The Town of Milwaukee was a town in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, United States, created on March 17, 1835.Dictionary of Wisconsin History Accessed July 10, 2006 A number of Milwaukee County municipalities, beginning with the City of Milwaukee, were created out of portions of it. After the last portions of the town were annexed, it officially ceased to exist in 1955.
Geography The Town of Milwaukee was originally co-terminous with Milwaukee County itself.Green Bay Intelligencer April 28, 1835, as cited in: Mack, Edwin S. The Founding of Milwaukee Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1907; p. 205 In 1838, the territorial legislature divided the County into two townships: Milwaukee, encompassing everything north of the present Greenfield Avenue, and the Town of Lake encompassing everything South of the present Greenfield Avenue.Jerome A. Watrous. Memoirs of Milwaukee County, Volume 1. Madison, Wis.: Western Historical Society: 1909, pp. 68-69.
After 1840, using modern-day reference points, the Town of Milwaukee reached from Greenfield Avenue in the south to County Line Road on the north, Lake Michigan on the east and 27th Street on the west. Its neighbors were the Town of Wauwatosa and the Town of Granville to the west, the Town of Lake to the south and the Town of Mequon to the north.
The Town of Milwaukee Town Hall, built in 1872, is located in present-day Glendale.
Municipalities formerly a part of the Town of Milwaukee Village of Milwaukee, 1838. Later became the City of Milwaukee in 1846."The First Local Ordinance". History of Milwaukee Wisconsin. Chicago: Western Historical Company, 1881. pp. 253-255 Town of Granville, January 13, 1840Dictionary of Wisconsin History Accessed July 10, 2006 Town of Wauwatosa (originally Wau-wau-toh-sa), April 30, 1840Watrous, Jerome Anthony. Memoirs of Milwaukee County: from the earliest historical times down to the present, including a genealogical and biographical record of representative families in Milwaukee County, Chicago: Western Historical Association, 1909; Volume 1, p. 69 Whitefish Bay, 1892 East Milwaukee, August 1900 (Name changed to Shorewood in 1917)Shorewood Historical Society. "Village History" Accessed July 10, 2006 Fox Point, 1926 River Hills, March 17, 1930Village of River Hills. "Miscellaneous Facts about the village". Accessed January 31, 2018. Glendale, 1950 Bayside, February 13, 1953History. Village of Bayside. Accessed January 31, 2018.
Notable people Henry Fowler, farmer and legislator, was a member of the town board of supervisors. Charles A. W. Krauss, businessman and legislator was born in the town; Krauss served on the Milwaukee Town Board.'Wisconsin Blue Book 1897, Biographical Sketch of Charles A. W. Krauss, pg. 789 Peter F. Leuch, lawyer and legislator, was born in the town. Frederick Moskowitt, farmer and legislator, lived in the town.'Wisconsin Blue Book 1878,' Biographical Sketch of Frederick Moskowitt, pg. 477 William S. Harley, engineer and businessman, co-founder of the Harley-Davidson Motor Company.
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