Page 285 - La Société canadienne d'histoire de l'Église catholique - Rapport 1961

COMMERCIAL IIISTOEY OF MILWAUKEE. 281
health, I present Mr. HARRISON LUDINCTON, Dr. WEEKS, Wnf.
and
BROWN, BYRON I<II,BOURN, GEO. H. WALKER.*
Tho commercial prosperity of Milwaultee for the past, is
largely to be attributed to the economy, industry, skill and en-
terprise of its inhabitants. Our people have been a prudent
and economical people, throughout our entire history. Our
leading and wealthy citizens have get most co~nmendable ex-
amples of plainness of dress, manners, and the establishment of
gayety, fashion, foppery, and snobbishness has been utterly
eschewed by them as a class. Convenience and comfort have
been the leading ideas in residences and grounds, and substan-
tiality in stores and public buildings.

TVho Built illilwaukee.
I said that our people had been an industrious, a hard work-
ing people. Who have drawn from the quarries, the bowels of
the earth, and from the forest, the huge mass of material that
have built the thousands of our dwellings, stores, shops, and
public buildings ?
Who hag leveled these massive hills and filled up the valleys
and made the hundreds of miles of streets and side walks, but
the noble army of mechanics and laborers who constitute so
large and invaluable a portion of our population ?
I said that our people were a skillful people. I apprehend
that few among you, gentlemen, realize or know the extent of
our manufactures. Other cities have congregated their work-
men into great establishments, which attract the public eye and
attegtion. Our manufacturers are scattered. To a great ex-
-
tent they are the owners of their own houses and shops. This
is p culiarly true of our German fellow-citizens, and how great
ar the number of these, and how varied are their productions?
'A hey are scattered in every part of the city. Wagons, car-
riages, clothing, boots and shoes, cabinet work, and a great

+ The weight of the smallest of these gentlemen is, say 220 Ibs., nnd the
largest, Col. WALKER, 350 Ibs. E. D. 11.
35m