Milwaukee Cement Company.

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Archives Department.

Milwaukee Cement Company.

Records, 1875-1948.

Milwaukee Manuscript Collection AR

.8 cubic ft. (2 archives boxes)

ABSTRACT: Records of the company and the Milwaukee Cement Railway Company, founded by Joseph Berthelet in 1875, consisting of correspondence, business papers, maps, and minutes of meetings of the stockholders and board of directors. Almost no records remain about the employees, sales, or production of the cement.

ACCESS RESTRICTIONS: There are no access restrictions on the materials, and the collection is open to all members of the public in accordance with state law. However, the researcher assumes full responsibility for conforming with the laws of libel, privacy, and copyright which may be involved in the use of this collection (Wisconsin Statutes 19.21-19.39).

SCOPE AND CONTENT: The most important records of the Milwaukee Cement Company are the two volumes in which the proceedings of the meetings of stockholders and meetings of the board of directors were recorded from the inception of the organization in November, 1875 to November, 1919. (A third volume completing the records from 1919 to 1949 has been promised to the Society by Mr. Berthelet.) Supplementing and amplifying the material in these volumes, is a small group of correspondence and miscellaneous business papers, such as special committee reports, lists of stockholders, samples of stock certificates, and so on. These are scattered throughout a period of years from 1876 to 1935.

In addition there is one volume of minutes of the meetings of the board of directors of the Milwaukee Cement Railway Company, the subsidiary corporation directing the operation of the short line connecting the cement works with the main lines. These records cover a period from January 9, 1908 to June 23, 1914. A complete book of stock certificates from 1908 to 1915 shows the distribution and ownership of capital stock in the Company, and there is a small group of correspondence and papers of scattered dates from 1878 to 1918.

These manuscripts almost exclusively pertain to the management of the Milwaukee Cement Company. Virtually no records about the employees, sales, and production of the cement works remain. The only clues to the use of the cement are found in a group of "testimonial" letters photostated from reproductions in a pamphlet published about 1900, a copy of which Mr. William T. Berthelet loaned to the Society. These give some indication of the uses to which building concerns and municipalities made of the cement.

With these manuscripts are filed seven small or folded maps, six large rolled ones, and one rolled blueprint showing the original property of the Company, later acquisitions of land, the buildings and railroad. An important group of pictures showing the mill sites, equipment, directors, and employees, taken between the late 1870s and 1900 have been filed with the picture collection. Most of them are dated, labeled, and identified, and a side from the volumes of minutes, probably constitute the most valuable part of the Milwaukee Cement Company material in the possession of the Society.

ADMINISTRATIVE HISTORY: In June, 1948 the Wisconsin Historical Society's Manuscript Section acquired the records of one of Milwaukee's interesting industries of a former time--the production of hydraulic or natural cement by the Milwaukee Cement Company. The Company was organized in November, 1875 as a result of the discovery of limestone rock suitable for cement manufacture in the Milwaukee River (about the site of the present Esterbrook Park) by Joseph R. Berthelet a year or two previously. The Company produced cement successfully, although during their early period of financial struggle for existence, aid was received from Alexander Mitchell and the Milwaukee Marine and Fire Insurance Bank. By about 1880 the factory was producing approximately 150,000 barrels of cement a year, valued at about $125,000. From 75 to 100 men were full-time employees. Because there is in the manuscript collection an historical account of the Company, written by William T. Berthelet in 1942, the story of the building of the mills, competition with a rival company, establishment of a branch railroad line of the Milwaukee (operated by a subsidiary of the Cement Company, the Milwaukee Cement Railway Company), needs not be repeated. The Company manufactured natural cement until 1912, when the discovery of methods of making Portland cement made it impossible for Milwaukee natural cement to continue in competition with the better product. For a time the Company became distributors of Portland cement and other building materials. Ceasing this, the firm began to dispose of its real estate holdings, a process which by 1948 was almost completed.

Among the founders and officers of the Milwaukee Cement Company, members of the Berthelet family have been most important, and warrant brief biographical notice. Joseph R. Berthelet was born in Detroit, son of Joseph Reuben Berthelet. In the spring of 1832, young Joseph went to the Choctaw Nation as clerk to a sutler near Doakesville. Three years later he went to Sandwich, Canada to marry Eliza Parent, and then returned to the Choctaw Nation in 1836, where he was in partnership with a half-breed Indian by name of Jones. About 1850 he moved to St. Louis, and in 1861 to Milwaukee, where he later discovered the cement quarry. In 1869 he was joined in his business of making sewer pipe of imported Louisville cement by his brother, Henry Berthelet (1823-1908), who later became the first president of the Milwaukee Cement Company. He sold his interest in the Company in 1901, and returned to his birthplace, Detroit, to live. (A third brother, Louis Benjamin Berthelet (1804-1850) was mentioned in the Wisconsin Historical Collections as a resident of Green Bay in 1825. He married Lucy Peltier (born about 1810) in Detroit in 1827, and moved to Indiana where he died near Peru.) Joseph R. Berthelet, Jr. served as superintendent of manufacture and also as president of the Company at times. William T. Berthelet, grandson of Joseph R., Sr. and donor of the records to the Society, joined the firm in 1886, and since 1909 has been secretary and manager of the organization. Among other prominent Milwaukee citizens connected with the management of the Company at one time or another were Samuel Marshall, George H. Paul, William W. Plankinton, Howard Greene, and Horace A. J. Upham.

COLLECTION CITATION: This collection should be cited as:

Milwaukee Cement Company. Records, 1875-1948. Milwaukee Manuscript Collection AR. Wisconsin Historical Society. Milwaukee Area Research Center. UWM Libraries. University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee.

MARC RECORD SEARCH TERMS: The following terms were used in the online bibliographic MARC record to this collection:

Business records--Wisconsin--Milwaukee.
Cement industries--Wisconsin--Milwaukee--Records and correspondence.
Milwaukee (Wis.)--History--Sources.

MILWAUKEE MANUSCRIPT COLLECTION AR	BOX	FOLDER
Business Correspondence, 1878, 1901, 1913, 1916, 1918, undated	1	3
Correspondence, Miscellaneous Business Papers, 1875-1942, undated	1	1
History, undated	1	2
Maps, undated	1	4
Maps, undated	1	6-7
Minutes, Annual Board Meetings, 1875-1892 [volume 1]	2
Minutes, Annual Board Meetings, 1892-1919 [volume 2]	2
Minutes, Annual Board Meetings, 1919-1948 [volume 3]	2
Minutes, Annual Board Meetings, 1908-1914 [volume 4]	2
Testimonial Letters, 1890-1898	1	5