USA > Wisconsin > Buffalo County > History of Buffalo County, Wisconsin > Part 24
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It would have been easy enough to bring up entertaining re- miniscences of ebullitions belonging into this category, and allu- sions, especially to some local animosities can not be entirely sup-
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pressed, but of all such things we may truly say: "/The less said, the sooner mended."
Perhaps it would be well to apply this proverb to a review of the present status and future prospects of the existing political parties. These parties are : Republicans, Democrats, Prohibi- tionists, Socialists, who divide into Labor Union Men, Land Re- formers and Anarchists. The Republicans and Democrats are well organized, have their acknowledged leaders, and also their reliable followers. They are, however, languishing for want of live issues. The Democrats accuse the Republicans at the least allusion to the " late onpleasantness " and its still. existing consequence, of swinging the " bloody shirt." The Republicans retaliate by allu- sions to the "Rebel Yell." For the balance, both parties want to be in office, which is not very likely to happen, and will not last very long, if it should come to pass. So far the great body of voters in this county has been marshaled in these two camps by the force of habit rather than by any decided , partisanship either way. There is among our fellow citizens no great ambition to fight over fossil issues. Tariff reform seemed to become a lead- ing topic, coming out in the shape of a free-trade plank of a Dem- ocratic platform, but the party was afraid to stand upon that plank, just as the Republicans were afraid of announcing them- selves decided protectionists. While thus there is some apathy in the old ranks, a new party has developed a considerable strength. It must be confessed that its avowed principles are old enough to be good, if age would work on them as it is said to work on wine. This party is the Prohibitionists. The sum total of their platform and principles is: "Thou shalt not eat of the forbidden fruit." I think there is something like that in the first few chapters of the book of "Genesis." There is also the punishment for disobeying, and the result of the first prohibition. Practically, however, and the Prohibitionists are in their way not entirely impractical, their principle is: "Thou shalt not do what I can prevent." They ought to call themselves Preventionists. We are acquainted with their arguments, which are about the same that we had to listen to in the nursery. It is not good for you to do this, and you will get sick, if you eat that, and I must keep scissors and knives out of your reach, because you will hurt yourself, sure. We have a right to do so, because we are your guardians and responsible for
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your welfare, both temporal and eternal. Therefore we 'want to prohibit the manufacture, use and sale of liquors of all kinds, and in order to make sure of the effectiveness of the law, we want to keep a spy upon your tracks. we want to have a right and warrant to enter your premises, your private dwellings, to put our noses into the most secret recesses of your cellars, and to convict you of a crime, the awful crime of having done as you chose. This party is not yet very strong in our county. There are people who prac- tice temperance, or total abstinence, as it is sometimes called, and some of them would be inclined toward prohibition, but many of them say, that every person ought to-be able to. govern his own appetite, and none else liable to prosecution but those who do actual wrong. Stragglers from either of the old parties coquet with the Prohibitionists in order to get their political support. This makes the party vain, and one day it may come out and challenge the old parties, and its imaginary balance of power will become invisible even to the eyes of faith.
The next party to be looked at would be the Socialists. The term has become something of a reproach, on oneside because of the unwarranted actions of some persons who profess to belong to the party or political sect, on the other side because of a misapprehen- sion of the name. Theoretically a Socialist is no more than a per- son who wishes to improve the social condition of mankind in general, and of those classes of it in particular, who feel the neces- sity of such improvement more keenly than some other classes, and who maintains the right of every one to work his own salva- tion in this particular point, either by his own private exertion, or by combining with others for the same purpose. Some of the most effective means for this purpose, though not under that name, have already been admitted into practice, and, indeed, every public improvement is socialistic, in the true meaning of the word, as far as everybody is compelled, in one way or another, to con- tribute his share, sometimes much against his will and consent. As I do not, however, mean to write an exposition or a panegyric of this idea, or of the party which pretends to represent the mo- dern phase of it, I will turn to the divisions under which the said party appears in politics and in social life. The most important division is the one, which manifests itself in the combinations of working men for mutual protection and the achievement of what
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they consider their particular rights.' This idea is the basis of such organizations as the Knights of Labor, Labor Unions in gen- eral, Trades Unions and associations of a similar name and nature. The fact that capital combines for its own advantage, and some- times disadvantage of everybody else, is so potent that it is not surprising that labor, finding itself in danger, real or imaginary, should do the same. Whether capital and labor represents two distinctly opposite interests is another question. So is who is a laborer? But, all having, at least theoretically, the same rights, we can not deny that laborers may associate, and work for what they consider their own or particular interests. I am not aware of any lodges or other combinations of the kind existing at present in this county. We come now to the Land Reformers. In our days and generation the phenomenon of concentration of land in a few hands, be it for use, be it for speculation, or for some other purpose, is conspicuous. That in a country where large estates are in the hands of some few, there is a possibility, even proba- bility, of many having no land at all, nor, eventually the means of procuring any, no one will deny. To prevent this is the object of Land Reform. We have nothing to do with the means by which this reform is to be brought about, for there we may be of many opinions. Of this particular branch of Socialists there are no re- cognizable organizations among us, though there may be some in- dividual enthusiasts of this species. Anarchists would find but a cold reception among us. Not that everybody is contented, nor that there are none, who claim that law and government are good for nothing, if not worse. But all of them, in second sober thought, would or do practically admit, that it might be worse, if every body would attempt to do what nobody wanted him to. The Anarch- ists, who charge all the ills of life to laws and governments, are the counterpart of other fools, who expect that laws and governments should, or could make everything perfect according to everybody's notion,
I almost forgot, that we have among us some Greenbackers, some advocates of fiat-money, and of unlimited silver-coinage. They are, however, scarce, and not one of the latter would refuse one hundred cents on the dollar, if they could get them, instead of eighty or eighty-five which they do get.
On the future of politics in this county I feel no vocation to
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speculate. It would be about as wise as prophesying the weather for any day. next year, and about as useless, and besides, there are people enough, who consider themselves better qualified for that business than I do consider myself.
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ORGANIZATION.
ORGANIZATION.
The political organization of this county has a history in which a humorous feature should not be suppressed. In the first half of the year 1853 there resided at Monteville, now the village of Trempealeau, the three brothers, Wesley, Marvin and James Pierce, without any premonition, that soon they would be called upon to play quite a role, each in his peculiar vocation or capacity, in a new county, of which one of them, in a political sense, was destined to become father. Passing through Monteville, John Buehler, on his way to his former home in Grant County hap- pened to make their acquaintance, expressing the desire of the people of Holmes' Landing and neighborhood, to receive the bles- sing of civilization by being set off as an independent body politic called a county. His idea was that his new home belonged still to La Crosse County, which, indeeed, at that time, as far as he and his neighbors knew, was bounded at the north by Buffalo or Beef River. But by an act of the legislature approved February 11, 1853, all that portion of county, north of the township line .be- tween Townships 18 and 19 extending from Adams County to the state line in the Mississippi River, was set off into a separate county, to be called and known as the county of Jackson. At all events his suggestion was worked upon, and Marvin Pierce went up to Holmes' Landing, and there was furnished with pecuniary means for carrying out the scheme. The legislature had been called to an extra session and we find in the session laws of 1853, page 98, the following:
CHAPTER 100. SESSION LAWS OF 1853.
" An Act, To divide the county of Jackson and create the counties of Buffalo and Clarke.
The people of the State of Wisconsin represented in Senate and Assembly do enact as follows:
SECTION 1. All that portion of the county of Jackson lying west of the range line, between ranges -.
Bouldwies
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seven and eight, (7 and 8) west of the fourth princi pal meridian, be and the same hereby is organized into a separate county, to be called and known by the name of " Buffalo;" and all that portion of the said county of Jackson lying north of the township line between township twenty-two and twenty-three (22 and 23) and east of the range line, between ranges three and four (3 and 4) west of the said fourth prin- cipal meridian, be and the same hereby is organized into a separate county, to be called and known by the name of " Clarke."
Organization.
SEC. 2. On the first Monday in September next the electors of the said counties of "Buffalo". and "Clarke," shall each elect a county judge, and the said counties from and after the first day of January, 1854, shall be organized for judicial purposes.
Election of County Officers.
SEC. 3. The electors in the said counties of Buf- falo and Clarke, shall at the general election in No- vember next, elect all county officers necessary for a complete county organization in each county, and it shall be the duty of the county treasurers and clerks of the board of supervisors thus elected in each of said counties, at least four weeks previous to the spring election in 1854, to divide their respective counties up into as many towns as they shall deem expedient for the convenience of the inhabitants; and until the said division be made, the county of Boffalo shall re- main as one town, and the county of Clarke shall also remain as one town.
Elections held.
SEC. 4. The polls necessary to be opened for the elections provided for in this act shall be opened in Buffalo county at Holmes' Landing, and in Clarke county at O'Neil's Mill; and the returns of said elec- tion shall be left with the inspectors of said elections, and the said inspectors shall within ten days from the holding of any election, issue certificates of election to the persons elected to the respective offices.
SEC. 4. The county seat for the county of Buf- falo, is hereby located on section one (1), in township
County sent of Cuffalo county.
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ORGANIZATION.
ยท number nineteen (19) north, range number twelve (12) west of the fourth principal meridian.
County seat of Clarke county.
SEC. 6. The county seat for the county of Clarke is hereby located on section two (2), township twenty- four (24), range (2), west of the fourth principal meridian.
Courts.
SEC. 7. The circuit court, shall be held in the said counties of Buffalo and Clarke, at such times as shall be appointed by the circuit judge ... .
Approved, July 6, 1853.
As will be seen the county of Buffalo extended across Trem- pealeau River two ranges, or twelve miles east of its present limits in that direction, and included not only the village of Monteville, but also the situation of Galesville. After the publication of the law there was dissatisfaction in different quarters. The people of Holmes' Landing were scandalized by the fact, that the county- seat of Buffalo County was located upon the Sand Prairie, instead of in their village. Judge George Gale, the founder of Galesville, who possibly had an eye on a countyseat himself, but was by the act euchered out of that chance, did what was to be done in the matter. Buffalo County being, according to the description in the act setting it off, too small to be divided, that is less than 900 square miles, we find in the session laws of 1854 the following:
CHAPTER 1. ,
An Act to attach a part of the County of Chippewa to the County of Buffalo. 1
The people of the State of Wisconsin, represented in Senate and Assembly do enact as follows:
Fart to be attached.
.
SECTION 1. All that part of the county of Chip- pewa situated south of the township line between townships twenty-four and twenty-five north, and between the main channel of Chippewa River and the range line between ranges nine and ten west, is hereby set off from the said county of Chippewa and attached to the county of Buffalo, and shall here- after constitute a part of the said county of Buffalo.
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ORGANIZATION.
SEC. 2. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage.
Approved, January 24, 1854. Published. Jan. 25, 1854.
By this act the county had become so long that the division of it was no longer unconstitutional, and Chapter 2 of said session laws was:
An act to organize the county of Trempe-a-l'eau.
The first section or paragraph of this act reads as follows:
SECTION 1. All that portion of country embraced in the fol- lowing boundaries, is hereby set off into a separate county, to be called and known as the county of Trempe-a-l'-eau, to wit: Begin- ning at the point .on the Mississippi River, where the line between townships 17 and 18 north strikes said river; thence running east on said line to the main channel of Black River; thence up the main channel of Black River to the line between townships 18 and 19 north; thence east on said line to the range line between ranges 6 and 7 west; thence north on said range line to the line between townships 24 and 25 north; thence west. on said line and to the line between ranges 9 and 10 west; thence south on said range line to Trempe-a-l'-eau River; thence down the main chan- nel of Trempe-a-l'-eau River to the Mississippi River; thence down the main channel of the Mississippi River to the place of beginning,
This still left all of township 18 ranges 10 and 11 lying west of Trempealeau River a part of La Crosse County, an oversight which was remedied in Section 1 of Chapter 35 Session Laws of 1854 entitled:
An act to divide the county of La Crosse and organize the county of Monroe.
Said Section 1 reads:
"SECTION 1. All that portion of the county of La Crosse situ- ated and lying west of the main channel of the Trempealeau River is hereby set off and attached to, and hereafter shall consti- tute and be a part of the county of Buffalo."
This was the very land always supposed by the settlers of that tinie to have belonged to Buffalo County by the first act of organization. They knew the situation, but the legislature and their lobb ist, Mr Pierce, were ignorant of it, the latter probably
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only of the description. The remainder of the above cited act relates exclusively to Monroe County.
This fixed the boundary lines between the two counties as they have ever since remained. The seat of justice or the county- seat, as it is generally called, for Trempealeau County was fixed in the Northwestern quarter of section 33, township 19 north, range 8 west, not, indeed the site of the present village of Galesville, but opposite to it on Beaver River or creek, where the mill now stands. The two organizers of the two counties resemble each other in try- ing to get personal advantage out of the legislative acts, by having the county seats located where they respectively owned real estate. But though the county seat does not now remain at the place, where Judge Gale had located it, it must 'still' be confessed that the location, especially at that date and for a number of years after it, was a central and acceptable'place for the population of Trempealeau County, while that selected by Marvin Pierce was neither central, nor otherwise fit for the purpose and his action must be set down as a barefaced speculation. That ultimately he did not realize anything from this audacious scheme can not be set down to his credit, as he certainly had the good will to make it pay, nor was his disappointment a satisfactory expiation for the unnecessary or useless expenses incurred, and the bad feelings aroused among the people of the neighborhood. The Pierces, or any of them, never resided upon the place selected for the county seat, but gaining control of almost the whole of what is, with more truth than imagination called the Sand Prairie, they laid out the town of Upper Fountain City, which, however, was never set- tled and long since vacated. 'If in after times the corner of Sandy Hook afforded any livelihood to different parties in succession, it was, because travel from and to Waumandee, Belvidere and Alma took that direction across the mill-dam of which we will have oc- casion to speak afterwards. The proceedings of the county board of supervisors will afford instances enough for that purpose. Part of the organization, as will be seen by reference to the act creating the county, was an election to be held at Holmes' Land- ing which was appointed and held at that place, on Sept. 1, 1853, of a county judge, and, at the general election in November of the same year, of the necessary county officers. It was also by the organic act made the duty of the county treasurer and the clerk of
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ORGANIZATION.
the county board of supervisors to divide the county into town- ships suitable to the convenience of the inhabitants for the pur- pose of establishing town governments, in default of any action on the part of said officers the county to remain one township. The township was by common consent rather than any explicit proceedings called by the same name as the county i. e. Buffalo. By an appeal to that veteran of politicians John Buehler, Sen., I was enabled to procure a list of those who voted at the first elec- tion, required by the act creating the county. They are:
1. John Buehler.
2. Christian Wenger.
3. Caspar Wild.
4. Andrew Barth.
5. John Haeussinger ..
6. John Aldermatt.
7. Frederick Binder.
8. James M. Pierce. .
9. Marvin Pierce.
10. Adam Raetz.
11. Henry Goerke.
12. Jacob Bronnenkant.
13. Adam Weber.
14. Henry Keller, (Creek Valley.)
15. Lawrence Dressendoerfer.
16. Ulrich Kritzenthaler.
17. Geo. Zimmermann.
18. Henry Funke.
Among the strange occurrences at this election may well be put down, that Charles Bipes, or Pipes, was elected clerk of the county board of supervisors without having himself voted, he at that time living in what is yet called Piper's or Pipes' valley. The small number of votes does not indicate that there were not any more inhabitants in the county as then organized or set off, but it indicates, that for want of roads and bridges, and other facilities of travel, those not in the immediate neighborhood of Holmes' Lan- ding did not participate in the election, So for instance, it would have required about 24 miles of travel by skiff, for those living at Twelve Mile Bluff (now Alma) and return by the same route, to appear at that election. No wonder they did not come to it.
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OORGANIZATION.
After the elections required by the act of organization had been duly held, the officers qualified in due form of law, and every thing was ready for the beginning, the county entered upon poli- tical and administrative life on the first Monday, being the second day of January 1854. Political life is related under the head of "Political History." Under the head of " Organization " I pro- pose to relate all the events that are connected with the adminis- tration of the county as such, the meetings of the County Board of Supervisors and such of their proceedings as were not mere rou- tine work, and also the result of such elections held in the county as related to the County Judges, and those officers which were from the beginning, and are at present required by law for the adminis- tion or execution of such affairs, as may come under the jurisdic- tion of each of these officers.
THE COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS.
The County Board of Supervisors in this as in any other county of Wisconsin consists of the Chairmen of Supervisors of the different towns, and a stated number of delegates from the in- corporated cities and villages, and the Clerk of the County Board usually denominated the County Clerk, who, however has no vote, though he, or his deputy, is an integral part of the board. This was the original plan, but was changed by Chapter 129 Session Laws 1861, so that from Jan. 1862 there were three commissioners, especially elected for the purposes and functions of the county board and called by that name. The commissioners were elected by districts, and supposed to represent them, and the number of districts was afterwards changed to five. Soon after this change the Supreme Court of the state decided that the institution of a board of commissioners instead of representatives of each of the towns, was unconstitutional. Then, of course, the original county board was re-established and continues up to present time. Its annual and only regular meeting begins on the second Tuesday after the first Monday in the month of November in every year. Special meetings may or must be called by the Chairman of the board at the request of a specified number of the members. As the members are town-officers, who are elected in spring it may happen, that a majority of the old members, and even the chair- . man of the county board are not re-elected. In case of a special meeting, there would then have to be a new organization. Each
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board organizes by electing a chairman for the year, who usually appoints the necessary committees, which might be called the working organization. As the work assigned to these committees is really the work of the county board, I will introduce it in that way.
1. Committee on Assessment.
This committee is really a board of equalization for the whole county, balancing the work of the assessors of all the towns and corporations, which has been separately subjected to the correc- tion of the local boards, into some harmony among the whole number. Some consider this the most important committee, as the state and county taxes are levied upon each town by the scale thus made up. As most private citizens appear as poor as possible, when the assessor comes round, so every town tries to be poor in comparison with others before this committee. There are never less than five members to it.
2. Committee on Claims.
There are always a number of accounts against a county which must be examined before they can be allowed. This examination is the work of the committee on claims, which is sometimes sub- divided or assisted by a separate committee for examining the accounts of Justices of the Peace for criminal prosecutions, or in- quests of dead. The district attorney, who is, ex-officio, the legal advisor of the county board in all such matters, is more often called to the assistance of this committee than to that of any other. This, however, does not indicate that there are very many claims against the county, which are dubious, in fact, or should be re- jected on general principles, but that some prescribed form in making such claims are very often overlooked.
3. Committee on Finance. 1
The business of this conmmittee is the investigation of ac- counts of all officers, who receive and disburse the money collected by the county for taxes, fees and interest on tax certificates. The work is always done by the officers beforehand and the committee has seldom much more to do than to test the accuracy of it, as it appears on the face of the different reports. This committee draws up a financial statement for the basis of levying of taxes.
4. Committee on Ways and Means.
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