Solomon was born on August 9, 1793 in L'Assomption, Canada, near Montreal. His parents, François and Thérèse Galerneau Juneau dit La Tulipe, had come from Alsace four years earlier. The family had had representatives in Canada since the seventeenth century. Solomon was the second son.
He was well educated for his day.
When Juneau entered the fur trade he was articled as a clerk (commi), not as a voyageur. He arrived in Mackinac in 1816 where he engaged with Jacques Vieau a trader from Green Bay, who had several posts along the western shore of Lake Michigan. In 1818 Juneau began operations at Milwaukee, where Vieau had long traded.
After his marriage he built a house at Milwaukee and became the agent there of the American Fur Company. In 1831 Juneau took out papers of naturalization and began to learn English. Two years later he entered into partnership with Morgan L. Martin, an American of Green Bay, to plat a town on the Milwaukee River. This was accomplished in 1835 when Juneau entered his claim as a preëmption and began to sell lots in the new town.
At one time he was reputed to be worth at least a hundred thousand dollars, but the panic of 1837 and his personal generosity reduced his fortune. He built the first store, the first inn, and when the city was incorporated in 1846, became its first mayor. He retained his interest in the Indians and after the treaty of 1849 entered his wife and children as halfbreeds of the Menominee nation.
In 1852, at his wife's instance, Juneau retired from Milwaukee and went to live on a plat of ground in Dodge County where he founded the village of Theresa, named for his mother. There Mrs. Juneau died in 1855. The next year Juneau served as delegate to the Democratic convention that nominated James Buchanan. Before Buchanan took his seat Juneau had died on the Menominee Indian reservation, whither he had gone to a "payment. "
Solomon Laurent Juneau built Milwaukee's first store and first inn, and was recognized for his leadership among newcomers to Milwaukee. He gave a square for a court house and land for a lighthouse, and later Juneau gave lots for the Catholic cathedral and for the Protestant Milwaukee Female College. In the result, he was admitted to be the first mayor of Milwaukee. Later, he founded the village of Theresa in Dodge County. Milwaukee contains many memorials of Juneau in the names of streets, a park, and a fine statue presented in 1887 to the city and placed in Juneau Park on the lake front. In the mayor's office is an original portrait by Samuel M. Brooks, ordered by the city and painted from life.
Solomon was tall - six feet, four inches - with dark curly hair, fine features, and an engaging, courteous manner. He was very popular with the Indians among whom he traded, who called him "Solomo, " and with whom he was allied through his wife, whose grandmother was an Indian.
Quotes from others about the person
"He was always the same unselfish, confiding, open-hearted, genial, honest and polite gentleman", wrote his former partner, who testified that he was the soul of honor, and that their accounts, though kept verbally, were settled without difficulty.
Juneau married one of Vieau's daughters, Josette. He left a large family of whom there are many descendants.
