USA > Wisconsin > Winnebago County > History, Winnebago County, Wisconsin: Its Cities, Towns, Resources, People > Part 51
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HISTORY OF WINNEBAGO COUNTY.
fixtures) ; Bauer Trunk & Bag Company; Sweet & Bernhard (wagons) ; Chris Olsen (concrete blocks) ; the George A. Knaak Company (motion picture apparatus) ; the Coal Briquette Machine Company; the Badger Canning Company (Leander Choate).
The Oshkosh Clothing Manufacturing Company, a prosperous concern, has the following officers: President, Leander Choate; vice-president, James G. Clark; secretary, Ida H. Kremer.
The gas and electric light manufacturing interests of the city are combined in the two plants of the Oshkosh Gas Light Com- pany, of which Edgar P. Sawyer is president and Phil H. Sawyer is secretary and treasurer.
The endeavor has been to make the list complete. Omissions or the giving of undue prominence to some will be found due to lack of information and not to the intent of the writer.
It is not too much to say that three-fourths of the factories now being operated in Oshkosh owe their existence to the fact that the city was in the beginning a center of lumber and wood- working. Its future in these lines as well as in the multifarious activities which have developed in more recent years is bright.
Occasionally someone asks, solicitously, after the logs are all gone, what will become of the Sawdust City?
And the answer is simple. It will grow and prosper, for though it be late in the day to preserve them, the forests are not utterly to be cut down. There will be timber enough left for the world's work, and there must be mills to handle it. Were there none saved, Oshkosh must expand anyway with its many industries, which each year become more widely diversi- fied. Part of the city is builded on the sawdust, but its future rests on something more enduring-the energy and faith of a people undaunted by fire, unretarded by depression, undisturbed by the pessimists, strong in themselves and their work.
Oshkosh is no longer a city of sawmills, but a manufacturing center. Its growth through the timber to its substantial com- mercial position is romantic among all the cities. It reproduces fully the transformation of the wood.
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XLIII. BANKS AND BANKING IN THE CITY OF OSIIKOSII.
By J. Howard Jenkins.
The record of the banks in the city of Oshkosh is one of con- tinuous development and progress, unmarred by a single fail- ure. As financial demands increased with increasing volume of business, capital has stood ready to furnish the necessary funds not only for the city proper, but for a considerable territory adjacent thereto. During the years when Oshkosh was prac- tically a city of logs and sawmills its banking capital was the very life-blood of an area reaching up through the pineries and helping to bring to "The Sawdust City" the pine logs, which were the main source of its prosperity and growing wealth. With the passing of the saw log other lines of business have taken its place, and the expanding deposits in the banks give evidence of thrift and increasing financial independence.
By far the greater proportion of the stock in the Oshkosh banks is held by residents of the city and is widely distributed among many holders. Through all the panics of the past forty years the banks of Oshkosh have firmly upheld their credit, and during the peculiar currency crisis of the fall of 1907 they re- fused to resort to clearing house certificates and honored all checks over their counters with ready cash when demanded. The record of the entire Fox river valley in this respect is one of which its bankers and stockholders may be proud.
Gradually the banks in Oshkosh are being housed in their own buildings. Already the Old National, the German-Ameri- can, the National Union and the Commercial National own sub- stantial and beautifully equipped structures.
Up to 1852 there appear to have been no organized banks in Oshkosh. At that time it was a small village and such currency as was needed was carried in the pocketbook or placed in the scarcely burglar-proof safes of the leading merchants. But
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HISTORY OF WINNEBAGO COUNTY.
there was already talk of incorporation as a city, which really occurred in 1853, so that in August, 1852, the first bank was opened under the name of Darling, Wright, Kellogg & Co. with a capital of $4,000. In 1856 the business passed into the hands of Kellogg, Fitzgerald & Co. In 1857 this was changed into the Bank of Oshkosh, with a capital of $50,000. Again in 1863 this was reorganized as the First National Bank, with a capital of $50,000, which was later increased to $100,000. This in turn in 1883 became the National Bank of Oshkosh, with a capital of $200,000. On the expiration of its charter in 1903 its name was changed to the Old National Bank, with a capital of $300,000. Its present surplus is $100,000.
In 1856 Nelson Fletcher and Henry Strong organized the Commercial Bank of Oshkosh, which two years later was pur- chased by Thomas T. Reeve and G. W. Roe and was conducted by them till October, 1865, when it was reorganized as the Com- mercial National Bank, with capital of $100,000. In 1871 the national charter was surrendered and the business was con- tinued by Messrs. Reeve & Roe as a private bank till September, 1880, when a state charter was taken out as the Commercial Bank, with a capital of $100,000. On September 1, 1900, it was reorganized as a national bank under the name of the Commer- cial National Bank of Oshkosh, with a capital of $200,000. It has a surplus of $50,000.
The Farmers' Bank was organized in 1870 by Mr. R. C. Rus- sell and in 1871 was merged into the Union National Bank, with capital of $100,000. In 1891 this bank was reorganized as the National Union Bank with a capital of $200,000. It has a sur- plus fund of $50.000.
The German National Bank organized in 1890 with capital of $100,000; its surplus is $50,000.
The German-American Bank organized in 1890 with capital of $100,000, and reorganized in 1903 as the New German-Ameri- can Bank with capital of $100.000; its surplus is $25,000.
The South Side Exchange Bank was organized in 1892: it has a capital of $25,000 and a surplus of $20,000.
The State Bank was organized in 1903; it has a capital of $75.000 and a surplus of $11.000.
The Savings & Trust Company was organized in 1903. It does no general banking. its functions being the care of estates. trusteeships, etc., besides the care and investment of savings. Its capital is $100,000 and surplus $3,186.
537
BANKS AND BANKING IN OSHKOSH.
On July 15, 1908, the published statements of the seven banks of the city of Oshkosh show as follows: Total capital. $1,000,- 000; total surplus, $306,000; total undivided profits. $109,215.08; total deposits, $5,750,436.46; total cash and exchange on hand, $1,396,869.49.
In addition to this the Savings & Trust Company's statement was as follows: Capital, $100,000; surplus and undivided profits, $3,186; deposits, $183,288.28; cash, $24,134.
In 1906 the banks of Oshkosh joined in the organization of a Clearing House Association. As the banks are somewhat widely scattered, this has proved a great convenience in the inter- change of checks. During the troublous times of the fall of 1907 it was the means of securing united action on the part of the banks and fully demonstrated its usefulness.
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XLIV.
EARLY JUDICIAL HISTORY AND ORGANIZATION OF THE COUNTY.
By
Charles H. Forward.
It is only attempted in this article to cover the time up to the first term of the circuit court of Winnebago county.
The territorial government of Wisconsin was organized by an act of congress approved April 20, 1836, at which time the ter- ritory now known as Wisconsin was set off from Michigan ter- ritory. This act provided that the judicial power of the terri- tory should be vested in a supreme court, district court, probate court and in justice of the peace, the supreme court to consist of a chief justice and two associate judges, the territory to be divided into three judicial districts, and the district court or courts to be held at each of the three districts by one of the judges of the supreme court.
At this time Brown county, which included the territory later organized as Winnebago county, was declared to be in the Third judicial district.
The present limits of Winnebago county are the same as was originally determined by an act of the legislature January 6, 1840, although later considerable territory was added from the north, but was afterwards detached. The description of the county as set forth in the act of the legislature is as follows : "That district of country bounded as follows, to-wit: North by the north line of township 20, east by line dividing ranges 17 and 18, extended through the middle of Lake Winnebago, south by the north line of township 16, extended into Lake Winnebago until it intersects the aforesaid line, and west by the line divid- ing ranges 13 and 14."
The county was organized for all purposes of county govern- ment. and the people therein to be entitled thereafter to all the bnefits and privileges for protection, as citizens of other counties organized for county purposes, by act of the legislature February 18, 1842.
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EARLY JUDICIAL HISTORY.
The election of the county and township officers was held on the first Monday in April, 1842, the returns of which were made to the clerk of the board of commissioners of Fond du Lac county, whose duty it was to canvass the votes and issue a cer- tificate of election.
At the same time it was provided that for judicial purposes Winnebago county should remain attached to Brown county, and pay eight per cent of all taxes collected in the county of Win- nebago annually, into the treasuary of the county of Brown to defray the expenses of the courts. Also it was provided that the records of the county of Brown in regard to the conveyance of lands in Winnebago county should be transcribed by the regis- ter of deeds of Winnebago county and a certified copy of his record to be as good and sufficient evidence of such conveyance in any court of the territory as certified copies of the original record.
The jurisdiction of the judge of probate, justices of the peace and constables of the several counties of the territory. attached to other counties for judicial purposes, was to extend only to the limits of the several counties for which they might be ap- pointed and appeals from the decisions of the probate judge and justices of the peace in any of the said counties so attached, were to be made to the district court of the counties to which they were attached for judicial purposes. The justice of the peace had the power to issue a warrant and commit persons brought before him for examinations to the jail of the county, to which such county was attached for judicial purposes.
Fond du Lac county was organized for judicial purposes by the legislature on January 22, 1844, and it was provided by sec- tion 15 of that act, that the legal voters of the county of Win- nebago should on the day of the annual town meeting of April next vote for or against the annexation of the county of Win- nebago to the county of Fond du Lac for judicial purposes. This election was held April 22, 1844, at which thirty votes were cast, twenty-five for such annexation and five in favor of remaining attached to Brown county.
February 22, 1845, the legislature provided that for the pur- pose of permanently locating a seat of justice in Winnebago county three commissioners were to be elected at the annual meeting in April next. Every white male person of the age of twenty-one years who had resided in said county one calendar month preceding the day of such election to be entitled to vote.
540
HISTORY OF WINNEBAGO COUNTY.
Clark Dickinson, Robert Grignon and Harrison Reed were elected as such commissioners. On July 16 the board met at the house of Webster Stanley (at a later date than was provided by the act of the legislature, but necessitated by the fact that at the first election only two commissioners were chosen, two others having a tie vote, and a subsequent election was held at which Harrison Reed was chosen). The board at that time received offers of proposed sites and decided on one offered by Augustine Grignon, by vote of two to one, Mr. Dickinson voting against the proposition; and later, on July 31, made a formal certifi- cate accepting the land, which was described as being on "Great Butte des Morts lake at or near the point" (this was just east of the limits of the village of Butte Des Morts) and the district surveyor was directed to prepare a correct description. The surveyor, in making his description, described the land as in section 24, township 19, range 16 east, and the deed was exe- cuted by Mr. Grignon to the county and recorded October 1, 1845, covering that description. This was an error, as the vil- lage of Butte Des Morts is in range 15 east, and Mr. Grignon owned no land in section 24, range 16 east.
There is nothing to show that this land was ever used by the county. January 1, 1852, the county entered an order ap- pointing E. A. Rowley. agent of the county to re-convey the land conveyed to the county for use of county buildings. No such deed, however, is on record.
By the act of the legislature February 8, 1847, it was pro- vided that from after the first day of January, 1848, the county of Winnebago should be organized for judicial purposes to form a part of the Third judicial district, and the courts there- after to be held by the judge of said district, semi-annually in the county, at such times as the judge might determine, until otherwise provided by law. The election of the sheriff and such other officers as said county were entitled to was also provided for, whose term of service should commence on January 1, 1848.
It was provided that all writs, processes, appeals and recog- nizances or other proceedings which were pending undetermined in the district court of the county of Fond du Lac on the first day of January, A. D. 1848, which arose in the county of Win- nebago in the courts of the justice of the peace, should be trans- ferred back and determined in the courts of the county of Win- nebago.
The county seat in and for said county for judicial and county
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EARLY JUDICIAL HISTORY.
purposes, was established after the first of January, 1848, in section 24, township 18, north of range 16 east (in Oshkosh), provided suitable buildings should be furnished for holding the courts free of all costs of charge to the county for the next three years, after which provision was to be made for raising taxes for the erection of public buildings and provided that a good and sufficient deed of the land for the public buildings be obtained and recorded.
Different propositions were made to the supervisors, and after due deliberation, the board accepted the proposition of L. M. Miller and S. A. Wolcott, and made a location, and on April 2, 1847, L. M. Miller, Samuel HI. Farnsworth and Sewell A. Wolcott presented a deed of ten lots, half of a block of land, which was accepted, and constitutes the present site of the court house grounds bounded by Court. Otter and Ceape streets.
Pursuant to this act of the legislature, on January 12, 1848, Judge A. G. Miller, of the Third judicial district of the territory of Wisconsin, issued an order for holding a term of court for Winnebago county on the 11th (being the second Thursday) of May, at 11 o'clock in the forenoon, at which time all writs were returnable. Edward Eastman, clerk of the court, was by the county board directed to furnish suitable rooms for convening court, and on the second Thursday, May 11, 1848, the district court was opened, but on account of the absence of Judge Mil- ler, it was adjourned by the clerk for one day, and on the 12th of May the judge still not being present, and being unable to attend, the grand jurors who had reported the previous day, were released from service, and the cases pending in the said court were continued to the next term thereof, which was to be held in the following August.
I do not find that any other term of district court was ever held in this county.
On the 7th day of August, 1848, a special election for circuit judge was held, Wisconsin having been admitted as a state May 29, and Alexander W. Stowe was elected, and on October 16, the first session of the circuit court of Winnebago county was begun and held at the school house in the village of Oshkosh. The judge present was Hon. A. W. Stowe, stated in court pro- ceedings as "chief justice"; N. P. Tuttle was sheriff, and Ed- ward Eastman acted as clerk and was designated as "clerk of the late district court." The grand jurors who appeared and were sworn are as follows: Timothy Allen, Benjamin Strong,
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HISTORY OF WINNEBAGO COUNTY.
Irvin Heath, John Monroe, William Luckey, Theodore Pillsbury, Luther M. Parsons, Abraham H. Green, David Chamberlain, Henry C. Finch, Samuel Clough, Josiah Woodsworth, James Woodruff, M. M. Moulthrop, Barna Haskell, James L. Schooley, Eli Stilson and John Nelson. Theodore Pillsbury was appointed foreman of the jury by the court.
Proceedings were held and adjournment taken at noon and in the afternoon D. C. Blodgett was appointed clerk of the court.
The petit jury sworn in on that day consisted of the follow- ing persons: Walter C. Dickinson, Wm. M. Forest, Otis W. Fenno, S. A. Gallup, Thomas Kimball, Hiram Bardwell, Elihu Hall, Wm. B. Cross, Unah Hall, Israel S. Clapp, Florence W. Doane, Ryason Wilks, George H. Mansur, Edwin B. Fisk. Henry Knapp, Alfred Thrall, Horace Clemens and Harvey N. Gee.
The following attorneys at law were sworn in as members of the court in the afternoon of the first day, to-wit: E. A. Row- ley, A. A. Austin, W. J. Green, E. L. Butterick, Charles G. Hascum, I. I. Barnick, D. C. Blodgett, Alex. Spalding, O. B. Tyler, I. C. Truesdell, G. W. Washburn, J. S. Horner, C. E. P. Hobart, W. H. Butterfield and L. M. Miller.
The first case in point of time in the record of the circuit court is that of Anson N. Howard vs. Chester Ford, an appeal from the justice court, George F. Wright, justice of the peace, entered June 9, 1847. This was transferred from Fond du Lac county, where it had properly gone when the appeal was made to Winnebago county, and judgment of non-suit was rendered on the second day of the session of the circuit court, to-wit: October 17, 1848. The attorneys interested in this case were J. M. Gillett and T. O. Howe.
The first case in the record which proceeded to verdict, judg- ment and execution was that of J. T. Adriance vs. Henry L. Blood, Oscar Wilson and Amos Dodge. The attorneys in this case were C. E. P. Hobart and T. O. Howe.
W. II. Reed was elected judge of probate and took his seat at the beginning of January, 1848, and on the 7th day of Jan- uary entered an order appointing Edwin A. Rowley register of probate.
The first matter in this court was the estate of S. R. Manning of the town of Rushford. Application for appointment of her- self as administratrix was made by Lucina A. Manning, widow, on the 17th of January, upon which date her bond was approved and letters of administration issued.
XLV.
BENCH AND BAR.
· By
Judge Geo. W. Burnell, Circuit Judge.
The Anglo-Saxon is a thorough believer in the reign of law. It is absorbed with his mother's milk and bred in his bones. He is himself the product of its development adown the ages. For long centuries past, his ancestors by slow and steady labor, have been building up the grandest system of law which the world has ever known, the common law of England. The bright- est minds of that country, through generation after generation, for a thousand years, have added to, corrected and perfected that system until it stands today without a peer among all the races of mankind. When our forefathers came from there to plant upon the virgin soil of this continent the seeds of an- other mighty nation, they brought with them not only the lan- guage and customs of the mother country, but its laws as well. Transplanted here, the branch has grown and flourished side by side with the parent tree. Drawing its sustenance from the same traditions, the same inbred ideas, each has re-acted upon and aided the other.
If England had its Lord Bacon and Lord Mansfield, so Amer- ica has had its John Marshall and its Story; if England had its Coke and Blackstone, America had its Kent and Webster; and while England produced its Magna Charta, America gave birth to the Constitution of the United States, which Gladstone has pronounced "The greatest instrument ever struck off by the mind of man at a given time." Each and all are the common heritage of the Anglo-Saxon race.
From Runnymede and Magna Charta it seems a far cry to the court house of Winnebago county, Wisconsin; and yet every step in that long reach has been an orderly and natural sequence; as the settlements and civilization were pushed over the Alle- ghanies into the western wilds the lawyer accompanied them. He was needed to set in motion the wheels of civil government.
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HISTORY OF WINNEBAGO COUNTY.
The Frenchman with his mayor and the Spaniard with his alcalde, might be content to run on indefinitely with these func- tionaries to settle all disputes. Not so the Anglo-Saxon. He knew that trial by jury was his time-honored heritage, and he forthwith made provision for it. A little later, as the settle- ments grew and the forests receded, the lawyer was required to draft new constitutions for the budding states, and organize new commonwealths. The supply seemed to equal the demand, and bright young men trained to the profession of the law in older states, ever kept pace with the advancing frontier. Filled with a strong and adventurous spirit, they took Horace Greeley's advice, and went west to grow up with the country. So it came about that this county at an early day had the full quota of lawyers, and from then until now it has been noted throughout the state for having an exceptionally strong bar.
Prominent among those early lawyers was Gabriel Bouck, who came to Oshkosh in 1849, and for more than fifty years practiced his profession actively at this place. The son of a governor of New York, and educated there, he, like many others. foresaw that the great west was to become the future seat of empire, and cast his lot in its domains. In 1858 he was attorney gen- eral of this state; later he was speaker of the assembly and a member of Congress for several terms. Of a rugged and eccen- tric nature and of strict integrity, he was one of the ablest law- yers of the state, and during his long and active career, main- tained his position as one of the foremost leaders of the bar. Other lawyers came and went, but none remained and survived so long as he. The firm of Bouck & Hilton perpetuates his name.
Another of those early lawyers and strong men which this new country developed was Coles Bashford, of Oshkosh, who was governor of the state from 1856 to 1858. Ile was afterwards appointed territorial governor of Arizona, where he continued to reside until his death.
A contemporary of these men was James Freeman, another able lawyer, who resided and practiced in Oshkosh until his death in recent years.
Other early lawyers in Oshkosh, who are known only to the present generation by tradition, were A. A. Austin, for many years a faithful and upright district attorney; L. P. Crary. Mark Edmonds, Bradford Rexford and A. P. Hodges, and the firms of Lane and Boynton. Wheeler and Coolbaugh and Eighme,
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545
BENCH AND BAR.
Kennedy and Hancock. Of the latter firm Mr. Kennedy still survives.
Among the pioneer lawyers located at Neenah was J. B. Ham- ilton; and at Menasha were Elbridge Smith, George B. Goodwin and A. L. Collins. These were good lawyers and able men. all of them, who continued to reside and practice in those cities until their death. Judge Collins had been a circuit judge of another circuit.
Of the lawyers of a little later period who were located in Oshkosh, were Norman L. Whittemore and Charles A. Weisbrod (of the firm of Whittemore & Weisbrod), Moses Hooper, H. B. Jackson (of the firm of Jackson & Halsey). Charles W. Felker and Earl P. Finck. Of these Mr. Hooper and Mr. Jackson and Mr. L. W. Halsey still survive, the latter being one of the cir- cuit judges of Milwaukee county. and the two former still in active practice in Oshkosh. The firm of Whittemore & Weis- brod was the leading firm in the early sixties. Norman L. Whit- temore was a lawyer thoroughly grounded in the common law, of large experience, a good advocate, "rich in saving common sense," and a most dangerous antagonist in a lawsuit. Ile was a native of Vermont. Charles A. Weisbrod was a German by birth and thoroughly educated in the German universities. He was a careful and studious lawyer, and but few men in the pro- fession understood the science of pleading as well as he. Mr. Felker was a brilliant lawyer and advocate, a man of great originality, and the keenest wit, and skilful and adroit in the trial of causes. He was born in the state of New York but came to the state of Wisconsin with his family at an early age, returning to that state to complete his education. He was equally forcible as a writer or a speaker and did much editorial work on newspapers from pure love of the thing. For several years he was chief editor of the Oshkosh "Times," and made his influence felt through his trenchant editorials. He will be long rentembered as one of the ablest lawyers in Wisconsin.
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