Martin Drive History -- History of the City of Milwaukee---Unofficial

The first Europeans known to have visited the site of Milwaukee were Father Jacques Marquette, the Jesuit missionary, and his companion, Louis Joliet, who on their return in the autumn of 1673 to the mission of St Francis Xavier at De Pere from their trip down the Mississippi, skirted the west shore of Lake Michigan in their canoes from Chicago northward. Milwaukee Bay is distinctly marked in the map attributed to Marquette, the original of which is now in the Jesuit College at Montreal, Canada; it was discovered in a convent in Montreal by Felix Martin (1804-1886), of the Society of Jesus, and was copied by Parkman. In 1679 La Salle and his party probably stopped here on. their way south, and in the Jesuit Relations of that year the name Milwaukee first appears, as Millioke. This, and the various other spellings of the name, attempted to reproduce the Indian name of the village here, which Kelton thinks was pronounced Minewagi and meant there is a good point or there is a point where huckleberries grow, in allusion to the fertile soil. Doubtless the coureurs du bois who at this time began to frequent the Wisconsin forests, touched at the bay many times within the succeeding years as the place was known to be a favorite rendezvous of the Fox (or Outagamie) Indians. In 1699-1700 Father St Cosme, a Recollet friar, was here, finding bands of Mascoutens, Fox, Winnebago and Potawatomi. He called the river Melwarik, Melwarck and Meliwarik.

For more than half a century no definite reference to the place can be found. In 1760 its advantageous situation attracted the adventurous trader, Alexander Henry, the first Englishman known. to have visited the spot. Three years later (1763) there was a French fur-trading post here, but it is uncertain just when it was established or how long it was maintained. In 795 Jacques Vieau, a Frenchman in the employ of the North-Western Fur Company, established a permanent post here, which seems to have continued, under his direction, with practically no interruption until 1820, when it was superseded by that of Astors American Fur Company. Vieau built a dwelling and a warehouse and conducted extensive trading operations. In 1818 there joined the settlement a young Frenchman named Laurent Solomon. Juneau (1793-1856), who married one of Vieaus daughters and eventually bought out his business. Juneau and several others who arrived at about the same time built homes on the east side of the river near the foot of the present Wisconsin Street. Vieaus house and store was at this time on the south side. Milwaukee was on the direct route of travel between Fort Dearborn (Chicago) and the flourishing settlement at Green Bay, and at once after the treaties between the United States and the Menominee in 1831 and 1833 for the extinguishing of the Indian titles, settlers began to come to ,the neighborhood. A map of 1830 shows a small settlement on. Milwalky Bay ; and the treaty of the 8th of February 1831 speaks of the Milwauky or Manawauky River. Morgan L. Martin (1805-1887) of Green Bay, a lawyer and judge, and a delegate to Congress in 1845-1847 from Wisconsin territory, explored the harbour facilities in 1833 and made a map of the place which he called Milwaukie. He entered into an agreement later in the same year with Juneau and Michael Dousman for its development. A saw-mill was built in 1834, and settlers began to arrive. The east side was platted in the summer of 1835, and very soon afterward the plat of a settlement on the west side was also recorded, Byron Kilbourn being the chief projector and proprietor of the latter. The rival settlements, officially known as Milwaukee East Side and Milwaukee West Side, bore the popular designations of Juneautown and Kilbourntown. A third settlement, begun on the south side by George H. Walker and known as Walkers Point, was subsequently platted independently. The rivalry between the east and west side towns was intense, the plats were so surveyed that the streets did not meet at the river, and there were bitter quarrels over the building of bridges. Milwaukee county was set off from Brown county in 1834, and in. 1836 the establishment of townships was authorized. Under this act the east and west sides were independently incorporated in February 1837. The first court house was built on land donated by Morgan Martin and Solomon Juneau in 1836. A realization that the continuation of independent and rival corporations retarded growth eventually led to a compromise by which the two were united as two wards of the same village in 1839, the autonomy of each being still recognized by an odd arrangement whereby each maintained practically independent management of its finances and affairs. Walkers Point, the south side, was annexed as a third ward in 1845, and in 1846 the three wards were incorporated as the city of Milwaukee, of which Solomon Juneau was elected, first mayor. The influence of this early rivalry may be seen in several provisions of the existing city charter.

About 1840 a strong tide of immigration from Germany set in, continuing steadily for a half-century. It was greatly accelerated by the German revolutionary movements of the late forties, which added to the cities population a considerable element of educated Germans of the upper dass. From this time the Teutonic character of the population was marked. The first newspaper, the Advertiser, began publication in 1836; the first bank was established in 1837. In 1839 George Smith and Alexander Mitchell established the Fire and Marine Insurance Company Bank. As Mitchells Bank this institution was known for forty years as one of the strongest banking houses west of the Alleghenies, its notes passing at par during panics in which even the government issues were depreciated. Through it the Chicago Milwaukee & St Paul and other western railways were financed. Beer was first brewed in Milwaukee in. 1840. Milwaukee was connected with Chicago by telegraph in 1849, and by railway in 1856. Previous to this, however, in 1851, the first train ran over- the Chicago Milwaukee & St Paul railway to Waukesha, and in 1857 through trains were run over the same road to the Mississippi at Prairie du Chien.