sep 14, 1818 - Solomon Juneau Arrives in Milwaukee

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Laurent Solomon Juneau was born in 1793 in Repentigny, a small farming village near Montreal. In about 1808 he signed on as a voyageur and took his place in one of the legendary Montreal trading canoes headed west. In 181, Juneau met Jacques Vieau and became his clerk and protege, taking up residence in Vieau's cabin above the Menomonee Valley. Juneau settled an area east of the Milwaukee River called Juneautown in 1818. Juneau soon became Vieau's son-in-law as well, marrying Vieau's daughter, Josette, (1820). In 1825, Solomon and Josette set up their own trading post on what is now the corner of N. Water Street and E. Wisconsin Avenue. He amassed a fortune in independent trade, acquired large tracts of land there, and was revered by the indigenous population. He became an American citizen in 1831. He surveyed the town site, built the first store and first tavern, became Milwaukee's first postmaster (1835) and first president of the village (1837). In 1837 he started the Milwaukee Sentinel, which would become the oldest continuously operating business in Wisconsin. His fortune was reduced by the Panic of 1837, but he remained a leading citizen of Milwaukee, becoming its first mayor in 1846. He left Milwaukee in 1848 and founded the settlement of Theresa. Solomon Juneau died in 1856 and is buried in Calvary Cemetery.

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