USA > Wisconsin > Trempealeau County > History of Trempealeau County, Wisconsin > Part 17
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The next board, J. M. Barrett of the First District, George H. Smith of the Second District, and Charles C. Crane of the Third District, took office January 8, 1867, and on that date authorized Charles C. Crane to draw plans for the jail. B. F. Heuston succeeded A. R. Wyman as clerk. In the summer time this board ordered a tract index prepared for use in the office of the register of deeds. November 14, a final readjustment was made of the bounty matter. Many who declared themselves to have claims had assigned these claims to other persons for small sums, and the holders were pressing the county for payment. The board found that in most instances these claims were of men who had not enlisted from this county, or else of men whose families had already received in monthly payments more than the volunteer was entitled to receive. As an incentive toward good roads,
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the county decided to construct a pile driver to be loaned to the various towns.
James M. Barrett from the First District, Robert Cance from the Second, and C. C. Crane from the Third, made up the board for 1868. Steps were taken toward erecting an almshouse. The distribution of the care of the poor between the county and townships had not proven satisfactory. Therefore it was determined that the proceeds of all lands that had been sold for taxes and bid in for five successive years by the county and appraised and sold before the annual meeting of 1869, should be turned in to the poor fund, and an unimproved farm bought for not more than $1,000, or an improved farm for not more than $3,000, and that the county assume sole charge of the poor after January 1, 1870.
In 1869 the board consisted of Noah D. Comstock from the First Dis- trict, Robert Cance from the Second District, and N. P. Bruce from the Third District. This board decided to abandon the plans for building a jail, and to accept the offer of the village of Trempealeau for the free use of the jail in that village.
The last board under this regime convened February 15, 1870, and consisted of Noah D. Comstock from the First District, A. R. Wyman from the Second District, and N. P. Bruce from the Third District.
Under the direct system of county government, the three supervisors each year had borne the brunt of the problems arising from the domestic aspects of the Civil War. They had continued the internal work of their predecessors in such matters as road and bridge building, and had attended to the routine business of the county in an efficient manner, and at a much less expense than that incident to the cumbersome system of township and village representation. Bounties had been voted to encourage enlistments, families of absent volunteers had been looked after, and the finances of the county kept in a satisfactory condition. An attempt had been made to erect a county jail and a county almshouse, and the necessity of depending on La Crosse for jail service had been lessened by the pressing into service of the village lock-up at Trempealeau, though prisoners after conviction con- tinued to be sent to La Crosse. While the various nationality elements, afterward prominent in the county, such as the Scandinavian, the German and the Polish, had already begun to settle in the county and to establish communities almost exclusively composed of their own nationalities, the administration of county affairs remained in the hands of men who were of English, Irish or Scotch birth or descent.
The new board of supervisors met May 23, 1870. Chase having been vacated, and Ettrick, Burnside and Hale having been created, the board consisted of ten members: John D. Lewis of Arcadia, Warren Post of Burnside, Joshua Rhodes of Caledonia, Robert Cance of Ettrick, Robert Oliver in place of William P. Clark of Gale, D. S. Watson of Hale, W. H. Thomas of Sumner, Benjamin B. Healy of Trempealeau, and Gullick Olson of Preston. Mr. Olson was the first representative of the Scandinavian race to sit on the board. Mr. Healy was made chairman. This board devoted a greater part of its attention to the question of unredeemed tax lands. The land was coming more and more in demand, and the county found that
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the tracts that it had bid in at tax sales in previous years found a ready market. During this administration, the treasurer, Edward F. Wade, alleged that $1,498.18 had been stolen from his safe. The board ordered a rigid investigation, and finally, after considering all aspects of the case, ordered the district attorney to prosecute the treasurer's bondsmen for full payment of the amount missing, with interest. Judgment being obtained, the money was turned over to the county by the bondsmen and a release signed by the board November 19, 1872. June 20, 1870, the town of Albion was set off in response to a petition previously presented request- ing the creation of a town to be named Logan. As created, Albion consisted of its present area. The first meeting was ordered held at the schoolhouse in District Three, in April, 1871.
D. S. Watson of Hale was the chairman of the county board in 1871. The other members were Noah D. Comstock of Arcadia, Michael White of Burnside, Robert Cance of Ettrick, James Overson of Preston, Benjamin B. Healy of Trempealeau (place filled March 20, 1871, by D. S. Watson), George O. Babcock of Albion, Joshua Rhodes of Caledonia, William P. Clark of Gale, David Wood of Lincoln, J. W. Mckay of Sumner, and George Batchelder of Trempealeau Village. The modern system of county government in Trem- pealeau County dates from this board. The previous board had inaugurated the new system under the State law, and had paved the way for the per- fected organization. But the board of 1871 established the procedure by which the affairs of the county have since been conducted. The rules adopted November 14, 1871, for the meetings of the board are those which, with a few minor changes, have since been in force. That these rules have proved adequate for nearly fifty years shows the foresightedness of those who invented them. The present system of the division of the labors of the board among the members was also adopted at that time. Previous to this adoption, such special committees as were needed were appointed from time to time, but most of the business now done by the committees was transacted by the full board. This board of 1871 established a regular system of committees. These committees, with some slight readjustments, were the same as at present, with the exception that the work of the what was then the committee on jury lists is now done by the clerk of court, and a committee on county property has been added.
Since the days of this board the work of the county supervisors has been largely of a routine nature, not differing materially from the work of neighboring counties of the State. Several matters, however, have been of special historic significance, and among these are the creation of four addi- tional townships, the county seat struggle, the erection of the courthouse and jail, the creation of an insane asylum, attempts at establishing a poor farm, and in recent years the work that has arisen in connection with the State aid system in the construction of roads and bridges.
Dodge and Pigeon were created January 4, 1875; Unity on November 20, 1877, and Chimney Rock on November 22, 1881. All were created with their boundaries as at present constituted, except that the northwest line of Pigeon has since been readjusted. The first meeting in Dodge was held in the schoolhouse in District 2, Section 12, Township 19, Range 10, in April,
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1875, the first meeting in Pigeon was held on the same date, the first meeting in Unity was held in April, 1878, at the schoolhouse in Section 22, Township 24, Range 8, and the first meeting in Chimney Rock was held at the school- house in Section 11, Township 23, Range 9, in April, 1882. The question of the division of Lincoln and the creation of Pigeon was submitted to the voters, the only instance in the history of the county where such a provision was made.
The county having been created through the influence and clever plan- ning of Judge Gale, the county seat was placed at his proposed village of Galesville. In the years that immediately followed, Trempealeau occasion- ally expressed its aspirations, and once went so far as to prepare a petition to the legislature for a vote on the question of removing the county seat there. The petition was accepted by the legislature and an Act passed March 5, 1868, authorizing the election. The voters rejected the proposi- tion. To the majority of the people of the county the division of honors between the two villages seemed an equitable one. Galesville was the seat of learning as the home of Gale College, it was the source of government by reason of the location of the county seat, and it was the center of consid- erable influence as the residence of several prominent men. Trempealeau possessed the advantage of being on the Mississippi, and as all of the exports of the county were shipped from there, it naturally became the commercial metropolis.
But the growth of the county in the decade following the Civil War, the building of the railroad through the center of the county in 1873, and the increasing importance of the villages along its line in the Trempealeau Val- ley caused a growing discontent with the location of the courthouse in the southeast corner of the county. Judge Gale was dead, the prestige of the name no longer upheld Galesville, Trempealeau had ceased to be the shipping point of the county, the balance of power had shifted from the southern townships. Whitehall, Arcadia, Independence and Blair were all ambitious, and the people of the northern part of the county naturally joined with the people of the central part against those in the southern part.
In order to establish their grip on the county seat, the people of Gales- ville caused to be introduced at the board meeting of November 13, 1875, a motion to spend $500 in repairing the courthouse, repairs which in fact were needed, as the building was becoming inadequate for the demands upon it. That motion being defeated, a proposition was made to erect a new court- house at a cost of $15,000. This was likewise defeated.
A year later, at the election of November 7, 1876, the voters of the county decided in favor of removing the county seat to Arcadia, whcih had become the metropolis of the county. The people of Gale, however, did not propose to let their advantages slip from their grasp without a fight, and on November 18, 1876, John McKeith of Gale proposed to the county board that the county offices and meeting place of the board should remain at Galesville until the next annual meeting, or until otherwise ordered by the board. The proposition was defeated, being favored only by the members from Gale, Caledonia and Ettrick, who hoped to keep the county seat in the southern part of the county, and by the member from Lincoln, who desired
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Arcadia to secure no advantages. John D. Lewis led the fight for Arcadia, and on the final proposition of selling the property at Galesville he had only two opponents, the members from Gale and Trempealeau. November 21, 1876, a committee was appointed to supervise the removal to Arcadia. January 2, 1877, the board met in the schoolhouse at that place.
Whitehall now entered the fight in earnest. Galesville, strongly entrenched in historic tradition, had been defeated, and it was believed that Arcadia would prove a less formidable foe. Presenting the argument that Arcadia was on the western edge of the county and Whitehall in the geographical center, the people of the latter village had circulated a petition, and securing the necessary number of signatures, asked the board on January 3, 1877, to call for an election on the question. Mr. Lewis alleged that many names had been secured by misrepresentation, and that most of the signers thought the petition was one requesting that no county tax be laid for erecting county buildings. He demanded for Arcadia the right to be represented by an attorney and witnesses before the county board. But he was denied that privilege and the election was ordered to be held in the fall. However, in spite of this coming contest, the board appointed a committee to draw plans for the erection of a $20,000 building at Arcadia.
At the election held November 6, 1877, the voters decided by about 600 majority to move the county seat to Whitehall. The citizens of Arcadia alleged fraud and secured an injunction, but in the end were unsuccessful in their contentions.
January 23, 1878, the board met at Scott's Hall, at the southwest corner of Main and Scranton streets, in Whitehall, and after considerable jockeying passed a resolution condemning the people of Arcadia for their attitude, accused them of stirring up strife, or engendering animosities which would take years to overcome, and wrongfully putting on the county the cost of expensive litigation. In the same resolution S. W. Button was authorized to employ Judge Thomas Wilson of Winona to defend the board in the injunction proceedings brought by Arcadia. On the final vote, the only members opposing the resolution were the ones from Arcadia and its adjoining town of Dodge, and the two southern towns of Caledonia and Trempealeau.
Blair now appeared as an aspirant for county seat honors, but on November 5, 1878, the voters again declared in favor of Whitehall.
The people of Arcadia continued to feel that not only was Arcadia the logical place for the county seat, but that they had in fact been defrauded out of it. The necessary number of names being secured to a petition, the question of removing the county seat to Arcadia came before the voters November 7, 1882, and was defeated by a count of 1,874 to 1,454.
Thus for the third time, the people had declared in favor of Whitehall. The fight had been long and bitter, the newspapers had been filled with recriminations, the quarrel had been the chief subject of conversation for years, the ill feeling engendered was long to remain, but the people of Arcadia accepted the situation cheerfully and set about to maintain the position of that village as a metropolis of the county, even though its
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geographical position had defeated its county seat aspirations. The ques- tion was now practically dead, though the people of Independence prepared a petition and endeavored to secure an election in the fall of 1883 on the proposition of removing the county seat to Independence. It was found, however, that the number of votes cast at the previous election was 2,013 of which two-thirds was 1,342. Of the 1,493 names on the petition, 1,318 were on the poll lists and 162 were not. The status of 16 names was in doubt. The petition thus fell short of the necessary 1,342 and no similar petition has since been attempted.
November 15, 1882, O. J. Allen of Lincoln, moved before the county board that the courthouse be erected in Whitehall. The proposition carried by a vote of 12 to 5, the opposing votes being those of the members of Arcadia township and village, and their neighbor Dodge, of Burnside where the people had aspirations for Independence, and of Preston were the people had aspirations for Blair. A building committee was appointed consisting of A. H. Cary, J. D. Olds, M. J. Warner, H. Hoberton and John McKeith. A large lot was presented by the town of Lincoln, and that town also paid $5,000 toward the construction of the building. Work was started in the spring of 1883, and the building was completed late that year at a cost of about $20,000, being occupied early in January, 1884.
November 11, 1885, money was appropriated for a jail, and work was commenced the following spring in charge of a building committee consist- ing of H. Hoberton, E. H. Warner and Peter Ekern. It was accepted November 1, 1886, having cost about $8,000.
The courthouse and jail proved adequate for more than thirty years. In 1910 the need of improvement was apparent, and on November 16, 1910, after preliminary investigation and due consultation with the State Board of Control, it was decided to rebuild the jail, and at the same time to build an addition to the courthouse which would nearly double its capacity. The first set of bids was rejected, and on January 10, 1911, the contracts were let. The work on the courthouse and jail was completed late in the fall of 1911 at a cost of nearly $30,000, the committee in charge consisting of James N. Hunter, chairman; E. F. Hensel, secretary; E. F. Clark, C. Q. Gage and F. A. Hotchkiss.
The courthouse and jail are surrounded by beautiful wooded lawns which stretch across the schoolhouse property and merge in the public park, which in turn extends to the village cemetery, this giving the people a beautiful sweep of public property scarcely to be equaled in western Wisconsin.
From the carliest days the care of the poor has been an important part of the work of the county board. Some members have favored putting the entire burden on the townships; some have favored putting the entire burden on the county, and some have favored a division of responsibility between the county and the townships. The various systems have been tried with varying success. At present the townships are responsible for the care of their own poor, while the county looks after the poor whose actual residence in any particular township cannot be proven.
Plans for the establishment of a poor farm and almshouse have several
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times been set on foot. Once a poor farm was bought and sold again, and once the foundation of an almshouse was constructed but later abandoned.
November 11, 1885, at the same meeting which voted to erect a jail, a motion was passed authorizing the purchase of a poor farm, the erection of an almshouse and the purchase of equipment, $2,000 to be levied for the purpose that year and $4,000 the following year. The farm was to consist of between 80 and 160 acres and was to be located in the Trempealeau Valley, not more than four miles from a railroad. The work was to be com- pleted November 1, 1886, at which time the county system of caring for the poor was to go into full effect. A poor commission was appointed, con- sisting of W. A. Johnson of Gale, Thomas Thompson of Independence and Charles Johnson of Blair. But evidently at the time of passing the vote the board had misgivings, for a motion was at once introduced to reconsider. The misgivings continued, and at a special meeting held June 15, 1886, it was decided to adopt the township system of caring for the poor, to dispose of the farm in Burnside which the commissioners had tentatively purchased, and to abandon all the work that had been done in preparation for inaugu- rating the county system. On the final vote the supervisors who still favored the county system were the representatives from Burnside, Inde- pendence, Preston, Sumner and Trempealeau Village.
In the years that followed, the matter of building institutions for the care of the poor and of the insane was discussed at various meetings. On January 2, 1899, O. E. Gibbs, E. J. Matchett and D. L. Holcombe rendered an extensive report on the subject and recommended that an insane asylum and almshouse be built, as a measure of economy, efficiency and humanity. The report was accepted and the three men named as a committee to carry out their recommendations. Later G. H. Neperud, D. Wood, Stener Hanson and E. F. Clark were added to the committee. Land was purchased west of Arcadia and work was started in the spring of 1899, complicated some- what by an injunction obtained by Martin T. Babbit, who claimed that the powers of the committee expired when the old board went out of office in March. The injunction was served May 4 and dissolved May 12.
The work on the almshouse was suspended permanently after the foun- dations were nearly finished. The asylum was practically completed Jan- uary 25, 1900. The first trustees were D. L. Holcombe, president, of Arcadia ; F. M. Smith, secretary, of Osseo, and Thomas Thompson of Whitehall. J. A. Johnson was the first superintendent. He was followed in March, 1901, by P. H. Johnson, who was succeeded in January, 1911, by John McKivergin, the present superintendent. The farm consists of 405 acres at the asylum west of Whitehall and three forty-acre tracts of woodland elsewhere. The farm is well improved and equipped and the institution is regarded as a model of its kind. The establishment has not only supported itself, but has already paid nearly one-half of the original cost of $90,000. A part of the income consists of a certain sum received each year from the state. The first nine patients were received April 6, 1900, and the number was increased to forty-six before the end of the month. The capacity is now nearly 150 patients.
Road and bridge matters have constituted much of the heavy work
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of the successive county boards. The early roads in Trempealeau County followed the river courses. The trail along the Mississippi and the trail down the Beef River Valley early became much frequented highways. Beef River Valley, Trempealeau Valley and its two great northern branches, Pigeon Creek and Elk Creek (Pleasant) Valleys; and its eastern branch, the Big Tamarack Valley; Bruce, Chimney Rock and Borst Valleys, tribu- tary to Pleasant Valley; Beaver Creek Valley and its tributary, French Creek Valley, are all natural lines of travel, while the Trempealeau Prairie affords routes west and south from Galesville and north and east from Trempealeau.
The greatest difficulty in road building in the county is in crossing the ridges which separate the valleys. None of the roads of the county follow the crest of the ridges for any considerable distance, the longest ridge road being one of several miles between Pigeon Valley and Osseo. The southern part of the county abounds in rock, but in the northern part of the county rock for road building must be shipped in.
The territorial and early state assemblies designated certain routes as state roads; the early county boards co-operated with various other counties in laying out roads which would connect the widely separated pioneer hamlets, and also laid out such roads as extended across more than one township. The care of the roads and the laying out of short roads was left with the townships. Bridges were built in whole or in part by the county when it appeared that the construction of such bridges would impose too great a hardship on the individual towns.
Modern road building in Trempealeau County was inaugurated under the laws of 1907. In that year the county board outlined a series of "proposed county highways" covering the natural routes of communication within the county. E. J. Matchett was appointed county highway commis -: sioner. Under this system the county was to pay one-half for the construc- tion of county roads and the township one-half. Under the laws of 1911 the state pays one-third, the county one-third and the town one-third. The state money available, however, has not thus far been sufficient to meet the entire one-third, so in reality the county and township are paying considerably more than their respective thirds.
Trempealeau County was one of the first counties in the state to build roads under the laws of 1907. In 1912 macadamizing was started on the Arcadia-Dodge and the Galesville-Ettrick roads. The work of macadamizing, grading and surfacing has since continued until something like $400,000 has been spent within the county. The heaviest piece of relocation work in the state was done on the so-called Decorah Peak cut, near Galesville, where something like 35,000 cubic yards of earth were moved in a stretch of a little more than a mile, at a cost of about $25,000. The new road considerably modifies the grade and eliminates many dangerous curves. In 1916 Emil F. Rotering was appointed county highway commissioner, and under his able supervision, with the co-operation of the county board committee, the highways of the county are being gradually improved and the system extended.
County Officers. William M. Young, the first county clerk of Trempea-
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leau County, was appointed as clerk of the county board at its first meeting, May 1, 1854. John Nicholls was appointed November 20, 1854. Charles Utter was elected in the fall of 1854, but did not qualify, and on February 3, 1855, John Nicholls was again appointed. He was elected in the fall of 1856. Since then the clerks have been :
1865, Allen R. Wyman; 1867, B. F. Heuston; 1871, Allen R. Wyman (died in office) ; 1880, Charles E. Perkins (appointed November 9) ; 1883, E. N. Trowbridge; 1891, L. H. Whitney ; 1893, H. A. Towner; 1897, P. H. Johnson; 1901, Oluf Ihle (died in office) ; 1904, H. A. Towner (appointed November 15, 1904) ; 1905, John P. Hanson; 1909, Paudor K. Risberg.
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