Richard Prestor

Milwaukee Richard Prestor

In April 1834, the Green-Bay Intelligencer newspaper reported that a sawmill was being erected in a new settlement on the Milwaukee River. Less than one year later, the paper reported that "Milwaukey [sic], which 10 months ago, had only a single trading house, has now some 20 or 30 houses, and two or three saw mills." Yankee settlers and land speculators had moved in and were here to stay. The steady growth of Milwaukee was never wholly due to the influx of ambitious Easterners though. In ever-expanding numbers, Europeans also made their way here, not merely as settlers, but frequently as hard-working business owners, skilled laborers, and artists. They were determined to make Milwaukee their home, and in this new homeland they surrounded themselves (and influenced the entire community) with their old traditions and languages. Thirty years after its first newspaper write-up, Milwaukee was a well-established city brimming with potential.