Early history and settlement was one of the first Europeans to visit Port Washington. The area that became Port Washington was originally inhabited by the
Menominee,
Potawatomi, and
Sauk Native Americans. In 1679, the French explorers
Louis Hennepin and
René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle described stopping at the first landing north of the Milwaukee River to procure provisions at a Potawatomi village at the mouth of a small river, which may have been Sauk Creek, a stream that empties into the present-day Port Washington's artificial harbor. The 1830s saw the forced removal of Wisconsin's Native American population, followed by land speculation by merchants and investors. One of these land speculators was General Wooster Harrison, who purchased the land that would become Port Washington in 1835, which he originally named "Wisconsin City." Harrison's wife, Rhoda, died in 1837 and was the first white settler to be buried in the town. The settlement was abandoned that same year. In 1843, Harrison returned with a party of settlers. The Town of Port Washington was formed in January 1846 and until 1847 included the surrounding areas of
Fredonia,
Saukville, and
Belgium. At the time, the land was part of
Washington County, and in the late 1840s, Port Washington was a candidate for the county seat. However, the community was far from the county's other early settlements, including
Mequon,
Grafton and
Germantown. In 1850, the Wisconsin legislature voted to bisect Washington County into northern and southern counties, with Port Washington and
Cedarburg as the respective county seats. County residents failed to ratify the bill, and in 1853, the legislature instead bisected the county into eastern and western sections, creating Ozaukee County. Port Washington became the seat of the new county, and the Washington County seat moved to
West Bend. The bisection was controversial. When Washington County officials from West Bend arrived in Port Washington to correct relevant county records, they were run out of town, and Ozaukee County officials refused to hand over the records for several months.
19th century growth and industrialization , constructed in 1848 The early settlers saw potential in the community's lakeside location and built piers to make their city into a port on
Lake Michigan. The city exported cord wood, wheat and rye flour, bricks, fish, and
hides, among other things. However, Port Washington did not have a natural harbor and its first decades were marred by shipwrecks, including the 1856
Toledo disaster, in which between 30 and 80 people died. In 1843, the first Christian
religious services were held by the
Methodist Episcopal Church in private homes. The first
Catholic Church services were held in a similar manner in 1847.
The Washington Democrat, the town's first newspaper, was started in 1847 by Flavius J. Mills. The population reached 2,500 in 1853 and continued to increase, with an influx of
immigrants from
Germany and
Luxembourg between 1853 and 1865. When the American Civil War started, some of these immigrants found themselves in opposition to the federal government. The United States Congress implemented the draft in 1862, and Port Washington's immigrants, particularly those from Prussia and Luxembourg, were unpleasantly reminded of mandatory conscription in the countries they had left behind. On November 10, 1862, several hundred Port Washington residents marched on the courthouse, attacked the official in charge of implementing the draft, burned draft records, and vandalized the homes of Union supporters. The riot ended when eight detachments of Union troops from Milwaukee were deployed. The early 1870s saw improvements to the community's transportation infrastructure. In 1870, Port Washington became a stop on the Lake Shore Railroad, which was later incorporated into the
Chicago and North Western Railway. In response to the numerous shipwrecks in the area, local officials also petitioned the federal government for assistance to dredge and create an artificial harbor. When the project was completed in 1871, The City of Port Washington was
incorporated in 1882. In the 1880s and 1890s, a large number of French and Belgian immigrants arrived in Port Washington. Between 1900 and 1910, two relatively large groups of English immigrants also arrived in Port Washington. One group came directly from England and the other group had previously been residents of Canada. 's original factory was destroyed in a massive fire on February 19, 1899. The company rebuilt and stayed in business until 1954, holding the status of the county's largest employer in the early 20th century. The last years of the 19th century saw Port Washington's economy become more industrial. In September 1888, J. M. Bostwick opened the
Wisconsin Chair Company in the city. At its height, the company employed 30% of the county's population and accounted for roughly half of Port Washington's jobs. Between 1890 and 1900, Port Washington's population nearly doubled due to the company's success. Additionally, the
Bolens tractor company built its main factory in the city in 1894, and in 1896, Delos and Herbert Smith brought their
commercial fishing business to Port Washington. The Smith Bros. company grew to a fleet of
gillnetting fishing tugs, and they sold fish,
whitefish caviar, and burbot oil in addition to operating restaurants and a hotel. On February 19, 1899, the Wisconsin Chair Company's factory caught fire. The building was destroyed and the conflagration spread, burning nearly half of Port Washington. The damages were covered by fire insurance, and the company built an even bigger factory on the waterfront with direct rail access.
20th century industrial decline and suburbanization In the early 20th Century, the Wisconsin Chair Company opened additional factories in neighboring communities and bought tracts of forest in
Green Bay,
Chambers Island,
Harbor Springs, Michigan, and the
Upper Peninsula of Michigan to supply wood. Among its products, the company manufactured phonographs for
Thomas Edison. In an effort to boost sales, the company also started its
Paramount Records subsidiary, which was one of the first record labels devoted to
African-American music. Paramount operated in neighboring
Grafton until it closed in 1935 during the Great Depression. The Wisconsin Chair Company closed in 1954. The community was the halfway point between Milwaukee and the line's northern terminus in
Sheboygan. In the 1920s,
The Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Company purchased the line and continued to operate it until March 28, 1948, when the Ozaukee County line declined due to increased use of personal automobiles and better roads. Wisconsin Electric Power Company, now known as
We Energies, built the
Port Washington power plant in 1931. The project included an expansion of Port Washington's harbor and the construction of a large coal dock to accommodate the daily coal shipments the station received. The Smith Bros. fishing company closed in 1988, and when the Port Washington power station took its coal-fired boilers out of service in 2004 and converted to
natural gas, Port Washington's harbor closed as a commercial port. There were approximately $2 million in damages, which would have been over $16 million as of November 2019, if adjusted for inflation. ==Geography==