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APRIL 10, 1855 – I was in Milwaukee today to buy supplies and was introduced
to a "drummer" from Chicago. He informed me that Chicago's inhabitants now
number more than 80,000, a phenomenal fact when you consider that there was less
than one-fourth that number when I stopped there en route to Milwaukee seven
years ago. There is much talk in the Illinois metropolis, he said, about
beginning work on a street railway system but as yet the project has not taken
concrete form. Even more interesting to me was his report that the citizens of
Chicago have just voted on whether to prohibit the sale of spirits. A newspaper
in the gentleman's possession said that 2,784 persons were for the proposition
and 4,093 against.
I must not forget to chronicle an amusing story which has gained wide
circulation in Milwaukee. The Milwaukee and Watertown Rail Road, which I believe
will ultimately consolidate with the Milwaukee & Mississippi, recently completed
a section from Brookfield Junction to Watertown. Soon thereafter, a Mr. Michael
O'Hara, a machinist and engineer, was called upon to operate his locomotive over
the two-mile bridge just east of Richard's cut approaching Watertown. Mr.
O'Hara, not convinced that· the bridge would support the weight of the
locomotive, started it, then jumped off at the head of the bridge. The
locomotive went over the bridge, alone and unattended. On the other side of the
river the fireman was waiting to board it and bring it under control.
DECEMBER 17, 1856 – My good wife, accompanied by two neighbor ladies, has
just returned after a day's shopping in Milwaukee, fired with enthusiasm for a
new educational project which only recently has been started in Watertown,
Wisconsin, a short distance from Milwaukee. According to the story related by
several women of Milwaukee, Mrs. Margaretha Meyer Schurz, wife of Carl Schurz,
the noted German reformer, has founded a school in Watertown for children too
young for admittance to regular schools. It is called a "kindergarten," the
first such institution of its kind in America, my wife was told. The first
pupils consisted of six children, five girls and one boy. My wife observed that
our son, a year or so hence, would be eligible to receive learning at such a
"kindergarten" were there one in this vicinity. I assured her that even if such
were the case I would prefer that my son delay any formal school and devote this
formative year to a further appreciation of the great outdoors. I pity the
father whose son finds himself the only boy among five little girls at the
Watertown kindergarten. |
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