(WISCONSIN) Broadside petition to Congress to construct a ha

Sale 2580 - Lot 282

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(WISCONSIN.) Broadside petition to Congress to construct a harbor at Southport (Kenosha). Letterpress broadside, 13 x 8 inches, headed "Public Meeting. Southport, Wisconsin Territory," signed in type by Charles Durkee as meeting president, with address panel in verso including Southport postmark and free frank stamp, addressed to United States Congressman John Burton Thompson of Kentucky; minor wear at mailing folds, narrow 1 1/4-inch seal tear in text, with the strip still affixed to the seal at top. No place, 9 January 1841

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This resolution was passed at a county meeting in Southport, Wisconsin Territory (now the city of Kenosha). It urges Congress to fund the "construction of Harbors on the western shore" of Lake Michigan, and points out that while the townsmen had paid more than a million dollars in taxes to the national treasury, other much smaller towns had already received lighthouses and other improvements. The harbor site and necessary improvements are described in detail. The final resolution: "that the proceedings of this meeting be . . . published, and a copy sent to each member of Congress." Charles Durkee, who served as president of the meeting, would in 1849 serve as Wisconsin's first representative to Congress upon statehood. One copy in OCLC, at Wisconsin Historical Society.