USA > Wisconsin > Buffalo County > History of Buffalo County Wisconsin 10847607 > Part 22
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May 28th 1860,
the first one in Alma. The county officers were ordered to hold their offices in the house of F. S. Richards previous to the building of a court house. $400.00 having accumulated from the funds destined to pay the so-called wolf-bounty, it was determined to divide this surplus among the towns and corporations. District Attorney Lees declared the proceedings illegal, because, as might be surmised from the record of the proceedings, some other person had voted in place of John Linse, who seems to have been chair- man of the Town of Belvidere, but no notice seems to have been taken of the attorney's objection.
The regular meeting for the year was held November 9th, 1860,
in the old schoolhouse at Alma. Nothing but routine business was transacted at this meeting.
Next meeting, a special one, was held
July 8th, 1861,
in the same place and in it the so-called Bates' house was accepted as a temporary court house. The campaign of Buffalo City against Alma on the county seat question had compelled the peo- ple of Alma to pledge themselves to do as much as its rival prom- ised to do, that is, to build a court house, but as this could not be done forth with, a temporary abode for the officers was furnished. The house thus furnished was large, but scarcely more than a mere shell. A new court house was however at the time in course of
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erection. The board had met for the purpose of equalization of assessments, which up to that time was done in a separate session.
At the annual meeting
November 12th, 1861,
there was an entirely new task before the board. The legislatare of that year had passed a law requiring counties of about the pop- ulation which Buffalo County had at that time to be divided into three supervisor districts for each of which a supervisor had to be elected, to serve for two years. These three supervisors were to have the same powers and functions as the county board as it was originally constituted. I have never learned the reason for this change, and I know that from the beginning it met with consider- able opposition. There is much to be said for and against the arrangement, and the most important objection was always, that the districts could not be arranged to suit the various interests of the different towns. Of course, a member would have to be from one particular town, and the other towns belonging to the district might feel slighted and jealous, although they had nothing to say against the member elect personally. With regard to the busi- ness to be transacted, I think it was almost too much for three or even five men, but I have not heard that any serious complaints were made as to the administration of affairs, although there was always dissatisfaction for the reasons already mentioned. The di- vision itself was made as follows:
District No. 1. Waumandee, Glencoe, Cross and Gilmanton.
District No. 2. Buffalo, Eagle Mills, Belvidere and City of Buffalo.
District No. 3. Nelson, Naples, Maxville, Modena and Alma.
The Town of Modena was established at this session and to consist of Township 23, Range 12 with the northern tier of sec- tions of Township 22, Range 12.
The salary of the county superintendent of schools, of which the first one had been elected that year, and was to enter into office in January 1862, was stipulated at $400 per annum.
The numerous mistakes occurring in assessments, especially by assessing land not yet entered, could not be remedied until an abstract of entries was procured from the land office of the dis- trict, and it was ordered that this should be procured.
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ORGANIZATION.
In this session it was resolved that the following registered town plats should be vacated:
City of Belvidere, Buehler's Addition to Fountain City, the City or Village of Upper Fountain City.
Annual meeting held
November 11th, 1862,
John Burgess was elected chairman.
The treasurer was authorized to exchange tax certificates on village lots in his office for such certificates on land. It was re- solved to vacate Bishop's Addition. the Lower Addition and Pat- terson's Addition to Fountain City. The salary of the county clerk was fixed at the sum of $800 annually. Up to that time he had his fees on redemption of tax certificates and other transac- tions. The County Judge was requested to move his official quart- ers to the court house.
At the special meeting
December 1st, 1862,
the making up of the jury list was the main transaction.
Another special meeting was held
March 24th 1863,
in which Sections 6 and 5, and the West Half of Section 4 of Township 21, Range 12, were detached from the town of Belvidere and annexed to that of Alma.
Some discussion was held on the subject of altering the Foun- tain City and Alma road in such a manner as to avoid building a bridge at the mill dam in Eagle Mills.
At the special meeting held
July 6th, 1863,
the re-establishment of the supervisor districts was the order of the day. No changes were made in them.
There is something said in the proceedings of this session about a petition to the Attorney General of the State, or rather an inquiry, concerning a supposed mistake on the part of J. A. Tester, Deputy .County Treasurer in signing tax certificates without first signing the name of County Treasurer Polin. This was about the time when everything began to be scrutinized by the piercing eyes of our lawyers, and flaws, real or supposed, were made capital in the industry of politics, though this particular case did not afford very much opportunity for that. I can not now remember how
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the matter terminated, which affords me sufficient reason for sup- posing that the alleged mistake finally was no mistake at all, and at the worst only the omission of a customary but not essential formality.
The board met
July 13th, 1863,
for the purpose of equalization ef assessments.
The annual meeting convened
November 10th, 1863,
but was adjournedto November 16th.
It was resolved that the County Superintendent of Schools should receive a salary of $400 per annum, provided that he furn- ish from the teacher or teachers of every school district a certificate of having spent two whole days in the school. In case of such cer- tificates not forthcoming the fourth quarter of said salary should be withheld and he should receive but $300.00. Did it not occur to the gentlemen: 1. That the law prescribed the duties of the superintendent, and gave them no authority whatever in the mat- ter? 2. That they virtually made the superintendent dependent upon those, who by law were under his jurisdiction? 3. That a superintendent (or any other officer) who needed such a whip to be driven to perform his duty, was not worth having under any circumstances ?
This was a most unwarranted and gratuitous insult to the su- perintendent elect, Mr. C. F. Kingsland, and the only excuse, such as it is, for this resolution might be, that it was only intended to give the people at large a favorable impression of the severity of the county board in official matters.
The salary of the District Attorney was fixed at $400.00; that of the County Treasurer at $600.00.
$100 were appropriated for the purchase of a safe of Mr. Fin- kelnburg. The Treasurer was required to give $16,000.00 offi- cial bonds.
Sections 25 and 36 of Township 22, Range 12, were detached from the town of Alma and annexed to that of Wau mandee.
Adjourned to November 21st, probably to give the clerk and treasurer time to make up their reports. Why they should have required so much extra time, does not appear. One matter, how- ever, which had been allowed to go on and to grow into an accum-
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ulated nuisance may have been at the bottom of it. This was the issue of illegal tax certificates, a large per cent. of which were on land not entered at the time of assessing it, and another large per cent. originating in the inexperience of those, who had to do the preliminary work, the balance being due to other accidental neglects or errors, which will happen under the most rigid system and scrutiny. The abstract of entries, of which to every town such a part was sent in copy, as contained all the original descriptions of the entered land had been in some degree applied to the correc- tion of the increasing evil, and the mass of the certificates. had to be separated and decisions made as to what should be done with the separate lots of them. The matter was, of course, very import- ant, but whether it required all the fuss and feathers, in the way of public notices and such things that was made about it, I am, at this distant day, inclined to doubt. There was a plain chance for somebody to show his superior knowledge and consequent import- tance, that could not very Well pass unimproved,
At the specal meeting
March, 21st 1864,
the supervisors were:
1st District-John Maurer, Waumandee.
2d District-Ferdinand Huefner, Buffalo.
3d District-John Burgess, Nelson.
It was resolved, that the certificates on lots in the vacated town-plats should be sold at auction during an advertised period of four weeks, and afterwards at the option of the County Treasurer.
An appropriation was made for the construction of a bridge across Trempealeau River, provided that the town in which it was situated was to appropriate the same sum. The bridge was to be . erected in Section 10, T. 20, R. 10, which, I think, is about six miles out of the way.
A report on the county road to the bridge in question was de- manded, from Fountain City across the bluffs.
The jail built by the City of Buffalo was to be inspected with regard to its fitness for a county jail. $150.00 were appropriated for extra work performed in the office of county treasurer, most or all of it with regard to abstracts of entries. and illegal certificates, probably also for getting up the plat-books and making the entries in the same.
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ORGANIZATION.
An appropriation was made for repairing .the bridge across Beef River, above and near Alma.
License was granted to A. G. Remondino of Wabasha for a ferry across the Mississippi at that point and to John Creese for one across Beef Slough at some connecting point.
Special meeting held
July 10th, 1865,
mostly for the purpose of equalizing assessments.
Mr. Remondino required to appear September 2d before the board to have his ferry-charter amended.
$150.00 were appropriated for planks on the Beef River bridge near Alma.
At the special meeting
September 11th, 1865,
Mr. Remondino surrendered his ferry-charter, and the same was transferred to Levy Deetz and one McClarney at reduced rates for the time from May 1st to November Ist in each year, charges for other times according to old rates.
Resolved not to issue county orders for illegal tax certificates until after annual meeting.
At the annual meeting
November 14th 1865, (adjourned to 15th,)
the salaries of the county officers were determined as follows: Treasurer $800.00, and to give a bond of $16,000.00; District At- torney $400.00, and County Superintendent $400.00. The county treasurer's office having been plundered some time before, the clerk was ordered to procure a burglar proof safe.
Appropriations were made to:
The town of Alma for alterations on Beef River Road $500.00 The town of Eagle Mills to improve Waumandee Road 300.00 Robert Lees to pay expenses of Quo warranto suit ... 150.00
Orders were to be made out for illegal certificates.
A reward of $20.00 was voted to Otto Furrer who had found the county orders formerly stolen from the Treasurer's office.
$25.00 were appropriated for the construction of an "ice- breaker " on the Trempealeau River bridge, to which the county had contributed money.
The meeting was adjourned to
December 18th, 1865,
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At this adjourned meeting Sections 13 and 24 of Township 21, Range 12, were taken from the town of Belvidere and annexed to that of Waumandee. The petition for establishing the town of Elizabeth (now Canton) was laid over until next meeting.
The Register of Deeds (at that time Jacob Wirth) was re- quested to WRITE plainly . To understand this, it must be remem- bered that the Register of Deeds for the past four years had been Otis F. Warren, considered to be the best penman in the county at that time. Jacob Wirth, the Register elect, was a one-armed vet- eran, who could, with his left hand write quite well and legibly, but could not be expected to handle the books of the registry, nor to write much into them as he would be tired out by the position he would have to assume for the purpose. He was also much ad- dicted to hard drinking, and unreliable for the actual business of the office. It was a foregone conclusion, that he would have to employ a competent deputy, and the resolution above quoted was perhaps a strong hint to be careful in the selection. But there was still another notion in the injunction. Our lawyers, and other quibblers, had determined that, according to law, and the deci- sions of "ze Supreme Court," the Register of Deeds must actually " write " every word of an instrument to be placed on record, and should not, on pains of rendering the record "void " use any blanks, that is, no part of the record should be partly printed and partly written. Thus the emphasis of the sentence is to be put upon the verb " write" and not upon the adverb "plainly." As this was the last meeting in which C. Moser, jr., was to act as County Clerk, the board passed resolutions of thanks for his able and courteous conduct in the office. Although in general sueh com- pliments are as hollow and meaningless as most other compli- ments, and as I am afraid that they who passed the vote did not exactly realize the situation, yet I must say, that Mr. Moser did generally speaking, deserve the compliment of having been a capable, attentive and courteous officer. The system he introduced into everything connected with the administration of county affairs, though perhaps not perfect, was certainly superior to prev- ious ways, and in fact simple and comprehensible, and worked very well for a long time. Even at present time we see some effects of it, although they can not be traced out by every one.
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The new board elected at the general election in fall, held a special meeting
February 10th, 1866.
The members were:
1st District-George Cowie of Glencoe.
2d District-Henry Roettiger of Buffalo.
3d District-Harvey P. Farrington of Naples.
Mr. Cowie was elected chairman.
The petition for establishing a town of Elizabeth was again postponed; also, an application of the City of Buffalo relating to the purchase of tax certificates upon lots in the place.
$500.00, probably due on milldam contract, was appropriated to the town of Eagle Mills.
The clerk was ordered to turn over to the County Surveyor plat and field notes on the survey of the road on the mill dam.
A special meeting was again held
July 9th, 1866,
probably on account of equalization of assessments which was duly performed. Other business was transacted as follows: Resolved to pay tax certificates to towns for such taxes returned unpaid as they were entitled to; Appropriation made for the Trempealeau bridge, and $23.05 for costs in the case of the State of Wisconsin ex relat. Gates, against Ferdinand Fetter.
Annual meeting
November 13th, 1866.
Account of Pepin County in the case of State vs. Christian Brucker, $140.00, allowed.
$200.00 appropriated for the road from Fountain City to Black River Falls, and the same amount on the Trempealeau bridge.
The salary of the County Clerk was fixed at $1000.00 and his bond at $5000.00.
Resolved to fine the member from the third district Harvey P. Farrington $50.00 for non-attendance at this session.
Special meeting
January 21st, 1867.
The several supervisor districts were represented by the fol- lowing members:
1st District-George Cowie of Glencoe.
2d District-Lawrence Kessinger of Belvidere.
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be collected for building the jail. The salary of the District At- torney to be $500.
The Sheriff was authorized to hold his office in the same room as the County Treasurer.
At the annual meeting
November 15th, 1867,
the town of Eagle Mills was distributed as follows:
To the Town of Buffalo, all that part in Range 11, in Town- ship 19 and the South half of Township 20, all of Town 19, Range 12 and the eastern tier of Sections 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 36, 35, and 84 of Township 20, Range 12.
To the Town of Waumandee the northern half of Township 20, Range 11, and such parts of Sections 1, 12 and 13 of Township 20, Range 12, as had belonged to Eagle Mills.
To the town of Belvidere the Sections 20, 21, 22 and 23 of Township 20, Range 12.
Besides this division there was a general change of boundaries for the better accommodation of the occupants of the parts trans- ferred from one town to another.
The east halves of Sections 2 and 11 of Township 20, Range 12 from Belvidere to Waumandee.
Sections 5, 6 and 7 and North Half of Section 8 of Township 22, Range 11, from Waumandee to Alma.
The Town of Montana consisting of Township 22, Range 10, with the next adjacent two rows of Sections of Township 22, Range 11, was set off, the first election to be held at the schoolhouse in Dannuser's valley.
The meeting adjourned to
December 2d, 1867.
Certain roads were designated as county roads, as required by a law of the preceding legislature, and a special county road tax levied.
Specifications of jail-building settled, and advertisement for bids to be published, the bids to be opened February 3d, 1868. Supervisor Kessinger was to act as the agent of the board in this matter.
Wolf bounty ordinance of 1857 repealed.
There was a rather animated discussion in regard to the pub- lication of delinquent taxlist and proceedings of the county board
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in the German language as had been customary, which resulted in a resolution of continuing the custom.
Special meeting held
February 3d, 1868.
The board consisted of the same supervisors. L. Kessinger was elected chairman for the year.
An admonition was given to the County Superintendent to be diligent in visiting schools.
Resolved to publish a new advertisement with regard to the building of the Jail.
County Roads selected in Gilmanton and Naples.
The NE } of SE & of Section 33, Township 20, Range 11, was detached from the town of Buffalo and annexed to that of Cross.
At the special meeting
March 16th, 1868,
the proposals for the building of the jail were opened and accepted, and the work contracted with Messrs. Oenning and 'Giesen, and Henry Roettiger of Fountain City.
Some further corrections were made relative to the distribu- tion of the territory of the former town of Eagle Mills. .
It may be as well to say something here about the causes which led to the discontinuance of the political organization of this town, which now has so often been mentioned in these pages. There was at the time some dissatisfaction in regard to it, and even political reasons were asserted to have caused the action of the county board, but I think the following reasons were the leading ones in the action of the board:
I. The town was a small one, containing a. considerable amount of land that was not very productive in the way of taxes actually paid, hence whenever any improvements had become necessary of roads or bridges the inability of the town to effect them was the ever ready plea, for doing little or nothing .in the matter. Especially the Milldam road. was a continual source of . complaints and. of appeals to the county for help.
2. The transportation of the towns of Waumandee and Mon- tana to their customary market at Fountain City had of necessity to pass through this town, making it imperative that something should be done for the improvements of roads, the town of Wau- mandee being willing to do the work, if it could get the control
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over the roads, which could only be done by annexing some terri- tory from Eagle Mills.
3. The town of Buffalo, of which Fountain City was then a part, was also largely interested in the serviceable condition of the roads in Eagle Mills, and willing to take care of those in the ad- .joining parts, but could do nothing to the purpose unless these parts came under its control.
4. A division of the town was legally impossible, would not have been ratified by the inhabitants, and would only have enfee- bled the town so much more. There was, then, nothing else left but what was done. The subsequent establishment of the Town of Milton out of part of the former Town of Eagle Mills by the legislature in the act of incorporating the Village of Fountain City does not prove anything against the reasons alleged above, especi- ally as most of the parts assigned to the Town of Waumandee were left in, and still constitute part of, that town, relieving the Town of Milton of the care of the most expensive roads.
Annual meeting
November 10th, 1868.
There was only the routine business before the board, but an adjournment had to be taken in order to give County Treasurer Beely time to make up a new report, the first one having been found very deficient.
Adjourned annual meeting
November 23d, 1868. .
At this meeting the settlement with the County Treasurer was finally concluded.
A special meeting was held
January 11th, 1869,
in which the new board, consisting of:
1st District-George Cowie of Glencoe.
2d -J. B. Oenning of Buffalo.
3d -J. L. Hallock of Nelson;
organized by electing Mr. Cowie its chairman for the ensuing year. A resolution was passed to request, that the County Superin. tendent should discontinue to publish school reports at public expense.
It was further resolved that the Member of the Assembly from
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paid for a number of years, so as to keep them out of further as- sessment, and to insure the payment of taxes from the remaining lots, the county board ordered L. Kessinger to examine the certi- ficates involved in the proposition, and to report on the matter at the next meeting.
It was also agreed that L. Kessinger should make the entries of transfers, and of newly entered land and homesteads into the plat books from time to time.
The settlement with county-treasurer Beely, which was to be final, as he went out of office, was found to be a very complicated affair and took considerable time, but was finally concluded, and everything straightened out, to turn over to his successor.
A special meeting was called on
January 8th, 1870,
in which the following members appeared:
1st District: James L. Hallock of the town of Nelson.
2d .. J. G. Senty of the town of Montana.
3d
J. B. Oenning of the town of Buffalo.
4th
John Ochsner of the town of Waumandee.
5th ¥ J. H. Aiken of the the town of Maxville.
A petition, to annex part of the town of Nelson to that of Alma was laid over in order to publish it.
At the next special meeting.
March 14th, 1870,
no proceedings were had, as some lawyers insisted that according to a decision of the Supreme Court the board was not legally or- ganized. The board adjourned pending an inquiry into the mat- ter, but assembled again
March 22d, 1870. -
The petition to return the northern mile-strip of the Town of Nelson to Maxville, was refused.
The town of Buffalo was organized according to a provision in the charter of the Village of Fountain City, to consist of all the parts of Township 18, Ranges 10 and 11 situated within this county, and of Sections 13, 14, 23, 24, 25, 26, 35 and 36 of Town- ship 19, Range 11, and all the part of Township 19, Range 10, situ- ated in this county.
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