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This broadsheet, printed on blue wove paper and featuring a lithographed map of southeastern Wisconsin, was issued by the City of Watertown in the early 1850s to promote the sale of $80,000 in municipal bonds intended to finance the construction of the Milwaukee and Watertown Railroad. The document offers an ambitious portrait of Watertown as a rising industrial city, ideally positioned to serve as a transportation hub linking Lake Michigan to the interior. The integral map, by W.W. Rose of New York, traces the proposed railroad west from Milwaukee through Waukesha to Watertown, with additional routes reaching toward Fond du Lac, Sheboygan, and Madison.
The text describes Watertown as a city of nearly ten thousand residents, with ample waterpower and extensive manufacturing, including flour mills, machine shops, breweries, and ironworks. The bond terms promised eight percent interest, with semi-annual payments and optional conversion to company stock. The prospectus assures investors that the city’s credit, the strength of the railroad company, and the region’s agricultural productivity together guarantee the security of the investment.
In reality, the project collapsed. The railroad company went bankrupt, the bonds went unpaid, and the financial burden crippled Watertown for decades. The city’s attempt to recover its standing was long and fraught, and creditors pursued repayment for years afterward, resulting in one of the more notorious municipal finance failures of the period. This document stands as a vivid example of the overextended optimism that accompanied the railroad boom of the 1850s, and of the severe local consequences when those visions fell apart.
