Jeremiah M. Rusk

    Wisconsin Governor Jeremiah Rusk had a very interesting life, beginning

as a planter and then turning to Innkeeping and finally to Banking before the Civil War. During the war he was appointed Brevet General and saw action at Antietam with the 26th Wisconsin Volunteer which was almost wiped out.

    After the Civil war he became a Congressmen and then resigned to run for

Governor of Wisconsin, Obviously he won the election. His most noted act during his governorship was when he sent the National Guard into Milwaukee Wisconsin to keep the peace during the Great May Labor strikes of 1886. The strikers had shut down every business in the city except the Bay View Rolling Mills. The Guardsmens orders were that if the strikers were to enter the Mills shoot to kill. But when the Captain recieved the order it had a different meaning and he ordered his men to pick out a man and shoot to kill when the order is given. Several People were killed and Governor Rusk took the majority of the blame.

    In 1889 he resigned his Governorship and accepted a cabinet position with

the Benjamin Harrison Administration.