|
| |
History
The Milwaukee area was originally inhabited by the Fox, Mascouten, Potawatomi,
and Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) American Indian tribes. French missionaries and traders
first passed through the area in the late 1600s and 1700s. The word "Milwaukee"
comes from an Algonquian word Millioke which means "Good/Beautiful/Pleasant
Land" (c.f. Potawatomi language minwaking, Ojibwe language ominowakiing) or
"Gathering place [by the water]" (c.f. Potawatomi language manwaking, Ojibwe
language omaniwakiing).
Milwaukee has three "founding fathers," of whom French Canadian Solomon Juneau
was first to come to the area, in 1818. The Juneaus founded the town called
Juneau's Side, or Juneautown, that began attracting more settlers. However,
Byron Kilbourn was Juneau's equivalent on the west side of the Milwaukee River.
In competition with Juneau, he established Kilbourntown west of the Milwaukee
River, and made sure that the streets running toward the river did not join with
those on the east side. This accounts for the large number of angled bridges
that still exist in Milwaukee today. Further, Kilbourn distributed maps of the
area which only showed Kilbourntown, implying that Juneautown did not exist or
that the east side of the river was uninhabited and thus undesirable. The third
prominent builder was George H. Walker. He claimed land to the south of the
Milwaukee River, along with Juneautown, where he built a log house in 1834. This
area grew and became known as Walker's Point.
By the 1840s, the three towns had grown to such an extent that on 31 January
1846 they combined to incorporate as the City of Milwaukee and elected L.
Solomon Juneau as Milwaukee's first mayor. A great number of German immigrants
had helped increase the city's population during the 1840s and continued to
migrate to the area during the following decades. Milwaukee has even been called
"Deutsches Athen" (German Athens), and into the twentieth century, there were
more German speakers and German-language newspapers than there were English
speakers and English-language newspapers in the city. (To this day, the
Milwaukee phonebook includes more than forty pages of Schmitts or Schmidts, far
more than the pages of Smiths.)
During the middle and late 19th century, Wisconsin and the Milwaukee area became
the final destination of many German immigrants fleeing the Revolution of 1848.
In Wisconsin they found the inexpensive land and the freedoms they sought. The
German heritage and influence in the Milwaukee area is widespread. In addition
to Germans, Milwaukee saw large influxes of immigrants from Poland, Italy,
Ireland as well as many Jews from Central and Eastern Europe. By 1910, Milwaukee
(along with New York City) shared the distinction of having the largest
percentage of foreign-born residents in the United States.
The late 19th saw the incorporation of Milwaukee's first suburbs. The
aforementioned Bay View existed as an independent village from 1879-1886. In
1892, Whitefish Bay, South Milwaukee, and Wauwatosa each incorporated. They were
followed by Cudahy (1895), North Milwaukee (1897) and East Milwaukee, later
known as Shorewood, in 1900. The early 20th century saw the additions of West
Allis (1902) and West Milwaukee (1906), which completed the first generation of
so-called "inner-ring" suburbs.
During the first half of the twentieth century, Milwaukee was the hub of the
socialist movement in the United States. Milwaukeeans elected three socialist
mayors during this time: Emil Seidel (1910-1912), Daniel Hoan (1916-1940), and
Frank Zeidler (1948-1960), and remains the only major city in the country to
have done so. Often referred to as "Sewer Socialists," the Milwaukee socialists
were characterized by their practical approach to government and labor. Also
during this time, a small, but burgeoning community of African-Americans who
emigrated from the south formed a community that would come to be known as
Bronzeville.
Milwaukee, like many northern industrial cities, continued to grow tremendously
until the late 1950s. Milwaukee was home to immigrants from Ireland, Germany,
Hungary, Poland and other central European nations. There was also great
northward migration of African-Americans from the Southern United States. With
the large influx of immigrants, Milwaukee became one of the 15 largest cities in
the nation, and by the mid-1960s, its population reached nearly 750,000.
Starting in the late 1960s, like many cities in the "rust belt," Milwaukee saw
its population start to decline due to various factors, including the loss of
blue collar jobs and the phenomenon of "white flight." However, in recent years
the city began to make strides in improving its economy, neighborhoods, and
image, resulting in the revitalization of neighborhoods such as the Historic
Third Ward, the East Side, and more recently, Bay View, along with attracting
new businesses to its downtown area. The city continues to make plans for
increasing its future revitalization through various projects. Largely due to
its efforts to preserve its history, in 2006 Milwaukee was named one of the
"Dozen Distinctive Destinations" by the National Trust for Historic
Preservation.
| |
|
