ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by assuming that the creation of Milwaukee was primarily a social Act. However much nature may have blessed Milwaukee, with its waters and its lands easy to traverse, the real story of its beginnings is to be uncovered in the work of a band of entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurial spirit, concentrated in abundance in men like Solomon Juneau and Byron Kilbourn, certainly was critical impulse that led to the creation of Milwaukee. Creating a stable public authority in the city of Milwaukee proved a considerably more difficult enterprise than that of fostering the growth of private enterprise. One of the most striking facts about the beginnings of Milwaukee is that, as in other frontier outposts in America, the exercise of public authority in the city was left largely in the hands of private entrepreneurs and other prominent members of the business community. Conflict was evident even in the earliest moments in the city's life.
