Windway

At the time Sheboygan became a city there were only two wards, which cast at the first election 427 votes. The city was at this time without financial resources and industries were very much in their infancy. The mode of travel was by stage coach and freightage was by wagons. Traffic with eastern marts was by the lake, bridge piers extending into the lake being used by vessels touching at this port. Public improvements were a negligible quantity. In the years 1854 and 1855 considerable street grading was accomplished and the newly-created city saw a bright future and prosperity was the word until 1857, when the country was overwhelmed by a panic, from which it took the community over a decade to recover. The horizon did not show evidence of clearing until 1868-9, when the city's indebtedness was honorably readjusted by a compromise and a new era was inaugurated. Industries gained a new and grateful impetus, which has continued until the present day and Sheboygan is noted far and wide as an important manufacturing center. The two wards have been increased to eight, the least of which has a population almost equal to the population of the city at its inception. Railroad facilities have so developed that the community has connection with the outer world equal to its demands. Vast sums of money have been expended on the harbor and vessels of immense burthen may enter at any time in season. The bonds of the municipality find a ready and lucrative market. Well appointed and regulated fire and police departments, sewerage, paving, waterworks, electric and gas lighting systems, place the city in the front ranks with others of the state.

Passage source: History of Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, Past and Present, published 1912.

The municipal court of Sheboygan was created by law in 1887 and the tenure of its judges is four years. The jurisdiction of the municipal court is over "all actions of law, where the amount claimed shall not exceed the sum of $600 and to try and determine all criminal actions, when the crime was committed in said city ; and that are not punishable by commitment to the state prison and to arrest and examine and to hold to bail all parties charged with other offense against the laws of the state as provided by law. And the said court and judge thereof shall also have exclusive jurisdiction of all offenses and actions under the charter of said city, and the ordinances, rules and by-laws of said city, and exclusive jurisdiction of all criminal trials and examinations for offenses committed within said city, subject to appeal to the circuit court of said county, and the statute of removal of causes, either civil or criminal, applying to justices of the peace, shall not apply to said judge of his court and there. shall be no removal therefrom. He also has jurisdiction co-extensive with justices of the peace and powers to sentence and commit the same as a circuit judge or justice of the peace."

Passage source: History of Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, Past and Present, published 1912.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Sheboygan Town - 16,534 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.