The development of the Village of Whitefish Bay was intrinsically  tied to the development of a north shore transportation system. In the late 1800s, the northern limit of the city of Milwaukee extended to about North Avenue. Transportation beyond that point was difficult at best.  As a result, the area now known as Whitefish Bay was very sparsely populated. 

Several entrepreneurs, recognizing the potential attraction of lake shore properties north of Milwaukee, started enterprises to provide transportation:

The Milwaukee and Whitefish Bay Railway, also known as the Dummy Line

MLS&W purchased a considerable tract of land near what is now Fairmount Avenue in Whitefish Bay in 1887. Rumors spread that car shops and freight yards would be built. An enterprising real estate firm obtained land rights and platted a subdivision in the vicinity. It has been reported that this set off a real estate boom which resulted in platting subdivisions that covered much of what is now the village of Whitefish Bay. The railroad ran special suburban service to the area to encourage prospective home owners to purchase property. The real estate bubble burst in the panic of 1895, bringing an end to this railway service.

Similarly, the Dummy Line also attracted real estate activity into the lake shore areas of Whitefish Bay. Day Avenue became the first residential neighborhood in the community, with many homes built before year 1900.

July 6, 2009
THE DUMMY LINE

The story of the Dummy Line is particularly interesting. It has been reported that the railway got its name because of an incident that occurred during the first trip of the railway's 12 ton locomotive. The incident has been described as follows: “While pulling three passenger coaches, the noisy engine terrified livestock and draft horses along its route, incurring protests from the owners of overturned wagons. In an effort to solve the problem, the company mounted a life size wooden horse onto a flatcar and coupled the car to the front of the engine to act as a calming vanguard.” [4]

While the story is entertaining, I believe it is doubtful that it is true. A good number of railways in the United States were dubbed, ‘Dummy Lines’ and a popular song of the time was entitled, “Riding on the Dummy.” Two different explanations were found from various sources for the name ‘Dummy.’

1. A term used in railroad logging to describe railroad tracks that did not connect communities nor seem have any direction to them; also called spur or tram lines. [Longleaf Pine Glossary, www.longleafalliance.org/teachers/teacherkit/glossary.htm.]

2. ‘Steam dummies’ was a term applied to a locomotive that consisted of a simple tank style steam locomotive built with a faux street car shell over the chassis. It is reported that this was a common practice back in the era when horses were the primary power of transportation and supposedly were accustomed to street cars, yet were easily frightened by the moving parts and escaping steam of a conventional steam locomotive. The street car shell hid all the reciprocating machinery and apparently horses were more at ease in their presence with this arrangement. [from: http://members.trainweb.com/bedt/indloco/ht.html]

This second explanation might provide the origin of the name, as well as the story. The existing photographs of the Milwaukee and Whitefish Bay train show that, indeed, the locomotive had a street car shell built around it. Furthermore, in appearance it looks quite similar to other locomotives described as ‘steam dummies.’


The Milwaukee and Whitefish Bay railway, with the conductor standing next to the locomotive. From: Shorewood, Wisconsin (Part of the Images of America Series), published by the Shorewood Historical Society


A typical Dummy Locomotive, or more formally called a Steam Motor. In this case a 1898 Baldwin, from the Baldwin Locomotive Works
From: September 1977 issue of Railroad

The Milwaukee, Lake Shore & Western Railway was already operating before the ‘Dummy Line’ was built and traveled in much the same area. It used conventional steam engines. So the story that the first trip of the Dummy train, “terrified livestock and draft horses along its route, incurring protests from the owners of overturned wagons,” sounds incredulous. It is more likely that the local story morphed from the frequent retelling of the reason that steam dummies were designed to look like street cars.

The owners of the Dummy Line (The Milwaukee and Whitefish Bay Railroad) probably selected a dummy train because it was suitable for the short passenger trips it was designed for. It only required a small engine to haul three small passenger cars, and the owners preferred an appearance similar to that of the new street cars that were already being used in Milwaukee.

A good treatise of the development of the dummy locomotive, more formally called the ‘steam motor’ was provided in an article in Invention and Technology magazine.[5]   The article reported that, “the street-railway industry … understood their merits for suburban lines (rather than urban train systems). Stops were less frequent, so wear and tear on the machine was reduced and fuel economy improved. The speed potential of the dummy was also better realized. Although 15 or 20 miles per hour may not seem fast, compared with a horse car’s five miles per hour it did make a scheduling difference. One community after another from Connecticut to California established its dummy line. … By 1892 Poor’s Directory of Railway Officials and Manual of American Street Railways listed about 80.”

“Most were minor operations with one or two dummies, a handful of cars, and a few miles of lightly built track. …The largest clusters of dummy lines were, as might be expected, around major cities. … The great majority were gone by 1900 as efficient, smokeless electric streetcars took over America’s transit needs.”

It appears that the ‘Dummy Line’ was well accepted by its clientele. “Paths to the North Shore Suburbs,” an article on the history of early transportation to Whitefish Bay by Lewis W. Herzog, describes trips on the ‘Dummy’, stating:

“The socialites bound for the exclusive Milwaukee Country Club rubbed elbows with the holiday crowds headed for such places as Mineral Spring park, Welcome Park, Jefferson Park, and the one and only Whitefish Bay Resort. Here at the end of the line the chugging locomotives came to rest and the merry-makers entered the spacious pavilion overlooking the sparkling bay named for those succulent planked whitefish served in the spacious dining room. Here one could drink Milwaukee's Pabst Brewing Co. beer at the little round white tables along the walk, enjoy band music by the Joseph Clauder Brass Band outside, and Clauder's quintette inside under the direction of violinist Herman Kelbe. Kelbe also conducted the orchestra in the Davidson Theater in winter.”

The Dummy Line passed out of existence when the Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Company extended its Oakland Avenue street car line to Silver Spring Drive in 1898, following a pattern adopted at most other American cities.

FISHING IN THE BAY

We don’t think of our village as a fishing village, however, the first commercial enterprise in the area (other than farming) was fishing. And the fish that that they caught most often was the whitefish – leading to our village’s name.

In 1862, Mr. John Luck, a fisherman from the fishing district near Green Bay arrived in the area and, with the help of William Consaul, one of the first farmers in the area, constructed the first ‘pound net’ off the shore of our community.

The pound net had been developed in Scotland and introduced to North America in the 1830s. It consisted of a leader, a tunnel, and a pot (see figure 1, below).

A book entitled “Fishing in the Great Lakes: An Environmental History 1783-1933,” describes the function of the pound net as follows: “The leader was a net positioned at a right angle to the shore. Leaders used in 1879 measured from 500 to 1,400 feet in length. The leader guided fish toward the core of the net, a heart shaded enclosure from where they passed through a tunnel into the pot of the net.”

The construction of a pound net typically required a scow fitted with a pile driver to set the stakes that supported the nets (see figure 2, below).

In order to harvest the fish, a crew using a pound-net boat lifted the pot of the pound net and pulled the whitefish into the boat (figure 3).



Many years ago, Mary Jane Scheife provided her recollections of pound net fishing in Whitefish Bay. Mrs. Scheife was the daughter of William Consaul, one of the first farmers in Whitefish Bay whose land extended from the lake to what is now Santa Monica Boulevard and with a southern boundary of what is now East Silver Spring Drive. A Village street that now traverses the property, North Consaul Place, is named after the family.

An extract of her oral history is as follows:

“The first pound net in Whitefish Bay was put in in l862 by Mr. John Luck, a fisherman from the fishing district near Green Bay. It was a very warm day in May when he came down through the orchard and rapped at the door of our home and father went to the door. The man said his name was John Luck and he had come down with his boats and net and three helpers and now all he wanted was a nice landing place. […]

“The next day they went over to the tamarack swamp just north of Devon Street near the river to look for stakes. They found all the nice, tall trees which they bought and began cutting down, trimming off the branches and getting them ready to take up to the lake for shaving and pointing off. It was a busy time and by the first of June the nets were set and fish coming in fine. Mr. Luck fished on our beach for two years and then moved down about five blocks south about opposite Circle Drive where he fished about ten years, good fishing most of the time. He lived in the house that is now 942 East Sylvan Avenue; a very nice house at that time but not as large as it is now. It has been remodeled two or three times.

“The next year father and his brother, Captain Theodore Consaul, started fishing. They hired a fisherman from Green Bay for about two months to help get the nets in and everything started. The man’s name was William DeYoung, a very nice man and a good worker. Father built his own boats during the winter, one twenty-four foot flat bottom and one fifteen foot.

It was a warm spring and they wanted to get the net in for the early spring fishing. They got the nets in ready for business but that night a big northwest storm came up and lasted for two days. The lake was very rough so the net could not be lifted for two days. Father was very much worried that he expected to find his nets all torn to pieces by the rough weather and the drift wood, but to his surprise they only found one big hole where a big log had torn through and with about four hours mending it would be fixed like new.

They rowed out to the pot and found everything all right and there they had quite a surprise. When they lifted the net they found it contained fifteen sturgeon and about two bushels of small fish, mostly trout, sheepshead and bass but no whitefish.

When they returned to the beach there was quite a crowd of people waiting for fish, so most of them were sold right there on the beach. Most of the sturgeon had been ordered, so my older brother put the saddle on the old horse and went out to tell the farmers we had plenty sturgeon on the beach and were going to lift the nets again about one o’clock in the afternoon. They did and at that time came in with forty-five sturgeon, all sizes from two feet to four and one-half feet long.

This sounds like a big fish story, but it is the truth. We had no strict fishing laws in those days like we have now. I was five years old at the time but remember this as though it happened yesterday.

“Father fished about eight years, good fishing most of the time. Then the nets were mended and stored away in the fish shanty.”

Another account of pound net fishing in Whitefish Bay is provided by an interesting article that ran in the Milwaukee Sentinel, July 17, 1862. It’s a reporter’s account of his excursion to Whitefish Bay. He reports:

“Five minutes pull brings you to the pound; a few minutes inextricable twisting of ropes ducking of heads and in our case a continual chorus of nautical phrases in which all joined, and above which the horse la', could be heard loud and distinct. After getting in sight of the web, the doors are shut and the net pulled up so as to bring the fishes near the surface. The sight is well worth seeing. The water becomes alive with the finny creatures, all wiggling gliding and squirming in an almost solid mass of tails, heads and fins. Thousands of the silvery herring, the plump, scintillating white fish, the broad flounder, the succulent bass, the rank sheep’s head, the great sluggish sturgeon, the pickerel and many others, all massed in a living community. The visitors are allowed to haul out all they want, which is easily done as they (the fish) are so congregated that they can be caught with the hand.

“The scene is an exciting one, and Mr. Luck who owns the nets, takes great delight in the interest shown at his unique exhibition. Parties always come to shore with selected strings of fish for which a mere nominal fee is charged.
These men have already salted and packed 500 barrels of white fish at this place. They take two loads to the city every morning and the smoked sturgeon which is served up in our saloon is of their preparation.

“We found on our arrival, a party of gentlemen accompanied with ladies, who had just been out to visit the pound.

“The scenery in the vicinity is picturesque and the locality pleasant.”

Additional References:

Figure 1: Green Bay pound net. (Drawn by L. Kumlien; from Hugh M. Smith and Metwin-Marie Snell, "Review of the Fisheries of the Great Lakes in 1885," U.S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries, Report, 1887, Appendix, 50th Cong., 2d sess., 1889, H. Misc. Doc. 133 [Serial 2661], facing 108)

Figure 2: Crew of a stake boat driving stakes for a pound net, Lake Erie. (Drawn by H. W. Elliott; from Hugh M. Smith and Merwin-Marie Snell, "Review of the Fisheries of the Great Lakes in 1885; 'U.S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries, Report, 1887, Appendix, 50th Cong., 2d sess., 1889, H. Misc. Doc. 133 [Serial 2661], facing 28)

Figure 3: Crew of a pound-net boat lifting the pot of a pound net, Lake Erie. (Drawn by H. W. Elliott; from Hugh M. Smith and Merwin-Marie Snell, "Review of the Fisheries of the Great Lakes in 1885," U.S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries, Report, 1887, Appendix, 50th Cong., 2d sess., 1889, H. Misc. Doc. 133 [Serial 2661], facing 250)

“Fishing in the Great Lakes: An Environmental History 1783-1933,” Margaret Beattie Bogue, The University of Wisconsin Press, 1924

The above articles were found in the Mimi Bird files, part of the WFB Historical Collection maintained by the WFB Library.