January 31 – Anniversary of the Founding of Milwaukee

nPostedn on January 31, 2017

nInread that Milwaukee formed, on this date in 1846, after the MilwaukeenBridge War.

n
n

nInwondered, “Wait? The Milwaukee Bridge War? It wasn’t about bridges,nright? It was…a battle on a bridge? Maybe?”

n
n

nWell,nto some extent, it was about a bridge (or two or five!).

n
n

Younsee, back in the early 1800s, there was no city of Milwaukeen(Wisconsin). Instead, there were three settlements on the MilwaukeenRiver. Solomon Juneau started Juneautown on the east side of thenriver way back in 1818. Some sixteen years later, Byron Kilbournnstarted Kilbourntown on the west side of the river, and George W.nWalker started Walker’s Point to the south of the other twonsettlements.

n
n

nEvennthough Juneautown had been in existence for more than a decade whennKilbourn founded his settlement, he didn’t pay any attention to thenstreet layout of Juneautown when laying out his own town. He evenntried to make sure that his newer town was THE town – the onenpeople knew about and used and shipped through and so forth. So, whennhe drew up maps, he showed the east side of the river being just annunnamed blank space, as if it were just wilderness. And he even liednto people traveling by steamer, telling them that Juneautown was justnan Indian trading post.

n
n

nPeoplentraveling across the river from Juneautown to Kilbourntown used ferrynboats, but in 1840 the Wisconsin Territory’s legislature ordered thenconstruction of one or more bridge. Solomon Juneau helped build anbridge over Chestnut Street, and by 1842 four more bridges werenbuild: one at Spring Street, one at Oneida, one connecting Juneautownnto Walker Point, and one Kibourn built across another river.

n
n

nKilbournnwas opposed to three out of the four bridges, finding only SpringnStreet bridge to be acceptable to his shipping business.

n
n

nSeveralnyears went by. East-siders were getting upset that west-sidersnwouldn’t help pay for bridge maintenance. Then, in 1845, Kilbourn’snfavorite bridge was rammed by a ship, and rumors started circulatingnamong west-siders that it had been done on purpose by a ship’sncaptain who had been paid off by the east-siders.

n
n

nWest-sidersndecided to have their revenge (even though the accident was probablynjust an accident) – and they grabbed some tools and took down theirnside of the Chestnut Street bridge.

n
n

nYounknow what happens when one half of the bridge is taken down, don’tnyou?

n
n

nEast-sidersnwere mad and gathered up all the weapons they could find –nincluding an old cannon – and prepared for war!

n
n

nThencannon was aimed right for Byron Kilbourn’s house. However, they heldntheir fire when they heard that Kilbourn’s daughter had just died.

n
n

nWest-sidersndecided to remove the Oneida bridge and use the pieces to repair thenSpring Street bridge. Of course, that made the east-siders reallynmadn– because now BOTH of their favored bridges were destroyed. Time tonreally take their revenge – the east-siders destroyed the SpringnStreet bridge and Kilbourn’s bridge that crossed another river.

n
n

nAack!

n
n

nThennext few weeks were tense, but tempers slowly cooled. Eventually, atnthe end of that year, three new bridges were planned, and a monthnlater the three settlements merged into one new entity called Milwaukee.

n
n

nAlsonon this date: