USA > Wisconsin > An illustrated history of the state of Wisconsin : being a complete civil, political, and military history of the state, from its first exploration down to 1875 > Part 14
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Mr. Burnett, from a committee appointed to notify the gov- ernor that the council was organized, and prepared to receive any communication he had to make, reported that Gov. Hor- ner was absent, probably at Detroit, and that the committee had no definite knowledge on the subject of his return. A memorial to Congress on the organization of Wisconsin Terri- tory was presented by Col. W. B. Slaughter, from a commit- tee appointed to draw up the same, which memorial was adopted ; also a memorial on the subject of Indian titles on the Lower Iowa River.
James Struland
CROSSCUP & VEST-SC.
1
1
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HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
Owing to the absence of the governor, who did not come near the council, nor send any written communication, no laws were passed. An appropriation of nineteen hundred dollars was made to defray the expenses of the session.
The legislative council adjourned March 5, 1836.
CHAPTER XVI.
THE TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT.
Wisconsin Territory -Its Original Boundaries-Civil Rights, &c. - Elections - Early Legislation - Gov. Dodge - Banks-The Capital -Speculation - Madi- son -The Fight over the Location of the Seat of Government.
THE act of Congress "establishing the Territorial Govern- ment of Wisconsin " was approved April 20, 1836. It provided that all the country included within certain prescribed bounda- ries, including all the territory now embraced in the States of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota, and a part 1836.
of the Territory of Dakota, should form, and after the third day of July, 1836, constitute, a separate Territory, for the pur- poses of the temporary government of Wisconsin; at which time all the power and authority of the government of Michigan in and over the said Territory ceased.
The executive power over the Territory was vested in a gov- ernor, who was also superintendent of Indian affairs, and whose approval of all laws was necessary before they should take effect.
The act provided for a secretary, whose duty it was to record and preserve the laws and proceedings of the legislative as- sembly, and the acts and proceedings of the governor, and who was to execute and perform the powers and duties of governor, in certain contingencies mentioned in the act.
The legislative power was vested in the governor and a legis- lative assembly, consisting of a council of thirteen members, elected every four years; and a house of representatives of twenty-six members, elected every two years. And it was pro- vided by the organic act that the governor should appoint the time and place of the first meeting of the legislative assembly ;
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HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
that he should cause a census of the inhabitants to be made previous to the first election, and should make an apportionment among the several counties, for the election of members of the council and house of representatives.
The act further provided " that every white male citizen of the United States, above the age of twenty-one years, who shall have been an inhabitant of the Territory at the time of its organization, shall be entitled to vote at the first election, and should be eligible to any office within the said Territory."
The organic act further directed, that the judicial power of the Territory be vested in a supreme court, district courts, probate courts, and in justices of the peace. The supreme court to consist of a chief justice and two associate justices ; any two of whom to constitute a quorum, and to hold a term at the seat of government of the Territory annually. The clerks of all the courts were appointed by the judges thereof. The act also provided for the appointment of an attorney and marshal. The governor, secretary, chief justice, associate judges, attorney and marshal, it was provided, should be appointed by the governor and council, or elected by the people. Such is a brief synopsis of the principal provisions of the act organizing the government of the Territory.
The first appointments made by the President and Senate, of the several offices, were : -
April 13, 1836, Governor, Gen. Henry Dodge.
May 6, 1836, Secretary, John S. Horner.
August, 1836, Chief Justice, Charles Dunn.
September, 1836, Associate Justices, David Irvin and William C. Frazer. 1836, Attorney, W. W. Chapman.
1836, Marshal, Francis Gehon.
The machinery of a complete. temporary government, and the instruments for its proper working, were thus provided ; and it only remained to set the machine in motion. And on the fourth day of July, 1836, the governor, secretary, and judges took the prescribed oath of office at Mineral Point, which event contributed a novel and interesting element to a grand celebration of the national jubilee, which was very generally participated in by the inhabitants of the lead-mine region, of which that hamlet was the then recognized metropolis.
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HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
The first important thing to be done to complete the forma- tion of the embryo government was the organization of the legislative assembly, preliminary to which a census was to be taken by the sheriffs, and an apportionment of members of the two branches made by the governor, among the several counties.
That portion of the Territory which comprises the present State consisted of four counties, - Brown, Crawford, Iowa, and Milwaukee. Brown County embraced all the territory east of the Wisconsin River and range eight, and south as far as, and including, town Twelve and the State of Illinois, extending west to, and including, range Nine. Iowa County was bounded north by the Wisconsin River, east by the line between ranges Eight and Nine, south by Illinois, and west by the Mississippi River; and Crawford County embraced all the remainder of the Territory east of the Mississippi. The census, which had been taken agreeably to law, exhibited the following figures: Brown County, 2,706; Crawford County, 850; Iowa County, 5,234; and Milwaukee, 2,893. Total, 11,683.
The apportionment made by the governor gave to the differ- ent counties representation as follows : -
Members of Council. 2
House of Representatives.
Brown
3
Crawford.
0
2
Milwaukee
2
3
Iowa.
3
0
Dubuque
3
5
Des Moines
3
7
13
26
The time fixed by the governor for the election was the 10th of October, 1836. The election excited a very considerable interest, growing, chiefly, out of local considerations. The permanent location of the "seat of government," the division of counties, and the location of county seats, were the ques- tions that chiefly influenced the elections; while the views of candidates in relation to national politics had little or no influ- ence upon the results.
Mr. John Atchinson, an enterprising citizen of Galena during the summer and autumn of 1836, having laid out a
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HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
town plat between the two Platte Mounds, to which he gave the name of Belmont, erected there several buildings designed for the accommodation of the legislative assembly ; and the governor, by his proclamation, appointed that place, and the 25th of October as the time, for the meeting of the first session of the assembly.
A quorum of each house was in attendance at the time fixed for the meeting; and the two houses were speedily organized by the election of Hon. Henry S. Baird of Green Bay, president of the council ; and Peter Hill Engle of Dubuque, speaker of the house of representatives. Each of the three branches of the infant government was now in working order, except that it remained for the legislative assembly to divide the Territory into judicial districts, and make an assignment of the judges. This was speedily done. Crawford and Iowa constituted the first district, to which the chief justice was assigned ; Dubuque and Des Moines the second, to which Judge Irvin was assigned; and Judge Frazer to the third, consisting of Milwaukee and Brown Counties.
Gov. Dodge, in his first message, directed attention to defining the jurisdiction and powers of the several courts, and of matters connected with their administration; recom- mended memorializing Congress on extending the right of pre- emption to actual settlers, and to miners on the mineral lands, the removal of the obstructions in the rapids of the Upper Mississippi, the construction of harbors and light-houses on Lake Michigan, the improvement of the navigation of the Fox River, and a survey of the same from Green Bay to Fort Winnebago, the improvement of the Rock River, the increase of lands to the Territory for school-purposes, and for organi- zing and arming the militia for the protection of the frontier settlements.
The first act passed by the legislative assembly was one which privileged the members from arrest, and conferred on themselves power to punish for contempt. The next one, with the exception of that already referred to, establishing judicial districts, was "to borrow money to defray the expenses of the first assembly.
Three banks were incorporated, - the Miner's Bank of
CROSSCUP & VEST-SC.PHIL A.
Ex. St. Paul.
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HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
Dubuque, the Bank of Mineral Point, and the Bank of Mil- waukee, all of which were organized and went into operation, and all failed, and became utterly bankrupt; and one of them, the Bank of Mineral Point, with a loss to the community of over two hundred thousand dollars.
The protection of the lands donated to Wisconsin by the United States Government for school-purposes, and the crea- tion of a common school fund, first called the attention of our public men to the cause of education. The first resolution on school-matters ever introduced into the legislative assembly, was at this session, and referred to the report of a bill, to " Prohibit persons from trespassing on the school-lands in the Territory, by cutting and destroying timber." A memorial to Congress was adopted, requesting that body to authorize the sale of the school-section in each township, and to appropriate the money arising, towards creating a fund for the support of common schools.
All the territory south and east of the Wisconsin and Fox Rivers was subdivided into counties as they now exist, except that Ozaukee, Waukesha, Kenosha, and Lafayette have been formed out of Washington, Milwaukee, Racine, and Iowa. In most of the counties, the county-seats were located at the same session. These questions, however, did not create much dis- cussion, as the questions, where any existed, had been mainly decided at the elections; and the members had only to give effect to the expressed will of those citizens by whom they had been elected.
The great and paramount question of the session was the location of the seat of government. To this, all others were subordinate and made subservient. The wild spirit of specula- tion, - which, in the earlier part of the year 1836, had, like a tornado, swept over the whole country, and which, having invaded and unsettled the prices of every species of personal property, seized upon the unsold public domain, which was transferred by millions of acres from the control of the gov- ernment and the occupation of the settler, to the dominion of the speculator, - although on the wane in the last months of that year, was still omnipotent, and exerted a marked influence upon many of the members of the Belmont legislature.
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HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
Numerous speculators were in attendance, with beautiful. maps of prospective cities, whose future greatness was por- trayed with all the fervor and eloquence which the excited imaginations of their proprietors could display. Madison, Bel- mont, Fond du Lac, and Cassville were the points which were most prominently urged upon the consideration of the members. Hon. James Duane Doty, afterwards a delegate in Congress, and governor of the Territory, and more recently governor of Utah (where he died) had resided for many years at Green Bay, as additional judge of Michigan Territory. His frequent journeys in the discharge of his judicial duties, in the different parts of the Territory, had rendered him familiar with its geog- raphy and topography, and had given him superior advantages for judging of the eligibilities of different points as sites for the capital of the Territory and future State. Judge Doty fixed upon the isthmus between the third and fourth of the Four Lakes, and in connection with Stevens T. Mason, the governor of Michigan Territory, purchased from the government about one thousand acres of land, in Sects. 13, 14, 23, and 24, upon the common corner of which the capital now stands. Upon this tract of land, a town plat was laid out, called Madison, and, under the auspices of its founder, became a formidable competi- tor for the honors and advantages of being selected as the seat of government. Madison town-lots in large numbers were freely distributed among members, their friends, and others who were supposed to possess influence with them.
Nearly four weeks were spent in skirmishing outside the legis- lative halls, when, on the 21st of November, the battle was formally opened in the council, and the bill considered in com- mittee of the whole until the 23d, when it was reported back in the form in which it became a law, fixing on Madison as the seat of government, and providing that the sessions of the legislative assembly should be held at Burlington, in Des Moines County, until March 4, 1839, unless the public build- ings at Madison should be sooner completed.
When the bill was reported back by the committee of the whole, and was under consideration in the council, where the ayes and nays could be called, a spirited attack was made upon it; and motions to strike out Madison, and insert some
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HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
other place, were successively made in favor of Fond du Lac, Dubuque, Portage, Helena, Milwaukee, Racine, Belmont, Min- eral Point, Platteville, Green Bay, Cassville, Belleview, Koshko- nong, Wisconsinapolis, Peru, and Wisconsin City, but all with one uniform result,-ayes, six ; nayes, seven, -and the bill was, by the same vote, ordered engrossed, and next day passed the council. In the house of representatives, the opposition was not so formidable ; and on the 28th, the bill was ordered to a third reading by a vote of sixteen to ten, and passed, the same day, fifteen to eleven, thus ending one of the most exciting struggles ever witnessed in the Territory of Wisconsin.
It was quite evident that the Des Moines County delegations in both houses favored the location at some central and con- venient point between the Mississippi and Lake Michigan, anticipating the early division of the Territory of Wisconsin, and the organization of the Territory of Iowa, when they appar- ently hoped to secure the location of the capital in their por- tion of Iowa Territory, which they eventually accomplished. Aside from any douceur consideration, this alone was a suf- ficient inducement for the solid vote of that delegation for Madison as the seat of government.
This question having been disposed of, but little remained which was thought expedient to act upon at that session. A proposition for a commission to codify the laws was made; but, as the opinion was prevalent that the Territory would soon be divided, it, and others of a similar character, met with but little favor.
The first legislative assembly having enacted that the annual sessions should thereafter be held on the first Monday of November, adjourned, sine die, on the ninth day of December, 1836, having been in session forty days, and passed forty-two laws, about one-half of which were of a private nature.
CHAPTER XVII.
THE TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT.
Building-Commissioners - Their Journey from Milwaukee to the Site of Madison -Condition of the Territory -The Routes and Modes of Travel - Early Land Sales - The Squatters and their Exponents -Second Session of the Territorial Legislature - The Wisconsin University - Educational - Early Schools -The Milwaukee and Rock River Canal Company -Special Session of the Legislature.
BY Sect. 3 of the act locating the seat of government at Madison, it was enacted "That there shall be three commis- sioners, elected by joint ballot of the council and house of representatives, whose duty it shall be to cause the necessary public buildings to be erected at the said town of Madison for the accommodation of the assembly, and other officers of the Territorial Government. The said commissioners, or a majority of them, shall agree upon a plan of said buildings, and shall issue proposals, giving due notice thereof, and contract for the erection of said buildings without delay. One of their num- ber to be treasurer, who shall be authorized to draw on the treasury of the United States for such sumns as may be needed out of the congressional appropriation for the erection of said building, giving proper security ; another to be acting com- missioner, whose duty shall be to superintend in person the erection of the buildings; the commissioners to receive such compensation for their services as may hereafter be allowed by law."
In pursuance of this section, the legislative assembly, on the 7th of December, 1836, in convention, elected Augustus A. Bird, James Duane Doty, and John F. O'Neill commissioners ; which board at their first meeting elected Mr. Bird acting commissioner, and Mr. Doty treasurer. On the 10th of June,
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HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
1837, the acting commissioner, accompanied by a party of
thirty-six workmen, arrived, to commence the work.
1837. They were ten days on the route from Milwaukee, making their own roads, travelling through a country without settlers or any evidences of civilization.
The workmen, after the erection of temporary houses and cabins, commenced the excavation for the foundation-walls ; and the work was so far advanced, that preparations were made to lay the corner-stone with appropriate ceremonies on the 4th of July, and a celebration was had. Among the guests was a party of Winnebago Indians with their chief, Dandy.1
Of the twenty-one members from the counties east of the Mississippi, it is believed that only five survive at this date (1875), - Gilbert Knapp, Alanson Sweet, and J. B. Terry of the council, and Gen. A. G. Ellis and Thomas Shanley of the house. But few persons realize the condition of things as they were in 1836. In recalling the changes that have taken place in the Territory and State since that date, it seems almost like a dream. It is not forty years since the Territory was organ- ized ; and yet, in that length of time, a State has grown into existence of at least a million of inhabitants. In 1836 there were but three newspapers published west of Lake Michigan, and north of Illinois, in the vast territory extending to the Pacific, - one at Milwaukee, " The Advertiser," established in July, 1836; one at Green Bay, in August, 1836, "The Green- Bay Intelligencer ; " and one at Belmont in the present county of Lafayette, in the fall of the year, called "The Belmont Gazette; " the latter being established merely to do the Terri- torial printing, the first legislature having been summoned to meet at that place. What is now Iowa -with the exception of two or three points on the Mississippi, Dubuque, and Bur- lington - was an unknown wild, without even a name, as was Western Wisconsin, and the country extending north to the British Possessions. The lead-mines in the west, and the military establishments of Forts Howard, Winnebago, and Crawford, and the villages of Green Bay and Milwaukee, and the few mining-settlements, -numbering an estimated population,
1 Dandy was a prominent Winnebago chief, son of old Four Legs, and died at the Tunnel, we believe, in 1873.
CROSSCUP && WEST-SC.FHR
Mop Merrill
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HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
in all, of some ten thousand inhabitants, - were all there was of this vast Indian country unexplored and unknown except to its native people, to its scarcely less wild traders and trap- pers. There were no regular routes of travel in the interior ; and all communication between distant points was either through exploring-parties made on foot or on horseback, along well-worn Indian trails, or under the direction of Indian guides. From one military station to another, the government had opened passable roads ; but elsewhere the routes of travel were neither direct nor comfortable, being such as the Indian or the lazy half-breed had opened at the least expenditure of labor, regardless of distance or convenience.
In the year 1836, there was no land in market, save a narrow strip along the shore of Lake Michigan and in the vicinity of Green Bay, at which place the government land-office was located ; the balance of the surveyed portion of the Territory being open only to pre-emption. Settlers were governed in the possession of these lands by laws and regulations adopted at public meetings ; and these were faithfully adhered to, as a matter of common safety. When the lands finally came into market, these settlers, or "trespassers," as they were held under the law, bid off the tracts to which they respectively laid claim ; no interference or over-bidding on the part of out- siders being permitted. At the first land-sale at Milwaukee, a citizen speculator of that place was taken to the river and thoroughly ducked, because of his having bid against a settler. These settlers were mostly Eastern men, who, leaving their families, came to the Territory to lay the foundations for new homes. They went to the wilderness, built themselves cabins, improved the land, and, when they became owners of their ยท claims, brought their families to the enjoyment of their new possessions, which have since grown into beautiful homes, or theatres of active business. The land-claimants were a hardy, enduring, hopeful class of people; but many of them only opened the way for others, falling back before the tide of immigration to other undeveloped portions of the West. .
Such was the state of matters less than forty years ago. A country rich in natural resources had passed into the hands of young, energetic men for development ; and undertakings were
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HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
entered upon then that would seem impossible to less hopeful and less self-relying minds than are generally possessed by early settlers.
The second session of the legislative assembly convened at Burlington on Monday the sixth day of November, 1837, and continued in session until the 20th of January, 1838, when it adjourned to meet again on the second 1837.
Monday in June. The two houses were composed of the same members as at the previous session, with the exception of four persons elected to fill the places of four who had resigned. Of the council, Arthur B. Ingraham was elected president ; George Beatty, secretary ; and Levi Sterling, sergeant-at-arms. And of the house of representatives, Isaac Leffler was chosen speaker; John Catlin, chief clerk; and William Morgan, ser- geant-at-arms. The governor, in his message, recommended, as he had at the previous session, a codification of the laws, the organization of the militia, the improvement of rivers and harbors, and other measures which had not been considered by the legislative assembly. This session was not marked by any events of peculiar interest. The whole number of acts passed was a hundred and six. Of these, eighteen related to the laying-out and organization of counties, locating county- seats, and to town, village, and city organization ; ten, to the establishment of eighteen different seminaries and universities ; nine, to the location of roads; and thirty-six, to the general conduct of the public affairs of the Territory. There was also passed thirty-two private acts, of which one was to incorporate a bank at Prairie du Chien, which was disapproved by Con- gress, and never went into effect ; and six to grant divorces, all of which took effect immediately after, and some, perhaps, before, their passage.
Of the public acts, the two most important were the act providing for taking another census, and the act abolishing imprisonment for debt ; which relic of barbarism had continued in force, by operation of the laws of Michigan upon the organization of the Territory. Among the eighteen universi- ties and seminaries established was the University of the Territory of Wisconsin at Madison, to which Congress was, by joint resolution, urged to make an appropriation of twenty
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HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
thousand dollars in money, and two townships of land. The money was not appropriated. But on the 12th of June, 1838, Congress made an appropriation of the amount of land asked for, - two townships, or 46,080 acres, which was the fundamen- tal endowment of that noble university, whose spacious build- ings now adorn the capital of the State, and whose facilities and capacity for educating its youth reflect so much credit upon those who have manifested so great an interest, and such untiring perseverance, in promoting its welfare. Some account of this act, and of the early history of the university, will prove of interest. The following is a synopsis of the original charter of the university, which was approved Jan. 19, 1838: -
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