Page 275 - La Société canadienne d'histoire de l'Église catholique - Rapport 1961

COMMERCIAL HISTORY OF MILWAUKEE. 271

and ~(ILBOURN, of nearly equal height and size! The first
from Montreal, the second from Virginia, the third from Con-
necticut. The domains of the first lay north and east of the
Milwaukee River; that of the second south of the Milwaukee
and Blenomonee Rivers, that of the third north of the Menom-
onee and west of the Rlilwaukee-three grand divisions. Upon
one point these men were agreed, and only one, and that was
that neither of the others were to have a town on their lands.
The Virginian said, behold the country at my rear, and the
harbor at hand; certainly the town must be here. The Con-
necticut man said this river has two sides, and it's a meandered
stream, and under the laws of Congress you cannot bridge it.
The country is also behind me, and such a country! See the
fine bluffs for residences, and the convenient valley for business,
and the long line of docks along West Water street for ship-
ping and other commercial purposes. Mr. JUNEAU said, all
very good, gentlemen, but the people come and buy lots of me,
and I sell them. Now, as I said, in the early days the two
sides of the river were well-defined and there was no way of
orossing them except by a ferry at Walker's Point, and one at
Spring Street. Those who had come and bought the French-
man's lots at length insisted upon a bridge, and the Chestnut
Street Bridge was built somewhere about the year 1839.
This led to a long contention in the courts, How it ever
came out I never knew, only that the bridge continued to stand
until it fell over by its own weight. The County repaired it
again, and gave to Mr. JAS. 11. ROGERS the broad sides of the
clumsy superstructure which had fallen down. These sides
werc made of heavy pine plank, into a kind of lattice work.
Mr. ROGERS, in the summer of 1842, moved them down to
Spring Street, and made of them a kind of float bridge which
was used for a while to crose upon by teams as well as foot-
men. It was so light that if a team did not move pretty lively
it would sink. Several immersions were gained by this pro-
aess. A freshet in the fall carried away the concern. In the