Milwaukee, the largest city in the state of Wisconsin, enjoys a strategic location along the shores of Lake Michigan, which means abundance and bounty came naturally to the land. As such, Milwaukee history is deeply rooted with waves of migration from foreign settlers in search of a new home, beginning with war-torn Germans to African-Americans from southern America pushed away by oppression.

Its first settler and one of the three “Founding Fathers” was Solomon Juneau, a French-Canadian who came to the area in 1818 and formed a small town called Juneautown, on the eastern portion of the Milwaukee River.

Years later, in 1834, an American surveyor named Byron Kilbourn arrived in Milwaukee, bought land on the western side of the Milwaukee River and started a township called Kilbourntown. In 1835, an American trader named George H. Walker claimed portion of land in southern Milwaukee which became known as Walker’s Point.

The towns attracted many settles, many of whom are Germans escaping the wrath of war in their country. Many Italians, Polish, Irish and Jewish settlers also transferred their families in Milwaukee.

There was intense rivalry between Juneautown and Kilbourntown, culminating in 1845 with the infamous Milwaukee Bridge War. The conflict arose when the Wisconsin State Legislature started construction of a bridge to replace the ferry system. Kilbourn was against the idea which went against his plan to isolate Jeunetown from his township, and his group started destroying part of the bridge under construction, igniting a war. There was no casualty but many were injured.

There were calls to end the conflict by uniting the two warring towns. In 1846, the two towns, with Walker’s Point, united and became the City of Milwaukee, with Solomon Juneau as the first mayor.

The city, now the largest in the Wisconsin State, continued to attract more settlers of foreign origins, with the addition of African-Americans who came from the south. By 1910, Milwaukee became the city with the largest percentage of foreign-born settlers in the entire United States (along with New York City).