Milwaukee History, Wisconsin

Thriving From A Small Settlement! The region of Milwaukee had come up from the current region of eastern Wisconsin, which once had been the development of the native tribes scattered all over the territory.

 The origin of the name is not known for certain. However according to the general folklore, it is believed that the place had been named by the Potawatomi tribe, who used to call it Mahn-ah-wauk. It represented council grounds in their language.

The earliest mention of the place itself could be dated back to 1761, when it had been recorded by an English Officer from Greenbay pronouncing it as Milwacky.  French trappers and traders were the first to immigrate over to the place and settled there for quite some time. Several families followed suit and moved over to this place encouraging the rate of settlement growth even further.

Its population was soaring by the year 1837. In the mean time, Milwaukee had already become one of the many Great Lake’s ports in the year 1834, thus attracting more individuals to come over and thrive in their lifestyle. In 1837, Milwaukee along with other territories in that region was recognized as villages under the Wisconsin territorial Legislature. 

Changes kept coming, as there was always necessity to improve the ports for several purposes of trade or conveyance. Due to severe problems faced for shipping on Lake Michigan in 1881, Milwaukee was made the Harbor of Refuge by the Congress. It was almost in the 1900, when docks were proposed by the mayor near the region of Jones Island.

However, it was not till 1910 that the Jones Island acquisition was sanctioned along with the proposal of an outer harbor. Thus, the development of the city of Milwaukee began with the opening of a vital route to continue shipping. As seen now, Milwaukee has changed greatly with different new industries having come up like that of the Illinois Steel Industry that had its faction in the Jones Island region. Various changes have affected the city through the period of time, but it did not lose faith and continued to flourish.

The City Hall is the biggest example of this factor considering that it got caught in the fire in 1929, but the renovation process was initiated and it got done from both the interior and exterior.

Currently, the City Hall of Milwaukee has become a part of the National Historic Landmark and draws quite an audience to itself

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