GL1NDALT yoCume I History, TeopCe, MiCwaukee "River, Tarks, Indian History, Municipal North Shore JiCtration TCant, Apartments and ConcCos, MisceCCaneous. 'R'ES'EJA'RaHZV, TtfOtOQ'BJATtf'E'D (TXCEPTyttfTKE NOTE?)), AMD COMTILTV $y MIMI MUD 1982-1992 JArcfUvaCmateriaCs, including the aChum, were donated by the IVhitefish 'Bay foundation _£ (S COMPILED AND RESEARCHED BY MIMi BIRD, THESE VOLUMES ARE HER LEGACY TO WHITEFISH BAY AND AN INVALUABLE CONTRIBUTION TO OUR KNOWLEDGE OF LOCAL HISTORY. v_/ 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 Archives Glendale, vol. 31 • History (p. 1-110) • People (p. 111-142) • Milwaukee River (p. 143-178) • Parks (p. 179-202) • Indian History (p. 203-230) 5 O © ® Mimi Bird 19 92 HISTORICAL TID-BITS ""Upper Milwaukee" is the name of a new city just laid out in the SWi Sec. 29 T8 N R22 E on the W bank of the Milwaukee River, ten miles above its mouth and ^ mile from the lake. This town was formerly the site of an Indian village and forms the lower part of a beautiful prairie, the only one in this region. The waterpower here is so considerable that it will be sufficient for any number of machines and the soil is fit for any agriculture. The roads from Milwaukee to Green Bay, Sauc Village and Sheboygan lead through here. Here is the only place where the canal to connect the great Mississippi with the Milwaukee River can possibly terminate. THis canal will take the Menomonee River as a tributary above the falls and then and here. This "Glorious Prairie" is east of the Green Bay road somewhat below Bender's water-powered sawmill; one has to add this." From "Milwaukee" by Rudolph Koss. (The prairie was on the south side of Bender Road, running S to Silver Spring Dr. There were several Indian mounds in this area, destroyed by the progress of roads and houses.) LOCAL BRIDGES The early Green Tree Rd. bridge, Silver Spring Dr. bridge and the bridge over the river on the Port Rd. were built by William Stabelfeldt, with helpers; built of wood. From Anson M. Buttles to Mimi Bird, 1989. The Green Tree bridge originally was a little south of its present location and was rebuilt in 1917 by the House of Correction prisoners, due to the lack of a labor shortage because of World War I. The old Bender's bridge was named "the old red bridge" since it was built of steel and rusted. (From Gilbert Sellin, who lives at 6345 N. Sunny Point Rd., site of Bender's early saw mill.) It was originally built on a NE/SW angle north of its present location and led from Bender's sawmill, located on the E side of the river, to the W side of the river. C&NW RAILROAD'S NEW TRACK NORTH OF BENDER ROAD This track was laid in 1927/28 after the removal of the N/S tracks running through Shorewood and Whitefish Bay. The new track connected to existing tracks on the west at 43rd St., south of Mill Rd., curving to the north just E of Richards St. (St. Monica Blvd.) to connect with the existing north/south track. There had been a large hill in Kletzsch Park, created when the sand and gravel had been removed from that area and sold. The dirt from this hill was pushed by 120 mules and pulled by another 120 mules to create the new hill for the RR trestle. The mules often broke their legs on the steep incline of the new trestle hill. (Also from Anson M. Buttles.) Dirt was also removed from the now flat area north of the ® new tracks between St. Monica Blvd. and Port Washington Rd. The Marsh Co. put in the railroad bridge over the river north of Bender Rd. The Hickcox barn, located in present Clover- nook Subdivision (subdivision named after the Hickcox farm) was used to house the mules and also for feeding the railroad construction workers. GRAVEL PITS Beginning in the late 1890's, local farmers sold off parts of their farmland for the removal of sand and gravel, to make ends meet. The gravel was used for road repair and creating new roads; there was a heavy demand for this material. There are existing ponds W of Green Bay Rd. created from digging out the sand and gravel. The Kleist family owned much of the land around the Green Bay/Green Tree Rds. area and had their own gravel company. West of the Silver Spring House and the Kehillat Torah Synagogue, in the 6700 block of Green Bay Rd., these ponds exist. Several subdivisions have been built around other ponds in Glendale. There were gravel pits under present Bay Shore Mall, later used as dump sites by the Village of Whitefish Bay and Town of Milwaukee. The Grober and Lutz families operated these pits and dump sites. POSTING OF NOTICES IN 1866 and THE CEDARBURG ROAD The five most public places to post notices in the Town of Mil­ waukee were Ernst Mesicke's Tavern, Krocker's Tavern (S of the present Silver Spring House on Green Bay Rd.), at the tollgate on Washington Rd. (Port Washington Rd. - perhaps in the Keefe Ave. area), at the tollgate on Green Bay Rd., and at the 4 Mile House on the Washington Rd. (Schuetz's "Heidelburg Inn" in the present 5400 block of Port Washington Rd., now site of the defunct Holiday Inn motel, 5423 N. Port Washington Rd.) The Seven Mile House was on the Cedarburg Rd. (43rd St.) at Good Hope Rd., the Ten Mile House was located on Brown Deer and the old Cedarburg Rd. (now the Green Bay Rd. overpass at Brown Deer Rd.) Both were in the former Town of Granville. The Cedarburg Rd. was merged with and became Teutonia Ave., merged again with Green Bay Rd. N of Bradley Rd. and only exists today in the Village of Brown Deer as Deerwood Ln. and in a small area SW of Green Bay Rd., S of Dean Rd. (if Dean Rd. existed in that area.) LINDWURM ISLAND - LINCOLN PARK INFO. Located in the Milwaukee River at site of present on-ramp to 1-4 3 S of Hampton Rd. Named for William Lindwurm who owned most of the land know known as Lincoln Park (formerly Lindwurm Park). The island was removed during the reconstruction of the river, along with other islands, because of the massive overflowing of the river south of Henry Clay St. There is a natural rise of stone under the river on the E side of the Port Washington Rd* bridge - about ^ block E - and it was at that location that the Indians crossed the river because of the river's shallowness.