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ivjfirtfistf *BA.y SCHOOL tflS'TO'Ry ypLlLMT i IncCucCing CumberCancC, 'WJJ} 3-Cigfi ScfiooCJfenry CCay/MicCcCCe ScfiooC, LydCeCQ "Richards COMTILTV, JAMD 'R'ES'EJA'RCMD $y MIMIWRV 1982-1992 JArchivaCmateriaCs, IncCucCing the aC6um, were donated by the lYhitefish Bay foundation j£ ffi COMPILED AND RESEARCHED BY MIMI BIRD, THESE VOLUMES ARE HER LEGACY TO WHITEFISH BAY AND AN INVALUABLE CONTRIBUTION TO OUR KNOWLEDGE OF LOCAL HISTORY. w MIMI BIRD, 1933-2002 Mimi Bird knew just what she wanted for a final resting place. After all, she spent years of her life exploring the Town of Milwaukee Union Cemetery, tucked away north of Bayshore Mall in Whitefish Bay. She remembered running through the cemetery as a girl "to scare ourselves on Halloween". Years later, as a neighbor and a historian, she began tending the little cemetery and quite literally, uncovering its history. Bird died of emphysema Thursday at the Glendale condominium she called home the last four years. She was 69. "She really died from cigarette smoking" said husband John D. Bird. "That's what did it." She was born Miriam Young in Milwaukee. When she was 4, her parents moved to Whitefish Bay. That was where she grew up and spent her adult life. It was also where she became the undisputed expert on local history, both in the village and the greater North Shore area. In her earlier years Bird had worked as a secretary. She met her husband when their mothers—concerned about their two twenty-something children remaining unmarried—managed to fix them up for a date. She spent the next decades in volunteer work, including at their children's schools, and working part time for the Whitefish Bay Public Library. In 1976, she began to research her genealogy and that of her husband's family. As that was winding down in the early 1980s, Bird heard about the Whitefish Bay Historical Society. Her first project involved locating, photographing and researching hundreds of the oldest homes in the village. All kinds of other research followed. Some of the leads took her to the Town of Milwaukee cemetery. There she looked for sunken spots, sticking a spade into the ground. She found dozens of old fallen tombstones, buried by time under the earth. "I just had this wonderful feeling of elation when I'd find an old one," Bird said in a 1983 interview. "The tombstones were the only (surviving) records of births and deaths." Bird filled volumes with everything from real estate records to the early details of village life, its farms, businesses and people. She pored over the minutes of every Village Board meeting from 1892 until 1950. She interviewed old- timers, acquiring old letters and documents. Bird eventually researched the rest of the old Town of Milwaukee, which includes what's now the North Shore area, and the adjacent Town of Granville. And when Whitefish Bay had a 100th anniversary in 1992, she produced a book on local history. In 1991, Bird was recognized by the Milwaukee County Historical Society. Her research continues to be available at the Whitefish Bay Library, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Golda Meir Library, the County Historical Society and the Milwaukee Central Library's local history room. Survivors include her husband, John; sons David J. and Peter E.; brother Carter H. Young; grandchildren; and other relatives.. .Her ashes will be buried at the Town of Union Cemetery. [Obituary by Amy Rabideau Silvers for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 10/14/02.] WHITEFISH BAY SCHOOL HISTORY Vol. 1 PUBLIC SCHOOLS School History -p. 1-66 • Cumberland School -p.67-76 Whitefish Bay High School -p.77-192 Henry Clay School /Middle School -p.193-252 Lydell School -p.253-286 • Richards School -p.287-294 i^joa^S_ i S 1 c . O 0 <llT£Fis ft /§AY '5 u • J 1/ 181Z- ZD CtfocU tkSTt>& © <£> SCHOOL HISTORY FOR TOW OF MILWAUKEE'S ORIGINAL PUBLIC SCHOOLS This historical overview begins with School District #10 and works backward to School District #1, now in the City of Milwaukee. School District #10 was a vast area, north of North Ave. - the original north end of the City of Milwaukee - and everything between the Milwaukee River and Lake Michigan to County Line Road, during the 1840's. According to diaries Anson W. Buttles kept, a log school was built on the grounds of the Town of Milwaukee Cemetery, in the present 5900 block of N. Port Washington Road. Buttles was an early road surveyor, Town Clerk, School Supervisor and, later, a surveyor for the railroads. His diaries were very detailed, probably due to his nature and his engineering background, and covered the years between 1849 and 1900. They were in possession of his grandson, Anson M. Buttles, who recently died, and are probably in his widow's possession now. Anson M. Buttles advised me that the log school was on the earlier Port Washington Rd., that ran more to the east than the present road. The old dirt trail entered the middle of the cemetery approximately where the Federated Realty/Pier I building is today, on the north side of the cemetery. The trail wandered through the niiddle of the present Bay Shore Mall, exiting onto today's Mohawk Rd. at Silver Spring Dr. This school was virtually in the center of the area laid out for School District #10 and, obviously, only those living within one or two miles WDuld attend this school on a fairly dry day or when the snow wasn't too deep. Callus Isenring, another early settler, built the log school and drew its plan. His descendants still have that sketch and detail of the school. It was constructed of logs, 18 ft. x 22 ft. and one story high. There were 6 windows and 2 doors. There were 12 desks, each about 4 ft. long, made of pine lumber. Description dated Jan. 22, 1859, and at that time, the school had existed about 10 years. The school was called the Lyons school, most likely for a teacher named Lyons; that family owned land close by and it is probable that an older son or daughter (or the head of the household) taught school. The school name is also from Buttles1 diary. There is no legal description of a school on this section of land - the SE 1/4 Section 29. That means the land owner(s) did not deed any part of their land to the school district, but did allow a school to be built on a piece of the land. It was a cormon occurance in those early years for schools to be named for the teacher; a similar situation occured in the Town of Granville with its School District #2 being named the "Enos" school for a number of years. District #5 (Green Tree School) was called the"Shaughnessy" school for Mr. Shaughnessy, the teacher. In Feb. 1854, the Sandersons sold 3/4 acre to the trustees of the newly incor porated Town of Milwaukee Cemetery and no mention of a school was in that description, In 1868, both Green Tree School and Lindwurm School were built. Lindwurm School was designated as School District #10, so presumably the school in the cemetery was no longer used as such - and may have been used for cemetery purposes, or even as a house. ic -k i< *>V *k *k i< Dates when land was leased or deeded to School Districts within Town of Milwaukee: School District 10 (Lindwurm) 8/19/1868; District 9 (Lake School/Holland School) 1852; District 9 (Fox Point) 6/29/1874; District 8 (Maple Dale) 3/8/1859; District #7 (Good Hope) 1858 and 1869; District 6 (Silver Spring School) 12/24/1903; District 5 (Green Tree) 9/21/1868; District #4 (Shorewood) 1854; District #3 (now in City of Milw.) 1854; District #2 (now in City) 1856 and District #1 (now in City) 1854. 3 School District #10 - the Lindwurm School On 8/19/1868, William H. Lindwurm to School District #10, "leases land bounded by the I in ^beginning at a point on the west side of the Washington road 120.75 rods N from the SW corner of SE 1/4 Sec. 32 (this'was the SW corner of old Hampton and Port Washington roads), then W 8.05 rods, N 5.75 v rods, E 8.05 rods to the middle of the Washington road, then S along the middle of said road 5.75 rods to the place of the beginning, being the prem ises now fenced in as a School House sighs (perhaps "size"?) of said District, to have and to hold for 99 years frem July 1st last, to keep and use as a public school, $1.00 rent. Lease to terminate if and when the School District does not keep a good and substantial fence or if the School District for more than 6 months ceases to continue organized under the laws of the State of Wisconsin." This school was located on the south side of the C & NW railroad tracks, on the west side of Port Washington Rd. It was a frame school. The train tracks were laid in 1872; the school was razed in the late 1920's or early 1930's. School District #9 - the Lake or Holland School In 1852, John and Susanna Vruwink donated a plot of land in the SW corner of present Doctor's Park for a church, a cemetery and public school. Due to the number of Dutch families in what became Fox Point, the school was known as both the Lake School (for its location) and Dutch School.