Wisconsin magazine of history: Volume 31, number 4, June 1948

              highlights of manitowoc by ralph g plumb this is a brief and fragmentary attempt to reflect a few pages of national history into the mirror of events in the manitowoc region while french explorers had visited the area and even main tained a trading post within the present county borders in 1795 the history of the county begins with 1836 that was the year of the boom full of inflation and speculation the settlement at manitowoc was due to this very same situation the brothers jones william and benjamin who had arrived at chicago in 1833 de cided to divide their holdings — william remaining in chicago and benjamin taking his chances northward in the hope that his new land company could develop a town that would rival that which william had chosen to do the pioneer work he dis patched a group of woodsmen to the mouth of the manitowoc river and at the foot of what was to become manitowoc's north seventh street they cleared a space and erected a warehouse the surroundings were forbidding with the big pine trees crowding them toward the river by spring when benjamin and his family had arrived to take possession only two or three of the builders were left to greet him within a few months the depression of 1837 was upon the country and the inflated values soon dis appeared leaving jones and his little company only the duty of slowly building up a little village — just another tiny settlement on the shores of lake michigan that it remained throughout the forties until foreign and domestic immigration turned wisconsin ward seven miles up the lake shore almost to the jutting point two ralph g plumb a curator of the state historical society and a resident of manitowoc emphasized the historical highlights of his region when he spoke on the opening day of the annual meeting august 22 at manitowoc 412