Page 269 - La Société canadienne d'histoire de l'Église catholique - Rapport 1961

COMMERCIAL HISTORY OF MILWAUKEE. 265
CRAWFORD, Wauwatosa,) at another by Capt. HUBBELL, and
of
at another by Capt. LANE, performed the business of running
up and down the river, taking passengers and freight to and
fro, to the steamers and vessels in the bay. She drew about
two fcct of water, and accordingly could always get over the
bar at the mouth of the river. This serviceable craft went out
of use in 1844 or '45. But the engine, if I mistake not, has
kept on its puffing ever since, just as when it ran up and down
the river, and drives the machinery that has planed the floors of
more than half of the houses of this entire city, at the estab-
lishment of J. B. SMITH & CO., in the Fourth Ward.

The Water Power, terminating in the Second Ward, and
upon which so much machinery is now located and propelled,
is an outgrowth of the Rock River Canal Company.
BYRON KILBOURN, Esq. was the originator of thie Company,
and secured so much of its construction as has produced this
valuable improvement to the City.
Capt. JOHN AKDERSON built the dam for the Rock River
Canal Company, in the year 1842. It is made of untrimmed
trees entirely, with their tops placed up stream and loaded with
gravel. A very simple structurc, but of the most enduring and
substantial character. Mr. WILLIAM W. BROWN, at that time
an enterprising merchant, bore an important part as a contrac-
tor, in the construction of the canal, from the dam down to its
present terminus in the Second Ward. The water was let in
and it was made ready for use in December, 1842. Mr. SAM-
UEL BROWN, now of the Sixth Ward, and DENJAMIN MOFBAT
built a saw-mill near or upon the site of the present P,hcenix
Mills, in the year 1843. This mill suh~equently became the
property of the Messrs. COMSTOCK and Mr. REUBEN CHASE.
They greatly enlarged the establishment, adding a variety of
machinery to it, and had just about got it running, when it took
fire and burned to the ground, in the summer of 1846.
33m