The Settling of Madison

The Settling of Madison. . Madison's history is filled with a wide variety of ethnic pioneers and settlers, including Jewish, Irish, German, French and African Americans, qualifying it as a true American melting pot. The first census of America taken in 1790 revealed that 77% of citizens were of English, Irish, Scottish and Northern Irish descent while over 7% were German – the second largest group. By the Civil War, 5 million immigrants had settled in America and 40% of them were Irish., The famine and political unrest in Ireland were responsible for the emigration of thousands before and after the Civil War., Madison's Irish population swelled the 1840 as laborers arrived to work on the inclined plane for the Madison-Indianapolis Railroad. St. Michael the Archangel Church is said to have been built with stones removed from the railroad cut by Irish workers., The Germans, arriving in the 1840s and 1850s, settled in the North Walnut Street area. German workers made frameworks for saddles, called saddletrees, packed pork and brewed beer., The Irish immigrants also built and attended St. Patrick's Catholic Church in North Madison and the Germans attended St. Mary's Catholic Church (later called Prince of Peace). Other denominations in Madison also built churches which served specific ethnic groups, especially German., By the Way: One German family, the Schroeders, founded a saddletree factory in Madison in 1878, which operated until 1972. It is now an industrial museum open to the public, operated by Historic Madison, Inc., Captions , . (Top left) Railroad cut for Madison Incline. , . (Bottom left) Greiner's Brewery. , . (Bottom right) St. Michael the Archangel Church.