Читать книгу Memoirs of Milwaukee County, Volume 1 - Jerome A. Watrous - Страница 10

SKETCH OF EDWARD D. HOLTON — ELECTION RESULTS IN DIFFERENT YEARS, AND PERSONAL MENTION OF SUCCESSFUL CANDIDATES — CENSUS OF 1846 — MEMBERS OF FIRST CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION — SKETCHES OF HORACE CHASE, FRANCIS HUEBSCHMANN, AND OTHERS — FIRST CONSTITUTION VOTED DOWN — SECOND CONSTITUTION ADOPTED — SKETCH OF GEN. RUFUS KING.

The territorial legislature, at a session held in Madison in March, 1843, passed an act providing for the election of probate judges, sheriffs, and justices of the peace, by the people, these positions having previously been filled by appointment by the governor, "with the advice and consent" of the council. The election for sheriff and judge of probate was held in May of that year and resulted in the election of Ed. D. Holton as sheriff and Joshua Hathaway as probate judge.

Edward Dwight Holton, a distinguished pioneer of Wisconsin, was born at Lancaster, N. H., April 28, 1815, the son of Joseph and Mary (Fisk) Holton. In his earlier years he worked on the farm on which he was born, and when fourteen years of age was indentured to D. Smith, of Bath, N. H., for a term of four years as a merchant's clerk, his compensation to be a salary of thirty-five dollars per year. His facilities for obtaining an education were what the common schools afforded, but he was fond of books, and diligently applied himself to study during his spare hours, and thus gathered sufficient knowledge to qualify himself for teaching. At the close of his indenture he returned to his native village, where he taught school a year, after which he became clerk in a store in the town of Lisbon, N. H. In the spring of 1837 he proceeded to Buffalo and assumed the responsible position of bookkeeper and cashier in the shipping and forwarding house of M. Kingman & Company, and continued to act in that capacity nearly four years. At the end of that period, in the fall of 1840, having determined to become a merchant, and believing himself qualified for a more independent place, he resigned his position, purchased goods on his own account and proceeded to Milwaukee, where he opened a store and carried on a prosperous and constantly increasing business until 1850. In 1849, believing that something should be done to open up the rich prairies of the interior and develop the latent resources of the state, he interested himself in the organization of a railroad company to construct a road that should traverse the state westward from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi, and labored earnestly to secure stock subscriptions for the proposed road. He became its active manager and financial agent, and remained connected with the great enterprise until it was completed to Prairie du Chien. As a member of the legislature of the state in 1860 he carried through a law called a readjustment law, by which the bondholders were permitted to take possession of the road, with a new bond or preferred stock as they might select, they having a first lien, and the subsequent liens and ownerships to be preserved intact, and deriving dividends in their order as first, second, third and fourth classes, the revenues of the property being employed for the payment of dividends on these classes; and in the event of no revenue to either of the classes in any one year, there should be no loss of ownership or position, but it simply waited until revenue enough should accrue, when it should draw its dividend or interest. In 1852 Mr. Holton became the president of the Farmers' and Millers' Bank of Milwaukee, a small institution of $50,000 capital, then recently organized and in operation under the new banking law of the state, and continued in its successful management for ten years. Early in 1862 President Lincoln conferred upon Mr. Holton the appointment of allotment commissioner. Congress having authorized the appointment of three for each state, the object being to secure an allotment of soldiers' pay, or a part thereof, to their families or friends, and thus save from waste in the camp vast sums that would be valuable if sent home. Quitting his large and varied business, he gave himself personally to this work, followed the Wisconsin regiments from state to state, and with his associates was instrumental in securing large allotments from the regiments visited. In 1863, resigning the presidency of his bank — first having taken steps to bring it under the new law as a national bank — with his family he sailed for Europe, bearing influential letters from Secretary Seward and others. At the expiration of a year, with his family he safely returned from his European journey, and retired to his farm in the suburbs of Milwaukee. After the great Chicago fire he was called from his retirement to take the management of the Northwestern National Insurance Company, with a paid-up capital of only $150,000, and he brought it within three years to one of the strongest and soundest companies in the country, its capital in this brief period being increased to $600,000. In connection with his services as manager of the Northwestern National Insurance Company, he took an important part in organizing and maintaining the International Board of Lake Underwriters, of which he was president from its organization to the date of his death. He was a prominent member of the National Board of Trade, having been its president, and often appointed upon important committees. In 1869 he made an able and telling speech before the National Board of Trade at Richmond, Va., on the subject of our national finances and in favor of returning to a specie basis. Soon after his advent to the territory of Wisconsin, he was elected, without any (solicitation on his part, sheriff of the county of Milwaukee, embracing at that time what are now the counties of Waukesha and Milwaukee. This was in 1843. He was frequently the candidate of the Liberty party, and ran for Congress in the infancy of that political organization. In 1853 he became the nominee of the Free Soil party of Wisconsin for governor against William A. Barstow, Democrat, and J. C. Baird, Whig, concentrating, for the first time in the history of the state, a large Free Soil vote. In 1856 he was nominated as one of the prominent candidates for United States senator, the other two being J. R. Doolittle and T. O. Howe. He, however, withdrew from the field, leaving Mr. Doolittle, who held similar opinions, to be made United States senator. He became a staunch Republican; but was not a politician in the common acceptation of that term. In 1845 he married Lucinda C. Millard, a cousin of the late President Millard Fillmore. Mr. Holton died in Milwaukee in 1890.

At the September election for county officers the following were the successful candidates: Solomon Juneau, register of deeds; Clinton Walworth, treasurer; George S. West, surveyor; and John A. Messenger, coroner.

The political contest of 1844 was a spirited one and resulted in the election of the following gentlemen to fill the various positions: Adam E. Ray, James H. Kimball, and James Kneeland, members of the territorial Council; Charles E. Brown, Pitts Ellis, Byron Kilbourn, Benjamin H. Mooers, William Shew, and George H. Walker, members of the House; Owen Aldrich, sheriff; Solomon Juneau, register of deeds; Burr S. Crafts, clerk; Rufus Parks, treasurer; Clinton Walworth, judge of probate; George S. West, surveyor; and Joseph R. Treat, coroner.

Among those who came to Milwaukee in 1841 was James Kneeland, who three years later was honored by election to the upper house of the territorial legislature, as stated above. From the day he landed in the future "Cream City" he was one of its most active and prominent citizens. He was a native of Leroy, Livingston county, New York, but came to Milwaukee from Chicago, where he had been previously engaged upon the Illinois canal as a successful contractor. He brought a large stock of general merchandise, the largest that had, up to that time been brought by any one firm, and he opened his place of business under the firm name of James Kneeland & Co., the partner being John Clifford. This firm was dissolved, however, on Dec. 1, 1841, Mr. Clifford retiring, and Nicholas A. McClure became a partner. This partnership, too, was of short duration, Mr. McClure soon retiring, after which Mr. Kneeland remained alone until 1847, when a new partnership was entered into for five years, with William Brown, or "Albany Brown," as he was usually designated, and Milton Edward Lyman, as the other partners, the last-named gentleman remaining so connected, however, but a short time. In 1852 Mr. Kneeland went out of the mercantile business, in order to devote his whole time to the improvement of his real estate, of which he had a large amount that was fast becoming very valuable owing to the influx of population, and to the improvement of this property and the enjoyment of the "unearned increment" he devoted the remainder of his active life. He did much to beautify and adorn Milwaukee in the way of ornamental shade trees, and his private residence and grounds were among the finest in the city. He was quite prominent in the early municipal affairs, and as a member of the legislative council, in 1845, outwitted those who were engineering a bill in opposition to the city charter; and he was successful in securing the passage of the bill under which the charter was adopted. In political faith he was a Democrat, and in religious faith an Episcopalian, being one of the pillars of St. James' church.

Byron Kilbourn came to Milwaukee from the state of Ohio in 1835. He was by profession a civil engineer, and as such held a high rank in the profession. He was prominent in the organization of the Prairie du Chien and LaCrosse railroads, particularly the latter, of which he might truthfully be called the father. He took a deep interest in politics as a Democrat, served as mayor of the city two terms, and to his liberality the city was indebted for the ground upon which stands the Kilbourn Park reservoir. Upon the organization of a village government for what was known as the West Side, in 1837, Mr. Kilbourn was chosen as the first president, and the same year he built "The Badger," the first steam-boat ever built in Milwaukee. The year 1838 found him a member of the board of trustees for the West Side village, and in 1854 he was elected mayor of the city. He became a member of the board of directors of the board of trade, when it was organized on Jan. 16, 1856. Mr. Kilbourn died at Jacksonville, Florida, Dec. 16, 1870, at the age of sixty-nine years, and his body was laid to rest in that city.

From the time of its creation until 1845 the county of Washington had been attached to Milwaukee county for judicial purposes, but at the session of the territorial legislature, convened in January, 1845, it was organized for judicial purposes and became a full-fledged division of the territory. At the same session a law was passed which provided for an election by the qualified electors of Milwaukee county, for or against the removal of the seat of justice. The vote was to be taken at the spring election in 1846. and if a majority of the votes cast were in favor of "removal," the seat of justice of the county was to be removed to Prairieville (now Waukesha). If any election was held in pursuance of this law the returns of it cannot be found; but it is probable that none was held, for the legislature of 1846, prior to the time set for holding the county seat election, passed an act dividing the county of Milwaukee and organizing the county of Waukesha, subject to the decision of the inhabitants of the proposed new county. The project carried, and thus, as has been stated on a preceding page, Milwaukee county was reduced to its present size, as regards territory, in 1846. Another act passed at this session of the territorial legislature specially authorized the board of supervisors of Milwaukee county to levy and collect $3,000, subject to the approval of tax-payers at town meeting, to be expended in the construction of roads and bridges. And by still another enactment, Joachim Grenhagen, his associates, successors and assigns, were authorized to erect and maintain a dam across the Milwaukee river, on sections 19 or 20, town 8, range 22 east, in Milwaukee county, at what has since been called Good Hope.

The election in 1845 resulted in the choice of the following gentlemen for the positions named: Curtis Reed, Jacob H. Kimball, and James Kneeland, members of the Council; Samuel H. Barstow, John Crawford, James Magone, Benjamin H. Mooers, Luther Parker, and William H. Thomas, members of the House of Representatives; William A. Rice, register of deeds; Silas Griffith, treasurer; Robert L. Ream, clerk; George S. West, surveyor; Joseph R. Treat, coroner.

On June 1, 1846, a census of the city and county of Milwaukee was taken, and the result showed a very flattering increase in the population. The official figures were as follows: Franklin. 747; Granville, 1,531; Greenfield, 1,032; Lake, 447; Milwaukee, 490; Oak Creek, 732; Wauwatosa, 1,112; city of Milwaukee, 9,501; making a total of 15,592 in city and county.

The September election in 1846, resulted in the choice of the following: Horatio N. Wells, member of the Council; William Shew, Andrew Sullivan, and William W. Brown, members of the House of Representatives; George E. Graves, sheriff; William S. Wells, register of deeds; Isaac P. Walker, judge of probate; Charles P. Evarts, county clerk; Silas Griffith, treasurer; John B. Vliet, surveyor; Joseph A. Liebhaber, coroner.

At the January, 1846, session of the legislature a bill was passed, the principal feature of which was that on the first Tuesday of April, "every white male inhabitant above the age of twenty-one years, who shall have resided in the territory for six months, next previous thereto, and who shall either be a citizen of the United States or shall have filed his declaration of intention to become such according to the laws of the United States on the subject of naturalization," shall be authorized to vote for or against the formation of a state government. If a majority of all the votes were "for state government," the governor was to make an apportionment among the several counties of delegates to form a state constitution. The basis was one delegate for every 1,300 inhabitants, and an additional delegate for a fraction greater than a majority of said number, but there was to be one delegate to each organized county. The vote of the people in April was about six to one in favor of a state government, Milwaukee county giving a good majority, and upon the basis of the population given above the county was given twelve members in the constitutional convention. The election to fill these positions was held on the day of the regular annual election, the first Monday in September, and the following gentlemen were the successful candidates: Charles E. Browne, Horace Chase, John Cooper, John Crawford, Garrett M. Fitzgerald, Wallace W. Graham, Francis Huebschmann, Asa Kinney, James Magone, John H. Tweedy, Don A. J. Upham, and Garret Vliet. Upon the meeting of the convention in October Mr. Upham was elected president and served as such during the deliberations.

Horace Chase, one of Milwaukee's prominent representatives in this first constitutional convention, was born at Derby, Orleans county, Vermont, Dec. 25, 1810, and came of a New England family, descended from one of the colonists of 1629. Jacob Chase, his father, was a farmer, and the son was brought up to that occupation. Before he was seventeen years of age, however, he manifested a fondness for trade, and went to Barton, Vermont, where he became a clerk in a country store. In 1833 he went to Stanstead, Canada, and found employment there in the same capacity for a year or more, when he determined to "go south" and fixed upon Charleston, S. C, as a desirable place to locate. Through the representation of a friend, after he had proceeded as far as Boston, he was induced to change his plans, and came to Chicago instead of going to South Carolina. He remained in Chicago only a few months, being employed a portion of the time as a clerk in his friend's store and the remainder of the time in other similar capacities. In the fall of 1834 his attention was called to Milwaukee and in December he set out for this place accompanied by Morgan L. Burdick and Samuel Brown. When he arrived at the Milwaukee settlement, he proceeded to select a couple of tracts of land, on which he filed claims after the fashion of that period, after which he returned to Chicago where he spent a considerable portion of the winter of 1834-35. In April of 1835 he brought a stock of goods to Milwaukee, being compelled to cut a road through from Root river rapids to the mouth of Milwaukee river, in order to reach his destination by what he regarded as the most direct route. He served as a member of the first constitutional convention of Wisconsin, and also as a member of the first legislature of the state which convened in 1848. In 1861 he served as alderman and supervisor of the Fifth ward, and at a later date was for several years a conspicuous member of the city council. He was mayor of the city in 1862-63 and as a public official and an enterprising, public-spirited citizen, left a marked impress upon the city with which he became identified in the infantile stage of its existence. He died in September, 1886.

Dr. Francis Huebschmann, one of the early physicians of Milwaukee, who became especially prominent in public affairs, and for years was widely known throughout the state, settled here in 1842, and was the first German physician in the city. He was born in 1817 in Riethnordhausen, Duchy of Saxe-Weimar, Germany. After being graduated at the Universities of Erfurth and Weimar, he studied medicine in Jena, receiving his diploma from that institution in 1841. Young, enterprising, active and ambitious, he looked about for a field for professional work, and reached the conclusion that in America he would find a land of splendid opportunities and good government, in which intelligent effort must be rewarded by success. Coming to this country in the spring of 1842, he stopped a short time with friends in Boston and then came to Milwaukee, where he opened an office and at once began to practice his profession. As early as 1843 he was elected a school commissioner of Milwaukee and in this capacity he served eight years, aiding in every way possible to promote the educational interests of the city. Notwithstanding the opposition of the "Know Nothing" element of the population he was elected a delegate to the first constitutional convention of Wisconsin. In 1848 he was chosen a presidential elector from Wisconsin, and again in 1852; and in 1851-52 he served as a member of the state senate. Several times he was elected a member of the board of aldermen and in 1848 served as president of that body of municipal legislators. In 1853 President Pierce appointed him Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Northwest, in recognition of the valuable services he had rendered to the Democratic party and the general public, and he discharged the duties of the office with credit to himself and to the satisfaction of the administration, until the term for which he was appointed expired in 1857. Entering the Twenty-sixth Wisconsin infantry as regimental surgeon at the outbreak of the Civil war, he was promoted first to brigade and then to division surgeon with rank of major, participating in the battles of Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Kenesaw Mountain, Peachtree Creek, Atlanta and many other less important engagements. At the battle of Gettysburg, in company with nine assistants and 500 wounded, he was captured by the Confederates and held for a short time a prisoner. In 1864 he was honorably discharged, and retiring from the service he returned to Milwaukee, where his family continued to reside during his absence at the front. In 1870 he was again elected to the state senate, receiving two-thirds of all the votes cast in his district for the candidates for that office. At the close of his term of service in the legislature he withdrew in a measure from public life, but he continued to take a deep interest in all matters involving the public welfare. In politics he was always a Democrat. He came to America a Democrat, served his adopted country as a Democrat and died a Democrat. He affiliated with that party because in his judgment it was in thorough harmony, in the main, with the purpose an intent of the framers of the government, whom he had revered always for their wisdom and patriotism. Dr. Huebschmann died on March 21, 1880, lamented by the people of a community with which he had been identified nearly forty years.

Garrett Vliet was born at Independence, Sussex county. New Jersey, May 10, 1790, and came to Milwaukee with Bryon Kilbourn, in 1835. He was by profession a civil engineer, and was one of those appointed by the government to survey a portion of the lands in Wisconsin. He was employed in his younger days upon the Ohio canal, in connection with Dr. Lapham and Byron Kilbourn, and it was at the solicitation of the latter that he came to Milwaukee. In political faith he was a Democrat of the Jeffersonian school, and he was also a member of the Old Settlers' Club. Mr. Vliet died on Aug. 5, 1877, and was buried in Forest Home cemetery.

The most important event of the year 1847, in the county of Milwaukee as well as throughout the entire Territory, and the one that excited the greatest interest among the people and engendered the greatest amount of contention, attended by no small degree of acrimonious feeling, was the submission to a vote, on the first Tuesday of April, of the constitution framed by the convention. The article "on Banks and Banking" in the main drew the fire of those opposed to the adoption of the constitution, and the matter is thus explained by Moses M. Strong his admirable work, "History of Wisconsin Territory":

"At this time (1846-7) the country was overrun with a depreciated currency, and the channels of circulation were flooded with 'wild-cat' bank notes, and the article on banks and banking was intended as a remedy for the evil and a security against its recurrence. It strictly prohibited banking of every description, whether of issues, deposits, discounts or exchange by corporations. And although the legislature could confer no banking power or privilege whatever, upon any person or persons, and although it was declared not to be lawful for any person or persons to issue any evidence of debt whatever, intended to circulate as money; yet all the other branches of banking — discounts, deposits and exchange — were left entirely free and open to private enterprise. It was this prohibition of the power to issue, in other words to manufacture currency, that excited the opposition to the constitution of a certain class, especially in Milwaukee, that could not tolerate a constitutional law which would deprive them of the power of making paper money by which they alone would reap all the benefit, while the mass, of the people would be subjected to all the hazard of loss in the event of the inability or unwillingness of those who issued it to redeem it. This class were earnest, determined, and to some extent systematic and organized in their opposition. The great mass of the Whig party, by the teachings of their party, became the ready and willing supporters of the ideas upon which this opposition was founded, and allies of those most interested in their promulgation. This reason for opposing the adoption of the constitution was readily supplemented by other objections to it which were presented; the most prominent of which were the elective judiciary, the rights of married women, exemptions, too numerous a legislature, and that it legislated too much.

"A number of able and influential leading Democrats were found ready and willing to aid these opponents of the constitution, so many that a sufficient number of the rank and file, following their lead, united with the nearly solid body of the Whig voters, were able to affect its rejection by a large majority.

* * *

"The advocates of the constitution predicted that if those of its features which were most antagonized should be then defeated, they would ultimately be adopted either in a new constitution or by a legislative enactment, and their anticipations have been completely verified in every particular except the sixth section of the bank article, which provided for the suppression of the circulation of small bank notes."

At the election, however, the constitution was defeated in the territory at large by a majority of 6,112, and the admission of Wisconsin into the Union as a state was thus delayed. The adverse majority in Milwaukee county was 318, of which 289 was in the city, the vote in the outlying districts being very close.

At the regular election, held on Sept. 6, 1847, the following officers were elected: Isaac P. Walker, James Holliday, and Asa Kinney, members of the territorial House of Representatives; John E. Cameron, register of deeds; Sidney L. Rood, county treasurer; James McCall, county surveyor; Leverett S. Kellogg, coroner; and Charles P. Evarts, county clerk. At this election, also, John H. Tweedy was elected as the Wisconsin delegate to Congress, being the only citizen of Milwaukee to achieve that distinction during the territorial days.

On Sept. 27, 1847, the governor of the territory issued a proclamation, appointing a special session of the legislative assembly of the Territory, to be held on Oct. 18, to take such action in relation to the admission of the state into the Union and adopt such other measures as in their wisdom the public good might require. Upon convening the assembly , confined its action to the one subject of admission to statehood, and after a brief session of ten days it adjourned sine die. It passed an act providing for an election, on Nov. 29, of delegates to another constitutional convention, to be composed of sixty-nine members, of which number the apportionment gave seven to Milwaukee county. The act further provided that a census should be taken between the 1st and 15th days of December, of all persons residing in the territory on Dec. 1. The enumeration in Milwaukee county showed a total population of 22,791, an increase since June 1, 1846 — a period of eighteen months — of 7,199, which gives a good idea of the rapid development of that portion of the state.

This second convention to form a constitution for the state met at Madison on Dec. 15, and the following gentlemen were present as the representatives from Milwaukee county, they having been the successful ones in a spirited contest for the honors. John L. Doran, Garret M. Fitzgerald, Albert Fowler, Byron Kilbourn, Rufus King, Charles H. Larkin, and Moritz Schoeffler. John L. Doran was a native of Ireland and a lawyer by profession; Garret M. Fitzgerald was also a native of the Green Isle and a farmer by occupation; Albert Fowler has been biographically mentioned on a preceding page of this work, as has also Byron Killburn; Charles H. Larkin was a native of Connecticut and a farmer by occupation; and Moritz Schoeffler was a native of Bavaria and followed the occupation of a printer.

Gen. Rufus King, whose name appears in the above list as a member of the Milwaukee county delegation in the second Constitutional convention, and who for many years occupied a prominent position in Milwaukee as a journalist and educator, is deserving of more than a passing mention at this time. He was born in the city of New York on Jan. 26, 1814. His father was President Charles King, of Columbia College, and his grandfather, Rufus King, had the honor of being the first senator from the Empire State upon the formation of the Federal government, and also served as minister to England during Washington's administration. The prestige of such an ancestry could not fail to have great influence in shaping a future career, and as a natural sequence young King was honored with the appointment to a cadetship at West Point, which was then the Mecca of the sons of the wealthy and influential citizens of the young Republic, and there he graduated in July, 1833, with high honors, ranking fourth in his class; and he was assigned to duty with the engineer corps of the regular army. His first employment in his new vocation was to aid in the construction of Fortress Monroe under Robert E. Lee, who subsequently became the Confederate leader during the war of the 60s. But the youthful soldier wanted something more stimulating, more exciting, something outside of a strict military occupation, and in order to obtain it he resigned, in 1836, and accepted a position as assistant engineer upon the preliminary survey then being made for the New York & Erie railroad, which position he held until 1838, when he left and accepted that of editor-in-chief of the Albany Advertiser, thereby commencing the life in which he became so famous in after years. He had now found his proper sphere, and at once commenced to take an active and prominent part in all the exciting political contests of the day. In 1839 he was also commissioned as adjutant-general of the state, a position which his thorough military education rendered him eminently well qualified to fill, and which he held until July 1, 1843. He remained upon the Advertiser until 1841, when, at the solicitation of Gov. William H. Seward, he severed his connection with that paper and became associate editor upon the Albany Evening Journal, in which position he was the trusted friend and adviser of that renowned journalist, Thurlow Weed, who was then editor-in-chief of that paper. There he remained until 1845, when, induced by liberal offers, he came to Milwaukee and assumed the editorial chair of the Milwaukee Sentinel, then the leading Whig organ in the Territory, and during the next twelve years he made that paper a power in the dissemination of Whig principles. During the most of that time he also held the responsible office of school commissioner, having had the honor of election as the first president of the board upon the organization of the public school system in 1846. Financial embarrassments during the commercial panic of 1857 necessitated a change in the ownership of the Sentinel, although General King remained as editor-in-chief for a season, but he was ultimately compelled to let it pass into other hands. This disaster was a sad blow, after which he remained somewhat in obscurity until in March, 1861, when, without solicitation on his part, he received from Abraham Lincoln the appointment as minister to Rome. He accepted the position and had placed his baggage upon the vessel which was to convey him to that historic city, when the attack was made upon Fort Sumter in April and the Civil war became a reality. This changed the programme, the commission to Rome was surrendered, and, resuming the sword, he was at once commissioned a brigadier-general, his brigade being composed of Wisconsin volunteers and the Nineteenth Indiana, afterward famous as the "Iron Brigade." General King participated in General Pope's campaign of 1862, but the arduous duties incident thereto were of such a nature as to greatly impair his health, and he asked to be relieved, which request was granted. He was assigned to court-martial duty and in the defenses of Washington, being thus engaged until the spring of 1863, when he again took the field in command of a division at Yorktown and was actively engaged in watching and counteracting the Confederate movements in that region until the fall of the same year, when he was again appointed to the Roman mission, where he remained until its abolition in 1867. after which he returned to his native city and died there on Oct. 13, 1876. General King was a born journalist, wielded a ready pen, and was the acknowledged leader of the Whig party throughout the state of Wisconsin during the early history, being for several years one of the regents of the State University. He was a prominent official in the old volunteer fire department, and in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which latter organization he took great pride. It may also be of interest to state that he was the president of the first base-ball club in Milwaukee, organized in April, 1860. There is a fine portrait of General King in the Milwaukee city library.

The constitutional convention adjourned on Feb. 1, 1848, after providing that the result of their deliberations should be submitted to the electors of the proposed State for their ratification or rejection on the second Monday in March; that in case the Constitution was adopted the election of state officials, members of the state legislature, and representatives in Congress should be chosen on the second Monday in May; and that the first session of the state legislature should convene on the first Monday in June. On March 13, 1848, the proposed Constitution was ratified by a majority of the electors, the vote in Milwaukee being 2,008 ''yes" and 208 "no," and with the final adjournment of the territorial legislature on the same day the Constitution was ratified, the Territory of Wisconsin, after a turbulent existence of twelve years, became only a memory.

And the change from territorial to a state government was received by the people of Milwaukee county with unfeigned satisfaction, as it signalized the end of the pioneer epoch and the beginning of a development that has few if any parallels among the many counties into which the "Old Northwest Territory" has been divided. But yet in many respects the annals of those pioneer days are filled with subjects of the most intense interest, and a study of that portion of the county's history cannot fail to be instructive to a people who have, by one leap, as it were, placed themselves out of sight of the immediate past, and merged themselves so deeply in the concerns of the present as to regard the scenes through which their immediate ancestors passed as almost a myth. Let the reader try to forget the present for a few moments, and transport himself to the log cabin of his grandfather, with its curling smoke striving to make its way through the little break in the forest; let him contemplate his grandfather out in the "clearing" at work, or seated by the fire on a winter's evening with a family of healthy children about him, and his wife with them, dressed in homespun, preparing the evening meal of the simplest articles over a fire whose unruly smoke is seriously affecting her vision, and perhaps her temper, too. The "big boys" have fed the cattle and are making ax-handles or scrubbing brooms around the fire, while the faithful dog by their side pricks his ears at every sound, as if placed on guard by the family. How interesting those early scenes! Why can we not pause in the hurly-burly of busy life and contemplate them, if not for the instruction they afford, at least for the diversion they would give? Severe were the trials through which our forefathers passed in the early years of western life; but they laid the foundation of the better times that we witness, during the formative period of Milwaukee county.