After landing at
Fort Michilimackinac in 1816, Juneau worked as a clerk in the fur trade before becoming an agent for the
American Fur Company in Milwaukee. He had been summoned to the Milwaukee area by
Jacques Vieau, a French-Canadian fur trader and the first permanent white settler in
Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In 1818 Jacques Vieau hired Juneau, based on the accounting prowess Juneau had become known for, and his reputation for being able to deal well with the local native Americans. Juneau later married one of Vieau's daughters,
Josette, and went on to found what was to become the City of Milwaukee. Juneau settled an area east of the
Milwaukee River called Juneautown (present-day
East Town) in 1818, which later joined with
George H. Walker's
Walker's Point and
Byron Kilbourn's Kilbourntown (present-day
Westown) to incorporate the City of Milwaukee. With Juneau came his personal cook,
Joe Oliver, a
Black Catholic believed to have been the first
African American in Milwaukee history. In 1831, Juneau began learning English and set in motion the naturalization and citizenship process. By 1835, he was selling plots of land in Juneautown. He built Milwaukee's first store and first inn, and was recognized for his leadership among newcomers to Milwaukee. In 1837 he started the
Milwaukee Sentinel, which would become the oldest continuously operating business in
Wisconsin. He was the first
mayor of Milwaukee from 1846 until 1847, and was appointed its first
postmaster. Solomon Juneau High School, built in 1932, is named after him. The school is located at 6415 West Mount Vernon Avenue in Milwaukee. The hour bell in the clock tower of the
Milwaukee City Hall, installed in 1896, is also named after him. , Milwaukee
Personal life In 1820, Juneau married Josette Le-Vieux, the daughter of
Jacques Vieau, a fur trader for the
North West Company who had built a trading post overlooking the
Menomonee Valley years before, and his Menominee wife. Josette was the oldest of 12 children, and was
Menominee and French by ancestry. Through her alliances to the tribe, and the relationships fostered through Juneau's business in fur trading, it is reported that Juneau was popular with the Menominee. After the treaty of 1848 between the United States and the Menominee, he registered his wife and children as
half-breeds of the
Menominee Nation. In 1854, Juneau and family relocated to
Dodge County, Wisconsin, where they founded the village of
Theresa, named after Juneau's French-Canadian mother. Josette died there in 1855; Solomon died one year later in
Keshena, Wisconsin, on a visit to the Menominee tribe. He died in the arms of
Benjamin Hunkins, his "faithful friend and constant nurse." Six Menominee chiefs served as pallbearers at his funeral. He is buried at
Calvary Cemetery, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Juneau's grandson
Paul O. Husting would be elected as a member of the
United States Senate. The property that is believed to have once been the site of Juneau's residence is now the site of the
Mitchell Building, listed on the
National Register of Historic Places. ==See also==