Milwaukee County, Wisconsin

Milwaukee County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Milwaukee
Year Organized: 1835
Square Miles: 242

Court House:

901 North 9th Street, Room 201
County Courthouse
Milwaukee, WI 53233-1425

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Milwaukee received its name from the Indian word Millioke which means "The Good Land", or "Gathering place by the water." Another interpretation is "beautiful or pleasant lands".

Several competing explanations have been proposed. Milwaukee takes its name from the river, which had been the site of an Indian village since Wisconsin was first known to Europeans (for the variations in spelling see H. E. Legler, "Wisconsin Place Names," in Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters Transactions, xiv, p. 24). Legler declares that this word means "council place." The majority of authorities appear to consider it equivalent to "good land" (see Wis. Hist. Colls., iii, pp. 290, 337; xii, p. 393; Handbook, p. 863. See also D. H. Kelton, Annals of Fort Mackinac (ed. of 1884), p. 150). It was apparently pronounced by Indians as "Meneawkee" or "Mahnawaukee," probably a Potawatomi word meaning "a rich beautiful land." Early Wisconsin settler Joshua Hathaway inclined to the belief that the final name was derived from the blending of two words, "Mellioke," the old name of the river, and "Mahn-a-waukke," the gathering place. Many spellings were given to the city's name until, in 1844, it officially became "Milwaukee." It is generally regarded as of Potawatomi origin, meaning "fine land." It was known to have been an Indian council place, the chosen spot believed to have been rising ground in the vicinity of modern Wisconsin Ave. and Fifth St.

[Source: Sheboygan Daily Press, March 19, 1936; Milwaukee Journal, Oct 30, 1921; Milw. Public Museum Bull 6:399; Milwaukee Journal, Nov. 16, 1926; Proceedings of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1909:219-231.]

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History

Milwaukee County, created in 1834 as a territorial county, is derived from a Native American word "Mahnawaukee-Seepe" meaning "gathering place by the river." Located in southeast Wisconsin, the county seat is Milwaukee.

Description from John W. Hunt's 1853 Wisconsin Gazetteer: "MILWAUKEE, County, is bounded on the north by Washington, east by the State line, south by Racine, and west by Waukesha. It was established and set off from Brown, Sept. 6, 1834, and fully organized. The seat of justice is established at the city of Milwaukee. This county was originally covered with a heavy growth of hard timber. The soil is good and well adapted to the raising of grain and to gardening. The streams are the Milwaukee, Menomonee, and Root rivers and Oak creek. "

[Source: Hunt, John W. Wisconsin Gazetteer (Madison, 1853)]

MILWAUKEE.--Population 46,067.
From: Handbook of Wisconsin by S. Silas, 1855
pg. 86-88

Is one of the smallest Counties, and depends upon its commerce more than its agriculture or manufacturers. It has been densely wooded with hard timber, and at least one half of its surface is yet covered with it. Every foot of public land is of course long since taken up, and the majority of the farms are small and well tilled.

Milwaukee, the County Seat, is the largest city in the State, and through this port a great part of the exports and imports pass. From it lead out the Milwaukee and Mississippi Rail Road, now completed to Madison, with a branch to Janesville--the Watertown, completed to Watertown, and partly graded to Columbus, to be continued to Portage or some other point on the Wisconsin--the La Crosse and Milwaukee, running to Hartford and nearly completed to Beaver Dam--and the Lake shore from Chicago to Milwaukee. Other Roads, either tributary to these or independent lines, are under way, which is fast rendering this city the centre of a large Rail Road system. No place in the west has combined so completely, healthiness of location, abundant water power, facilities of manufacture, and equal agricultural lands in its immediate vicinity.

A larger amount of wheat, by 360,000 bushels, was shipped from this port during 1854 than from any other port on the Lakes, and this difference will be increased during 1855 by over 1,000,000 bushels. The wheat of Wisconsin is from 3 to 5 cents more per bushel than that raised farther south, on account of its superior quality, which fact will always secure to this port the pre-eminance of being the largest wheat shipping one in the west.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,190 square miles (3,081 km²), of which, 242 square miles (626 km²) of it is land and 948 square miles (2,456 km²) of it (79.70%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Ozaukee County - north
Racine County - south
Waukesha County - west
Washington County - northwest

Cities and Towns:

- Bayside	village	Incorporated Area
- Bayview	town
- Brown Deer	village	Incorporated Area
- Cudahy	city	Incorporated Area
- Fox Point	village	Incorporated Area
- Franklin	city	Incorporated Area
- Glendale	city	Incorporated Area
- Greendale	village	Incorporated Area
- Greenfield	city	Incorporated Area
- Hales Corners	village	Incorporated Area
- Milwaukee (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Oak Creek	city	Incorporated Area
- River Hills	village	Incorporated Area
- Shorewood	village	Incorporated Area
- South Milwaukee	city	Incorporated Area
- St. Francis	city	Incorporated Area
- Wauwatosa	city	Incorporated Area
- West Allis	city	Incorporated Area
- West Milwaukee	village	Incorporated Area
- Whitefish Bay	village	Incorporated Area

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resource Guide

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The history of our nation can be seen as a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names we've given our counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of our country!"

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Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."

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