Shantytown

Fort Howard commander Colonel Joseph Smith moved the garrison to near this location, about a half-mile back from the shore, where the high ridge of Camp Smith offered better visibility and protection from disease than the fort's previous site on the west side of the Fox River three miles north. The new establishment lasted only briefly: in 1822 Colonel Pinkney took command, and the War Department ordered the garrison back to Fort Howard. A small settlement known as Shantytown had grown up to serve Camp Smith, and after the soldiers left it remained. Stretching from about where Heritage Hill is now to Allouez Avenue, it may have been the first American settlement west of Lake Michigan. It contained the region's first post office, sharing space with postmaster Robert J. Irwin Jr.'s general store, and remained the center of trade and business in the area for the next 10 to 15 years. Located in what is now the village of Allouez, the settlement attracted Henry Baird, a lawyer and politician who moved there in 1824 and became the first lawyer to practice in Wisconsin; he later served as Green Bay's mayor from 1861 to 1862. His wife Elizabeth later wrote memoirs of life there, recalling her arrival in September 1824: “We were rowed ashore...as there were then no wharves or docks. The river looked clean and broad. The wild rice, a patch several yards in width growing along the borders, was a novel sight.” Although Shantytown's original buildings and homes are no longer standing, its legacy survives in the names of city streets and parks.

Allouez, Wisconsin · United States