USA > Wisconsin > Buffalo County > History of Buffalo County, Wisconsin > Part 25
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This committee takes under consideration such petitions of
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appropriations for one or the other towns usually for the purpose of assisting in the building, improvement or repair of some road running through. several towns and used by all of them, or some bridge situated in such a road.
5. Committee on Roads and Bridges.
There are some roads which may legally come under the, con- sideration of the county board, whether they should be built or not, whether or not any subvention should be granted for them, and what, in general, should be done about them. The same ap- plies to some bridges. These matters form the material for con- sideration in this committee.
6. Committee on Towns and Boundaries.
At first, about thirty years ago, when towns began to be laid out, they were constructed according to township and range lines, from the maps, and but little, if any, regard was had to the future accommodations of the inhabitants for travel and intercourse. That other errors casually crept in and needed correction, was to be expected, and was quite excusable. After a while the necessity became apparent for divisions, and such divisions were often brought before the county board unexpectedly, and as this body could not be expected to be informed of every situation or locality, alterations were usually made upon the recommendation of the chairman requesting them. The more the country filled up, the more became it important that land should be included in such town as could afford the best accommodation or facility in regard to roads and schools, joint school districts being rather an annoy- ance for the administration of towns, which each sought to avoid, or set aside, if opportunity was offered. So it is not to be won- dered at the fact that but few regular sessions of the board were held without some petition being presented or motion made for the alteration of town boundaries. These are now first considered and investigated by the committee. The towns being now so far divided and arranged that almost every one has a chance for the necessary roads being laid out by the town in which he happens to reside, and most of the land being now settled, this committee has of late had " easy times," and may eventually become superfluous, unless some change in the laws should permit the organization of smaller towns.
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7. Special Committees for Special Purposes.
Sometimes matters are brought before the board, which are within its jurisdictiction, but are of such a nature, as to require special investigation, or may be made the subject of such, for some legal doubts, or want of precise information as to facts. In such cases a motion for appointing a special committee is usually made and prevails. The work of committees, however, is only prepara- tory; the board in its full assembly decides upon the propositions made by the comittees. It allows claims, grants petitions, con- firms the equalizations, accepts or adopts reports of officers, levies taxes, that is the state, county and county school tax, changes the boundaries of towns, and performs sundry other functions, among which is the selection of a jury list from the qualified persons, resi- dents of the county. The decisions of the board are made by tak- ing a vote on every question, after the same has been duly consid- ered or debated, Common parliamentary rules govern discussions and other proceedings of the board. The clerk has to keep a record of the same, called the Journal of the Proceedings, which must be entered into a book especially provided for that purpose. Claims that have been allowed against the county are paid on the presen- tation of an order made out by the county clerk and signed by himself and the chairman of the county board.
It is with committees very much as with individuals; they have their youth, the time of taking the first steps and beginning to gather wisdom from experience, So it was with our county There being at first but one town and for a while only a few towns, there were but few members in the board, and frequently all new ones, and instead of there being less business than now there were, on the contrary always numerous questions, which are now settled, and not very likely to create disturbances. But when they first turned up, they created excitement and opposition. Such events as were of the latter kind will be mentioned in the recapitulation of the meetings of the county board as they occur- red. It will strike every reader as somewhat singular, that there were at first so many special meetings of the board, but in the chaos of a first beginning things do not only appear, but are really more urgent than in later times, when order and system have been introduced and maintained, and sources of information multiplied. It would be extremely tedious to relate all the proceedings, in-
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cluding routine work, of every session, and if in the subsequent I shall simply say "routine work," the reader will understand, that thereby I mean such work as has been pointed out in speaking of the work of the different committees on the functions of the board in general. The
First Meeting of the County Board,
of which there is any record, was held at Fountain City or rather Holmes' Landing, on the 2d day of March, 1854. There were three members, Marvin Pierce, John P. Stein, Andrew Baertsch. The former was county judge, having been elected in September 1853, the two others must have been appointed in some way, since the meeting was before the annual town election, and, there being only one town, only one chairman could have been elected. The principal business was to designate the places for holding court, and the offices of the newly installed officers, which was decided as follows:
The house of Henry Goerke on Lat. 6, Sect. 8, Township 19, Range 11 is designated as the court house, and the dwelling house of each officer as his legal office. A list of grand jurors was made out:
Charles Bipes, county clerk elect, being unable to perform his official duties, Mr. Henry Teckenburg was appointed in his place.
The next meeting was the regular one and held on the
14th day of November, 1854.
The same clerk officiated. Jacob Bronnenkant, then a Justice of the Peace, acted in place of supervisor Flietch. The work could not have been of much importance, since the treasurer had not yet had any chance to collect taxes, nor, probably, any other money. It is noted, that the state tax was $122.50 and the county tax $52.68, probably the amount allowed for last years expenses.
A special meeting was held
February 5th, 1855.
The purpose of this meeting was to commission some person to confer with the county board of Trempealeau County on the subject of building a bridge across the Trempealeau River, at some place near the present station of Hope. Mr. Teckenburg was commissioned for the purpose and a compensation of $3.00 per day allowed him for his work.
The next meeting, also a special one, was held
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April 28th, 1855.
In this meeting the town of Belvidere was set off, to consist of Townships 20 and 21 of Range 12. The election of town officers was to be held on the third day of April, 1856, at John Linse's place. in Sec. 16, T. 20, R. 12.
Another special meeting was held
July 25th, 1855.
A motion was made and subsequently withdrawn for a bridge to be built acrosse Waumandee Creek near the saw mill belonging to H. Goerke and F. Binder. It was resolved to lay out a county road to Alma and Waumandee via Sawmill, Sandprairie and Lang- don's farm. $229.63 were appropriated or allowed for books, seals and such things for the county-officers.
At the regular meeting,
November 13th, 1855,
Marvin Pierce and John P. Schnug were the only members. On the first day of the meeting Mr. Teckenburg resigned his office as clerk of the board, and Thomas G. Hake, who had been elected to the office in the general election previous to the meeting, was ap- pointed to fill the short vacancy, The remainder of the proceed- ings. is routine work.
In a special meeting held
March 13th, 1856,
two new towns were laid out:
Alma in Township 21 (probably Range 13) and Townships 22, 23 and 24 all of Range 12, possibly meant to enibrace all the land west to the Mississippi and Chippewa, though not so stated.
Waumandee, to contain the Townships 21, 22, 23 and 24 of Range 11. Election localities were appointed:
At Alma, in the house of John Marty.
At Waumandee, in the house of J. Kirchner.
Officers to be elected April 1st, 1857.
There was a special meeting of the newly elected board on the 27th day of June, 1856.
Edward Lees was elected chairman of the board. Nothing else seems to have been done than to make out a list of grand jurors, 19 from Buffalo, 9 from Belvidere and 8 from Waumandee.
At the regular meeting of the board, held
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November 11th, 1856,
the county board consisted of the following members:
Alma: W. H. Gates. Buffalo: Edward Lees.
Belvidere: Frederick Mager. Waumandee: Robert Henry.
Mr. Gates was elected chairman.
There was a regular order of business adopted; and settlement had with the treasurer.
It was resolved to lay out a county road from Fountain City to Alma; also one from Alma to Waumandee, the latter to be ex- tended to an intersection with the Chippewa or Ridge Road.
Mr. Finkelnburg was commissioned to make maps of the dif- ferent towns.
A salamander safe for the treasurer was purchased for $200. The same sum was appropriated to Mr. Wesley Pierce for build- ing a jail 16x16 feet floor and 8 feet high, whenever the work would be accepted. $8.00 were appropriated to Adam Klingel and Rich. Kiel for burying the body of an unknown -person.
The state tax levied was $800.00, county tax $1690.00.
This meeting adjourned to the 2d Monday in March 1857, but the board had to hold a special meeting on the 2d day of Dec., 1856, because they had neglected to levy a county school tax, which they then did in the sum of $200.00.
At the adjourned meeting on
March. 10th, 1857,
Mr. Finkelnburg was appointed county Clerk, vice T. G. Hake re- resigned.
Accounts were allowed, and appropriations made for roads to the amount of $900.00
Some order was introduced into the descriptions of the differ- ent towns, as follows:
Buffalo (de facto) Townships 18, 19 and 20 Ranges 10 and 11. Belvidere, Townships 19, 20 and 21 of Range 12.
Bear Creek, Townships 23 and 24 Ranges 13 and 14 and West Half of Range 12.
Alma, Tshp. 21 and 22 Range 13 and T. 22, Range 12.
Naples, Tshp. 23 and 24 Range 10 and 11 and East Half Range 12.
Waumandee, Tshp. 21 and 22 of Range 11 and Sect. 25 T. 21, R. 12.
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The clerk was ordered to purchase necessary books. At the next special meeting
June 8th, 1857
the following new towns were laid out:
Cold Springs, Township 21 Range 10 and so much of the sec- tions 1-10 in Tshp. 20 of the same range, as was situated west of Trempealeau River.
Trempealeau. The description is somewhat unintelligible but was meant for what now is the town of Cross. This town was never organized.
To the above description of Alma was added Tshp. 22 in Range 14. Election places appointed in the new towns.
Another special meeting was held
July 20, 1857,
principally for the purpose of making out a jury list. This list contains a number of familiar names. There were 19 for grand and 20 for petit jury. Mr. Orlando Brown was the new member, and for the first time in the county board of this county.
At the regular meeting
November 10, 1857,
there was a petition for forming a town Monpelier which was to embrace all of Belvidere and part of Alma, but it was rejected.
" Fixing up " of towns was still a leading topic, and this time the town of Cross was established as follows:
Tshp. 20 Range 10, except what belonged to Cold Spring, and the East Half of Township 20 Range 11, to which is to add: Sect. 1, 2, 3, 10, 11 and 12 of Towship 19 Range 11.
What made my old friend Ed. Lees call his town Cross I could never learn, but perhaps he " felt that way."
Elk Creek : Tshp. 23 of Ranges 10 and 11, and East Half of Range
12. The polls to be at the house of A. P. Loomis.
Nelson : Tshp 23 Range 13; all of tshp. 22 range 13 north of the tier of which Sect. 24 is the eastern one; the West Half of Tshp. 23 Range 12 excepting sections 4, 5 and 6. All of Tshp. 23, 14 except sections 1 and 2. The polls were appointed to be held at Alexander Swim's.
Milton : West Half of Tshp. 20 Range 11; South Half of Tshp. 20 Range 12, and all there is of T. 19 R. 12.
The Fountain City " Beacon " was declared the official paper
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of the county of Buffalo, on motion of Mr. Michael Aaron of Bloomington or Bear Creek, (one or the other,) as Maxville was then called. Previous to that the delinquent tax list, the only thing that was to be published for the county, had been published in the " Trempealeau Times."
This county board put the first equalization of assessments on record. Mr. Lees filibustered in his own style about the creation, respectively organization of a town of " Little Eagle " the where- abouts of which I would have duly noted, only it came to " noth- ing." A bounty for "wolves' scalps " was voted for, $4.00 for each individual of the game "lupus " that should be scalped, which would have to be done after killing, I suppose. There were some regulations of which I have hinted at the most important already. There was also some provision for paying that bounty, for it could not be supposed that the wolves would pay themselves for being scalped. We will find that two years later there was a surplus in the county treasury, of money designed to be used for wolf bounty, but not applied.
There was a motion to award the county printing to the low- est bidder, which resulting in a tie, was negatived by the chair. The town of Belvidere was represented by Fred Mager, Cold Springs by Henry Wuertemberger.
A special meeting was held
May 25th, 1858,
at which the following members appeared:
Alma-W. H. Gates. Bloomington-Ed. Doughty.
Belvidere-Robert Strohmann. Naples-Harvey Brown.
Buffalo-Henry Teckenburg. Elk Creek-Franklin Gilman.
Cross-Edward Lees. Cold Springs-Wm. Ives.
Milton-Ferdinand Fetter. Waumandee-Robert Henry.
Among the proceedings we find that sections 4 to 10 of Town- ship 19, Range 10, were detached from the Town of Buffalo, and attached to the town of Cross.
Also that the name of the Town of Milton was changed to Eagle Mills and that of Elk Creek to Gil manton. It was deemed expeditious to vacate the road from Fred Binder's on the Sand- prairie, to Jack Baumann on Buffalo City Prairie as a county road, a sage conclusion duly revoked a year after.
Some rules were made up for the county treasurer regarding
1
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the assignment of tax certificates, of which there cannot have been a great many yet. The sum of $501.60 was appropriated on the construction of the bridge across Trempealeau River, the situation of which everybody seems to have known so well, that it was not particularly described in the proceedings.
Another special meeting was held
September 20, 1858
in which the towns were represented as follows:
Buffalo: Wm. Willig.
Nelson: Steph. Barton.
Eagle Mills: Fred Binder.
Cold Springs: Jas. Faulds, Jr.
Belvidere: Wm. Achenbach. Alma: Gottlieb Kurtz.
Waumandee: John Ochsner. Bloomington and Naples, not on Gilmanton: And. Gilman. record, nor Cross.
This was a board of equalization, but it is still remarkable, that not one of the last before mentioned representatives was pre- sent, although no new election had been held. The schedule of as- sessments made by the above board was tabulated and. entered upon record.
At the regular meeting
November 9th, 1858,
there were some entirely new representatives of towns, not enum- erated in the two preceding lists. Mr. Doughty represented Bloomington, which name was changed to " Maxville " in this ses- sion. Nelson was represented by Wilson Crippin. The board found it advisable to have some talk about Beiner's Addition and Alteration to the village of Alma, but it does not appears that it was any of their business. For the rest nothing but routine work was done.
The"special meeting held
July 11th, 1859,
there were, according to a vote, the following members present: Edw. Lees, Cross. R. Strohmann, Belvidere,
A. Finkelnburg, Buffalo. Chas. Kessinger, City of Buffalo.
E. Doughty, Maxville. Geo. Schroeder,
H. Brown, Naples. Frank Gilman, Gilmanton.
William Robertson, Cold Springs. W. H. Gates, Alma.
John Ochsner, Waumandee. Ferd. Fetter, Eagle Mills.
Wilson Crippin, Nelson.
These names appear on record on a vote taken upon the ques-
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tion of moving the county seat from Fountain City to Upper Fountain City commonly called Sand Prairie. This being nega- tived, John Buehler and other citizens offered to the county board a new building, intended and arranged as a court house, the same, which now of course with needed alterations, is the Eagle Hotel at Fountain City. The county board, thereupon, established the county seat at Fountain City, as far as its authority availed.
At this session the county road, or that piece of the road from Fountain City to Alma, lying between the houses of Fred. Binder and Jack Baumann was re-established as a county road.
This session, which had evidently been called for the purpose of establishing the county seat for ever at Fountain City, had the effect to stir up the county seat question in general, and as the towns in the upper part of the county were growing more and more populous, they demanded that the village of Alma should be selected for the purpose, it being much nearer the center of the surface and of the 'population. "Subsequent events justified the demand and the regular session held
November 15th, 1859,
was the last session of the county board held at Fountain City. The first work of the board was to canvass the election held in No- vember. The result was:
Sheriff: John Buehler.
Clerk of Circuit Court: Ferdinand Fetter.
Register of Deeds: Frederick Binder.
Clerk of County Board: John D. Lewis.
Treasurer: C. Bohri, Jr.
District Attorney: Edward Lees.
County Surveyor: Hiram B. Merchant.
Coroner: Dr. Wm. Spuehr.
Among other, (current) accounts was also one of Newland and. Averill for printing; which had been before the "board previously, but was now settled.
A motion was made and carried, not to allow the City of Buf- falo any representation in the county board, until it should poll 60 or more votes on any general election. As the city had become incorporated by an act of the legislature of 1859; it was clearly be- yond the power and jurisdiction of the board to exclude the mem- bers sent by the city, In fact this resolution finally congealed
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into a petition to the state legislature to amend the charter of the city according to the resolution. Messrs. A Finkelnburg and J. D. Lewis were appointed a committee to attend to this matter.
The board also resolved to petition the legislature for the re- peal of Chapter 11 of General Laws of 1858. I could not find out to what said law related, and as it is certainly of no consequence whatever now, and possibly was of but little at the time, I only mention it to show, that the county board of that time felt itself a very puissant body, if it is to be judged by its resolutions.
I have now to interrupt the relation of the proceedings of the county board and take up the narrative of that struggle which has visited almost every new county in the western states, and the seeds of which had been sown in the very act of the; organization of ours. The reader, if he will take the trouble to consult this act in the beginning of this chapter, will find that the "seat of justice" for Buffalo County was thereby located upon Section 1 Township 19 North Range 12 West. Those living in that neighborhood, may at one time have known something of the situation of that section, but those living near it could not tell me anything of the corners or lines when in 1883 in November I went there with R. Hollins- head, an engineer in the employ of the Winona & Alma Railroad Company, to find the northeast corner of it in order to locate the line of said road relative to government surveys. Mr. Hollinshead, who had studied the Atlas of Buffalo County. on this matter, in- sisted that the line must run somewhere south of F. Richter's house, which, however, I could easily prove to be wrong, as I had been familiar with the situation of the northern quarter section post of the adjoining section 6, and knew it to be located at the foot of the cliff, almost due east of the mill. Subsequent invest- igations proved that the corner we wanted to determine. was located in the mill pond, over a quarter of a mile north of Richter's house, and as I had learned the situation of the remaining stump of one of the bearing trees of the corner, the problem was satisfactorily solved afterwards. At the time when Mr. Marvin Pierce projected the description of Buffalo County as found in the act of organiza- tion (1853,) there was, however, no pond in the place, and the said corner was in the bottom at the foot of the sandy slope, on the west side of Waumandee Creek, and, if government maps are ap- proximately reliable, about sixty rods from it, probably approach-
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able, at times and still standing. The Abstract of Entries in the office of the Register of Deeds shows, that James M. Pierce, a brother of Marvin's, entered Lot 1 of Sect. 1 of Township 19 North of Range 12 West, containing 51.62 acres on the 1st day of June, 1853, the very spot upon which the future county seat was to be located, and the only part of said section not subject to the annual inundation by the high water of the Mississippi. At that time the place was only accessible by water on the westside, and, as the whole prairie was at high water a perfect island, and even at low water only accessible by crossing a narrow swamp at the north end on foot, it might have been called totally inaccessible. Mr. Finkelnburg in his speech at the centennial celebration of the Independence of the United States in 1876, describes how the Pierces, by a windfall of fortune, were enabled to build a court house of lumber, which, to whomever it may have once belonged, could hardly have been their own. Old settlers remember the shell, for such I found it to be, when years afterward I saw it on the hill facing towards the mill, to where it had been moved from its former situation, and one court, at least, I think in spring 1859, had been held in it. But before the building of said court house as we find in the proceedings of the county board in 1854, Goehr- ke's house at Holmes' Landing had been designated as the court house, and that place, changed in the course of time to Fountain City, was regarded as the de-facto county seat of Buffalo County. Fountain City, as well as Alma, was laid out into a village prin- cipally in 1855, all of which will be related at length under the chapter of " Population." The location of the county seat upon a spot which had, practically, first to be made accessible, was very distasteful to the people of Holmes' Landing, but by the second act of the organization, changing the situation' entirely, and put- ting the centre of gravity, so to speak, into an entirely different place, leaving Fountain City but seven or eight miles from the most southern point of the boundary and in the narrowest part of the county, it might have become apparent to every one, that in due course of time the county seat would need to be located in some other situation. Nevertheless, if it had not been for the legal enactment in favor of the above described locality, it is fairly to be presumed, that Fountain City would have at once set to work to furnish the necessary buildings, and thus have laid a
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firmer hold upon the possession of the much coveted boon. It is true, it offered a court house, and the offer was accepted, but that was at a time when other places had already acquired some size, and when it was seriously questioned, whether the county board had a legal authority to establish a county seat in any other place than the one designated by the legislature. Accordingly, instead of a law to deprive Buffalo City of its representation in the county board, a law was passed in the legislature to enable the people of Buffalo County to decide upon the question whether the county seat should be established in the village of Alma. The vote was in favor of Alma, but some. informalities or mistakes in the re- turns emboldened the canvassers, all of whom, as well as all of the county officers were either residents of or otherwise in the interest of Fountain City, to reject these defective returns, whereupon the case came up on a " Mandamus " before the Supreme Court of the state and was decided against Fountain City;
Accordiugly the offices were removed to Alma, and by a reso- lution of the county board established in the house owned at that time by F. S. Richards, originally built by Capt. E. S. Herman, and after being vacated by the county owned by Dr. John Ehing, sold by him to the firm of Tester and Schilling, it having occupied the site of their hardware store and dwelling.
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