Title: James E. Bamberry Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1866-1960

Creator:

• Bambery, James E.

Call Number: Green Bay Mss 124

Quantity: 8.0 c.f. (9 archives boxes and 5 flat boxes)

Repository:

Housed at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Archives and Area Research Center; owned by the Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

UW-Green Bay Cofrin Library / Green Bay Area Research Ctr. (Map)

Abstract:

Papers of Bambery, a junior engineer of the U.S. Engineering Office of the Department of War. The collection concerns the activities of the U.S. government's Fox River Improvement Company. Included are business correspondence, legal materials, monthly administrative reports, financial records, payroll records, logbooks of tugboat and dredge activities, and maps and diagrams pertaining to the improvement project for the Fox River. The collection also contains financial records of the Fox River Navigation Company.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-gb0124

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The notion of creating a waterway to run from Green Bay to the Mississippi River via the Fox and Wisconsin river received attention after Wisconsin was established as a state in 1848. Plans called for a land grant to be sold to interested parties to generate funds for improving the two rivers and building a canal between them.

However, the land sales did not provide enough income to finance the project and development was turned over to private hands under the name of the Fox-Wisconsin Improvement Company in 1853. Adverse economic conditions, coupled with inadequate local resources, led to domination of the company by eastern capital. With its shifting sand beds, the Wisconsin River was difficult to make navigable and the private company failed despite an enlargement of the land grant through legislative promotion. By 1866, both the Wisconsin legislature and the court decided to reorganize the corporation under government control.

Between 1866 and 1872, little was done on the project and efforts were aimed at spurring federal development of the waterway. However, due to the anomaly of the federal government paying expenditures for the benefit of a private company, an 1870 law provided for a company buy out. The deal was concluded in 1872, when the company accepted an 145,000 dollar award from the federal government for water power rights from the dams on the lower Fox River. After 1870, improvement on the waterway dwindled even further. Persistent damage claims and disputes between the federal dam owners and the private water power companies hampered efforts to create an east-west navigational highway.

In 1925, Army district engineers gave an unfavorable report on the plan to improve the Fox and Wisconsin rivers for navigation. They found that there was no appreciable commerce on the Wisconsin River below Portage and that it would be impossible to navigate through the Wisconsin River without very expensive carriers or more expensive attempts to halt the shifting sand banks of the Wisconsin River. In any case, interest in the project by manufacturers decreased as railroad connections spread. In the end, U.S. Engineering Office maintenance of the dams on the Lower Fox River was the only remnant of the project.

James E. Bambery was a junior officer in the U.S. Engineering Office and the collection dates after 1866 when the federal government took over the project. The bulk of the material dates from 1866 and 1934, well after the more controversial period in the history of the project. As a junior engineer, a large part of Bambery's job consisted of administrative duties including personnel management, maintaining supplies, inspecting safety and water condition, and negotiating for dredging projects and machine repairs. Financial records were kept as well as monthly reports on the improvement, operation, and care of the project. Some of the earlier correspondence and financial records are from Bambery's former supervisor, L. M. Mann. A large number of maps and diagrams are included in the collection that detail the Fox and Wisconsin rivers and the machinery, equipment and barges used on them.

The collection consists of six series: CORRESPONDENCE, LEGAL MATERIALS, REPORTS, FINANCIAL RECORDS, LOG BOOKS, and MAPS AND BLUEPRINTS. Researchers are also referred to the Library at the State Historical Society of Wisconsin which has significant holdings on the Fox River Improvement project both in the main collection and in the government documents section.

CORRESPONDENCE, 1886-1957, primarily relates to the U.S. Engineering Office and Department of War. Letters concern the hiring, firing, and applications of personnel; project proposals for dredging; equipment repairs; industrial and sundry supplies; safety and inspection procedures; water and weather conditions; water power; and miscellaneous subjects. A few letters discuss the increasing toll of dead fish around the project area.

LEGAL MATERIALS, 1835-1881, consist of a series of appendices to an unknown document in which materials providing legal basis for the project have been typed and assigned appendix numbers of one to fifty. A list of appendices is included in the first folder and typed documents encompass land grant acts, incorporation agreements, testimony, legislative acts, proceedings of meetings, reports, deeds, and other documents.

REPORTS, 1896-1928, include monthly reports regarding the operation and care of the Fox River from 1886 to 1919, and improvements made to the area, 1896-1919. Also included in the series are four reports (1898, 1922, 1926, 1928) entitled, “Letter from the Secretary of War” regarding examination and surveys of the Wisconsin and Fox rivers and Green Bay Harbor.

FINANCIAL MATERIALS, 1877-1960, include a mixture of subject volumes. There is a large cash book and a journal, both dating 1919-1936, of the Fox River Navigation Company, an offshoot of the Fox River Improvement Company. There are also two bill books, 1892-1895, for the Fox River Improvement Company; and an account book, 1918-1934, which includes accounts for each of the tugboats in use. A separate account book, 1930-1940, for the Tug Neenah, is also a part of the series. Time books, 1882-1960, record employee attendance. Several volumes provide financial documentation relating to the locks operated at DePere, Wis., including record of navigation and tolls, 1877-1879 and 1893-1897; toll receipts for lock passage, 1878, 1880-1881; and repair costs of the DePere locks and wing walls, 1896-1897.

LOG BOOKS, 1919-1939, provide narrative information relating to the operations of the Tug Neenah, 1929-1939; and the Dredge Forinaco, 1919-1928.

MAPS AND BLUEPRINTS, 1866-1949, include blueprints and diagrams of machinery and equipment of locks, bridges, barges, dams, and locks used on the Fox River. Also included are sounding and other maps relating to the Fox River, Lake Winnebago, and other lakes, rivers, and cities within the region. There are also three maps of railway lines and yards.

Acquisition Information

Presented by James E. Bambery, Kaukauna, Wis., 1978-1987. Accession Number: M78-668, M82-483, M84-022, M87-409

Processing Information

Processed by David Rumsey, 1991, and reprocessed with additions by Gayle Martinson, 1997.

	Series: Correspondence
Box   1 Folder   1-2	Employee Relations, 1897-1942
Box   1 Folder   3	Project Proposals, 1896-1953
Box   1 Folder   4	Repairs for Equipment, 1886-1924
Box   1 Folder   5	Safety and Inspection, 1906-1942
Box   1 Folder   6	Supply Procedures, 1886-1942
Box   1 Folder   7	Water and Weather Conditions, 1895-1957
Box   2 Folder   1	Water Power, 1886-1896
Box   2 Folder   2	Miscellaneous, 1920-1921
	Series: Legal Materials	⇧
Box   2 Folder   3-5	Appendices, 1-50, 1835-1881
	Series: Reports	⇧
	Operation and Care
Box   2 Folder   6	1896-1899
Box   3 Folder   1-3	1899-1919
Box   4 Folder   1-2	Improvements, 1896-1919
Box   4 Folder   3	Letters from Secretary of War, 1898, 1922-1928
	Series: Financial Records	⇧
Box   5 Folder   1-2	Bill Book, 1892-1895
	Account Book, 1918-1934
Box   10 Folder   1-3	A-N
Box   11 Folder   1-2	O-W
Box   12 Volume	Journal, 1919-1936
Box   13 Volume	Cash Book, 1919-1936
	Time Books
Box   5 Folder   3-8	1882-1906
Box   6 Folder   1-3	1907-1913
Box   6 Folder   4	1935-1944, 1947-1952
Box   6 Folder   5-7	1940-1946
Box   7 Folder   1-6	1946-1960
	DePere, Wis. Locks
	Record of Navigation and Tolls
Box   8 Folder   1	1877-1879
Box   8 Folder   2	1893-1897
	Toll Receipts for Lock Passage
Box   8 Folder   3	1878
Box   8 Folder   4	1880-1881
Box   12 Folder   1	Repairs of DePere Locks and Wing Walls [costs], 1896-1897
Box   8 Folder   5	Account Book for the Tug Neenah, 1930-1940
	Series: Log Books	⇧
Box   9 Folder   1	Log Book of Dredge Forinaco, 1919-1928
Box   9 Folder   2	Log Book for Tug Neenah, 1929-1939
	Series: Maps and Blueprints	⇧
Box   9 Folder   3	Project and Index Maps to River and Harbor Works, Milwaukee, Wis. District, 1936
Box   14 Folder   1	Barges, 1911, 1927, undated
Box   14 Folder   2	Bridges, 1907-1949
Box   14 Folder   3	Dams, 1922-1934
Box   14 Folder   4	Equipment, 1900-1947
Box   14 Folder   5	Lake Winnebago and Fox and Wolf Rivers, 1899-1938
Box   14 Folder   6	Locks, 1934, 1936, undated
Box   14 Folder   7	Miscellaneous [Green Bay Harbor, Fond du Lac River, Buffalo Lake, Portage Quadrangle, Village of De Pere], 1866-1937
Box   14 Folder   8	Railway Lines and Yards [Appleton Yard of the M.L.S.&W. Ry., Kaukauna Yard of the Chicago Northwestern Ry., & Valley Railway line], 1893, 1906, undated
Box   14 Folder   9	Soundings of the Fox River - Green Bay to Lake Winnebago, 1888, 1932-1938