukee & Chicago Eailroad erected
a station which was their only one for many years.
Shipbuilding progressed fairly with us, but our facilities for re-
pairs were for many years decidedly limited. Away back in 1847
we had a floating dock and later a marine railway, but the first ap-
proved dry dock was made in 1877 by our present ship builders.
Wolf & Davidson.
Those were halcyon days, my hearer. Mayhap a clear conscience,
a sound stomach and a robust corpus of a lad in his teens has much
to do in giving a roseate hue to the mazy past. Perhaps so, but we
were not hampered with as many set forms and ceremonies in those
good old days. Caste was not as apparent, we were all nearer to be-
ing peers, and aside from these reasons who will reproduce our old
and immaculate stamping grounds? Where are the fish and fish-
WATEEFRONT AND SHIPPING 69
ing, where the sloping grassy banks, where the diving holes and the
spring-boards where we could disport unobserved in all hours of the
day, up and down either of our rivers or on the lake front? Where
are our boating parties and picnics on the limpid stream whose bot-
tom could be seen on any clear day ? Where are they ? Go ask the
gray-beard; go ask the sickly streams that smell rank to heaven.
Seek your answer in our solid docks, and ask our omnipresent sewer
and our contaminated lake and our forbidding sea-walls, and as your
mind is of a retrospective bias, remember the old adage : True yes-
terday, true today, true for tomorrow.
Milwaukee, July, 1888.
A Sailor's Narrative
Condensed from Papers Read Before the Club by Captain William
Callaway.
I was born at Portishead, England, near Bristol, on the banks
of the Bristol Channel, and was attracted to the free life of the sea
as far back as I can remember. My father was an officer in the
British customs service, and three of my uncles were pilots on the
Bristol Channel. While I am unable to vouch for the truth of the
report, it was said that my great uncle, a certain Edward Callaway,
piloted John Paul Jones into the Bristol Channel during the Eevo-
lutionary War — at the point of a pistol. My father died when I
was but ten years of age, and at fifteen I informed my mother that
I was going to sea, threatening to run away unless she granted her
permission.
I made my first voyage in the Spring of 184G in the bark British
Queen, bound from Bristol to Quebec, with railroad iron. She was a
ship of perhaps five hundred tons register. The voyage out was un-
eventful until we reached the Gulf of St. Lawrence, where we got
into a field of ice. After getting free from the ice we ran into a
gale of wind blowing down the gulf, and were obliged to take a reef
in our topsails. During a dark night we collided with another bark,
and you may imagine with our cargo of iron most of us thought our
chances of getting to Davy Jones' locker were pretty good. The
two ships were throvra together by the sea, and we broke our stud-
ding-sail booms ; the yard-arms came tumbling down about us, and
our shrouds on the port side were carried away. During the excite-
ment which prevailed at the time, I jumped on the rail to get aboard
the other vessel. A big sailor caught me by the seat of my pants
and threw me back on deck. We got clear of the other vessel finally,
without further damage, and were one man ahead; for while we
were rolling together one of the men from the other ship got hold of
our ropes by mistake and was drawn aboard.
We reached Quebec in about eight or ten days, and found the
ship we had collided with ahead of us. One of their boats came
alongside, and their men were overjoyed to find their shipmate in
SAILOR'S NARRATIVE 71
safety. We were in Quebec about three weeks. Our cargo was un-
loaded into barges to go up the river, and we loaded timber to take
back. After leaving Quebec, we had a safe passage home, but at
the end of the voyage I had an accident which nearly finished me.
I fell eighteen feet into the hold of the ship, and was picked up for
dead, but recovered in a few days. It was rather a strange coinci-
dence, as my father met his death by falling in the hold of a ship at
the same dock. I made several trips to Quebec after this one, but
will go on now to my trip around the world.
In the early 50's I shipped from Bristol on a little bark called
the Kyle, bound for Melbourne, Australia. She was of five hundred
tons burden and carried a crew of twenty men. We had on board
120 passengers, most of them bound for the gold diggings, discov-
ered about this time, and two stowaways who were found after
we had got out to sea. There was the usual ceremony of receiving a
visit from Neptune when we reached the equator. After crossing
the equator we ran into St. Paul's Island. The ship was then put
in course, running down the southeast trade winds. Our supply of
drinking water got so bad at this time we were compelled to hold our
noses when drinking it, so our captain concluded to run to the
islEind of Tristan Da Cunha, south of Cape Good Hope, for fresh
water. Wlien we neared the island the wind was blowing a gale, so
we had to put off for Cape Good Hope. I was taken ill at this time
with a serious fever, and had to have my head shaved.
We ran into Table Bay at Cape Good Hope and took on fresh
water. The first land we sighted after leaving the Cape was St.
Paul's Island and Amsterdam Island, both of them very small — ■
apparently about ten miles long — and I do not think they were in-
habited at this time, as I saw no houses or smoke. The food we had
to live on was sufficient warrant against dyspepsia. On Monday we
had pork and pea soup for dinner; Tuesday, salt beef and rice;
Wednesday, salt pork; Thursday, salt beef and duff; Friday, pork
and pea soup; Saturday, salt beef and rice; Sunday, salt beef and
duff. We also had all the sea biscuits we wanted. When we were in
the tropics maggots got into the biscuits, and we were obliged to
break them over our knees and shake out the maggots before eating.
We were served with tea and coffee as long as the supply lasted, and
78 EARLY MILWAUKEE
got lime juice every day as a preventive of scurvy. Our food was
brought to us by the boys whose duty was also to keep the forecastle
clean. We did not have table linen and silver knives and forks.
Each man had his pannikin, tin plate, tin spoon and knife and fork.
The food was brought down to us in kids, and each man helped him-
self, our forecastle floor answering for table and tablecloth.
On our ship "Grog-0 !" was always called when we got through
shortening sails. The next land we made after Amsterdam Island
was Cape Leeuwin, Australia. A few days later we made Melbourne
Heads, and then dropped anchor in the bay. There were no docks
for ships to go alongside of and not enough water in the river for
large ships to go up, so we were obliged to unload our cargo into
lighters. The people were coming to Melbourne so fast there was
not room enough in the town. Tents were pitched on the hill across
from the city and the hill called Canvastown. The town had its
liquor stores, butcher shops and stores of every description. It was
a grand sight on a sunny day to see Melbourne on the one side and
Canvastown with its sea of white tents on the other. Our crew got
the gold fever, and all but the carpenter and myself ran away. Run-
away sailors were arrested when caught. There were so many mis-
creants there was not enough room for them in the prisons, so the
authorities bought a ship called the Deborah and anchored it in the
bay for a sailors' prison. It was the custom to shave the heads of
the prisoners, and I had a rather unpleasant experience one day
while in a butcher shop. A man greeted me and offered to shake
hands, and when I said I did not know him, he said: "Of course
you do; you were in the Deborah when I was there." My hair was
still short, and I suppose this accounted for the mistake.
We shipped a new crew at Melbourne and went to New Castle,
about ninety miles north of Sydney, on the river Hunter. There
was only one small mine there at the time, but I understand now
they are shipping coal from there to San Francisco. The mine had
a capacity of only 600 tons per month, and as there were ships ahead
of us we had to wait six months for a cargo. All hands but the
carpenter and myself were discharged, and I acted as cook and
steward. We lay across the river opposite the little town, and there
was a tribe of natives close by. Whenever the carpenter or myself
SAILOR'S NARRATIVE 73
wanted amusement we would give the chief and one of his head men
a few glasses of grog and have them get the tribe to dance. When
I visited the town I would tie the boat at the dock, and when I oame
back it would be filled with natives waiting to cross with me. I al-
ways made them welcome.
I made three trips to New Castle. On the last trip we got into a
hurricane, or southerly buster, as they call it there. The canvas was
blown away and we sprang a leak. When the gale was over we bent
extra canvas which we had below and put into Sydney for repairs
before going on to Melbourne. Sydney is the most beautiful har-
bor in the world. After leaving Sydney we encountered a strong
head wind and ran into Botany Bay for shelter. The two years I
had signed articles for were now up, and I got my discharge and
sailed for home on the ship Seringapatam. Our homeward voyage
was around Cape Horn. We arrived safely at Bristol, thus ending
my voyage around the world.
My next trip was on the ship Petrel, bound with passengers for
New York. While we were lying in New York harbor, two sailors
from the Great Lakes who came aboard to spin yarns, told us what
good things they had to eat on the lake vessels. They said they had
ham and eggs for breakfast, two kinds of meat and pie or pudding
for dinner, and hot biscuits and cake for supper. They also said
that when they wanted a drink, all they had to do was drop a bucket
overboard and draw it up full of fresh, cold water. I thought they
were awful liars, but found when I came to the lakes, after making
three more voyages from England to this country and Canada, that
they were about right. I came to the Lakes in the year 1857, and
started my career as a fresh-water sailor.
In the Spring of 1857 I had shipped from Bristol in the ship
Jane, bound to Quebec with passengers. I worked my passage out,
rather than follow the usual custom of securing a month's advance
in wages when shipping and then running away after reaching this
country. Nothing of interest occurred on my trip to Quebec, and we
landed our full load of passengers in safety. I stayed with the ship
and helped unload and reload with timber, and secured as much
money that way as I would had I taken the month's advance and
run away. I then went to Kingston and shipped on a vessel named
74 EARLY MILWAUKEE
the Liverpool, bound for the river St. Clair to load timber. I went
across the river to the vessel in a boat, and was surprised when I got
on board to see two horses secured forward. I was informed that
they were used in loading timber and also that the vessel steered so
^valdly when loaded that it was necessary to have their assistance at
times in steering. I made up my mind that that kind of sailing
would not suit me, and left the ship at Detroit. I shipped there on
a little schooner named the C. L. Burton, which carried only about
three thousand bushels of grain. We went to Sandusky, and carried
grain from there to Buffalo until October. I then shipped in San-
dusky on the revenue cutter A. V. Brown, and came to Milwaukee.
The Brown was one of six revenue cutters built by the govern-
ment in 1856 for use on the Great Lakes. There was one for each
lake. They were built in Milan, Ohio, and when finished were all
taken to Sandusky and moored close together. I was one of the first
sailors. In the Spring of 1858 they were ordered to ship their crews
and go to their stations. I stayed on the Brown two seasons, and
was boatswain before I left. I believe she was the first government
vessel stationed in Milwaukee. Her commander was Captain
Mitchell. The lieutenant's name was Underwood.
In the Fall of 1858 we laid up in the Menomonee river, about
where the Sixth Street bridge now is, alongside a clay bank on the
south side! of the canal, and the pilot and myself were left on board
to keep ship. The others were discharged, and the officers went to
their homes. Elevator B was built then, and the Hans Crocker was
moored at the dock. Captain W. Fitzgerald was her master. We
became quite well acquainted. About the first of April, 1859, the
Brown shipped a crew and we lay to anchor in a little bay just inside
the piers, somewhat to the south. We used to go from here to differ-
ent ports on Lake Michigan — Racine, Kenosha, Chicago and St. Jo-
seph — and stay a few days in each port.
On one occasion we left St. Joe, bound for Grand Haven. The
wind was from the south. We got out into the lake two or three
miles, then wanted to set the squaresail in order to spread the sail.
We had two swing booms, which, when not in use, would lie one on
each bow. I told the men to square them, which they were doing
witli lifts and guys, but were so slow that I jumped on the rail, one
SAILOE'S NARRATIVE 75
leg on each side the boom, and was lifting it square, it being two-
thirds out over the lake and one-third in. Someone had taken the
nut off the gooseneck that went through the saddles on the mast.
While I was at work the boom let go, unshipped, took me between
the legs and pitched me into the lake. As I was going down my arm
caught on one of the guys. I grabbed it, but had all I could do to
hang on, as the vessel was going about five miles an hour. I was
hauled on board all right. I stayed on the revenue cutter until Fall,
and then shipped on the brig David Ferguson, owned by William
B. Hibbard and commanded by Captain Adlam.
On March 1, 1860, I married. In April I shipped on the
schooner William Case, before the mast, to go to Oswego. I had a
salary of sixteen dollars a month — small wages on which to keep a
wife. I left the Case at Oswego and shipped on the schooner Morn-
ing Light, bound for Saginaw, to load lumber for Chicago. I then
came home and shipped on the schooner George Barber, with Cap-
tain Nelson, at twenty dollars per month. In those days the crew
had to load and unload. Sometimes we would leave here at night
and be in Muskego the next morning, alongside the lumber pile,
load, and get out again at night. I stayed with him until Septem-
ber. I then shipped in the schooner Whaling, with Captain Kjmas-
ton. My old friend Andrew Boyd was mate. We loaded grain at
Higby's elevator, foot of Chestnut street. The captain told us to
go home, as the weather looked bad and he would not go out. The
Tvi/2 next night the schooner lady Elgin was lost. We made one trip to
Buffalo. After our return I shipped in the schooner Robinson for
Buffalo. I was taken sick with fever and ague, left the vessel and
came back to Milwaukee. Then I went to work in Mr. Trusloaw's
wholesale fruit store on East Water street, next to Greene & But-
ton's drug store. In 1861, while fitting out the schooner Barber, I
was again taken sick, and could not sail all Summer ; so I worked in
the store.
In the Spring of 1862 I shipped on the schooner Stella, owned
by Mr. Goldsmith of Port Washington and commanded by Captam
Smith. We loaded at the pier, carried wheat to Buffalo and came
back to Milwaukee. Charley Millett, the mate, said : "Bill, let you
and I buy a vessel of our own." I asked him how much money he
76 EARLY MILWAUKEE
had and he said : "A hundred dollars." I had the same amount.
Our united resources did not seem a sum that would go far toward
the purchase of a vessel, but "where there's a will there's a way."
We started out, got as far as Division Street bridge, and there saw
a small schooner called the Mariner. We asked the captain if he
knew of a small vessel for sale, and he told us the Mariner was for
sale for $850. She carried twenty-one hundred bushels of wheat.
The owners were Peter Hansen and Mr. Backet of Sheboygan. My
father-in-law kept a store on Wisconsin street, and as we thought
he knew more about business than we did, we sent him to Sheboy-
gan to see the owners. The owners came to Milwaukee the next
day, and we bought the vessel for $850, paying $200 down and giv-
ing our notes for the balance — $100 to be paid each month for five
months and $150 in the following July. It looked rather risky, but
we paid the notes as they came due, supported our families and saved
money besides, after which we sold the Mariner.
When I was in the store I became acquainted with Otto Wer-
muth. In July, 1862, I met him on Wisconsin street, and he said
he was going to have a vessel built to go to the old country, and
asked me if I would superintend the building, fit her out and take
her across the ocean, I thought he was only "blowing," but an-
swered "Yes." When he told me to go to Ellsworth & Davidson's
shipyard and tell them what kind of vessel was suitable for crossing
the ocean, I wanted to back out, but he would not listen to it. I had
never superintended the building of a vessel, and was not thorough
in navigation, but after I had consented was determined to "see it
through." I went to Ellsworth & Davidson and asked them to make
a model, which they did. I made another lake trip, and when I
came back the contract was signed, and the vessel was to be finished
by November 1, 1802. I then stayed on shore and fitted the rigging,
having it ready to slip over the mastheads as soon as they were
stepped.
Besides attending to the business of vessel building, I had to
study navigation. I asked Mr. Ellis, who for many years kept a
book store on Wisconsin street, to send to New York for an Epitome
and Nautical Almanac. Hearing that Mr. Roche, who was living on
Lyon street, near where Racine street now is, had been a teacher in
SAILOR'S NARRATIVE 77
the British navy, I made arrangements with him to teach me naviga-
tion. I lived on Grove street, on the south side. I would go home
from work, get my supper, then walk over to Lyon street aqd back,
as there were no street cars in Milwaukee in. those days. I found Mr.
Roche was not all he claimed to be, but he could see into the ex-
amples quicker than I. At length I concluded to study at home. I
filled a plate with molasses, placed it in the back yard, for use as an
artificial horizon, and each day with its aid took the altitude of the
sun with my sextant. By November 1st I was pretty well informed.
The vessel was finished November 6th and laid up till Spring. Mr.
Wermuth went to Germany with his family. When he came back in
the Spring I had the vessel already loaded with wheat for Buffalo at
eleven cents per bushel. He was so pleased that he put his arm
around my waist. Then he pulled a gold watch out of his pocket and
made me a present of it.
The Hanover was built just west of Reed street, where Elevator
A now stands. I believe she was the first and only vessel built in
Milwaukee that went from here to Europe, although there were two
other vessels that made the trip across the ocean from the Great
Lakes before she did. I took the Hanover from here, through the
Great Lakes, the canals and the St. Lawrence river to Quebec, and
from there to Liverpool, England. From Liverpool I took her to
Brock, on the River Wieser in Germany. She was sold in Brock to
parties in Hanover, and I took her to Guestemunde, where my crew
and I left her. I returned to my home in Milwaukee about October
20th of the same year. For a number of years after that I followed
the occupation of sailing.
In 1865 I was master of the schooner Toledo. I left Milwaukee
about the 13th of October to load wood at Bode's pier, which was
six miles south of Manitowoc. We got alongside of the pier about
10 o'clock in the evening, took the foghorn and called for Mr. Bode.
We then went into the woods blowing the horn. Blowing the horn
was the signal that there was a vessel at the pier which wanted men
to help load. We got loaded about 7 o'clock in the morning of the
15th. It commenced blowing a gale from the southeast. I ran to
Manitowoc Bay and came to an anchor. Several other vessels were
also at anchor in the bay.
78 EARLY MILWAUKEE
We could not get into Manitowoc in those days, as there were
only five or six feet of water in the entrance to the river. At noon
the vessel began to drag her anchor, so we let go the second anchor.
About 1 o'clock the small anchor chain parted and we were dragging
for the beach ; but I did not want to go on the beach if we could help
it ; so we pitched off the deckload even with the rail, close-reefed the
foresail and mainsail and got a slipline from the starboard quarter
with one end fast to the anchor chain, so as to cant her on the right
tack. We then slipped the chain, when she filled on the starboard
tack. When about a mile north of Manitowoc, the mainsail blew to
pieces, and soon after our staysail went the same way. This left ns
only the foresail to get off a lee shore, and we kept getting nearer
and nearer to the beach all the time. When passing Two Rivers
pier we were about a quarter of a mile off. We ran along in the
breakers until the centerboard began to touch bottom. Then I
thought it best to uphelm and run her on the beach as far as she
would go. My brother was standing by the foresheet when the fore-
sail jibed and he was thrown down against the wood. I thought he
must be badly hurt, and was much relieved to see him get up with-
out assistance. I was steering and could not leave the wheel, but
had to jump to save myself when a big sea struck our boat, which
was hanging on the davits, threw her up nearly on the stern, and
then fell on the davits with such force that she broke loose and went
adrift.
A young boy named John Herzer was with us that trip, for
health and pleasure, and as I did not know at what moment we
would ship a sea that would carry everything before it, I asked my
brother to get a rope around the boy and tie him to the mainmast,
as he did not know enough about sailing to take care of himself. We
were in a bad way, for our boat had been washed away, and we had
no means of reaching shore, and the sea was washing over us all the
time. We should most likely have perished by morning with the
cold and wet if some men had not brought a boat down to the beach
in a wagon. They launched the boat and came under our bow. We
crawled out on the bowsprit and dropped one by one into the boat,
in which we reached the shore safely. When leaving the vessel I
went with the boy, my arm around his waist, so that I could hold
him. This placed me in an embarrassing position years afterward.
SAILOR'S NARRATIVE 79
for John Herzer grew very fleshy. When I met him at parties he
would take me around and introduce me as the man who carried him
under his arm to the boat. He then weighed some three hundred
and fifty pounds, and I about one hundred and thirty.
To go back to the wreck : When we reached the beach our teeth
were knocking together, we were so cold and wet. The rescuers took
us to Weilep's hotel, where they gave us some whiskey and a good
supper. We were all tired and went to bed early. Two of the men
who saved us were John Eggers and Moses Bunker. The names of
the other two I cannot recall. There were six wrecked vessels be-
tween Manitowoc and Two Rivers point during that storm.
I came back to Milwaukee to secure wrecking tools. I got them
of Cole & Harrison and put them on board the steamer Planet. It
blew a gale from the northeast, and I could not get out for two days.
I reached Two Rivers on a Sunday morning and went down to look
at the vessel. She was in a sorry plight. She was partly filled with
sand, and had settled down so you could get on board dry-footed by
jumping over a little stream by her side that the current had kept
open. She was broadside to the beach and had listed a little. The
sand was level from the top of the rail to the combings of the
hatches. Monday morning I went to work. I put eyebolts in her
frames, lashed timbers to her sides, and got blocking and screws set.
As the beach at Two Rivers is all quicksand, I had to raise the screws
eighteen inches in order to raise the vessel two inches. I got her
up forward and was ready to put ways under her when it came on to
blow, and all the blocking was washed away and she was in worse
condition than before. It took almost two months to get her up and
on the beach. We then cut her in two and hauled the bow from the
stern and lengthened her twenty-seven feet. I had to go seven miles
into the country and there buy oak trees of the farmers. I had to
buy the trees standing and make bargains with the farmers to cut
them down and haul them to the vessel. I then had to get whip-
sawers to saw the long plank by hand. The short ones were sawed
at Mann Brothers' pail factory. I engaged a carpenter to boss the
job while I superintended it. We got her ready to launch b ythe end
of May. Then the carpenter went back on me and left, so I had to
alunch her myself. It proved a difficult task, on account of the
80 EARLY MILWAUKEE
quicksand ; but by having anchors in the lake and purchases to the
windlass, we got her off to an anchor. I then put on some things
that had been left on the beach and came back to Milwaukee.
Upon my return to Milwaukee Mark Tyson chartered me to go
to Manistee to load lumber for Chicago. I continued in that trade
the remainder of the season and made three trips between Novem-
ber 8th and 13th. For the first trip I had $7 per thousand, for the
second $7.25, and for the third $6.50. For the first trip I paid my
men $36, and as we made the trip in five days the men thought the
next trip would surely be a long one ; so they would not go by the
trip, but asked $4 per day. I agreed to their demand, and as we
made the trip in four days I only paid them $16. I mention this
to show the difference between those sailing days and the present.
In 1867 I again ran to Manistee and carried the material to
build the lighthouse on Big Point Au Sable. We anchored off the
point and unloaded onto scows. The scows were then hauled to the
beach and unloaded. The same Fall I was windbound in Manistee
with many other vessels, among them the schooner William Jones.
We all left the same afternoon, the wind being southeast. It was
raining. When off Big Point Au Sable the wind shifted to the west
and blew a gale, and we had to carry a heavy piece of canvas in order
to get to the west shore. When about in midlake, at daylight, we
saw a schooner about ten miles to leeward flying a flag of distress.
I up helm and ran down to her and found her to be the William
Jones, waterlogged. The captain asked me to stand by her, which I
did. When about half a mile away from him, I saw him waving his
hat signaling me to come back. I wore ship and got to leeward of
him. They lowered their boat. Every man got into her and we
hoisted them on deck, but not any too soon, for just as the last man
came on board our vessel their vessel rolled over almost bottom-
side up, and most likely if they had stayed on board all of them —
there were seven — would have been drowned. Being loaded with
lumber, the Jones did not sink. We made more canvas and ran for
Chicago.
Perhaps the most thrilling event of my life was the wreck of the
bark Naomi, on November 5th, 1869. We were windbound in Man-
istee on November 4th, the wind blowing a heavy gale from the south
SAILOR'S NARRATIVE 81
and at night shifting and blowing a heavy gale from the west. On
the morning of the 5th one of the men went on the pier to look along
the beach, and saw a bark about six miles north on the outside sand-
bar. Three other sailors and I then started to walk along the beach
to the scene of the wreck, but were soon obliged to take to the woods,
as the heavy sea was washing up against the clay banks.
When we got within closer range of the vessel we could see the
crew on the cabin with the seas washing over them. Their boat was
on the beach. They had lowered the boat, with the intention of
coming ashore, but the heavy seas filled her with water, and she broke
adrift and came on the beach. The breakers pounding the boat on
the beach had started some of the frames from the planks and had
shaken the oakum out of the seams on one side. One of the men
had tried to swim ashore to summon help, but was drowned in the
attempt. The peril of the men on the wrecked schooner filled us
with horror, and we determined to make an effort for their rescue.
The only boat at hand was that on the beach. A farmer had
brought with him a hatchet and some nails. We turned the boat
bottom up and nailed the planks to the frame as best we could. The
next thing was to find something with which to caulk the seams, and
we made use of a pair of old pants which we found. A lumberman
by the name of Calkins pulled off his coat and tore off his shirt-
sleeves. We tore the coat into shreds and filled the seams with them,
using our knives as caulking-irons. I then cut a piece of one end
of the painter and made a becket through the ring bolt in the stem
of the boat, to keep the steering oar from slipping out of the sculling
notch and getting away from me.
By this time quite a crowd had gathered, among them sailors and
citizens from Manistee. They said it was folly to attempt a rescue
in that boat, and some of them said they would go back to Manistee
and get a good boat and bring it back on a wagon. They did this
finally, but had to drag the boat a long distance through the woods
by hand. I knew that by the time they could get a boat from Man-
istee it would be nearly night and perhaps all of the crew would
have perished. Three oars and a pail had come ashore with the boat.
I got together a crew of three men besides myself, two to row and
one to bail. Two of the men were Chris Hansen and James Gil-
lespie, and the third a sailor from the schooner William Heg.
82 EAELY MILWAUKEE
There was a strong current running south along the beach, and
I got the lookers-on, who had gro\vn into quite a crowd by this time,
to partly drag and partly carry the boat a distance to the north, in
order to allow for the current in fetching up at the wreck. Then I
got them to run into the water and push us afloat, which they did
willingly. Our boat was a large one, about eighteen or nineteen feet
long, but the seas were so high that she nearly stood on end when
pointing out through the breakers. However, we kept her afloat,
bailing her out with the pail as fast as the spray came over. The
first sight that met our eyes as we approached the wreck was that of
the captain, whose name was Carpenter, and his wife. He was fast
to one end of a rope passed over the mizzen boom, and his wife, who
was fast to the other end, lay dead in his lap. The vessel had her
top sail close-reefed and set. Her mainsail also was close-reefed and
set, and the main boom was lying on the rail with the end about
eight feet from the side. I got our boat under the end of the boom,
as it was not safe to go closer to the vessel in that terrible sea. The
men on the wreck came along the rail and to the end of the boom,
then dropping into the boat. Three of the men dropped in all right,
but when the fourth was in the act of descending we shipped a sea in
our boat that threw us from under him and he fell overboard. The
undertow brought our boat back to its former place and the man
came up alongside. One of our men grabbed hold of him and got
him into the boat. As soon as he could speak he invoked heaven and
the saints, calling down upon us blessings for saving him.
Having by this time shipped considerable water, we were obliged
to put off for the beach, in order to save ourselves and those we had
taken from the vessel, and to get the boat in trim. If we had shipped
another sea it might have been the end of some of us. As we ap-
proached the shore, the men on the beach ran out into the water and
took hold of the boat to pull her onto the shore. Two of the men
we had rescued stepped out of the boat and dropped down as if dead,
when they realized that they were saved. The people on the beach
had built a fire in tlie woods back of a sandhill, and carried the ex-
hausted men there, wrapping them in blankets after rubbing them
with whiskey and giving them some of it to drink. This brought
them around after a while. The crowd wanted me to take some
whiskey too, but I refused to have any until I got through.
SAILOR'S NARRATIVE 83
We put our boat in trim again and pulled her up the beach to
our former starting point, but when we were ready to go off two of
my boat's crew backed out and would not risk a second trip. It was
some time before I could find two others, although there were num-
bers of sailors among the spectators. I succeeded finally, however, in
filling my crew, but do not remember the names of the two recruits.
We started off once more, but had got only about half way to the
vessel when we shipped a sea that nearly half filled our boat; so we
had to put back to the beach to get the water out and the boat in
trim again. We once more got our boat back to the starting point,
ready to put out again, when the two men declined to re-enter her.
It took some time to get two others, but finally we did. The two
who agreed to fill these places were Captain Hall of the schooner
Stronach and my mate, Gus Janet. Chris Hansen deserved great
credit, for he stuck by me all the time. The other men also were
worthy of praise, and deserve credit for what they did.
The third time we put off, we reached the vessel all right and
got the boat under the main boom as before. One man came along
and dropped into the boat as the others had done. Another got as
far as the mizzen rigging, when his strength failed him and he
could go no further. He stood on the rail, holding on to the rig-
ging. I got the boat near him and told the men to watch their
chance, and when the boat was on top of a sea to drag his legs off
the rail. They did so, and the man tumbled into our boat like a
thousand of bricks. Moreover he was not hurt. The captain now
was the only living person left on board, and he was unable to
help himself. I asked Gus Janet to watch his chance and jump on
board when we got the boat alongside by the mizzen rigging and
were on top of the sea. The only way he could have saved the captain
would have been to loosen his wife and throw us that end of the
rope, and then pitch the captain overboard, so we might haul him
into the boat. Gus got aboard all right and did all he could; but
at such times it takes longer to do things than at others. He had
loosened the wife, but before he could accomplish the other details
we had shipped so much water that I saw we had to put out for the
beach again. I did not want to leave my mate on board the wreck ;
BO I got the boat under the boom and called to him to come aboard.
He came along the boom and dropped into our boat, the same as the
84 EARLY MILWAUKEE
others had done. Then we started for the beach. Captain Car-
penter, I presume, thought we had given him up. He cast at me
a look I shall never forget, and rolled off the cabin deck between
the cabin and the rail, and drowned. It had been my intention to
get the boat in trim and go off again and fetch him.
We reached shore safely, but my arms were so strained they
were in the shape of a bow, and I could not straighten out my
fingers for some time. This was because of the prolonged tension
of the muscles in holding the steering oar. We had been about four
hours accomplishing our task. AVe then walked back to Manistee,
and found that the editor of the paper there, who had been an eye
witness of the rescue, had issued an "extra" giving a full account of
the affair. When I came back home after this trip the members of
the Milwaukee Chamber of Commerce, to my surprise, were kind
enough to present me with a gold watch and chain. Our Milwau-
kee Chamber of Commerce at this time began an agitation for life
boats on the Great Lakes. This was the starting point of the
splendid life-saving service we have on the lakes today.
In 1870 and 1871 I was master of the schooner Toledo and
was in general trade between different points on Lake Michigan.
In 1871, the year of the Chicago fire, I was windbound in Holland
Lake, which is about twenty miles south of Grand Haven. One
Sunday afternoon, Mr. E. W. Diercks, who was later registrar of the
Milwaukee Board of Health, came on board and asked me to
take him up to Holland, six miles from where we were anchored.
Mr. Diercks had chartered me to bring a load of railroad ties from
Holland to Milwaukee. I ordered two men into a boat and we rowed
him to the little town of Holland. When we reached there we
found the woods on fire south of the place and the citiens fighting
the fire, trying to save their town.
Their efforts were of no avail for that night every house was
burned to the ground — nothing left standing but a stone mill
which was situated on a point of land at the head of the 'lake.
When going back to the vessel, we could hardly breathe, as we were
to leeward of the fire, and the smoke was dense. The next morning,
seeing a tug taking the people to the lake shore for safety, I took
the boat and brought many of them to the vessel. The people car-
ried what clothes they had saved on board. I accommodated as many
SAILOR'S NAREATIVE 85
as I could in the cabin and put the others in the hold to stay until
the danger was past. Soon after this I loaded the ties and came
back to Milwaukee.
The night of this fire was the night of the big fire at Chicago.
That same fall there were terrible fires in the northern part of Wis-
consin, and many people were burned to death. Many cattle were
also burned, and the fire made a clean sweep of many farms, de-
stroying the houses and killing the stock, especially in the country
around Ahnapee and from there to Green Bay.
Relief was asked for, and people from all over the United States
sent supplies. A committee was appointed in Milwaukee to receive
the supplies and ship them to the sufferers. I do not remember
the names of all the committeemen, but among them were J. A.
Butcher and Col. Turner. The committee had charge of chartering
the vessels and shipping the supplies. They appointed Capt. A. J.
Langworthy to go to Ahnapee. He was to select a committee there
to visit the people and find out what was most needed, so that the
supplies might be distributed accordingly. As there were no rail-
roads in tliose days along the west shore, the only way to get sup-
plies to the burned district was to ship them by vessel or send them
to Green Bay by rail, and from there thirty-six miles by team.
Col. Turner chartered me to take the supplies to Ahnapee.
Winter navigation was not very good, and it was no easy task to
find a vessel captain willing to go. I loaded by John Eldred's
shingle mill, where the North- Western railroad bridge now is. My
load consisted of everything imaginable — furniture, clothing, bed-
ding, stoves, flour, groceries, hay, feed, and so forth. We arrived at
Ahnapee safely and my old friend, Capt. Lang\vorthy was there
with the committee to receive the supplies and distribute them.
"When I unloaded,! came back to Milwaukee and took another
load. I delivered the load safely, but while at the pier the wind
blew a gale from the southeast, so that we were compelled to use all
the ropes and chains we had to hold the vessel to the pier. When
the gale was over, we loaded wood and left for Milwaukee; but
before reaching here, it blew a gale and a snowstorm set in from
the northeast. I could not see the pier light, and the first thing I
could see was the north pier on our lee side; so I rounded to and let
86 EARLY MILWAUKEE
go the anchor, with the intention of trying to get out in the lake
again. We got up anchor and cavorted into the lake all right, but
the center board, being down about four feet and frozen into the
box, touched bottom and turned her around against all head can-
vas, and she went hard and fast on the beach.
As the sea struck the vessel, the spray would fly all over us, and
as it was freezing hard, being the sixth of January, we were soon
covered with ice. About eleven o'clock at night we managed to
get the boat down and through the broken drift ice and reached
the pier all right. I then lived on Grove street. I got home as
quickly as possible. When I took off my coat and pants they were
frozen so hard they stood up alone.
When the sea went down, I procured wrecking tools and put a
purchase to Lighthouse pier, unloaded some of the wood on the
pier, threw some overboard, and succeeded in getting the vessel
off the beach about the ninth of January. As there were no tugs
running during the winter in those days, we did the best we could
with hand labor. We went on the Wolf & Davidson box to repair
the damage. The ice was a foot thick from the piers, so we had to
get men to cut it with saws. This took some time, but we got the
vessel repaired, and then had to saw our way back to the shingle
mill.
We put on another load for the fire sufferers, but the weather
was very cold and the ice in the river about ten inches thick, so
we were not able to get out for about three weeks. All this time the
people were suffering for want of the supplies we had on board. In
those days there were only the Grand Haven boats running. If
I remember correctly, they were the Ironsides and the Lac la Belle,
both of which later foundered. These two boats would come close
alongside when going out, to break up the ice; but before I could
get the vessel around the cakes would freeze again, and leave me as
badly off as before.
After a time we got a northeast gale which sent in a sea and
broke up the ice. After the gale the wind came from the west
and carried the ice out into the lake. I then sailed for Ahnapee
and arrived about a mile off the end of the pier at daylight one
Sunday morning, when the wind died away. I had the boat low-
SAILOR'S XAEEATIVE 87
ered, and towed the vessel into the pier. Tliere was a large crowd
of people on the pier, and I shall always look back with pleasure to
seeing those joyful faces, and remember the way they received us,
with shouts and cheers.
As soon as we got alongside the pier we began unloading. Tliere
was a string of teams a mile in length, each awaiting their turn
to load what the relief committee allowed them. Of course there
were some who were not satisfied with what was given them. Some
one stole a bag of clover seed and hid it behind a woodpile on the
north side of the pier. In the hurry no one saw the trick ; but later
I happened to go on that side and saw the bag. I reported to the
committee. That night they watched for the thief and caught
him.
Before leaving Milwaukee I agreed with Wolf & Davidson to
bring a load of ship plank from Manitowoc. I arrived there on
"Washington's Birthday. The plank was piled on the dock, and
was long heavy oak. The vessel was very shallow in the hold, be-
ing only seven feet six inches deep. I had to come up with the
mizzen rigging and rig tackles from mastheads in order to slide the
plank down the main hatch. I had got the tackles on the first plank
and was standing on deck with my back toward the hatch and
telling the men how to work it when the plank slid toward me.
Not thinking about the open hatch, I stepped back against the
combings of the hatch and fell into the hold, a fall of seven and
a half feet. The sailors picked me up for dead and sent for a
doctor, but by the time he came I had recovered consciousness. He
felt me all over but found no broken bones, though I was badly
bruised and had to stay in bed for some days. One Sunday morn-
ing I left Manitowoc with a fair northern wind. Before I was
long out it blew a gale, so that I had to be on deck until I got to
Milwaukee. Consequently I was very tired. Next day I went down
town and chartered for another trip. But I was taken very sick
from the fall I had, and could not leave for three weeks. Then I
delivered the last cargo.
Milwaukee's First Railway
By James Seville.
In the month of August 1846, the Steamer Niagara landed in
Milwaukee at Higby's Pier with its load of passengers, immigrants
and merchandise, etc., and on board of it I came to look over the
great northwestern country and to join in with the multitudes that
were seeking new homes on the famous soil and in the climate of
Wisconsin. Fifty years ago the routes from the east and south were
by the lakes and, of course, the moving tides which were setting in
knew of no other avenues only by the lakes.
At this time the Michigan Central railway from Detroit was in
operation as far as Niles in the state of Michigan, and the idea of
reaching the head of Lake Michigan by stage line was not to be
attempted. This will account for the rapid settlement for the
state of Wisconsin, as Milwaukee and the country around it had
gained a reputation for its fertility and climate equal to any state
in the union, at any time in the history of the country at large,
either before or since. Its magnificent forests, prairies and streams
of pure water, its soil producing forty bushels of wheat to the acre,
and the splendid opportunities for the establishment of new homes,
and business enterprises, made Wisconsin the very Garden of Eden
to many, as was evident by the rapid settlement of the state, brought
about by an enterprising and thrifty population.
Milwaukee, unfortunately, at an early day, became factious in
itself. The east and west sides of the River became, in time, divided
into parties which brought about the "Bridge War," and in this the
"South Side," or what was kno\\Ti as Walker's Point, held the
balance of power, and through their good offices, the strife gradually
subsided; but as late as 1846 some of the surrounding ruins of
the old war remained which in time, died out.
After a short residence in the city, the writer found there were
three distinct personages within its bounds who held a commanding
influence in tlie advancement of the general interests and ad-
vantages of Milwaukee, and these three individuals were, — first
FIRST RAILWAY 89
Byron Kilbourn, second, Solomon Juneau, and thirdly, Bishop
Henni of the Catholic Church. To Byron Kilbourn the City is in-
debted for its water-power and the attempted construction of the
Rock River canal, which latter was abandoned. He also planned its
railroads and was the originator of the first railway of this city
going west. Mr. Juneau, you all know his history, but in regard to
Bishop Henni, I presume it will be a matter of interest to nearly
all of you, if not to all, that he was the only Catholic German bishop
in the United States at that time. And that gives you the key to
the fact that the population in your city and north of you is so
largely German. The German, before leaving his native land, if a
Catholic, would feel more at ease and more comfortable in the new
country, if he could be near his bishop speaking his own language,
and this would naturally bring others of their friends who might
be non-Catholics to this locality. Wliether it was an act of provi-
dence in placing this bishop in your midst, I do not know, but a
more sincere, gentlemanly and pleasant and good Christian I never
had the pleasure of knowing. And I think you will agree with me
that Milwaukee has, within its limits, as well as the country north
of you, as good a representative lot of German citizens as can be
found in any part of the United States, and who have been about as
successful in business and who have a disposition to build up and
sustain the City in all its interests as any of its citizens. So much
then, for the good future Milwaukee has realized from the location
of good Bishop Henni in your midst.
Now, then, gentlemen, if you will walk with me to a house on
the corner of Fourth and Spring Streets, (this latter name for old
associations), I will show you where Milwaukee's benefactor
lived, viz., the Hon. Byron Kilbourn. In his day, he was one of the
worst abused men you had within your limits and the real cause for
it all was that he was the leader of the Rock River Canal Company,
and was determined that the property on the west side of the river
should be occupied and improved and that business should grow and
flourish on the west as well as on the east side of the river. The
residents and business men on the east side were not on the best of
terms with the west side owing more to the fact that the east side
settler was of Puritanical stock, the west side was largely from Ohio,
and the south side was more of a mixture, or a "don't care" kind
90 EARLY MILWAUKEE
of an individual and the German element, but self-interest came
in to the rescue and caused the troubled waters eventually to calm
do^m, and these differences gradually subsided, and Mr. Kilboum
became not so much of a target. It is said that "a prophet is not
without honor save in his own country," and so it proved to be,
for from the time of his coming to the state, no one became
so well known and few there were whose opinions had more in-
fluence in the state at large, than Mr. Kilbourn. He could do more
with the legislature, governor, etc., than any other man and that too^
without any seeming effort on his part. He was a man of large
build, a large head and brain, a skillful engineer and just such a
man as is required to manage large enterprises; sociable, com-
municative, benevolent and always ready to engage in anything to
help his adopted city.
If you will look with me into his office, which was a part of his
home, I will show you a large map, covering one side of the wall.
First a line for a railroad from Milwaukee to Dubuque, via Wau-
kesha, Whitewater, Monroe and Galena. Another from Milwaukee to
Prairie du Chien, another from Milwaukee to La Crosse, another
from Milwaukee to St. Paul, and these roads all aiming towards
the Mississippi river. Others reaching into different parts of the
northern parts of the state. This map was made in the year of
1847-8. Look again and you will see that all these roads have been
built, except the first one, and that one has not been built to this
day, and nearly all the others do not have their starting point in
Milwaukee as originally intended.
In the year 1846 Chicago and Milwaukee were considered equal
in population of ten thousand inhabitants and Milwaukee and the
state of Wisconsin in the lead, for the reason, as I have stated before,
that the means of travel was only by the lakes, and Wisconsin having
such excellent reports abroad, she gained in numbers rapidly. In the
meantime, however, the Michigan Central railroad was pusliing its
line west with Chicago as its objective point, and in 1848 reached
New Buffalo on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, a point directly
opposite Chicago. As soon as this was done, E. B. Ward of De-
troit, put on two steamers to ply on the lake from Milwaukee to
New Buffalo via Chicago. This formed a daily line, but it was
soon seen that the travel around the lakes began to slacken and Mil-
FIEST RAILWAY 91
waukee began to drop off in its newcomers. Still, its commerce did
not decay nor its immigration, until later on.
Permit me, at this jmicture, to deviate from the main object in
view and give somewhat in detail, one of the interests of Milwaukee
which bid fair, at one time, to make the City one of great im-
portance in the manufacture of iron goods in its various phases. On
my arrival in the city I found A. J. Langworthy representing the
"Wisconsin Iron works on the water-power, Turton & Sercomb lo-
cated on West Water near the junction near Third Street, and Mr.
McCracken on West Water and Wells Streets. These establishments
were all supplying the various mills being built in the state with ma-
chinery for grinding wheat and sawing lumber, and for all other en-
terprises requiring machinery. And the firm of Ludington & Co.
were agents for the mill furnishing establishment of J. T. Noye of
Buffalo, New York. All these concerns, which were of Milwaukee
origin, have passed out of existence as also the proprietors, except in
the case of A. J. Langworthy, whom I believe, is still with you.
In looking the situation over, and visiting Chicago and making
a trip from there to Galena and from there back to Milwaukee, by
stage, on the old Frink & Walker Line of stage coaches, gave me
some idea of the extent of country tributary to Milwaukee.
Entering into the employ of Turton & Sercomb, opportunities
were further given me to look into and study Milwaukee and its
surroundings as a place of investment, not only for the present,
but for the future.
In the early part of 1847 I got together a few tamarack poles
from a swamp in the second ward and some boards from Mabbett &
Breed's lumber yard and proceeded at once, to commence the erec-
tion of a shop for the manufacture of French burr mill stones and to
handle all kinds of grist and saw mill supplies. This was all done,
building completed and a supply of materials obtained from New
York and actually landed on the ground before anyone in the
city knew of the event. Inquiries failed to reveal the object of put-
ting up the building and the reason for this was simply that in
those days it would not have been a prudent act to have revealed
the object in view as the whole community was alive and on the
alert for any opportunity for making money and those in business
92 EARLY MILWAUKEE
were in constant dread of any competition. This condition can
be accounted for in the fact that all new enterprises were supposed
to have their own capital, for, if they had not, the chances were
small for accommodations at the banks; because all the capital
they had was consumed by those handling the products of the
country at large. The commercial interests were the paramount
objects in view by the banks then in existence and anyone having
sufficient nerve to go into manufacturing, must do it on his own
resources or "bust." Immediately after mill stones were being
made, preparations were made for the erection of buildings for the
manufacture of machinery for all classes of industry which might
be in need of such. In due course of time suitable facilities were
accomplished and the Eeliance Works of Decker & Seville unfurled
their banner to the breeze and became one of Milwaukee's institu-
tions. One event occurring in connection with this concern is
worthy of note, and that is in the construction of the machinery for
the very first successful steam grist mill built in the state of
Wisconsin, which mill was located at Berlin on Fox river, north of
your city. And I may say, in this connection, that the successful
problem of making flour by steam, had not been solved in any part of
the United States. But after this, and the exhibition of the Corliss
engine at the Philadelphia exposition and the adoption of one of its
principal points, the same as promulgated by the Eeliance works,
the juanufacture of flour by steam has become a grand success.
Milwaukee ought to have credit for the accomplishment of that
principle in the system of mechanics which the Corliss engine has
made imaniraous. The Reliance works was located on West Water
Street at its junction with Second Street or opposite the Old
Fountain house, and through the revulsion of the panic of 1857
and the breaking out of the rebellion, the establishment passed into
the hands of E. P. AUis & Co. which is now located as you know in
the 5th and 12th Wards and is enjoying a world-wide reputation,
and of the old owners and their misfortune in losing their
hold upon it I may have something to say in the future. Al-
most simultaneously with the starting of the Reliance works came
into existence the Menomonee Locomotive Manufacturing company,
succeeding W. B. Walton; the estal)lishment of Menzel & Stone
and that of William Goodnow, all of them first class foundry and ma-
FIRST RAILWAY 93
chine shops. But of these three concerns only one remains, and that
one, I think is known as the Filer & Stowell Manufacturing com-
pany. Mr. Goodnow left the city and I cannot now say where he
is. The Menomonee Locomotive Manufacturing company was lo-
cated in the swamp about two blocks south of the Menomonee bridge,
about opposite the large brick building put up by the Burnham
Bros, for John Nazro as a hardware store and which caused his
do\\Tifall and to his being succeeded by John Pritzlaff. L. L. Lee
was the far-seeing, active and energetic manager of the Menomonee
Locomotive works, for no sooner had the Milwaukee & Mississippi
Railroad company got under way than he also got ready to supply
the company with the locomotives it might need. A more industri-
ous, self-confident and active man the city never had and no one
worked harder to build up the city than he. He succeeded in get-
ting out one or more locomotives and other supplies for the road
which were all acceptable, but Mr. Lee found that the railroad com-
pany had no money and that the banks had none for manufacturers
and the Menomonee Locomotive Manufacturing company had none,
60 Mr, Lee had to suspend, all the possessions of the company van-
ished, and soon after this Mr. Lee died and the company became a
thing of the past, and by many, entirely forgotten. Menzel & Stone
also closed up their business, both parties leaving the city. I do not
know what became of the latter, but Mr. Menzel removed to Minne-
apolis and engaged in the same business, made himself wealthy and
is now a retired manufacturer.
Other manufactories have sprung up in your midst since then,
but these you have with you and do not need any notice from me.
One more topic of interest and I must then divert to the main
subject in view. The reason for this is that you may see more
plainly why the Milwaukee railroad system and other interests were
not a success in the start, and why Milwaukee was crippled in her
energies at the commencement of her struggle for an equal share,
at least, for the wealth of the great northwest. Her Banking sys-
tem consisted then of the Wisconsin Marine and Fire Insurance
company, which was then a branch only of a Chicago house, the
State Bank of Wisconsin of which the Cramers were the principals,
and the Farmers' and Millers' Bank, E. D. Ilolton, Brodhead and
others. At this time the commercial interests of Milwaukee were
94 EAELY MILWAUKEE
growing rapidly and the banks, with their limited means, could
not look after the wheat, build railroads and help its manufactur-
ers, so such interests had to suffer which were most dangerous to
its capital. A loan on wheat would be paid as a collateral would
follow the loan. With the railroad there would be no telling whether
the thirty or sixty days' earnings would show any balance in favor
of the road, and with the manufacturers, it might be a renewal of
a year or more of notes. The banks were not loaded down with
eastern correspondence, consequently had limited means, and if any
ruffle on the wave of prosperity came along, why, the first ones to
suffer were the manufacturers. And as for the railroad interests,
they w^ere not in the race. While this was all going on, of which I
have briefly spoken, there was one man in the city, who was busy
with his prolific brain, and that man was Byron Kilbourn.
Among the Solons of Milwaukee at those times of which we
are now writing, the question was often discussed as to the geograph-
ical situation of Chicago with that of Milwaukee and which of the
two would, in the future, control the resources of the great west.
And in the eastern states the question was also discussed whether
the railroad interests would not eventually drive the vessel interests
off the great lakes. Unfortunately for Milwaukee and its inter-
ests, its inhabitants were mostly from the east and from beyond
the great ocean, and knew but little of the country lying south,
southeast and southwest of Chicago, and as a matter of course, the
decisions were mostly in favor of Milwaukee. This decision was
seemingly supported by the facts that Mr. Ward made Milwaukee
one end, or starting point, for his line of boats and Chicago a way
station, Detroit and Milwaukee line, that the Goodrich Steamboat
line was an established institution plying between Milwaukee and
Grand Haven, and also the further fact, that Chicago was not at
the head of Lake Michigan, but fifty miles from it. If there was
ever a city to be built up which should supercede Milwaukee it must
be one which would spring up at the immediate head of the lake.
Now with this condition of things, it is no wonder that Milwaukee
was ready for anything which should be for its interests. And the
plans to advance these interests as shadowed forth by what Mr.
Kilbourn had matured in his mind and was ready to place before the
public, met with unbounded approval in all things, except in their
FIRST RAILWAY 95
open purses. But nothing daunted, he said that Milwaukee must
have a railroad through to Dubuque at once connecting Milwaukee
with the Mississippi river, before Chicago got one to the same river.
He said, "look at my map of railroads I have laid out for Mil-
waukee and, if we build the first one, and get to the river first,
Chicago will not dare to approach our territory. And if we build
this first road to Dubuque, I will guarantee building up our Mil-
waukee system and then we can defy the world to come between us
and this great northwest."
Mr. Kilbourn got the necessary legislation incorporating the
Milwaukee & Mississippi Railroad company and brought the road
before the people. And what was the result? Why, he simply
found, that to succeed, he would have to rely upon the farmers and
property owners of his proposed road. You will probably remem-
ber the fact, also, that all the distance from Milwaukee to Milton
Junction was finally built through the aid of farm mortgages and
other help from citizens along its line, and not from that promised
help he had a right to expect from the citizens of Milwaukee. Mr.
Kilbourn formed his company which in the first place was com-
posed largely of citizens of Milwaukee, but afterwards, failing to
get the help from Milwaukee he expected, he had to select directors
from those living along the line, among whom were Adam
F. Ray of ^^^^itewater, Mr. Goodrich of Milton and A. Hyatt Smith
of Janesville and also others along the line. The office of the com-
pany was located in Birchard's Block, a three story edifice where the
present one now is. To say that the meetings of the directors and
stockholders were on all occasions, harmonious, would be stretching
the truth ; as the farmers would sometimes get rather anxious about
the mortgages on their farms, and would be eager to know about
the earnings of this road, but in this respect, I never knew of any-
one losing his farm.
Mr. Kilbourn continually kept before the public the fact, that
the Michigan Central railroad was constantly at work on its way
west and had got as far as Michigan City and that contracts were let
for its completion to Chicago, and that the Illinois Central Railroad
was growing very near Chicago up on its way from Cairo at the
mouth of the Ohio river. To enumerate all the trials and difficul-
ties experienced by this band of railroad pioneers, would fill a rea-
96 EARLY MILWAUKEE
sonable sized book, and as it is said that "all things have an end"
so the exertions of these men with all their efforts had to succumb
from fulfilling Mr. Kilbourn's plan of reaching Dubuque.
At this time we had in existence a political organization known
as the forty thieves, or, by some, as "Barstow and the balance."
Mr. Barstow lived in Waukesha, Wisconsin, but the organization
had its headquarters in Madison. And if I am not mistaken, the
Tammany Hall of New York City got its education from our
famous coterie of political gorillas. After Mr. Kilbourn and his
friends had expended all their energies in carrying their road to
the objective point and it rested at Milton, the home of Mr. Good-
rich, a proposition came like a clap of thunder and fell among the
board of directors in shape of an offer from the grand sachem of the
"forty thieves" organization to the effect that, if the company would
conclude to switch off at Milton and build their line to Prairie du
Chien, they, the said honorable body, would help raise the money
to complete the same.
A full meeting of the Board of Director? was called and a full
representation of Milwaukee's leading and financial men were also
present as spectators and when the question of accepting or re-
jecting the offer came up, a stormy time ensued. A. Hyatt Smith of
Janesville and Kilbourn et al opposed. The Directors along the
line as far as it was completed did not care as they had got a road
anyhow and as Smith and Kilbourn had not secured the means for
an extension of the road beyond Milton the result was that the pro-
position was accepted and preparation for its extension was made in
the near future, proving disastrous. This act sealed the destiny of
Milwaukee forever and its consequences have been felt ever since, as
a comparison of Milwaukee and Chicago of today shows.
Let us see what followed : Mr. A. Hyatt Smith was a power
in the state, politically as well as otherwise, and could command
as much influence in the state as any man then living. He
owned large interests in the city of Janesville and his cherished
object was to get the road to his place, but this new deal, he saw,
would cut him off. He was not the man to lie down and cry "quits."
Far from it. He did not go into mourning because of the actions
of Barstow and the balance, but he went to Chicago and took into
FIRST RAILWAY 97
his confidence a man who became famous in after years as a rail-
road man, in the person of Wm. B. Ogden.
These two men concocted a scheme of building a railroad from
Chicago to Green Bay via Janesville and as soon as it was known
in Milwaukee a number of Milwaukee's leading and financial men
looked up Mr. Alexander Mitchell and asked that sage of Milwau-
kee's financial four hundred what he thought about it. He simply
said, "Gentlemen, it cannot be done. The country has not got the
money to spare to put into so large an investment." The four hun-
dred were satisfied with Mr. Mitchell's decision, but Mr. Kilbourn
and his friends did not believe it, for they went to work at once and
raised the necessary means and built eight miles of road from Milton
to Mr. Smith's very door and I do not know but what they would
have carried the road into his house and left it there, if they could.
All Milwaukee, nearly, turned out to the celebration of the event,
and a grand time they had, and supposed they had pleased and grati-
fied Mr. Smith now that he had the road to his town and stopped
further opposition. Not so. Messrs. Smith & Odgen went to Wash-
ington city and consulted with Mr. Robert J. Walker, U. S. Treas-
urer, and the result of this interview was the return of Smith and
Ogden home, and the next we heard of them was through the legisla-
ture of Wisconsin and Illinois with a bill in each house asking for a
charter for the Rock River Valley Railroad Company to run from
Chicago to Green Bay. They got this bill through both legislatures
at one and the same time and then what followed was simply this :
Tliat Robert J. Walker went to England and purchased the rails
and two locomotives. A part of the rails and a locomotive were
landed in due time, one at Chicago and one at Green Bay, and the
contract was let for the entire distance to Messrs. Chambers &
English of Janesville. This road, I need not tell you, but the fact
exists, is no less than the great Chicago & Northwestern System
which traverses the State of Wisconsin in all directions and which
has compelled the removal of the general offices to Chicago of Mil-
waukee's favorite and time-honored Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad
Company system.
The creation and completion of this Rock River Valley rail-
road cut off completely all the trade of the state from Milwaukee
and gave it to Chicago, all the country north and west of the line
98 EAELY MILWAUKEE
and for certain distances east of it on account of certain inefficient
country roads. The merchants and manufacturers now living will
bear me out in this statement, and from this your city did not re-
cover until after the late rebellion and the Chicago fire and by this
time you had the greenback and legal tender period to help you.
I wish I could erase from all records the failure of
Milwaukee's business and financial men to respond to the efforts of
Mr. Kilbourn and his associates to carry out the original plan of
going to Dubuque and to have prevented, thereby, the designs of
the Madison clique, but it cannot be done and Milwaukee must
bear, forever, its lost opportunities. However, as the railroad build-
ing in Wisconsin had become urgent, Mr. E. H. Goodrich of your
city, was the originator of the idea of a road to Horicon, of which
he can give you the history. And Judge Eose of Watertown started
a line from Brookfield Junction to go through Watertown to the
Mississippi river via Baraboo and got his road as far as Watertown
when Mr. Alexander Mitchell came forward with a proposition to
Judge Eose and his associates to the effect that four of his directors,
myself included, should resign and allow himself and Eussell Sage
and two other New York gentlemen to supply our places, which was
agreed to, and from this transaction grew the first consolidation of
the Milwaukee roads under the title of the Milwaukee & St. Paul
Eailroad Company, and a distinguishing title it has become in all
parts of our country. Its system is known, for short, as the Mil-
waukee road. What effect in not responding to Mr. Kilbourn's
demands at the time Mr. A. Hyatt Smith retired from the board
of directors of your first road, owing to switching off at Milton, I
leave you to judge. But I certainly think that Milwaukee owes
something in memory of the grand efforts of Mr. Kilbourn in
working and planning as he did, both with his money, influence
and energies to build up a system of railroads which should inure-
to the benefit of Milwaukee and to it only.
In reading the memoirs of Mr. Sivyer, Milwaukee's First
White Child, many, yes, very many, of the names he enumerates
come back to me and carry me back to the days long gone by and
bring to my view many events which your association ought to have
on record and preserved for future generations. Old land marks,
old events, anecdotes of old citizens, some of which have been rich
FIRST RAILWAY 99
and quaint. To me, Milwaukee is almost sacred and I love it and
the few remaining representatives of your association. Like the
rise and fall of the Roman empire, I had my rise and fall in your
city where I thought to end my days, but the fates have been against
it ; yet I like to drop in and bring to my mind the early landmarks
and note the changes which have come from the hands of man
through the influences of time and the energies of Christian civili-
zation. Amongst all the joys and sorrows which have come to me
in my Milwaukee surroundings there is nothing that has so im-
pressed me and remained a fixture so permanent upon my mind as
the lost opportunity Milwaukee has experienced in not supporting
and carrying out Mr. Kilbourn's ideas and efforts in his railroad
plans. I can only say, I am sorry its effect and influence can never
be regained and that Milwaukee has lost the proud eminence that
many of its best and oldest citizens had in their fondest hopes an-
ticipated, but now find them all gone.
I once heard an eminent Divine say that "History was but the
errors of statesmen," and history proves also that extremes follow
one another. And so we find it, because, no sooner had the gloom
of disappointment fallen upon Milwaukee, owing to A. Hyatt Smith
and his associates, than E. H. Goodrich, Samuel Brown and two
other of your citizens organized an expedition of survey for a new
railroad, and each subscribed $25.00, and this amount was paid
over into the hands of Garrett Vliet to commence the survey of a
new road, and when this was expended to make a draft for more
and, if not honored, return. He did not return, but the result of
this effort has given Milwaukee its La Crosse & Milwaukee rail-
road, the history of which, with all its trials and difficulties, you
will find in the book I have sent you and the substance of which
many of you can probably bring back to your memory.
In justice, however, to Mr. A. Hyatt Smith, I may add that he
and Mr. Corwith, a rich banker, of Galena, made the effort to extend
your first railroad from Janesville to Galena, but it fell through,
probably for the reason that your road, stopping at Janesville,
would give Mr. Smith's town full control of the trade of the sur-
rounding country better than to have the road extended.
I am in hopes that this fcetfle effort to bring back to your
minds old days and old events may have the effect of recalling
/I ^ y^ f\ r\ rs
100 EARLY MILWAUKEE
others from your organization and glean from them other scraps
of early Milwaukee days and thus keep these events from being
lost to your posterity. It seems to me that there is much truth in
the old saying that "There is a divinity which shapes our ends,
rough hew them as we will ;" because, notwithstanding all the efforts
that were made in the foregoing as portrayed, it seems as though
those eilorts were met with obstacles, unforeseen and not to be
overcome, and as a verification of this fact we have an example in
the circumstance that the man who acted in the capacity of team-
ster for Mr. Corwith and his party in looking over the line of your
first railroad from Janesville to Galena was no less than our lat«
President — U. S. Grant.
First Locomotive Built in
Wisconsin
By George Richardson.
Much has been recently said and written in a local controversy
as to the identity of that particular locomotive to which should
attach the credit of being the first one built in the state of Wiscon-
sin, and it is lamentable that a great part of that so said and writ-
ten is far from the actual fact. If the question of priority of con-
struction is worth talking about at all, it is worthy of being told as
it really existed. The perversion of a fact in order to suit the pre-
conceived notion of a narrator is not history, and does more to
create a feeling of mistrust in the minds of those interested, than
can be overcome by volumes of published truth. The statement
that no question is ever settled unless settled right, applies with
equal force to this locomotive question as it did to the vexed slavery
question of half a century ago. The proof of the pudding is in the
eating of it, and the actual truth of a controversy should be de-
termined by the preponderance of substantiated data to sustain it.
My interest in this matter attaches not only from a motive of
fact, but from a motive of personal pride, and the latter condition
arises from the fact that I am — so far as I know — the only person
now living who had anything to do with Milwaukee's first locomo-
tive before it was put into active service. It is true that my con-
nection with Milwaukee's first locomotive was not over important,
as I now consider it, but was such as to give me the right to claim
connection with it, and to vouch for the absolute truth of all I may
say relative thereto, from a personal standpoint.
During the years 1852, 1853, and 1854, I was employed by John
Miller ("Long John" he was called by reason of his great size, six
feet nine inches in height). Mr. Miller was at that time Milwau-
kee's heavy moving contractor, and he it was who moved Milwau-
kee's first locomotive from the shop where it was built and placed it
on the tracks of what was then the Milwaukee and Mississippi rail-
road, now the Milwaukee road.
103 EARLY MILWAUKEE
The locomotive was built at the works of W. B, Walton & Co.,
known as the Menominee foundry, and located at the southwest
comer of Eeed and South Water streets. The first locomotive dif-
fered from all alleged drawings of it as recently published in some
of the Milwaukee papers, and also from the alleged drawing of it
in the possession of the Milwaukee Old Settlers' Club, inasmuch as
it was what is known as "Inside connected," that is the machinery,
cylinder, etc., was all underenath the boiler, except the parallel
rods connecting the two pair of driving wheels. Recently published
drawings claiming to represent the first engine show the cylinders
and machinery as being located on the outside, as locomotives of
today are built. This is a mistake. A most thorough inquiry and
search has failed to discover a sketch or drawing of the first locomo-
tive as it really was. If such, however, is in existence, this con-
troversy may be the means of bringing it to light. I recollect this
engine as plainly as though I had seen it but yesterday, and I re-
member that on its dome or sandbox on top of the boiler was the
following :
MENOMONEE LOCOMOTIVE WORKS.
No. 1.
JAMES WATERS, Engineer.
W. B. WALTON & CO., PROPRIETORS.
On the side of the boiler was this word:
" M E N M N E E. "
On Oct. 15, 1852, "Long John," with his crew of a dozen men
and several yoke of oxen, began laying temporary tracks from a
point at the foundry near which is now located the scales of See-
both Brothers, and thence to Reed street, on Reed to the bridge
over the Menomonee river — then a float bridge. No trouble was
experienced until the bridge was reached. At that time Reed street
was just about wide enough for ordinary wagons to meet and pass,
and the locomotive and its tracks occupied the whole street. At
the bridge all the power of men, block and tackle, as well as oxen,
was needed to enable us to get the locomotive up the incline at the
bridge. The engine's weight was about twenty-six tons, and under
it the bridge barely escaped sinking, but it was safely landed on
FIRST LOCOMOTIVE 103
the north side of the river, and placed on the track, located about
seventy-five feet away from the bridge, and here ray connection
with it ceased.
Now let us establish the identity of this engine, when it was
built and who built it. In this controversy I have no desire to rob
anybody of justly acquired credit, but with the lapse of time errors
of identity and fact are so very apt to predominate and confuse.
In a recent Milwaukee newspaper article Charles G. Menzel, of
Minneapolis, claims that his father, the late Gregor Menzel, built
the first locomotive in Milwaukee, and that it was named White-
water. To refute this claim of Mr. Menzel there appears in The
Milwaukee Sentinel of October 14, 1852, the following:
"The Menomonee is the name of the splendid locomotive just
built at the Menomonee foundry for the M. and M. R. R. company.
The Menomonee leaves the foundry for the track today. It was
designed and built under the superintendence of James Waters, to
whose skill it bears ample testimony. The next engine, now nearing
completion, is to be called Whitewater."
Again, the Sentinel of Oct. 16, 1852, says: "The new locomo-
tive, the Menomonee, now fairly launched from the Walton & Co.'s
foundry yesterday, commenced its march toward the railroad
track."
This "march" of the Menomonee I have described above. Also,
the following from the Sentinel of Oct. 25, 1852 :
"The locomotive Menomonee, built by Walton & Co., at the Me-
nomonee foundry, the first one manufactured there, was put in mo-
tion on the track on Saturday (Oct. 23), and performed to the com-
plete satisfaction of all concerned. We note the fact with no little
pride that here in Milwaukee has been built the first locomotive
west of Cleveland."
Then the following from the Free Democrat, Oct. 2G, 1852:
"The new locomotive, the Menomonee, was put on the track yester-
day, and its speed pretty well tested running fourteen miles in
twelve minutes."
I am fully aware that some there be who will smile broadly at
the speed here given to my pet engine by the Free Democrat. Re-
104 EARLY MILWAUKEE
porters of those days were the forerunners of many to follow, and
their imagination was just as vivid, as lurid, as romantic as ia that
of many of the reporters of today.
The facts here given, I believe, fully establish the identity of
the first locomotive built in Milwaukee — establish the fact that
it was called Menomonee ; that it was designed by and built under
the sole direction of James Waters, as engineer, and in no way does
the name of Gregor Menzel appear in connection therewith, as
claimed by his son.
In the Milwaukee directory of 1851 the name of Gregor Menzel
(a most imusual and uncommon name) appears as "gunsmith.
Lake, near Ferry." I knew Gregor Menzel personally and well.
He was a most excellent mechanic, and well thought of by all who
knew him, but at the time when he has been given credit for de-
signing and building the first locomotive in Milwaukee he was em-
ployed in the shop as a journeyman mechanic, as has been stated in
the public press by Zacharia Van Horn, a half-brother of Mr. Wal-
ton, and an employe of the company at that time. It is also very
improbable that Mr. Menzel had any connection with this locomo-
tive in a supervisory capacity, for the very good and sufficient rea-
son that Isaac Waters, a son of James Waters, was assistant fore-
man in the shop at that time.
I have no desire to even attempt to rob Mr. Menzel of the credit
of designing and building the second locomotive, a drawing of
which was recently presented to the Old Settlers' Club, and which
was called Whitewater, as shown by the following from the Free
Democrat of Jan. 12, 1853 :
"The Menomonee foundry has just turned out anotlicr locomo-
tive for the M. and M. K. R. company, called Wliitewater. It is
the same size as the first, but with outside connections."
The above conclusively clinches both sides of this long mooted
question. The Menomonee was the first, with inside connections.
The Whitewater was the second, with outside connections.
James Waters designed and built the first, and Gregor Menzel
may have designed and built the second.
An Up -River Mystery
Bead by Jeremiah Quia, Oct, 2, 1899.
In the autumn of 1858 an occurrence just above the dam caused
much annoyance to the squatter settlers of that region. The La
Crosse shops were running in full blast. The long brick blacksmith
shop on the crest of the river bank was full of vigorous, brawny
men, many of whom built small houses, known as shanties, along
the river banks. A custom, or rather a fashion, prevailed among
these knights of the ringing anvil, of wearing red flannel shirts at
work; and proudly as ever marched "red branch knight" of old,
we strutted in these colors to and from the smoky shop.
The women along the river banks seemed to catch inspiration
from our colors, and the blacksmith's wife could be easily distin-
guished, as with high head and proud bearing, on each wash day,
with well-rounded bare arms, and ample corsetless bust, she laid
the masculine emblem on the green sunny sward to dry; for in
those days, clotheslines and clothes horses were unknown, or deemed
effeminate luxury.
All at once a dark cloud came over the sylvan spot. A red shirt
began to disappear here and there from the variegated lawn, and no
one could discover how. At first it was thought a neighbor might
have gathered one in by mistake, and sometimes a humorous scene
would occur between the matrons of the settlement, thus: "Mrs.
Dressen, when you thought that you took in Hans' red shirt last
night, was it not my Mike's you had taken by mistake?"
"Ach, mine Gott, Mrs. Murphy, mine, mine; I never could
make such mistick in Hans' shirt," would be the good-natured
reply. These little things, however, never caused the slightest ill
feeling among the women of the settlement.
Day by day the crop of red shirts grew less and less, and what
deepened the mystery, was, that while there were garments of vari-
ous hues, and shapes, of gauzy textures, and costlier finish, lying
on the daisy-covered sward, still, only the red flannel shirt was ever
taken.
106 EARLY MILWAUKEE
Many were the theories which were advanced in regard to the
matter, but still there was no clue discovered. Self-constituted vig-
ilance committees kept sharp watch, but still the red shirts disap-
peared, and the mystery only deepened. An unfortunate rag picker
sauntered one day through the settlement, and was instantly sur-
rounded by the active vigilance committee. His huge bag was
turned inside out, and its contents scattered about, but no red shirt
was among them. The terror-stricken merchant, gathering up his
goods once more, quickly departed, wondering whether he had
struck one of Gulliver's savage islands.
Eed was eschewed altogether. Blue flannel was made the smith-
shop uniform, and peace and happiness reigned on the river's sylvan
banks once more.
The long winter passed, and when the warm sun of Spring
melted the crested snows of the stream, the mystery was solved.
Well up towards Humboldt a colony of muskrats made settlement
that Winter. Their vast network of nests looked as usual, until
the warm Spring rays all at once metamorphosed the scene, and
strange to relate, in a single day the colony assumed the appear-
ance of a miniature English military camp, and a most picturesque
sight it was, too ; every nest was crowned — capped with a red flannel
shirt.
The selection by the colony of red flannel for their building pur-
poses is perhaps the most interesting part of my story, and as it
came under my personal observation, I will relate it.
Sauntering one day along the river bank, shot gun in hand, in
quest of jacksnipes, I saw a large muskrat sitting upon one of a
dozen or so stones, at the entrance of the old ravine, a little above
where the woolen mill now stands. My first impulse was of course
to get that musk's hide, and I crawled noiselessly along so as to get
within sure distance. I came out of the brush a little, so as to take
sure aim, when I noticed that he was eying me very intently, with-
out apparently any fear. There was something in his looks which
seemed to appeal to my feelings, and Poor Burns' famous lines to
the mouse came into my mind instantly :
UP-RIVER MYSTERY 107
"I'm truly sorry man's dominion
Has broken nature's social union,
And justifies the ill opinion
That makes thee startle,
At me, thy poor earthborn companion
And fellow mortal."
And I was much pleased that, unlike Burns' scared little
mouse, my muskrat never stirred, but gave me candid glances of
confidence. I became at once much interested in him, and al-
though I would not kill him for the world now, I feared that some
less humane hunter might come along and shoot him on sight.
Deeming it my duty under the circumstances to give him a lasting
fright, I fired both barrels of my old shotgun against a rock near
him. He looked at me for a moment, and jumping up on that very
rock, began to gambol around on it. Determined if possible to
strike terror into him, I reloaded and fired once more, this time
into the water, which splashed upon him and over the rocks around
him, but with no effect. He swam around, and frisked from rock
to rock, and then looked at me in a funny sort of way, much as to
say : "Fire another. I like it."
I now began to feel great interest in him, and pity for him,
especially as I felt the responsibility of giving him so much confi-
dence in a hunter. I was down to my last charge of shot, and I at
once resolved to make that tell, even at the risk of wounding him.
I loaded in the charge of powder and rammed it down with my last
wad of paper — we had no cartridges in those days — I put in my
last charge of shot, but had nothing left for a wad. Necessity is
the mother of invention, it is said, and so it proved in my case.
Being a blacksmith I of course wore the regulation red shirt, and
taking my knife from my pocket, I cut a piece from it, and rammed
down there with the charge. Approaching to within, well probably
eight feet of the rock from which that rat sat smiling at me, I put
the full charge of shot against the rock, very close to him, so as to
shock him, but instead of diving terror-stricken into the river that
rat actually curled up his tail, and jumped around in evident merri-
ment. The red wadding did not bum but fell on the rock. He
picked it up in his mouth, and shook it at me several times. I then
108 EARLY MILWAUKEE
grew angry and ran for a stone. He must have seen my change of
countenance, for he swam away hurriedly with the piece in his
mouth, with which he undoubtedly embellished his nest; evidently
the whole colony finding red flannel well suited to building, had
raided the banks on both sides. Nothing was easier than their
mode of operation. They would sneak the garment off the bank
into the river, and then carry it under the water, so that the people
watching for a man thief, could not account for the manner of the
disappearance. One watcher offered to make affidavit that the shirt
was lying on the grass, when she looked around for a moment, and
on turning again, found the garment gone, but her story was dis-
credited and she was charged with sleeping on her watch.
This little incident was recalled to my mind by the interesting
story related at the Old Settlers' picnic by 5'our late treasurer,
Brother Lee. The story so graphically and truthfully told by Mr.
Lee made a deep impression on my mind, as it presents to the nat-
uralist, the reptile in an entirely new and wonderful light, giving
us a picture of gratitude and affection almost human.
Some might say that the incident which came under my own
observation shows the muskrat up as a more cunning character, and
that being higher in the scale of creation than Brother Lee's rep-
tile, he had partaken more of modern civilization, by smiling in my
face now, and in the next moment conspiring to rob me of even my
only shirt. However all this might be, the incident itself does not
approach the picture given us by Brother Lee, either in intensity of
human affection, or in depth of human pathos.
The Rhodcan sculptors of old have left the world an immortal
group called the Laocoon, in which is depicted the severe decree of
the gods against Troy, the strangling of the sons of Priam by huge
serpents. If ever an American sculptor arises equal to the great
task of depicting Brother Lee's experience with his serpents, the
American story must far surpass the classic and famous Laocoon.
Look at the group ! There stands the manly form of our late treas-
urer, proudly encoiled within the scaly circles of a huge reptile,
who is in the attitude of impressing a loving kiss upon his cheek,
whilst as a bas-relief, the crouching, cowardly chicken thief is
firmly bound in the coils of younger serpents.
UP-RIVER MYSTERY 109
Let us hope that some day this group will stand in the Seventh
Ward park, inviting to Michigan's wondrous shore, travelers from
every land, even as now flock around the gallery of the Laocoon,
enduring through all time as the last and greatest climax of Ameri-
can art and of American story.
Pioneer Physicians and Druggists
By John A. Dadd.
In the year 1850 there stood on the southeast corner of Wiscon-
sin and East Water streets a cluster of frame buildings owned by
Elisha Eldred, the comer occupied by Hatch & Patterson as a drug
store, while overhead Mr. Eldred had his office. Mr. Hatch being
one of the earliest settlers of the city, a member, and I believe, one
of the organizers of St. Paul's Episcopal church, his store was the
resort of many of the most prominent and well-known citizens.
There you would meet Judge A. G. Miller of the United States
Court ; the Rev. Akerly, rector of St. Paul's church ; Cyrus Hawley,
one of its wardens ; James B. Martin, also a warden or vestryman of
the same. Our late esteemed member, Horace Chase, was a fre-
quent caller, coming seated behind a fine specimen of the Morgan
horse, of which breed he seemed peculiarly fond.
Physicians came necessarily to procure medicaments requisite
in their practice. Foremost among them were A. W. Blanchard
and J. B. Dousman. Dr. Blanchard I was first intimately acquaint-
ed with, although having previously been under the care of Dr.
Wliitney for about ten weeks, being taken soon after coming to the
city with typhoid fever, and attended by him at the hospital of the
Sisters of Charity, then situated at the southwest comer of Oneida
and Jackson streets, the site now occupied by the residence of Dr.
W. Fox. Dr. Whitney was a very able physician, who afterwards
went to California. Previous to going he associated with him Dr.
Lewis McKnight, now chief examining physician to the Northwest-
em Mutual Life Insurance company.
Dr. Blanchard was a man of marked traits of character, whom
to know was to respect ; his convictions were strong, but guided by
high conscientiousness, he seldom erred. He had a large family,
principally daughters, among them Mrs. W. P. Lynde and Mrs.
John Nazro. All displayed more or less the strong mental char-
acteristics of their father. He lived to an advanced age and died
much regretted and highly respected.
PHYSICIANS AND DRUGGISTS 111
Dr. J. B. Dousman was also a person of strong individuality, a
good physician and a kind-hearted man. To see him and note his
strong earnest gaze, was to never forget it. It is many years since
he passed away. Dr. E. B. Wolcott was so widely and well known
that young or old have heard of him, and I could not say anything
that would add to a reputation that already stands so high, as a
most skilful surgeon and a generous, kind-hearted man, whose tall,
lithe and active form was once so familiar on our streets.
There was also another well and widely known physician. I re-
fer to Dr. J. K. Bartlett, who until lately was still a resident of our
city. He was a gentleman of refinement and culture, and one of our
best-read physicians, and occupied a very high position in his profes-
sion. His health necessitating removal to a milder climate, he went
to California to reside.
Dr. C. C. Eobinson was a frequent caller at the store. He has
accumulated large means through investments in real estate, is still
a resident of the city, and a hale and hearty man.
Dr. D. W. Gorham was one of the oldest medical practioners of
the city, coming some time about 1836 or 1837. In an early day
he kept a drug store in the vicinity of Kilboum Town. He was also,
for a period, in the oflSce with Dr. Blanchard, was very peculiar and
eccentric in his ways, but a man of great capability, professionally,
highly esteemed by those who employed him and knew his skill, but
a mere child in business matters, and consequently never very pros-
perous.
Dr. Blanchard thought much of his ability, and in speaking of
him to the writer, said he was one of those who would, at any time
of the night, mount a horse bare backed, with coat tails flying, to go
and see a case, so intensely was he wrapped up in his profession.
The last few years of his life he spent on his farm at East Troy,
where he died. His remains were brought to this city and interred
at Forest Home cemetery.
Dr. E. D. Baker was another of that distinct cast of characters
that always leave an indelible impression on the memory after they
have passed away. He was a firm friend or an implacable enemy,
gruff in his manner, caused, I think, by reverses in early life, losing
112 EARLY MILWAUKEE
much property by reposing too much confidence in the integrity of
others, which soured his disposition and made him misanthropic.
Otherwise he had a powerful mind of a metaphysical tendency. He
was well and deeply read, and could, had he been so disposed, have
occupied a very high position in his profession. His energy ap-
peared to have left him after his reverses and he sank into a morbid
condition, apparently at war with all the world. The epithet ap-
plied to tlie great lexicographer, Dr. Johnson ; that of "Ursa Major"
might also have aptly been bestowed upon him. It is now several
years since he died.
Having reviewed some of the medical men, I must not overlook
their coadjutors, the druggists. Of the firm of Hatch & Patterson,
Mr. Hatch was the druggist, Mr. Patterson, having in Pennsyl-
vania, followed the calling of a tanner. (It was common in those
days and has been up to a very recent date for persons to enter the
drug business whether educated to it or not.) Mr. Patterson was
related to John H. Van Dyke of this city, I believe a brother-in-
law.
Mr. Hatch, as said before, was one of the earlier settlers of the
city, and had previously been associated with L. J. Higby in the
drug business. He was a kind-hearted, genial man, lacking some-
what in force of character, who originally came from Vermont. I
was employed as a clerk by the firm, the situation having been ob-
tained for me by our old friend, P. Van Vechten, Jr., a few days
after my arrival in the city. The business was afterwards sold to
Dr. J. E. Dowe, who came, I think, from New Haven, Conn., and
was a brother-in-law to S. B. Grant, who was engaged in the lumber
trade. Previous to his purchase of the business it had been re-
moved to the new brick block erected by James B. Martin on the
southwest corner of East Water and Wisconsin streets, the spot now
occupied by Mack's building in which is located the Golden Eagle
store of Browning, King & Co. The building was then divided into
three stores, the corner occupied by J. H. Crampton, dry goods,
next south by Kistner & Bruno, clothing I believe, the other by
Hatch & Patterson.
Dr. Dowe carried it on but for a short time. Having become in-
volved in some way with complications in J. H. Crampton's dry
PHYSICIANS AND DRUGGISTS 113
goods business, Dr. Dowe's stock was sold to S. Johnson, Jr., whose
business afterwards passed successively into the hands of Harring-
ton & Dadd, C. Harrington, Swift & Smith and Geo. W. Swift.
Mr. Swift ultimately sold out some eight years ago to Drake Bros.;
half of their present store covers the ground on which stood the
old one occupied by Mr. Swift, that was erected by A. F. Clarke
and occupied by him as a drug store, when I came to the city in
1850. The firm then being Clarke & Woodruff.
Mr. Hatch left the city a few years ago to reside with his son,
Charles, in New Jersey, he died recently at Chattanooga, Tennessee,
where he had gone to benefit his health, having been a sufferer for
years from locomotor ataxia.
Concluding I would say there were a number of other physi-
cians, whom the limits of my paper do not allow me to speak of in
extenso, among them Dr. Diefendorf and Dr. J. Johnson of the
regular profession, and of the Homeopathic school, Drs. Hewitt,
Tracy, Douglas, Greves and R. M. Brown, the last still well known
and much respected.
First Small Pox Epidemic
By Dr. J. B. Selby.
In 1843 smallpox appeared in Milwaukee for the first time
among the white settlers. The first case was that of Mrs. Mary
Dewey, the wife of Linas N. Dewey, who came to Milwaukee in.
1842. She had the disease in a mild form, and soon recovered.
Where she was exposed or how she took the disease, neither she or
any one else ever knew. It probably had existed among the In-
dians camped about, and as they were in numbers here, she may
have been exposed to one who had recently recovered. Her husband
attended to her wants during her illness, and before she had fairly
recovered, he came down with the disease, and had a severe time be-
fore his recovery. This was in the spring of 1843 — occasionally
there was a case of smallpox during the summer — but by the middle
of August the disease had spread to such an extent as to cause
alarm. While no unusual publicity was given, it was well known
at Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, and other ports along the line that
an epidemic of smallpox had broken out at Milwaukee. And soon
that knowledge must seriously interfere with the landing of immi-
grants and other passengers destined for this port, who would pre-
fer to go on to Racine, Southport, or even to Chicago, than land
at a port whose hotels might be stricken with the contagious disease,
while at the sajne time the rural population, who depended on Mil-
waukee to buy their produce and give them in return their sup-
plies, would go elsewhere to accomplish that object rather than to
risk the danger here.
Then it was that the board of supervisors took action to stamp
out this pestilence. They passed a resolution creating a board of
health, a hospital or pest house, whence all taken with smallpox
should be conveyed and another resolution, that any physician who
failed to report any case, should be subject to a fine. The question
of locating the pest house was one of much importance. The ground
around the location should be high and free from miasmatic in-
fluence; fresh, pure air is important to all hospitals, and partic-
SMALL-POX EPIDEMIC 115
ularly so to one where all are forcibly sent, having a contagious
disease, and so far from a residence as to justify no remonstrance
to its use.
The supervisors were fortunate enough in finding a location that
answered favorably all these questions. This location was on the
east side of the river, about 3i/^ miles north of Wisconsin Street,
and 1/2 mile east of Humboldt. There a Mr. Kirby owned 40 acres,
having an east front on what is now known as Oakland Avenue, of
1/4 of a mile, having a south front of 14 of a mile on the sectional
line road; called the town line road, running east from Humboldt
and about eighty rods north of the new location of the female col-
lege. The land was high and dry, covered with a rich and vigorous
growth of native timber. There was no house between it and Mil-
waukee; and the only house in Humboldt was through the woods
1/^ mile away. These 40 acres now clothed with rich meadows and
pasture were then clad with a forest of oak, maple, and hickory,
except a clearing of about 2 acres on which stood a log house. The
time was pressing and so was the alarm in Milwaukee. A contract
was soon agreed upon between the owner and the supervisors to
rent the land and house from September 1st, 1843, to May 1st, 1844,
for $100.00. The house not affording sufficient room for those
awaiting their retreat, an addition was thrown up on the north at-
tached to the log house, with a door between. This addition was
16x30, two stories high. A substantial frame was run up, sheathed
with boards up and down and well battened, covered with a good
ehingled roof. A stairway was made connecting the two floors, and
the space above and below, was divided into bed-rooms, except that
below a large room was reserved for the dining table.
The weather being warm and favorable the windows were al-
lowed to stand open admitting a free use of fresh air, so necessary
to purify a crowded house filled with cases of smallpox. The land
between Milwaukee and the Pest house, was covered by heavy
timber. Between the two points were some three or four deep
gullies or ravines, along the river. The land being higher along the
lake bluff, caused the spring freshets to run towards the river — and
in time cut these deep ravines through the clay. So that the
Indian trail from Milwaukee to the north ran along the bluff,
crossing the heads of these rivulets, till, passing the last ravine
116 EARLY MILWAUKEE
about opposite Mineral Spring Park, it struck off west to the sec-
tion line, now known as Oakland Avenue ; thence to the north, pass-
ing the Pest house, and on to Port ^Yashington. The Board of
Health was composed of three members with Thomas J. Noyes as
Chairman. Doctors Bean and Bartlett were appointed physicians
to the hospital, and it was directed that all cases of smallpox should
be sent there. J. B. Selby who had attended lectures at Willoughby
Medical College in Ohio, and was then in Bean and Bartlett's
office, transiently, was employed to superintend the hospital and
receive instructions from the attending physicians who came out
usually once or twice a week to see the sick.
The log house was occupied by the cook and his sleeping apart-
ment ; also by the superintendent. In the new part were the dining
and various other rooms, both above and below for the sick. One of
the first cases sent out was a negro called Tom Field. Whether that
was really his name, or one borrowed from his master, for he had
formerly been a slave at the south, is not known. During the sea-
son he had been a cook on board of a vessel, and as his was a mild
case of smallpox he soon recovered, thence was employed as the
cook of the establishment; and a good cook he was, busy from
morning till night, preparing gruels, broths, beef tea and chicken
for the sick and convalescent. Our number was few at first but
they increased until we had about 40 including the sick and con-
valescent, then the number dropped off, till the house was closed.
The treatment of smallpox at the hospital in 1843, adopted by the
physicians in attendance, was very simple. Like all eruptive di-
seases, its nature is to run a regular course and then gradually to
disappear. The main attention of the physician is to watch the
patient, remove obstructions to its regular course and confine the
disease to its simplest and least dangerous form, and by the use of
emollients such as cream, vaseline or oil to lessen as much as pos-
sible the pox marks left after recovery. The disease is usually
ushered in by chills, rigors and fever. The obvious course is to
learn the condition of the bowels if constipated, remove by the use
of a mild laxative of salts or oil, to be repeated in 2 or 3 days if
necessary. After eruption is fully developed, the fever lessens or
passes away altogether. Now the patient is to be carried along
with simple food and drinks that strength may be sustained during
SMALI^POX EPIDEMIC 117
the weakness attending recovery. Our duty seems to be to nurse
our patient and see that the pulse is even, assist nature that no
undue obstruction of the bowels occurs, seek such nourishment as
the digestive organs may bear and daily to strengthen them till
convalescence ensues.
Smallpox is usually divided into two classes or grades: The
confluent, where the pustules run into each other, and the distinct
where the pustules form a round distinct pit on the surface of the
body. The confluent is the most malignant and dangerous form
and from it few recover. Those brought to the hospital were
largely of the distinct class of cases, some were mild, others severe,
all of whom recovered and in due time were conveyed to their
homes. The house was kept open till December 15th and then
closed for want of patients. The epidemic had passed away — win-
ter with its chilly frosts had closed the dwellings; and checked the
disease. Our supplies were mostly from Milwaukee. There was no
trouble in getting the grocery man to send them out ; they were
brought near the house, and thence conveyed by the cook. We had
everything from town, except milk, which we obtained in ample
supply from our nearest neighbor, a Mr. Baer. He owned 160
acres in the same section on which we dwelt and by going through
the woods i/o mile we opened on his clearing. We took our can,
both morning and evening and after passing through this pleasant
forest path, and coming to his house, deposited our can on a stump,
and retired a rod or so, to avoid exposure. Mrs. Baer, who was on
the watch for us, came out, took the can, and filled it, depositing
the same on the stump and then retired. As we advanced, she opened
up her questions as to the sick and well. Having satisfied them all,
we retired as we came.
Mr. and Mrs. Baer settled on their land in 1842, a young mar-
ried couple. The husband has been dead some ten years. The
wife still lives at the age of 78 in the enjoyment of good health,
and a son, Avho is a prosperous and wealthy farmer, lives near.
She attended our semi-centennial Anniversary, and when asked if
she did not visit the old settlers reception at the Plankinton she
replied "no, I supposed it was intended only for those invited." I
told her we should have welcomed her to our reunion and our re-
freshment table. She seemed to regret not being present and I
118 EAELY MILWAUKEE
certainly felt from the circumstances of my first acquaintance with
her a remorse in not calling the attention of the visiting com-
mittee to her name.
It may be noticed that in this record some facts that would
be worthy of mention are not recorded, such as the number of
patients treated, their names, when and where born, their date of
reception and when discharged. Such a record was by order of
the board of health kept at the hospital. At the close of their
official duties in December 1843 they made a report to the board
of health of which the above mentioned record or diary formed
a part and by them was lodged ^vith the board of supervisors.
Some three jears afterwards, Milwaukee obtained a city char-
ter and the board of supervisors, having been superseded by a
mayor and council, handed over to the new government, when
organized, all official papers pertaining to the village system,
among others the record of the Pest house of 1843. The city
charter had been in operation some 15 years when one night the
city clerk's office was discovered to be on fire, and before morning,
the whole of Cross Block on the corner of East Water and Huron
Streets, in which block the city clerk's office was located, was a
mass of ruins, and all the books of that office and papers on file
were lost.
This record is made from memory and is believed correct, so
far as it goes. It does not give names and dates of those treated
nor the length of time they were under treatment. Most of those
brought to the hospital were immigrants recently landed, and being
hardy, they generally recovered and were sent home. Of the 60
patients treated at the hospital, one was a colored man, four or
five were Americans, the balance was composed of foreigners re-
cently landed on our shores. Of those who died, one was an Amer-
ican and six or seven were immigrants.
As far as I know this record is the only one in existence treat-
ing of the above important scenes of 1843, and I leave it with this
club, that it may now or hereafter be the means of shedding some
light on the early history of Milwaukee.
At this point I am reminded, not for the first time, of the
apathy, the lack of a business ability of those employed for others.
SMALL-POX EPIDEMIC 119
The board of supervisors paid the owner of the land one hun-
dred dollars for its use from September 1st till the following
spring, and then spent several hundred dollars to build an ad-
dition. Had they offered the owner the same amount or a trifle
more they could have secured the title to the land. The 40 acres
would have been well adapted for future use by the city, and if not
so used, would have rented for more than sufficient to pay the taxes.
Fifteen years afterward, the timber on the land could have been
sold for $40 or $50 per acre, and recently, adjoining land with no
improvements, has been sold for $2,000 an acre.
This 40 acres, at the present time, is a smiling landscape. It is
now well known that all that tongue of land between the river and
lake nearly a mile wide opposite Humboldt and running to a point
at the exit of the river to the lake, has a foundation of limestone,
covered by a deep soil of red clay, over which is the black loam
that gathers up and conveys the oxygen of the air to the soil below ;
such is the nature of a rich soil. No malaria is ever found on this
strip, partly owning to its elevation; 40 rods south of this land is
Mineral Spring Park. One mile north is the suburban village of
White Fish Bay. This 40 acres lay in a perfect square, having
a frontage on its easten line of ^4 of a mile on Oakland Avenue,
also a south front of 14 of ^ ^ile 011 the town line road. Said road
dividing it from the city limits, and soon to form a boulevard 150
feet wide. On the west is Humboldt, % mile distant. On the east.
Lake Michigan about the same distance. It overlooks a city of one-
quarter of a million. To the west is the village of Humboldt and
the winding river to the falls below; beyond are the blue hills of
Milwaukee, and the Reservior. Such is this lovely spot; and such
is this lovely outlook, only ^/^ mile to the railroad station; where
the Lake Shore and the North-Western unite to form the trunk
line that runs to the city; street cars pass along Oakland Avenue
every few moments; what can enhance the value of such a spot for
a high school or university? The city once owned 40 acres in
Murray's Addition near the water works, and gave it away for a
hospital, and other beneficiaries of a public character. What a
princely gift this would be to the Milwaukee Female College, if
the city had it to give, and she could have had it, had the board
of supervisors done their duty fifty years ago.
Wisconsin in the War with Mexico
By Henry W. Bleyer.
To write of "Wisconsin in the war with Mexico," or of "Mil-
waukee in the War with Mexico," involves a distinction without
a difference. Milwaukee was the real storm center of that eventful
period.
When, in 1846, the news reached us that a Mexican force under
Gen. Arista had engaged in battle with our troops under Gen. Tay-
lor, we were soon at a fever heat. Capt. George at once offered
the government the services of his company — the Washington
Guards — and Capt. Meffert of the German Riflemen, was also pre-
pared to place his men in the field, but the War department seemed
all too slow to avail itself of our good offices in its behalf. This
seeming tardiness was in a large measure due to the inadequate
means of communication between the East and the West rather
than to any disrespect on the part of the authorities at Washing-
ton. Communication by telegraph could be carried on only as far
West as Buffalo and railway mail service did not extend beyond
Kalamazoo. News from Washington, when not telegraphed to
Buffalo and dispatched by steamer, was usually two weeks on the
way, while the mails from Mexico came to hand some four or five
weeks after they had been posted. We were thus partially isolated
from the rest of the country.
Under these circumstances little was known of us in the East,
and perhaps less was expected of us, though our territory of IGO,-
000 souls had been shown to have enough brain and sinew to form
several regiments of stalwart men, such as those who were asso-
ciated with the Sixth United States infantry in driving Black
Hawk and his savage hordes beyond the Mississippi river.
The Wisconsin Company.
The long waiting for an encouraging word from Washington
wearied us into a state of such indifference about the war that Capt.
George withdrew the tender of his company. Several Milwau-
keeans, tiring of this inactivity, went to Illinois to volunteer their
WAR WITH MEXICO 121
services. Others, in their zeal to serve their country, traveled to
Detroit and more Eastern points, among them George A. Mc-
Garigle, who enlisted at Cincinnati, and Alexander Conse, a pop-
ular German litterateur, Herman Upman and Carl von Nekow at
Alton, 111. In the meantime our territory was called upon to fur-
nish a company under the president's call for troops. Through the
influence of his friend Morgan L. Martin, our territorial repre-
sentative at Washington, Gustavus Quarles, a popular and bril-
liant young lawyer of Southport, now Kenosha, was commissioned
captain of this company. When he arrived here, accompanied by
seven or eight of his townsmen who had resolved to follow him
through thick and thin, he realized that the work of enlisting men
was more arduous than he had supposed it would be. The explana-
tion was to be found in the fact that we had a bitter but bloodless
war of our own in full force. The foreign and the American ele-
ments of our community were arrayed against each other on ques-
tions involved in the drafting of a state constitution. The Ger-
mans claimed that the instrimient discriminated against them in
several particulars, especially in the matter of the elective fran-
chise. The excitement became so intense that the opposing parties,
while parading in torchlight procession, encountered each other and
engaged in battle, their torchhandles serving as weapons. This
collision so incensed the Germans that they resolved to let the
Americans fight their own battles in Mexico and elsewhere, a de-
termination which was not strictly adhered to, however, as the
roster of Capt. Quarles' company indicates.
Terms of Enlistment.
Recruiting was more satisfactory on the advent of Capt. Hend-
rickson of the Sixth United States infantry, who posted bills to the
effect that each recruit would receive a bonus of $12 on enlisting,
$7 a month while in service, and a warrant for 160 acres of land or
$100 in cash at the close of his term. Diedrich Upmann, J. A. Lieb-
haber and Lieut. Wright canvassed energetically to fill the Quarles
company, Wright having opened an office in Watcrtowa to facil-
itate the movement. The Milwaukee recruits, dressed in jacket uni-
forms of light blue, presented a creditable appearance as they
marched through the streets to the music of fife and drum. They
122 EARLY MILWAUKEE
drilled almost daily on Market square, along Wisconsin street east
to Milwaukee street, and at times along the bluff near a powder
house situated at the head of Martin street. Their rendezvous
was in Matt Cawker's large frame building opposite the City hotel,
now the Kirby house, where they were very comfortably situated.
On the 24th of August, 1847, Lieut. Abel W. Wright completed his
enlistments at Watertown and brought his force of twenty-three
men to Milwaukee in wagons. Just before his departure from that
place a citizen committee consisting of Linus R. Cady, Daniel B.
Whiteacre and James R. Richardson presented him with a hand-
some sword and an engrossed testimonial of their appreciation of
his methods as a military officer.
Departure of the Quarles Company.
The company having been brought up to its quota, its officers,
Capt. Quarles and Lieutenants Upmann and Cady, busied them-
selves with the preparations for an early departure. On Sunday,
May 2, 1847, three signal guns announced the approach of the
steamer Louisiana, the boat commissioned to bear the volunteers
down the lakes. The recruits hurried to their quarters and citi-
zens gathered along Wisconsin street, where the Washington Guards,
the German Riflemen, the mayor and the Common Council were
marshaled into line by Capt. George as colonel and Capt. McMan-
man as adjutant. After parading the principal streets of the town,
the company was escorted out on the pier, where Mayor Horatio N.
Wells addressed the departing volunteers and Capt. Quarles re-
sponded for them in a brief and soldierly manner. The mayor's
parting words were :
"Soldiers ! The step you liave taken is of no trifling importance.
The positions you occupy are alike honorable and responsible. You
have made no slight sacrifice — severed no common ties. You leave
home, families and friends to go to a distant land, there to ex-
change a life of comparative ease and domestic happiness for one
of toil, of hardship and of danger. May you submit to all proper
requirements with heroic patience — meet your fate with becoming
fortitude — obey your superiors and discharge your several duties
with honor to yourselves and with fidelity to your country, and may
WAR \yiTH MEXICO 123
you bring no disgrace upon the fair escutcheon of this territory,
whose shores 3'OU are now leaving. And now permit me, on behalf
of the citizens of Milwaukee, to bid you and the patriotic officers
and the soldiers under your command an affectionate farewell. May
the god of battles guide, protect and return you to us in safety and
honor."
The formalities over, the Milwaukee companies stacked their
arms and mingled with the volunteers to grasp their hands once
more and voice a final good-bye. The friends of Capt. Quarles and
his lieutenants, of Liebhaber, Saborga, Brunst, Koerner, Schocllner
and other popular Milwaukeeans, hastened to bid them farewell,
husbands, brothers and lovers, in groups aside, joined in tender,
tearful adieus, while those without kith or kin stood by in S3ma-
pathetic accord with their sorrowing comrades. The bell ruthlessly
warned all aboard, the hawsers were slipped, and the boat moved out
and off amid the cheers of the throng.
The route of the company was to Lake Erie and thence down to
the Ohio river on a canal which Byron Kilbourn had built years be-
fore, to a camp at Covington, Ky., where several weeks were spent
in the usual routine of a soldier's life. From this point they were
conveyed down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans, and
after another brief stay, were shipped across the gulf of Mexico,
arriving at Vera Cruz, their destination, early in June. Arms and
accouterments were provided and drill in the manual of arms was
steadily maintained. The company, which was designated as F, Fif-
teenth United States infantry, was assigned to Gen. Pillow's divi-
sion of Gen. Scott's army.
Others Sent to the Front.
Affairs in Milwaukee had assumed their wonted composure when
Lieut. Wright returned and renewed enlistment with such per-
sistence that he was able at intervals to send large squads of recruits
to a camp at Newport, Ky. On the 20th of September, 1847, he
marched to the steamer Niagara with his last squad of the season,
a force of sixty-four men. Returning before the close of navigation
he resumed his work with such success that in the following Spring
he had under command a fine-appearing and well-drilled body of
124 EARLY MILWAUKEE
134 recruits. When the time came for their departure, on the 21st
of April, 1848, they were escorted to the propeller Princeton by fire
engine company No. 1 and a large following of citizens. Gen. Rufus
King delivered the farewell address on this occasion, and Lieut.
Wright replied in behalf of the volunteers.
On the 15th of June, 1848, Lieut. Wright, who had resumed
charge of the office, received orders to cease enlisting under the
"during the war" clause and insist upon the five-year term.
Our militia was not lost sight of during this bustle of the regu-
lar service. The state forces were organized with Dr. E. B. Wol-
cott as colonel, J. S. Rowland as lieutenant colonel and David
George as major. The Americans of the city had formed an artil-
lery company with Gen. King as captain, John N. Bonesteel and
James Kneeland as lieutenants, and William Pitt Lynde as quarter-
master. A third German company was organized — a troop of
dragoons — with Edward Wiesner as captain and H. E. Heide and
Dr. Wunderly as lieutenants.
Qua/rles Falls at Churuhusco.
On the first of July, 1847, we received the first news of our
company under Capt. Quarles. His volunteers were glad to land
at Vera Cruz after their tedious trip by water. They had not long
been ashore when they began to experience the assaults of an in-
sidious foe. The dreadful coast fever had invaded their quarters.
Two comrades had died and many others were in hospital during
their brief sojourn at that port. About the middle of June the regi-
ment had been ordered to the front.
Later we received news that the company had had its first bap-
tism of fire and that it had fought valiantly from early dawn to late
in the afternoon. It was at Contreras, a small fortified town, seven
miles from the City of Mexico, that Capt. Quarles had the gratifica-
tion of leading his men into their first regular battle. The fight,
which had commenced on the previous evening, opened before the
break of day, and was conducted by the Americans with the des-
perate valor and against the fearful odds which characterized that
campaign. Capt. Quarles signalized his gallantry by a coolness and
self possession worthy of an older soldier. The victorious troops
WAR WITH MEXICO 125
were allowed but a half hours respite, when, pushing forward, they
beheld the splendid spectacle of the whole army of Mexico drawn
up behind the fortress of Churubusco. The second battle of that
bloody 20th of August began and ended in the afternoon. Gens.
Twiggs and Worth attacked the enemy in front. Gen. Pillow's
division was ordered to cross a deep marsh and fall upon their rear.
The gallant Fifteenth regiment led the van and opened the battle
with a spirit which soon broke and dispersed the advance column of
the vaunting Mexicans. Foremost in this regiment, and excelled
by none, where all were chivalric, Capt. Quarles fought and fell.
The fatal bullet struck him after he had ascended part way up a
slope and waved his sword to inspirit his men. Falling into the
arms of his brave companion and successor in command, Lieut.
Upmann, he was borne to an adjacent hacienda, where he breathed
his last, after assuring Gen. Shields, his commanding general, that
he was resigned to his fate, that it was glorious to die on the field
of battle for one's country. In the morning he had called on his
colonel and requested to be assigned with his company to any post
of peculiar danger, if such there might be. Col. Morgan replied
that he knew of no occasion, but he would station his company at a
post near the right of the regiment, where he would come early into
action. He did so, and Capt. Quarles, in leading the desperate
charge, fell gloriously at the head of his men.
Beside Capt. Quarles, Privates John Herrick and Moses Whit-
ney died from the effects of wounds received at the storming of
Churubusco and were buried on or near that fateful field. Three
weeks later Gen. Scott entered the city of Mexico and thus prac-
tically ended the war.
The Dead and Wounded.
In all forty members of Company F were destined never to re-
turn. Privates Shinewith and Mueller died in camp at Covington,
Ky.; Private Barnard breathed his last on shipboard while cross-
ing the gulf of Mexico, and the remaining thirty-seven, with the
exception of Capt. Quarles, rest in the land of the Montezumas.
The roll of honor runs as follows: Capt. Quarles, John Herrick
and Moses W^hitney at Churubusco; Enoch Benedict, Nicholas
Burch, William Burnett, William Crosby, John Clark, James Davis,
126 EARLY MILWAUKEE
Amos Gooch, John Holbrook, Frederick Klauer, Charles Pratt,
Martin Piper, Ernst Schubert, John Steinman, Henry Wild and
Jolm Walkin, at Pueblo; George Brock, Edward Calkins, Mathias
Schnoerr and James Wright at Chapultepec; Edward Barnard at
Plan del Eio; Oscar Warner at Perota; James Magone and John
Bradshaw at Vera Cruz; John Wilkinson, John Ziller, John Rice,
George Gimbey, Jacob Schebely and Chase, at Guemavaca;
Leonard Kissell, Frederick Koerner and John Road at the City of
Mexico, and Private Gilliland at Jalapa; John Greiner, missing.
Of the twenty-three whom Lieut. Wright enlisted at Watertown
but six returned, J. R. Richardson, C. Oilman, T. D. White, Mc-
Graw, Scott and Field.
James Magone was a public-spirited Milwaukeean who had been
a member of the convention which drafted, the first State constitu-
tion. He was accompanied to Mexico by his family of wife and two
children. They had no sooner landed at Vera Cruz than they were
prostrated by a fever that proved fatal to Magone and the children.
Alexander Conze, who had enlisted at Alton, fell at Buena Vista,
and in the same engagement Carl Van Nekow lost an eye and Her-
man Upman was lamed for life by a wound in the knee. Privates
Klein, Bastian, Frattinger, Hoehn, Metzen, Steinman, Wright,
Sanger and Brunst were among the wounded at Chapultepec.
Return of the Survivors.
The few of our volunteers who survived the campaign straggled
home in squads after they were paid off at New Orleans. Capt, Up-
man, Liebhaber and other prominent members renewed their activi-
ties among us. Capt. Upmann when he had picked up the thread of
his business, was obliged to relinquish it again to accept a land
registership in Minnesota. When his term expired he returned and
built a hotel on Market square, which he named the St. Charles,
after the famous caravansary at New Orleans, in which he had
spent many happy hours. Liebhaber drifted down to Toledo,
Schoellner, Brunst and others became more or less prominent in
the affairs of our then young and growing city, Bnmst, in later
years, successfully conducting the offices of supervisor and sheriff.
Not one of these is now among the living.
WAR WITH MEXICO 127
Many who were known by us as veterans of that war were not
among the number who volunteered in Milwaukee. Dr. S. Comp-
ton Smith, the author of a book of Mexican war sketches entitled
"Chile con Came, and who, during the Civil war, was surgeon of
the Fourth Wisconsin regiment of volunteer infantry, had joined
the regular service in the East. Col. Thomas Kerr ran away from
home at the age of 17 and enlisted in the Second Pennsylvania vol-
unteers, with whom he learned the art of war to such a degree of
perfection that in the Civil war he rose from the ranks to the posi-
tion of colonel of the Sixth Wisconsin Volunteer infantry. George
Phillips, a brother of ex-Mayor Phillips, belonged to a Mississippi
regiment, William H. Bradford, received his commission at Cin-
cinnati, and John C. H. von Sehlen, who after the war was for a
time employed in the Milwaukee postoffice, enlisted in New York
City at the age of 17, immediately after he had arrived from the
old country.
Not Conspicuously Represented.
In the official enumeration of the forces which the states and
territories had in the field Wisconsin is accredited with but 146
men. This number relates to the Quarles company and its rein-
forcement from time to time. Nearly 1,000 Badgers had enlisted
for that war. Many were still on American soil when the conflict
was so unexpectedly brought to a close. Capt. Hendrickson, Lieut.
Wright and other officers had enrolled fully 700 men. Beside the
Quarles company, which was attached to an Illinois regiment, as
already stated, many volunteers were secured here to round out
companies of Illinois soldiers.
View it as we may we were not very conspicuously represented
in the fight with Santa Anna — yet what we lacked in numbers we
far more than made up in true grit. Eighteen years later, in our
war of the Rebellion, Wisconsin contributed far more soldiers in
defense of the Union than all the states and territories had in the
field throughout our war with Mexico.
The Burial of Capt. Qu/wles.
An event of deep solemnity marked the close of our connection
with the war beyond the Rio Grande. The remains of Capt. Quarles,
128 EAELY MILWAUKEE
which had been shipped from Vera Cruz and placed in a vault at
New Orleans, were brought home for burial. On the morning of
the 27th of June, 1848, the Washington Guards, the Milwaukee
Riflemen and the Milwaukee Dragoons, together with a large dele-
gation of Odd Fellows, shipped on the steamer Ohio to pay funeral
honors to the fallen hero. Shortly after their arrival at Southport,
the steamer Globe landed with troops from Chicago under Col. Rus-
sell, his command including Swift's hussars, Capt. Schoefl^er's rifle-
men and the Montgomery Guards. In the afternoon, the Odd Fel-
lows assembled at the house of mourning, where, after the im-
pressive burial service of the Episcopal church was read by the Rev.
Frederick W. Hatch, the casket was borne to a platform in the pub-
lic square.
Judge HuhhelVs Oration.
Here Judge Levi Hubbell, who had been invited to discharge
this sad duty, delivered the funeral oration. In the course of his
eloquent tribute to the lamented dead he said:
"We have come to bury, not to praise, our dead brother. His
remains were sent hither, to this, his home, by the order and at the
expenses of the territory of Wisconsin. The act was designed as a
mark of respect to the officer and to the service in which he was
engaged. The country honors itself by honoring those who serve
it. That beautiful sentiment of the Roman poet : ' 'Tis sweet and
glorious to die for one's country' — so appropriate to the deceased —
would lose its sublimity if the state did not honor those who sacri-
ficed themselves for her sake.
"Standing on this hallowed spot, with the blue canopy of heaven
arching o'er us, and the green mantle of earth spread beneath, I feel
as if the kindred spirits of the universe were mingling with ours,
and that they have come up hither to join us in pronouncing a fare-
well blessing on these honored remains of the young and the brave.
Surely, the beneficent God of Nature, smiling through all His
works, is adding His blessing to the solemn rites we are here as-
sembled to perform. Happy, indeed, would we be could we venture
the hope that the willing honors and heartfelt blessings poured over
this shattered corpse could reach the immortal spirit which has
LIEUT. DIETRICH UPMANN
CAPT. AUGUSTUS QUARLES
WAR WITH MEXICO 129
flown to that undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveler
returns.
Such honors lUium to her heroes paid
And peaceful slept the mighty Hector's shade.
"You from Wisconsin will need no other watchword when the
bugle sounds 'to arms !' than the magic name of Quarles — the talis-
man of victory or death.
"You of Illinois have before you a bright and fadeless page in
the history of the recent war. The flag of our country never spread
its stars and stripes over better officers and soldiers than yours.
* * * "The earth closes over our departed brother. Peace,
everlasting peace to his ashes. Let us cherish the memory of his
virtues. Let us hallow the spot where he is buried. Let us point
it out to our children as the grave of one who loved and died for
his c«oimtry. Let the great and the good honor it as a place conse-
crated to public virtue. Let the state mark it by a monument de-
noting her respect for valor and patriotism. Let all the people
visit it and water it with tears, that the world may know how much
Wisconsin loves her sons and mourns their untimely loss. Then
will the splendid lines of England's bard be a fitting inscription on
the tomb of our brother."
There is a tear for all who die,
A mourner o'er the humblest grave.
But nations swell the funeral cry
And triumph weeps above the brave.
The Milwaukee military companies fired their parting volleys,
the Odd Fellows dropped their sprigs of evergreen into the grave —
and all was over save the undying fame of him they had buried.
The civic and the military representatives of the territory had thus
worthily honored the first commissioned officer of Wisconsin that
ever died in the service of his country.
Increase Allen Lapham
Address by William Ward Wight at Unveiling of the Lapham
Memorial, Lapham Park, Milwaukee, June 18, 1915.
Some few years ago, in another place, before a different gatn-
ering, the pleasing duty devolved upon me of portraying at some
length the career and character of him in whose honor we today
assemble. Much that was then said was foreign to the purpose for
which we are now gathered. Some few thoughts will I trust bear
repetition.
Increase Allen Lapham was born in Palmyra, Wayne County,
New York, March 7, 1811. His parents were of Quaker descent,
the family having its American origin in Providence, Ehode Island.
His father was a contractor on the Erie canal and the family's dom-
icile changed with the father's business necessity. In about 1824
the family lived in Lockport where especially stupendous and in-
tricate engineering construction marked the entry of the canal into
the waters of Lake Erie. Here where Darius Lapham, an elder
brother, was an engineer. Increase carried the target rod and
vernier. Here and later, on the Miami canal in Ohio, he acquired
that skill and facility in surveying which made his early life here
both useful and successful.
In December, 1827, he went to Louisville, Kentucky, and in
1828 and 1829 he was employed as a rodman on the canal then con-
structing around the falls of the Ohio. While in Louisville he
supplemented the education of the field by a short attendance at
Jefferson seminary. In this neighborhood among the river shells
of the region he began his conchological collection. Here also be-
gan his herbarium — a convenient pursuit for one who as a surveyor
must track the fields and neighbor the flowers. Here too he made
observations on the geology and climatic conditions of the country.
Here too he wrote for Silliman's Journal of Science and Art his
first scientific paper. Here too — so wide was the range of his hu-
manities — he became a member and an officer of the Ohio Histori-
cal and Philosophical Society. And all this when he was scarce
25 years of age !
INCREASE A. LAPHAM 131
From a position so well established, from a reputation so favor-
able, from pursuits so congenial and so stimulating, the desire for
new fields, the youthful love of change, the summons of his Ohio
friend, Byron Kilbourn, brought him to Milwaukee.
Very early in July of 1836 he arrived in this little hamlet where
the aboriginal warrior still stalked, and w^hose greatest asset was its
possibilities. He was easily — this young student of 25 years — chief-
est citizen of Milwaukee, a pre-eminence which until his death he
never surrendered.
The prospect of a competence by the ownership of land was one
of the possibilities of the growing Milwaukee. Mr. Kilbourn had
been a heavy purchaser; Mr. Lapham in a small way followed his
lead. His knowledge as a surveyor, his quickly acquired reputation
for fairness, led to his appointment as register of claims in the
West ward — or Kilbourn town — an office without pay established
by his fellow citizen. Connected with this registry was a sort of
court where pre-emptions were entered and where, as a species of
judge, young Lapham executed certificates of title which yielded
in importance only to a patent from the United States land oflfice.
On October 24, 1838, Mr. Lapham married, his wife being Ann
M. Alcott, of Rochester, New York. Of their five children, all sur-
vive. A daughter of their son Charles, influenced by her venera-
tion for her grandfather's worth, did more than any other person to
bestow the name of Lapham Park upon this beautiful breathing
place.
Of Mrs. Lapham — now more than fifty years dead — it should
be stated that she was a helpmeet for her husband. His papers re-
ceived her criticism, all his labors her encouragement, all his sci-
entific tasks her assistance, all his varied successes her applause.
During the decades of the forties and the fifties Mr. Lapham's
pen was very busy. The subjects upon which he employed it were
so many and so varied that one is filled with astonishment at the
fertility and the variety of his genius. To enumerate all his writ-
ings is to cover all the then known field of useful knowledge. Not
the least important was upon the flora and fauna of his adopted
state, upon its grasses and its forest trees. An article written and
132 EARLY MILWAUKEE
illustrated by him upon the grasses of Wisconsin was published in
1855. He described and made drawings of eleven species of grasses.
Surely a man who lived so near to nature and who bent his head so
close to the earth to learn its secrets, deserves to be perpetuated in
yonder charming spot, charming even in its present sombre garb,
where blooming flowers and growing grasses shall be his constant
neighbors.
Mr. Lapham was intensely interested in the education of youth.
On October 7, 1846, he deeded to the then newly incorporated city
of Milwaukee a plat of about thirteen acres in the present Sixth
ward to be used forever for the purposes of a High school. The
common council accepted the gift, thanked the donor, appointed a
board of trustees and then — rested from its labors ! The land re-
verted to the grantor.
The name of Increase A. Lapham appears at the head of those
citizens who on March 1, 1851, became incorporated by legislative
act as the Normal institute and the High school of Milwaukee.
This institution became later Milwaukee Female college — it is now
Milwaukee Downer college. Of this girls' school he became presi-
dent in 1851 and so continued until he declined further election in
1863. He was a trustee from 1851 until his death — twenty-four
3'ears. In the welfare of the young women gathered in that col-
lege he was deeply interested, tempering and holding in check the
extreme views of the early patron of the school, Miss Catherine
Beecher, yet advocating the advanced and symmetrical development
of the feminine mind. His books, his collections, the wealth of his
varied learning, were always at the service of teachers and pupils.
How gladly would I — his remote successor at the head of the
trustees of Milwaukee Downer college — exhibit to President Lap-
ham the present institution in the Eighteenth ward, the seeds of
which his labors planted and his industry watered.
Perhaps Dr. Lapham — for in 1860 Amherst college conferred
upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws — is most fondly remem-
bered in his relation to the present weather bureau. Lake Michi-
gan was the blackboard upon which he pradticed his examples. To
track the path of the tempests, to map their movements, to follow
INCREASE A. LAPHAM 133
them from river to lake, from lake to seacoast, these things were
his pastime — but more than a pastime, for he saw the practical
benefits to flow from tracing what before were believed to be the
whims and vagaries of the weather. Earnest and labored were his
efforts to convince mariners and legislators that the fickle weather
could be watched and the secrets of coming calm or storm revealed.
He wrote much on this and kindred subjects, using freely news-
paper columns. Hence, when after persistent efforts the weather
bureau was established in 1870, it was truthfully stated by Profes-
sor Baird in the Science Record :
"To Professor LA. Lapham must be given the credit of having
brought to a successful conclusion this long line of efforts."
By the summer of 1871 Dr. Lapham had investigated the his-
tor}' and mapped the position of every known meteorite that had
fallen within the limits of the North American continent. He first
called the attention of scientists to certain lines in some of the
irons which are now known as Laphamite markings. Nor had an-
other branch of science overlooked his name. Dr. Asa Gray of Har-
vard university named Lapharaia, a new genus of plants of five
species belonging to the Southwestern frontier. Dr. Lapham might
well be remembered as a botanist, for at his death his herbarium
consisted of 24,000 specimens, representing 8,000 species.
From the rolls of scarcely any learned society was his name ab-
sent. In Europe much better than in his o\\ti country were his
learning appreciated and his achievements recognized. He was an
honorary member of the Royal Society of Northern Antiquarians
at Copenhagen, and of the International Society of Anthropology
and Antiquity of Man.
In pursuits congenial to his tastes and beneficial to his race, Dr.
Lapham passed his busy days until his hour came. He rested not
until the end arrived. He died September 14, 1875, upon Ocono-
mowoc lake, on the edge of which his farm was. He had just fin-
ished a paper upon the lakes of Wisconsin considered in their rela-
tion to fish production. He had been subject to attacks of heart
failure and had seldom been left alone. This particular day, how-
ever, feeling much improved, he had taken his oars as the after-
134 EARLY MILWAUKEE
noon wore on for a pull upon the lake. Not promptly returning,
search was made. A few feet from the shore his boat was found,
and within, the body of our friend prostrate and lifeless.
This little writing has but ill performed its task if it has not
indicated how appropriately a park in this city of his useful resi-
dence bears his name, and how surely the members of the Old
Settlers' club have honored themselves by placing the boulder, with
its inset medallion of him, in the limits of that park, No huilding
should hold the monument to him whose books were the open air,
the giant stone, the blossoming flower, the lowly grass, the warbling
bird, the fugitive insect. With these trophies of Nature we place
him and we leave him.
Had the weather been propitious we should have stood by the
rugged stone while his granddaughter unveiled for all time to the
gaze of the world the lineaments of the honored ancestor. Such
ceremony as the circumstances permit I now entrust to her affec-
tionate charge.
Club IVIembershIp
Adams, F. F.
Adler, E. D.
Adler, I. D.
Adler, S. D.
Agnew, Andrew D.
Allcott, Frank L.
Allis. Charles
Armour, D. H.
Austin, W. H.
Bach, Christoph
Bacon, E. N.
Bading, G. A.
Barber, Edw. B.
Barnard. H. C.
Barth, Peter
Basse, G. D.
Baumel, C. H.
Bell, S. R.
Benjamin, H. M.
Bennett, W. H.
Benson, E. A.
Benzenberg, Geo. H.
Best, Jacob
Biersach, L. D.
Black, Herman
Blanchard, Chas. L.
Bleyer, H. W.f
Blodgett, F. W.
Bloedel, Adam
Bloodgood, Francis
Boardman, M. A.*
Bogeuberger, John
Boorse, Washington
Bottum, E. H.
Boyd, James G.
Boyle. Wm. J.
Bradford, J. R.
Bradley, Jesse C.
Brandner, Nicholas
Braman, Percy
Brand, Sebastian
Brandecker, Frank
Brett, Jas. T.
Briggs, W. A.
Brjden, J. W.
Brosius, Georget
Brown, A. T.
Bruce, W. G.*
Bruns, Henry
Bues, Adolph F.
Buestrin, Frank E.
Bullock, J. C.
Burdick, A. E.
Burke, Richard
Burroughs, George
Buscher, Jacob P.
Buttles, Cephas
Butler, Jno. A.
Campbell. Henry
Carpeles, Philip
Callaway, W. W.
Carlson. O. W.
Carpenter, M.
Carpenter. Paul D.
Cary, W. J.
Chase, Geo. H.
Cheney, Willis L.
Chipman. D. W.
Clarke. Wm.
Clas, A. C.
Coe, F. H.
Cohen, Henry
Comstock, H. G.
Comstock, J. T.
Conrad, Wm.
Cooke, B. F.
Cotzhausen, F. W. von
Courtenay, C. D.
Courtenay. F. C.
Crandall, E. G.
Crandall. John S.
Crosby. F. J.
Cudahy, Patrick
Currie, Ja.s.
Dadd, R. M.
Dalberg. S. W.
Daly, John
Damkoehler, Frank
Danielson, B. J,
Davies, Walter V.
Davis, il. N.
Dellicker, J. Henry
Desmond, H. J.
DeWolf, John E.
Dederick, S.
Diederick, W. J.
Doepke, Fred D.
Doerfler, Christian
Donahoe, W. J.
Donges, Jac. F.
Dousman. Geo. P.
Downer. Edgar
Drake, Harvey W.
Dries, Joseph
Drojtpers, J. D., Jr.
Drought. J. T.
Durr, Wm. E.
Durr, C. C.
Earling. A. J.
Eaton. B. A.
Eaton, H. L.
136
EARLY MILWAUKEE
Eiflf, John
Eckstein, S .A,
Eigner, George
Eimermanu, A. J.
Eiring, B. H.
Ellis, C. H.
Ellis, Frank R.
Elser, Albert C.
Estabrook, C. E.
Fahsel. Charles
Falk, Otto H.
Farrington, E. B.
Fass, F. C.
Fehlandt, H. F.
Fehrer, Joseph, Jr.
Femekes, Dan'l J.
Finkler, Adolph
Fink, Henry
Fitch, Grant
Fitzgibbon, Thos.
Flanders, J. G.
Fleming, T. J.
Foerster, Erwin
Forster, Chas. G.
Fowle, H. N .
Fox, Frank N.
Frank, Louis F.
Frellson, Gustav
Friedberg, Joseph
Froede, Albert
Gay, Henry M.
Galloway, John M.
Gallun, A. F.
Geilfuss, A. B.
Gettelnian, Adam
Godfrey, E. R.
Goebel, Anton
Goodman, Wm. E,
Gottschalk, S. W.
Graettinger, A. J.
Graf, John
Grassier, Edmund
Green, G. J.
Green, J. H.
Greene, W. O.
Greenwood, J. W.
Gregory, John G.*
Gregory, John J.
Gregory, II. B.
Grider, Daniel
Gross, Philip
Gutenkunst, C. A.
Haase, R. C.
Habhegger, A. C.
Habhegger, Otto J.
Hadden, E. G.
Habhegger, T. F.
Haerle, Charles
Halsey, L. W.
Hamhitzer, C. J.
Hamilton, A. K.
Hamilton, Harley H.
Hansen, John E.
Hansen, Chris.
Hanson, Henry
Harper, Wm. D.
Harpke, H. H.
Hase. Henry
Hazelton, G. W.*
Hayden, Thos. G.
Heath, Albert
Heimann, L.
Hellberg, G. A.
Henning, C. W.
Heinl, Jno. G.
Heyer, Henry
Hildebrand. Frederick
Hilgendorf, C. F.
Hill, Warren B.
Hiller, John W.
Hinsey. Wm. A.
Hoe, Richard
Hoff, John T.
Hoffmann, Willibald
Holmes, J. W.
Holt, J. A.
Hooley, George T.
Horter, John
Houghton, F. W.
Hunt, F. S.
Hutchings, J. E.
Hyde, W. F.
Iversen, J. C.
Jenkins, James G.
Jermain, Louis F.
Jones, James I.
Joys, A. M.
Joys, Carl C.
Kohn, Julius
Kander, Simon*
Karel, Jno. C.
Karow, Frank A.
Kassner, G. A.
Kasten, C. J.
Kauper, G. F.
Kecno, F. B.
Keunan, K. K.
Kennan, T. L.
MEMBERSHIP
137
Kehr, Alexander
Kellogg, A. W.t
Kettler, Edw., Jr.
Kieckhefer, F. A. W.
King, H. R.
Kirchhofif, Chas.
Kleist, J. C.
Klein, H. S.
Kindling, Louis
Kindt, C. F.
King, Charles
Kipp, B. A.
Knell, O. C.
Kopmeier, G. J.
Kopmeier, J. H.*
Kraus, Ctias. R.
Krauthoefer, W. J.
Kroeger, John S.
Kurz, John
Kynaston, J. B.
Laflin, H. N.
Landauer, Max
Lando, Julius
Lando, M. N.f
Lange, Chas. J.
Laverrenz, Charles
Layer, W. C.
Layton, Frederick
Lee, G. W.
Leverenz, Gustav A.
Leverenz, R. J.
Lewis, Joseph
Lindsay. Henry
Lindsay, E. J.
Lotter, Henry G.
Loveland. Chas, A.
Luedke, H. A.
Luenzmann, Frank
Ludwig, J. C.
Mabbett, H. J.
Mack, H. S.
Ma her, John J.
Manegold, Henry
Mann, F. J.
Manschot, J, H.
Martin, George, Jr.
Maschauer, L.
Maxson, F. C.
Mayer, F. J.
McGarigle, B. P.
McGeoch, A. N.
Mclver, James
McLaughlin, M. J.
Meacham, J. W.
Meincke, John
Merrill, Z. T.
Meuuier, John
Meyer, L. D.
Meyer, Frank J.
Miller, Geo. P.
Milliuan, H. J.
Mueller, Aug. F.
Mueller, L. J.
Munkwitz, C. H.
Munkwitz, Chas. J.
Murphy, Philip H.
Myers, A. B.
Myers, J. O.
Neacy, T. J.
Newbouer, N. F.
Nichols, A. B.
Niederman, Conrad
Nieman, L. W.
Norris, C. W.
Norris, G. Henry
O'Connor, Jas. L.
Oertling, Herman
Ogden, G. W.«
Ogden, H. M.
O'Laughlin, Jas. T.
Olle. Michael
O'Xeil, C. Houston
Ormsby, R. H.
Osterman, Albert
Otjen, Theo.
Owens, Christ. C.
Owen, David C.
Owens, R. G.
Pabst, Gustave
Paeschke, Chas. A.
Pahlow, Lewis F.
Pantke, E. R.
Park, W. II.
Parker, M. O.
Patterson, R. W.
Patton, Wilford M.
Pauly, H. J.
Peacock, S. F.
Pfeil, R. J., Jr.
" Peiyce, J. Frank
I Perrigo, B. W.
t Philipp, E. L.
^hillips, Chas. A.
Tierce. A. J. W.
Pipkorn, Wm. II.
I*opI)ert, Henry VV.
Porth. Ed.
Post, Wm. M.
Pringle, T. J.
138
EARLY MILWAUKEE
Quin, Jeremiah*
Raeuber, E. G.
Keichenbaum, Charles
Randolph, H. L.
Rathjen, Wm. E.
Razall, H. G.
Read, Walter
Reiter. Henry
Ruenzel, H. G.
Reuss, Gustav
Rich, A. W.
Richardson, George
Richter, Aug., Jr.
Riemer, G. J.
Rindskopf, Elias
Ritz, August N.
Roberts, Charles B.
Rosenberg, J. H.
Rundle, J. P.
Runge, Carl
Runkel, A. C.
Salomon, Charles
Sayle, R. G.
Schaus, John
Schmitt, F. L.
Schmitt, Wm. A.
Schneck, F. W.
Schranck, H. C.
Scheiderer. J. F.
Schoenecker, V. J.
Schoenfeld, Henry
Schoenleber, O. J.
Scholtke, Christ
Schooley. H. B.
Schroeder, Fred. J.
Schroeder, Geo. A.
Schroeder, Henry H.
Schulte, Adolph P.
Schwarting, H. H.
Schwartzburg, E. H.
Schweitzer, H. C.
Scollard, J. T.
Seefeld, Gustav A.
Selbert, P]dward
Seefeld, Henry F.
Seliginan, Moritz
Selignmn, Albert
Seymour, Frank M.
Sheriffs, Thos. W.
Sichling, Geo. M.
Silverthorn, W. C.
Simonds, Chas. D.
Sivyer, C. Milwaukee
Smith, Henry
Smith, Richard
Speich, Albert
Spence, William
Spiegel, Adolph
Spoor, Aaron H.
Spurr, S. G.
Stollberg, L. R.
Stark, Henry J.
Starke, Wm. A.
Steinman, H. J.
Stim, August
Story, A. L.
Stratton, Walter
Streckewald, F. O.
Strohmeyer, Geo. W.
Suelflow, Frank W.
Suetterle. J. W.
Sundin, John C.
Swain, Wm.
Tasse, Fred. D.
Tews, Fred
Thomas, G. L.
Thomdike. Wm.
Thwaits, Wm. G.
Toepfer, Frank
Trostel, Albert O.
Trostel, G. J. A.
Turner, Da\'id
Turner, W. J.
Uihlein, Alfred
Uihlein, Henry
Underwood, Fred D.
Upham, H. A. J.
Utz, Chas. S.
Utz, Richard R.
Van Valkenburgh, F. B.
Vizay, R. W.
Vogel, A. H.
Vogel, Fred, Jr.
Vogel, Wm. H.
Vose, Hamilton
Wadhams. E. A.
Wagner, Chas. M.
Wagner, L. F.
Walter, Sebastian
Wa liber, Emil
Walter, Philip
Walthers, F. J.
Watrous, J. A.
Wawrzyniakowski, M. J.
Weber, Henry
Weehselberg, Julius*
Wehlitz, Chas. L.
MEMBERSHIP
139
Weissert. A. G.*
Werner, E. C.
Whalen, H. J.
Wheeler. Lyman G.
Whipp, Frank H.
White, Thos. J.
Whitnall. C. B.
Widule, C.
Wijcht. Wm. Ward
Wilbur. Francis P.*
Wilde. Ferd. F.
Wildish, J. E.
Williams, Fred
Wilmanns, Adolph
Williams. O. T.
Wilson, Fi'ank J.
Wilson, F. L.
Winkler, F. C.
Wollaeger, Franz
Wright. E. T.
Wurster, E. A.
Yale. Horace P.
Young, Geo. W.
Yunker, W. A.
Zaun, J. B.
Zentner. Aug. F.
Zirbel. F. W.
Zimmermann, Aug.
Zohrlaut, E.
Zwoster, Martin
*Ex-Presidents
tLife Members
INDEX
NAMES
A.
Abay, H. C (30
Abert, George 7, 8
Abert, George A 9
Ableman, S. V. R 22
Adlam, Capt. Samuel J. G 66, 75
Adler, David 10
Akerly, Rev 110
Alcott, Ann M 131
Alexander, Capt. S 67
Allis, E. P. «& Co 5)2
Anderson, Capt 68
Appleby, Capt 67
Arnold, Jonathan E 59
Auchmoody, Hiram tiO
B.
Baer 117
Baker, Dr. E. D Ill
Balatka, Hans 55
Bangley, Alex 58
Barnard 125
Bartlett, Dr. J. K Ill, 116
Bates, Eli 30, 31
Bean, Dr 116
Bean, J. L 34
Beecber, Catherine 132
Bennett, vessel master 66
Black, John 10, 26
Blake, O. A 53
Blanchard, Dr. A. W 110
Bleyer, Henry W 10, 11, 12, 13, 120
Blossom, Levi 3
Boardman, Morillo A 6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 62
Bcxlden, M 9
Bonesteel, John N 60, 124
Booth, Mrs. Mary H. C 55
Booth, Sherman M 22
Bowman, George 7, 8
Brigham, W. M 10
Brodhead, E. H m
Broich, Hugo von 9, 14
Brosius, George 60
Brown, James S 51, 52, 54
Brown, Dr. R. M 113
Brown, Samuel 3, 7, 99
Brown, T. H. 9
Bruce, William George 12
Brunst 123, 126
Bryden, James A 12
Buck, James S 6, 7, 8, 9, 14, 15
Burdick, Morgan L 8
Burroughs, George 59
Butler, A. R. R 59
INDEX 141
C.
Cadwell, Henry 53
Cadwell, Capt (J8
Cady, Liuus R 122
Callaway. Capt. William 70
Chamberlain, Capt G7
Chandler. Daniel H 53
Chapiu, Alfred 54
Chapman, Silas 25
Chase, Enoch 7
Chase, George H 9
Chase, Horace .• 3, 7, 110
Cheney. Rufus 8
Clark, Fred 53
Clark, Capt 68
Clark, Rev. John 30
Collingbourne, T. P 15
Comstock. Cicero 32
Conkey. Capt G7
Conuant, H. N 57
Couse, Alex 121
Cooper, James Fenimore 17
Corbett, Capt 6<»
Cotton, Capt. L. H 50
Cramer. Eliphalet 3, 53, 9.3
Crawford, John 7, 8
Cross, Capt 66
D.
Dadd. John A 5, 9, 14, 15, 110
Dahlman, John 8
Davies, Robert 8
Dayan. A. G 58
Dean, Julia 48
Decker & Seville 92
Dewey, Linas N 114
Dewey, Mrs. Mary 114
Diercks, E. W 84
Dixon, Capt 6S
Dousman, Dr. J. B 1 10, 1 1 1
Dowe, Dr. J. E 112
Downer, Jason 57
Doyle. Capt. James (i(!
Drake Bros 113
Dunbar, John 57
Durige, George 52
Duteher, J. A 85
E.
Edgertou, B. H 55
Edwards, Richard L .'5
Eldred, Elisha 110
Eldred, John E 85
Ellis, William 76
Ellsworth, Mrs. Martha D 38
Ellsworth & Davidson 7<i
Emery, Edward 57
142 EAELY MILWAUKEE
P.
Fay. B. F 57, 59
Feldt, A. C 57
Field, Tom 116
Filer & Stowell 93
Finch, Asahel 52, 54, 59
Fink, Henry 13
Fitzgerald. Capt. William 67, 74
Fowler, Daniel W 9, 10, 14, 50
Frazier, Judge 59
Frink & Walker 91
Furlong, John 8
G.
George, Capt. Da\'id 60, 120, 124
Glover, Joshua 3
Goodnow, William 92
Goodrich, E. H 98
Gorham, Dr. D. W Ill
Graham 34
Graham, Wilson W 59
Grant, Gen. U. S 100
Gregory, John G 12
H.
Haertel, Hiram 8
Hall, Philip A .52, 56
Halsev, Judge Lawrence W 13
Harrison, R. P 22
Haskell, Job 57
Hatch, Rev. Frederick 128
Hatch & Patterson 110, 112
Hathaway, Capt 68
Hawley, Cyrus , 3, 110
Hazelton, Gerry W 11
Heide, H. E 124
Hempsted, H. N 55
Hendrickson, Capt 121, 127
Henni, Most Rev. John M 60, 80
Herrick, John 125
Ilerzer, .John 78, 79
Hewitt, Mrs. Marilla 53
Ilihhard, William B 75
Higby, L. J 88, 112
Holliday, James 59
Holton, Edward D 93
Horning, F. Y 10
Huhbell, Judge Levi 128
Hurley, Charles 56
J.
Jennings, R. D 58
Johnson, Capt 66
Johnson. George H. D 9
Johnson, Dr. James 113
Johnston, Peter 17
Jones, Capt 67
Jones, John Paul 70
INDEX 143
Jones, Peleg G 56
Juneau, Peter 26
Juneau, Solomon 3, 7, 22, 26, 27, 50, 89
K,
Kander, Simon 12, 13
Keenan, Matthew 8, 54
Kellogg, A. W 28
Kellogg, E. C 58
Kellogg, Leverett S 28
Kilbourn, Byron 26, 33, 89, 94, 123, 131
King, Gen. Rufus 60, 124
Kirby 115
Kirby, Abner 8, 67
Kneeland, James 60, 124
Koch, Henry C 54
Koerner 123
Kopmeier, John H. 12
Kynaston, Capt. William 75
L.
Lane, L. H 8
Langworthy, Capt. A. J 85, 91
Lapham, Darius 130
Lapham, Dr. I. A 7, 8, 130
Lapointe, John 58
Larigo, Prof. Charles F 47
Larsen, Capt 65
Layton, Frederick 6
Lee, George W 10, 12, 13, 108
Lee, L. L 93
Legler, Henry E 17
Lewis, Capt 66
Liebhaber, J. A. 121, 123, 126
Lincoln, Abraham 31
Locke & Richmond 58
Ludington, Harrison 3
Ludington & Co 58, 91
Lyman, Milton E 58, 59
Lynde, William Pitt 124
Lynde, Mrs. W. P 110
M.
Mabbett & Breed 91
Magone, James 12(>
Marsden, Capt 68
Martin, James B 110, 112
Martin, Morgan L 50, 121
Masehauer, Amelia R. r>4
Masson, Ninian 9, 10
Matthews, E. P 12
Matthews, Miss Helen 55
McCormick, Andrew f»^>
McCracken 91
McGarigle, George A 121
Mclntyre, Capt 66
McManman, Capt 122
144 EARLY MILWAUKEE
Menzel, Charles G 103
Menzel, Gregor 103, 104
Menzel & Stone 92, 93
Merrill, John B 10
Merrill, William P 8
McQueen, Capt 67
Meyers, George E 56
Miller, Judge A. G 3, 7, 8, 31, 110
Miller, Galbraith 31
Miller. Henry 7
Miller, Capt. Henry CO
Miller, John 101, 102
Miller, John M T, 8
Miller, William B 6, 14, 15
Mitchell, Alexander 97, 08
Mitchell, Capt 74
Miter, Martha 43
Mueller 125
Mygatt, George W 52, 54, 58
N.
Nazro, John 93
Nazro, Mrs. John 110
Nekow, Carl von 121
Nelson, Capt '<'5
Newbre, Capt 67
Noonan, J. A 3
Norris, Charles W 13
Noyes, Dr. T. J 56
Noyes, Thomas J 116
O.
Ogden, George W 7, 11, 14, 15
Ogden, Henry M 10
Ogden, John 57
Ogden, John G 14, 15
Ogden, William B 97
P.
Page, Herman L 53
Papendieck, George 52
Peckham, George W 53, 54
I'eckham, Rufus P 54
Peckham, W. H 54
Pereles, James M 9, 11, 14, 15
Pereles, Thomas J 14, 15
Perkins, John T 58
Pettihone, S 3
Pheatt, Capt 68
Phillipijs, George 127
Pierce, R. W 57
Place, C. A, 9, 15
Platto, J. V. V 52
Pomeroy, Fenimore C 3, 7
Pratt, Capt 67
Prentiss, W. A 3, 7, 8
Pritzlaff, John 93
Preusser, Christian 59
INDEX 145
Q.
Quarles, Capt. Gustavus 121. 122, 125, 128, 129
Quarles, Judge J. V 19
Quin, Jeremiah (>. n, 105
R.
Richardson. George 13, 101
Richardson, James R 122
Robinson, Capt 07
Robinson, Dr. C. C Ill
Roche, Patrick J 76, 77
Rockwell, John 1 22
Rogers, George J 8
Rogei's, James H 53
Rood, S. L 57
Round.v, J. A 53
S.
Saborga, 123
Saveland, Capt r.6
Sayers, Henry 58
Scheiber, Fred 12
Schoeffer, Capt 128
Schoellner 123, 126
Seaver, Lucas 52, 54, 55
Sehlen, John C. H. von 127
Selby, Dr. J. B 114, 116
Seville, James 88
Sexton & Crane 58
Sexton & Wing 58
Sexton, Lorln 58
Shanks, Mary 54
Shepardsou, Clark 7, 41
Shinewith 125
Shorts, Capt 66
Simonds, CD 9, 14
Simpson, E. B 11. 12
SiATei", Charles Milwaukee 98
Si^Ter, Frederick W 10, 11
Smith, Judge A. D 59
Smith, A. Hyatt 95, 96
Smith, Bill 34
Smith. Tully H 9
Smith, Uriel B 8
Smith, J. Mc D 51
Stark, Joshua 10
Starr, Elisha 3
Swift, George W 113
Swift, R. K 60
T.
Tate, Capt 66
Throoit, "Uncle Ben," 57
Torry, Mrs. H. D 55
Turner, Col 85
Thurston, 26
Trayser, Geoi'ge A 3
Trusloaw 75
146 EAELY MILWAUKEE
Turton & Sercomb 91
Tweedy, John H 8
Tyson, Mark 80
U.
Underwood, Lieut 74
Uphaiu, Don A. J 3, 8, 59
Upmann, Capt. Diederich 121, 122, 126
Upman, Herman 121
V.
Vail, George 22
Van Cott, A. B 52
Van Vechten, Peter, Jr 5, 6, 10, 15, 57, 112
Vieau, Andrew J . 22
Vieau, Jacques 7
Vinton 33
Vliet, Garrett 99
W.
Wadsworth, Adams & Co 54
Waffle, Capt 66
Waite, Giles A 8
Walker, George 26
Walker, Isaac P 59
Wall, Caleb 56
Wallis, W. H 9
Walton, W. B 92, 101
Ward, Joe 58
Ward, Lindsey 58
Wardner, P^ed 3, 7, 58
Waters, James 102, 104
Wecbselberg, Julius 12
Weissert, A. G 11
Wells, Daniel, Jr 8, 56
Wells, H. N 23, 122
Wermuth, Otto 76
West 34
Whaling, J. P 53
Whaling, W. J 54
Wheeler, Allen 53, 54
Wheeler, Roxanna Ann 53
White, C. H 22
White, Peter, Sr 22
Whiteacre, Daniel B 122
Wliitney, Dr 110
Whitney, Moses 125
Wiesner, Edward 124
Wight, William Ward 130
Wilbur, Frank P 12, 13
Williams, Henry 56
Winchell 61
Wing, ,7ohn, Jr 58
Winkler, Gen. F. C 13
Wolcott, Dr. E. B Ill, 124
Wolf & Davidson 63
Wright, A. G 11
Wright, Lieut. Abel W 121, 122, 123, 124, 127
Wunderly, Dr 124
INDEX 147
Y.
Yale, Philetus 53
Young, George W 12, 13
Young, William B 53
Young, William P 51, 55
SUBJECTS.
A.
Abolitionism — Trial of Sherman M. Booth 22
Glover Rescue 3
American House 34
Amusements of Childhood in Early Days 29
B.
Belleview Hotel 50
Booth's Trial 22
Bridges 63
C.
Carrying the Mail 24
College Inn 22, 34
D.
Druggists of Early Days 110
E.
Early Picnics 44
Early Settlers 17
They Were Young Men 57
Early Store-keepers 57
F.
Fish, Speculation in 22, 23
First Commissioned Officer from Wisconsin to Fall in War 12!»
First Locomotive 101
First Pest House 114
First School ."'.O
Flora and Fauna of Wisconsin 131
Forest Fires of 1871. 84
Freshets <'>.3
G.
German Settlers 89
Glover Rescue ^
H.
"Hard Winter"— 1837-8 33
Hardships of Settlers '2i\ 30, 39
Haunted House 45
I.
Immigration to Wisconsin 18
Indians in Milwaukee 17, 22, 42
Indians, Treaty With 1 "
J.
Juneau's Claim ~^
148 EAELY MILWAUKEE
K.
Kilbourn's Claim 2(>
Kilbourn's Railway Enterprises 89
L.
La Crosse & Milwaukee Railroad 99
La Crosse Shops 105
Lands Opened to Settlement 17
Land Speculation 25
Lapham Memorial Exercises 130
Lawj'ers in 1845 59
Lighthouse at Wisconsin Street 31
Log House 29
M.
Manufacturing in Pioneer Times 91
Mexican War 120
Military Companies 60
Milwaukee County, Early Boundaries 4
Milwaukee County Court House 3
Milwaukee-Downer College 132
Milwaukee House 23, 50
Milwaukee & Mississippi Railroad 95
Muskrats and Red Shirts 105
O.
Ocean Voyage from Milwaukee 77
Old Settlers' Club— History 3
Incorporated 6
Relics and Library 6
Social Functions 6
Historic Tablets 7
Officers Since 1869 7
I'ublication of Papers 13
Ox Teams 59
P.
Pest House. First 114
Picnics in P]arly Days 44
Pioneer Association of Milwaukee 4, 5
Physicians and Druggists 110
R.
Railway Beginnings 88
Real Estate Speculation, 35 ; Fluctuations in Value 51
Real Estate Si>eculation 35
Fluctuations in Value 51
Recruiting in 1846 121
Relief for Forest Fire Victims 84
Religious Services in Pioneer Times 32
Rescue on tiie Lake 80
Revenue Cutters, First on the Lakes 74
S.
Sailors' ExjX'riences 70
Shipbuilding 68
Shipping in the '50s 63
INDEX 149
Skating On the Marsh 32
On the River 63
Smallpox Epidemic 114
School — First in Milwaukee 30
In Kilboumtown 33
Schools for Girls 47
Squatters 26
T.
Theatrical 48
Topography 30, 31, 44, 64
Trail to Fond du Lac 24
Traveling in Early Days 28, 39
Treaty With Indians 17
V.
Vessel Building 76
Volunteers Depart for Mexico 122, 123, 124
W.
Walker's Claim 26
War With Mexico 120
For the Union 19
Water Front and Shipping 62
Weather Bureau Founded 132
Winter Navigation 85
Wisconsin Street Lighthouse 31
Wreck of Schooner Toledo 77
Y.
Young's Block 51
NOTICE!
Members and others in possession of relics, such as
useful books, pamphlets, newspaper files, manuscript nar-
ratives, diaries, and original documents of every sort per-
taining to the early history of Milwaukee, which they would
like to bestow where they will be very much appreciated
and cared for, are requested to donate them to the Old
Settlers Club of Milwaukee County. Such articles will
be called for upon notification by telephone or letter to the
Old Settlers Club of Milwaukee County, Milwaukee, Room
13, Loan and Trust Building.
