Land Rush!

In the mid-1830s many pioneer settlers arrived in what is today Bay View, staking claims in the future Town of Lake/Bay View area. Land surveys were not completed until 1836, however, so these early Yankee settlers had no legal right to settle the land.

To complicate matters, in the 1833 Treaty of Chicago, the indigenous Potawatomi Indians had ceded their Milwaukee-area lands to the federal government, but the Indians weren’t all forced to relocate until 1838.

So for almost a decade, the area took on the qualities often associated with the wild west. 

Wisconsin was not yet a state-it was part of the Michigan Territory from 1834 to 1836, and the Wisconsin Territory from 1836 until statehood in 1848. Rich white men from the East saw opportunity in this territory and they moved to seize it, some as settlers, others as speculators.

Historian Bernhard Korn recounted the journey of some of those first white settlers in The Story of Bay View. “On the morning of Dec. 4, 1834, two men in a rickety one-horse wagon and another mounted on an Indian pony left the trading post of Chicago, northward bound in search of home and fortune,” Korn wrote.

These three men-Horace Chase, Samuel Brown, and Morgan L. Burdick-were headed for what would later become Milwaukee. Upon arrival the men found several Indian settlements, Solomon Juneau’s trading post, a warehouse, and few other buildings.

All three men staked land claims, Chase at the harbor mouth near present-day Greenfield Avenue and Burdick in the future Town of Lake at the southeast corner of present-day Howard and Howell avenues. Brown’s claim was around present-day Seventh and Vliet streets.

But they weren’t the only ones to stake a claim.

According to Korn, in 1835, “…Elijah Estes, who took the first unoccupied land south of the harbor, paced a half a mile along the lakeshore, placed his stakes and built his log cabin. He then waited for the government to come along and straighten the line.”

Joel Wilcox staked a claim of 90 acres in 1834 along the lakeshore, north of present-day Lincoln Avenue, in the area of the present-day Wrought Washer Company. His farm was later purchased by the rolling mill.

Alexander Stewart arrived in 1835 and claimed 160 acres bordering Wilcox’s claim to the west. Both Stewart and Wilcox farmed the land but also sold lumber, chopped from their properties, to fuel the lake steamers that entered the nearby harbor.

John and Brazilla Douglass, friends of Alexander Stewart, arrived in 1837, each staking separate claims. The land must have been quite fertile, because an 1838 Milwaukee Sentinel article reported that John Douglass won an award at a fair for an eight-pound turnip and a four-pound radish.

John Ogden arrived in September 1835 and claimed 40 acres. He built a house near the lakeshore around present-day Russell Avenue and farmed until 1846, at which time he sold 37 acres to Philip Pryor. After selling the remaining acreage, Ogden settled in present-day downtown Milwaukee.

Fending off land speculators

Settlers were suspicious of land speculators, agents, and investors, fearing they would outbid them when the actual government land sale took place. So, they formed the Milwaukee Claimants Union, which adopted rules that would help secure their claims.

A meeting of the claimants union (25 percent came from the future Town of Lake/Bay View area) was held at the Milwaukee County Courthouse March 13, 1837, and rules and regulations were drawn up.

Settlers, according to the Milwaukee Claimants Union, had to make at least $50 worth of improvements on each quarter section, or 40 acres, they had claimed. “Improvements” meant that a specific amount of the land had to be fenced, sowed, cultivated, and a house built suitable for a family. Settlers registered their claims with the Milwaukee Claimants Union free of charge.

The government land sale for Town of Lake took place in front of the courthouse Feb. 17, 1839. The land was auctioned off to the highest bidder at a minimum price of $1.25 per acre.

It was not uncommon for some Eastern investors to hire local agents to represent them and bid on land. A few of agents were present at the courthouse for the 1839 land sale, “but they were not hardy enough to bid in the face of the large gathering of determined settlers,” wrote Korn.

The New York Tribune reported that one speculator did bid against a settler, but he was “instantly seized and hustled off to the river with the avowed purpose of throwing him in, but upon his begging piteously, he was suffered to depart.”

The claimants union had done its job. Every original settler who had the cash bought the land that he or she had claimed.

• 1833: The Treaty of Chicago. The Potawatomi, Ottawa, and Chippewa (Ojibwa) cede their land west of Lake Michigan to the United States government.
• 1834: Wisconsin part of Michigan Territory.
• 1835: First land sales of Milwaukee area.
• 1836: Wisconsin part of Wisconsin Territory; Federal General Land Office surveys Town of Lake area.
• 1837: Milwaukee Claimants Union meets.
• 1838: Milwaukee area Indians forced to move west of Mississippi River; Town of Lake incorporated.
• 1839: Town of Lake land sale.
• 1846: Milwaukee City Charter adopted.
• 1848: Wisconsin becomes the 30th state.