Waukesha, WISCONSIN - Post Office - 1930 : Waukesha is a city in and the county seat of Waukesha County, Wisconsin. The population was 70,718 at the 2010 census, making it the largest community in the county and seventh largest in the state. The city is adjacent to the Town of Waukesha. The area that Waukesha now encompasses was first inhabited in 1834. Its first non-American-Indian settler was Morris D. Cutler. By 1846, the area was incorporated as the village of Prairieville. On February 8, 1847, the village changed its name to, "Waukesha," and in 1896, incorporated as a city. Matthew Laflin, an early pioneer of Chicago, Illinois, provided the capital and enterprise that laid the foundation for Waukesha as a famous Wisconsin watering resort and was the proprietor of the grand resort, the Fountain Spring House. Waukesha was once known for its extremely clean and good-tasting spring water and was called a, "spa town." This earned the city the nicknames, "Spring City," and, "Saratoga of the West." According to author Kristine Adams Wendt, in 1868, Colonel Richard Dunbar, a sufferer of diabetes, chanced upon the medicinal properties of what he later named the Bethesda Spring while viewing a parcel of land recently purchased by his sister. Testimonials found in a Dunbar brochure of 1873 proclaimed the miraculous benefits. Wendt reports that by 1872, "area newspapers carried accounts of a community ill equipped to handle its new popularity among the suffering multitudes. The semi-weekly Wisconsin (Milwaukee) of July 31, 1872, reported 'that fully 500 visitors are quartered in hotels and scattered in private families here, seeking benefit from the marvelous waters...'" The "healing waters" were so valued that a controversial attempt was made to build a pipeline between the city and Chicago so that they could be enjoyed by visitors to the 1893 Columbian Exposition. According to Time magazine, "[t]he scheme had been conceived by one Charles Welsh who had been given the springs by his uncle, but after several miles of pipe were laid, it was discovered that the cost was too great." Richard W. Sears, founder of Sears and Roebuck, may have been attracted to Waukesha by the waters. In failing health, Sears retired from business in 1908 and, according to The New York Times, "spent his time on his great farm near Waukesha." In 1914, Sears died in Waukesha of Bright's disease, leaving an estate estimated at $20 million. In 1956, Helen Moore, who ran a mud bath spa in Waukesha, appeared as a guest on What's My Line. Over the years, the natural springs have been spoiled by pollution and a number have gone dry. This White Border Era postcard, mailed in 1930, shows an ornate Post Office. The card is in good condition, but it shows some edge wear. EC Kropp Co., Milwaukee. No. 18073.