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Solomon Juneau, 1856

Quarter-length oval portrait of Solomon Juneau. He was born in Lower Canada on August 9th, 1793, Juneau came to Wisconsin in September of 1816. He was the first white settler in Milwaukee and the city's first mayor. View the original source document: WHI 9483

b. 1793, Repentigny, Quebec, Canada
d. November, 1856, Keshena, Wisconsin

Solomon Juneau was a fur trader, and the founder of Milwaukee. He was baptized Laurent Salomon Juneau, but dropped his first name sometime after coming to Milwaukee and changed his last name to Solomon.

Milwaukee

He moved to Mackinac in 1816 and worked as a clerk for the fur trader Jacques Vieau who had his headquarters at Green Bay and a trading post on the Menominee River at what is now Milwaukee. Juneau bought out Vieau's post on the Menominee in 1819. Juneau soon became a trader for John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company. In 1820, he married Vieau's daughter, Josette. In 1822, he built the first log house in Milwaukee and in 1824 the first frame building. He became an American citizen and began to learn English in 1831. He formed a partnership with Morgan L. Martin in October, 1833 to develop a village on the east side of the Milwaukee River. Juneau pre-emptively entered his claim, platted lots and began selling them to settlers in 1835. He erected a two-story house, a store and the Belleview House hotel the same year. The first election for officers of Milwaukee township was held on September 1835. Juneau was elected as a commissioner of roads and a director of the poor.

Politics

When the first post office was established at Milwaukee in 1835, Juneau was appointed postmaster. He held the position until 1843. In 1837, he began publishing the Milwaukee Sentinel, with John O'Rourke as editor. Juneau was elected trustee and village president of Milwaukee the same year. A Democrat, Juneau was elected first mayor of Milwaukee in 1846, and served one term. In 1848, he opened a store at a trading post he had established in Theresa, Wisconsin. The Juneau family moved to the new location permanently in 1852. He died at Keshena while attending a "payment" on the Menominee Indian reservation. Juneau helped with almost every public improvement in pioneer Milwaukee. He built the first courthouse with Morgan L. Martin and presented it to the county. He also donated the land for St. Peter's Catholic Church, St. John's Cathedral, the first government lighthouse and for Milwaukee Female Seminary.

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Dict. Amer. Biog.; Wis. Mag. Hist., 41; B. Still, Milwaukee (Madison, 1948); I. Fox, S. Juneau (Milwaukee [1916]); WPA field notes; S. Juneau Papers.