Plumb—Early Harbor History of Wisconsin 191 
Today conditions are reversed and the role of, assistance falls to 
the locality. However, even yet the improvement inside the 
harbor or shore line must fall to the lot of the municipality, and 
repeated statements to this effect have been made by the govern¬ 
ment engineers. Each municipality is by statute required to 
keep a separate harbor fund and the general surveillance of the 
harbor is assigned to harbor masters. The first instance of the 
existence of this officer was that in the charter of the village of" 
Manitowoc in 1850 and the second in that of Sheboygan in 1862. 
Besides the direct methods of harbor work, the cities have done 
much indirectly, by Way of assistance to> government work, 
either in appropriations or otherwise. Often the cities have 
assisted in dredging the outer harbors and in two cities, She¬ 
boygan and Kenosha, the dredge was furnished the govern¬ 
ment at cost. Kewaunee and other cities have donated prop¬ 
erty for the use of the Engineers’ Department, while in other 
instances money has been temporarily loaned to> carry on the 
work, where the national appropriations had been insufficient, 
the municipality trusting for reimbursement, to succeeding ap¬ 
propriations. 
Township and county have also contributed a share in the- 
work of improvement. The former has been active where the 
harbor was not situated in a locality, already incorporated, as 
for instance Oconto., Kewaunee and Ahnapee (Algoma). The 
work done by this unit, however, has not been important and 
county aid has played a much greater part, particularly in the 
early days when villages were too small to* carry on the improve¬ 
ments alone. The counties of Sheboygan, Manitowoc, and 
Douglas—all have voted considerable sums at various times for 
this purpose. 
Last of all, individual initiative is to be considered as a factor 
in Wisconsin harbor improvements. Private subscription has 
always been an important means of raising money and parties 
ularly is this true in the early days of improvement. Assistance 
was thus rendered in Port Washington, Kenosha. Pacine and 
Algoma and in other cases a partial payment of expenses of a 
government dredge has been contributed by individuals. It will 
be remembered that the early bridge-piers, also, were owned and 
