HISTORY OF MANITOWOC COUNTY


MANITOWOC S PUBLIC SPIRIT
Now let me come to the main point and review the history of Manitowoc's
public spirit. Some may be astounded when I claim that what has been done
in
this line has been more than in a majority of cities of our size and wealth.
Mil-
waukee, Racine, Sheboygan, Oshkosh and Green Bay, which have more or less
outgrown us, in their earlier days some of these did not give a dollar nor
make
the efforts that Manitowoc did to stimulate their growth. In spite of this,
and
even lacking the best harbor on the lakes, they have outgrown us. Why is
this?
Allow me to answer this in Yankee fashion. Why does one baby, with no
particular care, grow quicker and better than another receiving the best
of
care? Why does one business man, with but ordinary ability and effort, grow
wealthy, while another, with extraordinary ability and effort, remains stationary?
My answer is-I don't know. It may be due to a combination of circum-
stances, it may be fate. I do not want to be understood as meaning that we
should lie idle, waiting for fate to bring us growth. No, not by any means.
If
we had contented ourselves with this, we would be less than we are now, but
I mean that fate enters into all relations of life, with varying results.
FIRST DONATION
In the summer of i853, when the county seat was removed from the Rapids
to this city, the first instance of public spirit manifested itself in the
collection
of a fund to donate to the county for a courthouse site. This donation came
wholly from the south siders and by reason thereof the courthouse is now
on
the south side. Thus public spirit, at its incipiency, created what has more
or
less remained to the present day, a dividing line between the north and the
south
sides, and which in a degree suppressed what otherwise would have been a
more
harmonious cooperation. F. Goetzler was awarded the contract for building
the
courthouse and began work on the basement in I854. But he was enjoined by
the opposing interest on some technical claim that the work on the basement
was
faulty. Later his contract was declared void and another awarded to John
Meyer, who completed the building on the same basement by the end of i856.
And on January I, 1857, Colonel Edwards, the first sheriff in our village,
took
possession.
FIRST RAILROAD
The next important movement was the vote of April, i854, to bond the vil-
lage for $I50,000 in aid of the Manitowoc & Mississippi railroad, and
which was
carried by a large majority. Of these bonds, only $I3,000 were issued, being
delivered as earned.
Besides these bonds, about $ioo,ooo in stock were subscribed by our citizens,
the larger portion by the Lueps family. Through a disagreement in the di-
rectory, and the financial panic of I857, the promising enterprise came to
naught, entailing great losses. If this first effort in railroad building
had been
successful, Manitowoc might have become the metropolis of the state, as at
that
time there was but one railroad in operation, between Milwaukee and Watertown.


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