Town of Lake Badge Trail

Town of Lake, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin

Once upon a time there was a Town of Lake in Milwaukee County.
Established on Jan. 2, 1838 the town included all of Southern Milwaukee County south of Greenfield Ave. from the shore of Lake Michigan west to the county line. Things started going down hill for the town almost immediately. On March 8, 1839 the Town of Lake was split in two creating the Town of Kinnickinnic in the western portion. On August 13, 1840 Franklin and what was to become Greenfield broke away from the Town of Lake. Bay View broke away to become a village in 1879 only to be annexed by the City of Milwaukee in 1887. In 1892 South Milwaukee broke away to become a village and then a city in 1897. In 1892 Patrick Cudahy bought the land for his meat packing plant and established the Village of Cudahy in 1895 which in turn became a city by 1906. St. Francis became a city in 1951 to prevent annexation by Milwaukee as did Oak Creek in 1955. What was left of the Town of Lake was annexed by Milwaukee on April 6, 1954.

So why is this monopoly-like game played? Taxes! The residents of small townships and unincorporated areas like to avoid the higher taxes extracted by the large cities while the big cities are always trying to expand their tax base by annexing their neighbors.
While these events may soon be forgotten they did create an interesting trail of badges. For example the three badges named to Wilbur L. Bernard. First an Honorary Member badge from the Town of Lake Fire Department, named and dated, June 15, 1951 on the back. To rate “honorary member” one had to be a long and dedicated volunteer or a fireman too old to actively fight fires but still too young to retire. This badge is a classic fire fighting design with blue enamel lettering and gold plating. Next we have a Milwaukee Fire Department small size private purchase wallet badge nickel plated and inscribed “W. BERNARD” on back along with the maker’s mark of “J. Theleman” a Milwaukee jewelry maker. This badge tells us that Mr. Bernard survived the annexation of the Town of Lake in good standing and joined the Milwaukee Fire Dept. The third badge confirms this. It is a Milwaukee Fire Dept. retirement badge made by Erffmeyer and Son, named to Firefighter Wilbur L. Bernard with his service dates as 4-8-54 (two days after the annexation) to 1-27-69. This indicates that Mr. Bernard was a dedicated volunteer (not too old) with the Town of Lake Fire Dept.
A second example, that of Thomas Lathrop is not so clear cut. The first badge is a small eagle top shield wallet badge indicating that “T. Lathrop was on the Town of Lake Fire & Police Commission. The second badge tells us that Thomas Lathrop was a Cudahy 1st ward Alderman from 1930-1932. Since Cudahy did not become a city until 1906 I would suspect that Mr. Lathrop moved his legal residence from Cudahy to somewhere in the Town of Lake after his aldermanic term expired.