RACINE  , a

city and the county-seat of Racine county, Wisconsin, U.S.A., on the W. shore of Lake Michigan at the mouth of the Root river, about 25 M . S.S.E. of Milwaukee and about 6o m . N. of Chicago . Pop . (1890) 21,014; (1900) 29,102, of whom 9242 were foreign-born; (1910 census) 38,002 . Racine is served by the Chicago & North Western and the Chicago, Milwaukee & St Paul railways, by two inter-urban electric railways, connecting with Milwaukee and Chicago, and by steamboat lines . The river has been deepened and its mouth protected by breakwaters, providing an excellent harbour; in 1909 vessels drawing 19 ft. could pass through the channel . Among the public buildings are the City Hall, the County Court House, the Federal Building, the Carnegie Library, the High School, two hospitals and the Taylor Orphan Asylum (1872) . Among educational institutions, besides the public schools, are Racine College (Protestant Episcopal, 1853), St Catherine's Academy (Roman Catholic) and two business colleges . Racine is, next to Milwaukee, the most important manufacturing centre in Wisconsin . The value of its factory products in 1905 was $16,458,965, an increase of 41% over that of 1900 . Of this, $5,177,079 (or 31.5% of the city's total) represented agricultural implements and machinery .

Carriages and wagons ($2,729,311) and automobiles ranked -next in importance . Racine was the

French form of the name of the Root river . The first Europeans positively known to have visited the site of Racine were Vincennes, Tonty and several Jesuit missionaries, who stopped here for a time on their way down the coast in 1699 . Early in the 19th century Jambeau, a French trader, established himself on the Root river, and in 1834 Gilbert Knapp (1798-1889), who had been a lake captain since 1818, induced several residents of Chicago to make their homes at its mouth . The place was at first called Port Gilbert . The settlement grew rapidly, a sawmill was built in 1835, and the present name was adopted in 1837 . In 1841 Racine was incorporated as a village and in 1848 was chartered as a city . See S . S . Hurlburt, Early Days at Racine (Racine, 1872) ; History of Racine and Kenosha Counties . (Chicago, 1879) .