Plumb—Early Harbor History of Wisconsin 189' 
to fifty-two in 1845. The first line from Buffalo to Chicago 
was established in 1839 and it was about this time that Lake 
Michigan gained prominence as a highway of commerce. Prior 
to 1837 the government had spent but $162,601 on Lake Mich¬ 
igan, wholly at Chicago and St. Joseph, Mich., and up to 1853 
only one-eighth of the river and harbor appropriations 1 , taken as 
a whole, had been devoted to the Great Lakes. Wisconsin’s 
growth in the early thirties soon accentuated its needs. The 
first memorial concerning harbors in the territory was one by 
certain steamboat owners trading out of Milwaukee, transmitted 
to Congress by the Territorial Council of Michigan in Decem¬ 
ber, 1834. They speak of the requirements of the port and 
think a harbor could be built for $15,000. In the territorial 
days it was, of course, quite natural for the legislatures to ap¬ 
peal for aid to the general government. The first governor of 
Wisconsin, in his message in 1836, suggested “the propriety of 
asking Congress for an appropriation sufficient to cover expenses 
of surveying all the necessary harbors on Lake Michigan and for 
the construction of lighthouses.” Wisconsin’s delegates in Con¬ 
gress secured such appropriations and in 1837 several surveys 
were undertaken. Petitions regarding improvements poured 
in on Congress all through the thirties and forties, many signed 
extensively by residents of eastern cities, such as Hew York, 
Albany and Erie. In 1840 and again in 1842 efforts were 
made at the introduction of Wisconsin Harbor Bills but in both 
cases they were met with too strong opposition and succumbed. 
Milwaukee however finally, in 1843, secured $30,000 and Ra¬ 
cine and Kenosha $12,500 each in 1844. Other small sums 
were voted during the period preceding the Civil War, but the 
major portion of the improvement during that time was done 
by the localities and individuals particularly interested. It 
was the era of bridge piers, extensions of wharves or docks built 
out into the lake to a sufficient depth to accommodate the landing 
of steamers, and of course very inadequate makeshifts, partic¬ 
ularly useless in rough weather. Most of these piers were built 
by individual initiative and often excessive tolls were charged. 
When the national government began the work of harbor im~ 
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