1830s

How’d they get here? Buffalo – a tale of two harbors

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins. / 2 Comments

Our series of “How’d they get here?” posts is written to illustrate the nuts and bolts of how our early Mequon pioneers travelled from their original homes or ports of arrival in North America, to the newly opened federal lands in Wisconsin Territory, circa 1830-1850. See Note 1, below, for links to other posts in the series.

Village of Buffalo, 1825

In a previous post, we followed the newly-opened route for westward migrants from the New York City docks, up the Hudson River to Albany, and then along the new Erie Canal towards its terminus at the village of of Buffalo, New York, at the eastern end of Lake Erie. After seven days of travel on canal boats, the westbound traveler of 1825 would have looked up and seen this, the muddy streets and modest harbor of Buffalo:

Buffalo Harbour from the Village, in Cadwallader Colden, et. al., Memoir…at the Completion of the New York Canals, New York, 1825. Image from “extra-illustrated” edition in New York Public Library Digital Collections, scanned copy of standard edition of book via GoogleBooks. Public domain. Click to open larger image in new window.

After leaving the Deep Cut above Lockport, the last part of the Erie Canal merges with Tonawanda Creek, seen here flowing into the village from far left to center, in front of the line of distant trees, and then curving toward the viewer before exiting into the harbor, to the right. The original Buffalo lighthouse of 1818 can be see on a small peninsula, right of center, just above where Tonawanda Creek meets the lake.

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RBOH: The Turck family’s Palmyra, 1825

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins. / 1 Comment

Another short post in our occasional series of Random Bits of History.

Earlier this summer, while putting together the post How’d they get here? – early Erie Canal images, I came across a tidily-drawn print that helps illustrate the story of the Peter and Rachael (Gay) Turck family’s life before coming to Mequon. It’s downtown Palmyra, Wayne county, New York, in 1825:

Unknown artist, Eastern view in Main-street, Palmyra., in Cadwallader Colden, et. al., Memoir…at the Completion of the New York Canals, New York, 1825. Image from “extra-illustrated” edition in New York Public Library Digital Collections, scanned copy of standard edition of book available via GoogleBooks. Click to open larger image in new window.

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But Wait! There’s More!

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins. / 4 Comments

One of the really neat aspects of researching and writing about Clark House history on this site is the feedback I receive from blog readers. I love hearing from you, whether you have a comment or a question about the topic at hand, or perhaps there is something else that you want to know more about.

[Occupational Portrait of a Salesman], Three-Quarter Length, Seated, Displaying His Wares. Daguerreotype, between 1850 and 1860, cropped and lightly color-adjusted. Library of Congress. Click to open larger image in new window.

“UPDATED…”

History is never “done.” No one can know it all. There are always new sources with fresh information, and new ways to look at well-known material. A question or a new bit of information from a reader will often prompt additional research or a correction to previous statements. The result is that this blog—and our knowledge of the Clark family, their neighbors, and their era—is constantly evolving.

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“J. M. Clarke” – Town Supervisor, 1846

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins. / 3 Comments

Every now and then it pays to take a fresh look at familiar sources. One of the key sources for the early history of Mequon and its parent counties is The History of Washington and Ozaukee Counties, Wisconsin […] Illustrated, published in Chicago in 1881. And even though I’ve been using this book for Clark House research for over a decade, I still discover (or, in this case, re-discover) facts about Mequon—and, specifically, Jonathan M. Clark—that I had either not known before, or had noticed, “filed for future reference,” and forgotten to write about. Today’s post fixes one such omission.1

The first meeting of the Town of Mequon, April 7, 1846

Page 525 of The History… contains a load of information about the beginnings of town government in Spring, 1846. Unfortunately, it’s the sort of densely worded, 19th-century “history” writing that makes the reader want to skip ahead to something less dry. Here, take a look; start with the first full paragraph, beginning “The town was incorporated”…

The History of Washington and Ozaukee Counties, Wisconsin […] Illustrated, Western Historical Co., Chicago, 1881, page 525, pdf of full book via GoogleBooks. Additional online, pdf copies can be found at Hathi Trust, the Wisconsin Historical Society and Archive.org. Click to open larger image in new window.

That’s a lot of info: names, dates, job titles. Let’s break things up a bit and take a closer look at what’s going on as old Washington county transitioned from the original county-wide system of government to the new system, in which each town will be responsible for much of its own governance.

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River walk

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins. / 1 Comment

There was still some daylight left after the annual “Pie on the Patio” event at the Clark House last week, so I thought I’d stop by Mequon’s historic Isham Day House on my way home. Isham Day was one of Mequon’s first settlers, and he built his tidy home, sometimes known as the “Yankee Settler’s Cottage,” in 1839. It’s a town landmark, and I’d never been to see it.

While enjoying my first look at the Day House, I also took the opportunity to meander through the adjacent Settlers Park. It’s a beautiful little park, with an accessible boardwalk that leads down to and along the west bank of the Milwaukee River. It’s a short, easy stroll; I highly recommend it. By the time you reach the riverbank you’ll forget you are in a busy 21st-century downtown.

Photo credit: Anna Perkins, 2021. Click any photo to open gallery and access larger versions of the images.

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Taking a short break…

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins. / 2 Comments

It’s been a busy summer here at Clark House Historian, with lots of research, writing, editing, and posting, and most of the essays illustrated with unique historical maps, documents, and images. And more Clark House history posts are queued up in draft form, awaiting final touches.

I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for a short break, starting with a cool drink while watching the birds in the backyard. Here’s one frequent visitor to our house:

Havell, Robert, engraver, after John James Audubon, Yellow Bird or American Goldfinch, 1828, plate 33 from The Birds of America (1828-1838), hand-colored engraving and aquatint on Whatman wove paper. National Gallery of Art, Gift of Mrs. Walter B. James. Public domain. Click to open larger image in new window.

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How’d they get here? Walking & riding

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins. / 3 Comments

This is another installment in the transportation-themed series that began with our July 6, 2021, Monday: Map Day! – How’d they get here? and continues from there.

Queen, James Fuller, [A Man and a Woman Standing at the Entrance to a Trail Through a Forest] (detail), graphite drawing on cream paper, circa 1850-1870. Library of Congress

I’m still writing the next two (or three) longer, narrative installments of our “How’d they get here?” series, which I began working on to assist Clark House education director Margaret Bussone and our education team as they develop a transportation-themed project for use at the Jonathan Clark House later this summer.

For quite a while I was worried that I would not be able to find enough visual material to adequately illustrate our early Mequon immigrants’ journeys of the 1830s and ’40s. It turns out that I now have a lot of material to share with the education team—and with you. Rather than hold on to it until my longer posts are complete, I thought I’d do something different today.

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Steaming against the wind…

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins. / 3 Comments

Ahoy, readers! Here’s another “bonus” post for our ongoing series “How’d they get here?” If you need to catch up, the series began with our July 6, 2021 post Monday: Map Day! – How’d they get here? and continues from there.

I’m working on the next two (or three) more substantial installments of the series, metaphorically steaming against the wind through virtual piles of documents, books, and historical images. It’s going well, but taking a bit longer than I hoped. So while you’re waiting, how about another beautiful Great Lakes ship image, this time courtesy of the National Gallery of Art in Washington:

[American artist, 19th century], Steamship Erie, probably 1837, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch. Public domain. Click to open larger image in new window.

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How’d they get here? – Steamboats!

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins. / 9 Comments

How the early settlers came to Mequon, c. 1835-1850 (part 2)

This is part 2 of a series focused on how our Mequon pioneers traveled to southeast Wisconsin in the early days of white settlement, between roughly 1835 and 1850. If you missed part 1, it’s here at Monday: Map Day! – How’d they get here?, plus a short post with bonus image at Steamboat’s coming!

From the late 1820s until about 1850, if you wanted to get from the settled American northeast to the open frontiers of the West, the fastest, safest, and cheapest way to get there was by water. Thousands of New Yorkers, New Englanders, Canadians, and overseas immigrants that had come from Europe to America’s eastern ports, found the Great Lakes route—west on the Erie Canal to Buffalo, and then by water through the Lakes to Chicago and Milwaukee—was their preferred route to new homes on the western frontier. And many of those settlers traveled on the newest, fastest craft afloat: the steamboat.

View of Detroit…1837

Here’s something really special for Clark House history lovers, a detailed drawing of the various kinds of sailing ships and steamboats as they passed by Detroit, Michigan on a sunny day in 1837, as seen from the Canadian side of the Detroit River. Take a close look; this is the view Peter Turck and his family—including daughter Mary, the future spouse of Jonathan M. Clark—would have seen as they traveled to Milwaukee in August of the same year1:

Bennett, William J., after a sketch by Frederick K. Grain, City of Detroit, Michigan. Taken from the Canada shore near the Ferry., hand-colored aquatint on engraving, ca. 1837. National Gallery of Art, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon. Public Domain. Click to open larger image in new window.

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