552 Wisconsm Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 



these parties bv which they were to pay $2,700 for the claim 

 upon the land upon which the principal part of the city of Ra- 

 cine now stands. 



Owing to some misunderstanding the committee was removed 

 and John Bullen, Jr., was made sole agent for the company. 

 On his arrival at Root river, the parties who made the agree- 

 ment mth the committee refused to abide bv its terms. An at- 

 tempt to enforce the agreement failed and Bullen, together with 

 his party proceeded to examine the country further south. On 

 the 6th of June, 1835, the exploring party reached Pike Creek, 

 They were stiiick by the depth and width of the creek and de- 

 cided at once to build a town upon its shores. As soon as the 

 news reached Oswego county, immediate preparations were 

 made by stockholders to emigrate to the newly-selected home. 

 About fifteen families, mostly from the town of Hannibal, came 

 on during the summer and fall of 1835. A part of these were 

 not meml3ers of the company, and on their arrival, made claims 

 on land in the vicinity of Pike Creek for the purpose of pursu- 

 ing the business of farming. This was the beginning of the vil- 

 lage of Southport, the first village in the county, and which in 

 1850 became the city of Kenosha.^ 



The Western Emigration Company was dissolved in Dec.,. 

 1836. It proved a losing venture to most of the stockholders, 

 but it nevertheless served as an intennediary between the people 

 in Xew York who were about to emia-rate and the new lands of 

 Xenosha county. During the shoit existence of the company it 

 advertised and made Pike Creek known to a large number of 

 the people of Xew York. In so doing it must undoubtedly have 

 directed a large part of those emigi^ating from Xew York to 

 the West to this point. In our study of the nativity of the 

 population of the county for the two decades from 1850 to 

 1870, we may therefore expect to find a large percentage of the- 

 population born in Xew York. Table 1^ shows this to be tnie 

 in every town in the county. 



iThis account of the first settlement in Kenosha Co. is abridger! from 

 the History of Racine and Kenosha Counties, 1879, pages 331-340. 



2 This talDle was made from copies of the original U. S. census re- 

 turns for the state for 1850, 1860 and 1870, which are in the vault of 

 the office of the Sec. of State. For the actual number born in the 

 different states and foreign countries see Table 1, Appendix. 



