nized, however, by the national government until many years afterward. He was a native of Virginia, and but twenty-three years of age in 1834. He earned an enviable reputation for ability and integrity, was elected to the territorial legislature in 1842, and made speaker of the house the following year. In 1850 he was elected mayor of Milwaukee. He was an important citizen from the first, and one of the most interesting characters in the western world. He was one of the three-the others being Solomon Juneau and Bryan Kilbourn-who are generally spoken of as foremost in civilizing and building up Milwaukee. For many years the place was divided into three sections, called respectively Walker's point, Juneau's side, and Kilbourn town, in honor of these three distinguished claimants who held the land, attempting each for himself to found a city thereon, and over which for a season each exercised almost kingly powers. Bryan Kilbourn purchased his tract of land on the west side of the river, still known as Kilbourntown. He was alive to the possibilities of the locality at a very early date. He visited Milwaukee in 1834, and contracted for the building of a bridge across the Menomonee river, near its junction with the Milwaukee-and about this pioneer bridge and other projected bridges a chapter might be written of surpassing interest.

The year 1835 brought the site of the prospective city into more special and extended notice. Daniel Wells, Jr., wrote from Green Bay, August 30, 1805, describing an extended tour through the Wisconsin country. He says: "I traveled twenty miles in one direction without finding any brooks that contained water; their beds being all dry. Some good pine and mill sites, however, which I may possibly buy. I have purchased considerable real estate at Milwaukee, mostly village property. The land about Milwaukee is the best in the territory, and as Milwaukee is the only harbor for some distance, either way on the lake, it must of necessity become a place of great importance. It is now laid out in lots for two miles north and south, and one and a half miles east and west, which lots will, I think, sell immediately for from $100 to $1,000, and much money has been made speculating in lots already." Mr. Wells was born in Maine, and at this date was twenty-seven years of age, possessing rare shrewdness and foresight. He returned to the east, closed his business there, and early in 1836 removed his family to Milwaukee. Henceforward he took a prominent part in the development of the city and territory. In August of the same year, 1836, he was appointed justice of the peace by the territorial government, and in 1838 a judge of probate. He was elected to the legis lature, was sent to congress for several terms, was one of the chief projectors of the first railroad in Wisconsin, and in active business affairs

became closely identified with the industrial fortunes of the state, accumulating a large fortune.

Dr. Enoch Chase and his wife had been in Milwaukee upwards of a year when Mr. and Mrs. Wells arrived. Dr. Chase was the first physician

in the city-his diploma was granted by Dartmouth college in 1831-and Mrs. Chase was the second white woman to make Milwaukee her permanent home. The Methodists held religious services for the first time in June, 1835, in their log house at the mouth of the river, and Rev. J. L. Barber,

a Congregationalist, preached occasionally in the same place. The first church edifice in Milwaukee was not erected until 1837, and by the Presbyterians. Dr. Chase was a New Englander, and a relative of Salmon P. Chase and of the noted Bishop Philander Chase.

But 1836 was the great year of boom for Milwaukee. People of all sorts arrived early in the spring-traders, adventurers, speculators and home-seekers; presently the rush became enormous, and lasted until late in the autumn. Buildings went up like magic. Stores with three sides enclosed and slab roofs appeared sometimes in a single day. Lots sold at fabulous prices, and enormous rents were paid for the privilege of opening and selling goods on vacant ground. A land office was opened, saw-mills were quickly in operation; that distinguishing mark of civilization, a jail (which was filled before November) was built, as well as a courthouse; and a newspaper was started. Everybody had in his pocket or in his mind a fortune in land. Speculators went to bed every night expecting to double their wealth on the morrow. Money was plenty, and men grew rich with the rapidity of thought. Even the calm and ordinarily level-headed Solomon Juneau was seized with the common insanity and purchased back in the autumn for thousands some lots he had sold in the spring for hundreds.

Among those whom the land craze reached were Mr. and Mrs. John Weaver, of Oneida County, New York. They bade farewell to all that was near and dear to them, and with two children and their household goods started for Milwaukee. Mrs. Weaver's account of their arrival at midnight on the 27th of September, gives a vivid picture of the condition of affairs at that date. She writes: "About twelve o'clock midnight we were a mile from Milwaukee. Late as it was we had to go ashore in a small row-boat, which went three times from the schooner to the land to take passengers and goods. We went the second time. There was no harbor or pier, and the sailors rowed as near as they could and then jumped ashore with a rope in hand, pulling the boat to them and helping the rest of us to land. There we were with our two little children on the beach of the lake, a long way from a house or any building, and the night so dark that we could scarcely see to walk on the beach and keep clear of the lake. We took the children, each of us one, in our arms, and walked half a mile along close by the lake, the thunder growing louder and nearer. We came to a small log house, where lived three families, but they were all in bed by the time we got there. We rapped at the door, and a man called out to know what was wanted. My husband answered that he had just landed from a schooner, with his wife and two children,

and would like to get shelter the rest of the night. A lady let us in, the only man at home being lame and unable to get out of bed. They were kind enough to give us shelter, but had no bed for us; so my husband

went back to where we had landed and brought a loose bed, before it rained very hard. We remained that winter with my husband's brotherin-law near Milwaukee."

The land they had expected to buy was not then in the market, but before spring the claims had been adjusted, and the cabin built into which they moved. As soon as fairly settled Mrs. Weaver undertook the teaching of a small school for her own and her neighbors' children. She writes: “I suppose many young mothers and housekeepers would marvel at the idea of a woman undertaking to do her own work for a family of six, and at the same time teach a school of twenty scholars in the same room, which was only twelve by fourteen feet in size. But as necessity was then, and had been, and perhaps always will be, the mother of many inventions, we found that by patience and perseverance it could be done at least for a few months. At the end of four summer months I found it necessary to give up my school, so as to take time to do my fall work and prepare my family for the coming winter. We had no more school for a year except on Sundays. We opened again, after a short time, the door of our little cabin for Sunday-school, in which little children were taught to read and spell, and older ones that could read learned Testament lessons. With the addition of prayers and singing, the exercises of from two to three hours passed very pleasantly, and as we then thought profitably to ourselves and our children."

Meanwhile the inflated young city of Milwaukee was on the verge of a terrible collapse. The winter of 1836-37 was comparatively quiet, the speculators and adventurers having disappeared until the spring should open. It was supposed that property and population would thrive as rapidly in 1837 as they had in 1836. Instead came the panic. The financial cyclone that burst with terrific fury in New York early in April extended to the remotest quarters of the Union. Eight of the states in part or wholly failed. Even the national government could not pay its debts. Universal bankruptcy seemed impending. The lots and lands in Milwaukee for which fabulous prices had been paid became in a twinkling of no commercial value whatever. The speculators and the capitalists did not reappear with the spring sunshine, and the frightened and half-dazed inhabitants were in actual danger of starvation. Those who had money enough to take them elsewhere departed forthwith never to return, while those who had no ready cash made the best of the agonizing situation. Lots for which $500, or even $1,000, had been paid the year before, were often given outright in exchange for a barrel of pork or flour; and it is said that some lots which to-day are worth $12,000, were obtained at that time in exchange for a suit of clothes. The imaginary wealth of the people had vanished like the morning dew, and a burden was entailed upon the rising city the effects of which were apparent for an entire decade.