Milwaukee’s Third Ward is usually remembered as an Italian neighborhood. Carl Baehr reminds us that long before the Italian produce peddlers established Commission Row on Broadway, the area was Irish. In From the Emerald Isle to the Cream City, the local historian dates the Irish presence in Milwaukee from territorial days. Among them were Anglo-Irish Protestants such as Milwaukee Mayor Hans Crocker, but the majority were Irish Catholics driven from their homeland by poverty and repression.
Like most immigrants, they worked hard. One early Irish-Milwaukeean operated the ferry that crossed the Milwaukee River before the draw bridges were built. Some farmed. Many did the hard labor of teamsters and construction. By the end of the 19th century, Baehr reports, large Irish picnics were held with dancing to the tune of jigs and reels—the ancestor of today’s Irish Fest.
With extensive research in Milwaukee newspaper archives, Baehr chronicles the city’s Irish presence through the early 21st century. The community has nurtured many illustrious members, including actors Pat O’Brien and Spencer Tracy along with Daniel Hoan, the socialist mayor memorialized by the bridge spanning Milwaukee’s harbor.
There will be a launch party 6 p.m., Nov. 13 at the Milwaukee County Historical Society, 910 Old World 3rd St.
