by Steve Tesmer | Apr 21, 2012 | Historic People
Date in History: 1905 Just over 100 years ago, Fort Atkinson was visited by the great populist William Jennings Bryan. Following failed presidential bids on the Democratic ticket in 1896 and 1900, Bryan decided to hit the lecture circuit to promote his ideas. Over the...
by Steve Tesmer | Apr 21, 2012 | Historic People
Date in History: 1850’s A native New Yorker, Thurlow Weed Brown came to Fort Atkinson in 1854, bringing with him his newspaper, The Cayuga Chief. He began publishing that paper here in 1856, making it Fort Atkinson’s very first newspaper. Brown used the paper as...
by Steve Tesmer | Apr 21, 2012 | Historic People
Date in History: 1850 – 1909 Mrs. R. C. Brewer: Millinery and Ladies Furnishings. “This exclusive millinery and ladies’ furnishing store as conducted by Mrs. Brewer on Milwaukee St. attracts the general attention of the women of this community. And justly,...
by Steve Tesmer | Apr 21, 2012 | Historic People
Date in History: 1836-7 The first white pioneers to settle in Aztalan near Lake Mills were Thomas Brayton and his family who left New York in September 1836 and arrived in Milwaukee at the end of October. While his wife and two daughters spent the winter in Milwaukee,...
by Steve Tesmer | Apr 21, 2012 | Historic People
Date in History: 1796 – 1886 In 1837 Caroline Barrie of upstate New York said goodbye to her two sons – twenty-one year old William and nineteen year old Robert – as they headed west toward a brand new settlement on the Rock River in Wisconsin...
by Steve Tesmer | Apr 21, 2012 | Historic People
Date in History: 1946 In 1946, James Baird, then a junior at Fort Atkinson High School, entered a piece of his artwork in a national art contest for high school students sponsored by the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburg and Scholastic Magazine. Jim’s picture, which he...
