USA > Wisconsin > Walworth County > History of Walworth county, Wisconsin, Volume I > Part 9
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70
Before each jostling political atom had as yet settled easily and firmly into its fitting place in the new political mass some slight personal jarring was liable to occur now and again. Dr. Philip Maxwell, who had become a Republican. had held Jackson's commission as a surgeon of the regular army. and he revered "Old Hickory" as a Mars in war and a Moves in politics. Once urged to take some part in a Republican mass meeting for the county, he demurred, saying he was tired of hearing Judge Spooner. "that blue- bellied old Federalist, while he should stand up for two hours to abuse Gien- .eral Jackson." The Doctor was over touchy, for the Judge did but acense the old General of having invented the "spoils system." Such little differ- ences, arising from previous political condition, soon disappeared, leaving no trace.
Thoroughness of organization began with the party's birth, for it was the work of master hands. Leaders suppressed their rival ambitions and per- sonal jealousies, and subalterns, such as local speakers and editors, were trained to concerted action. The party platform was simple and intelligible. and not liable to various interpretation. Even the earliest receipt and publi- cation of election results were not forgotten, as an instance may show. On the night of election day in 1856 a few shrewdly-observing men at Elkhorn sat till nearly daylight to receive returns from the other towns. They had little or no help from telegraph offices at the few railway stations; but mes- sengers rode through mud and darkness, and as each one came his figures were found to vary so slightly from pre-estimates that the county total dif- fered scarce a hundred votes from the forecast. These political pre-calcula- tors had allowed correctly for the increasing rate of conversions in the last few days of the campaign-for they knew their men, as their opponents knew them not so well.
Instances may show how this was in that year with Democrats of Walworth, hopeful as they were as to the electoral result at large, and not inactive or noiseless at home. Lieutenant Governor Me. Arthur, in a speech at Elkhorn ( having been told that at the April elections this was found the only stronghold left to the county Democracy ), likened the town to a "pearl on a black wooly string." The vote of Elkhorn in November was, 117 for Fremont, 86 for Buchanan, 2 for Fillmore. In the same campaign Jackson Hadley, of Milwaukee, pre-calculating his chance of election to Congress over John F. Potter, and fearing only Walworth, was assured here that Mr. Potter could not have over 1.600 majority in his home county Mr. Hadley
100
WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.
insisted on allowing 2,000, and on such basis counted upon election. This estimate was here declared wildly extravagant. Election returns reached Mil- waukee but slowly, but the results in the other counties of the district seemed to warrant celebration with cannonade, procession, martial music, banquet, and joy unconfined. The firing was stopped and the rest of the order of pleasure suspended indefinitely as soon as a dispatch from Walworth told of 2.370 majority there for Potter and hence of his election.
In that year the ratio of the Republican to the Democratic vote in the county was 73 to 27. For many years afterward it remained steadily at 68 to 32. In 1908 it was 67.93 to 32.07. Including all the parties in the computation, the per centage of the total vote of that year was severally : Republican, 62.2; Democratic, 29.4: Prohibitionist. 7.3: Social Democratic. I.I : with two votes for the Social Labor ticket. Though the course of gen- eral elections has been so nearly uniforin, there has always been a discoverable tendency toward independent voting in assembly districts, cities and towns. Five times since 1855 regular Republican nominees for assemblymen have been defeated at the polls. In 1861 Hollis Latham, Democrat, was elected as a Union candidate over Richard B. Flack. In 1863 John Jeffers, independ- ent-Republican, prevailed over Alanson H. Barnes. In 1869 and 1870 Judge White. Democrat, similarly overcame regular Republican nominees. In 1877, for the place of district attorney. Alfred S. Spooner was chosen over Joseph Il. Page, of Whitewater-the only instance in which, the whole county vot- ing. a Republican nominee has been defeated. Between 1855 and 1911 most or all of the towns and cities have at some time or times elected Democratic members of the county board and other local officers-wherein Walworth cliffers little from such other American counties as are generally Republican.
The several fluctuations, permanent or transitory, in party majorities at presidential and "off-year" elections have not been wholly unfelt here, though the county vote has not always been noticeably affected by them. The Greeley movement touched local leaders more than their party's rank and file. The Hayes-Tilden campaign seemed to move the parties into olden unity, as is not unlikely to occur whenever both parties have nominated wisely. About four hundred Republicans changed their votes in the third Cleveland contest. At the congressional elections of 1882. 1886 and 1890. Republican majorities were much reduced, but stood well above zero.
Of foreign-born citizens, Scandinavians, who are most largely from Norway, have been almost unanimously Republicans. The Germans and most others have been divided about proportionately between the greater parties. the Republicans taking the larger number. The generally current notion
101
WALWORTHI COUNTY, WISCONSIN.
that the Irish-born are nearly all Democrats leaves out the very important element of non-Catholic Irish, most of whom have been and are Republicans. Since the Civil war there has been a perceptible re-distribution, politically, of Catholic citizens, who are not hereditary bondmen of any party ; though a mia- jority of those of Walworth are still Democratic. The colored population is a negligible quantity-less than one hundred in the county. The attitude of Walworth toward their race was shown by the vote in 1849 on extension of suffrage: Yes, 970: 10, 189. Further, there had been no need, for its bet- ter enforcement here, to add in 1851 new sections and heavier penalties to the older fugitive slave law : for neither the old law nor the new one was likely to be effective here. The "underground railway" had many stations and station agents within the county borders, and the geographers of Wal- worth knew the routes to Canada much better than the ways backward to bondage.
It was needful that most of this chapter should be used to set forth the rise, progress and later status of the party which is responsible for shap- ing the county's policies and administering its affairs. How it has done other things and what have been the substantial results may be seen or inferred from the story of the county, even as imperfectly told in the foregoing and following pages. As to that party's present status, little need he said here. since history's concern is with things done and recorded, and not with things moved. seconded and debated. In 1895. after four years of exclusion, the Republican party resumed the administration of state government. Since that time new definitions of the party creed have been proposed and opposed. and in part, at least, imposed by the new school of Republicanism. Men of Walworth made haste but slowly to change, even slightly, the ideas and mages which had prevailed for a half century : but by 1904 were drawn wholly into the state-wide strife. In that year's election while Mr. Roosevelt's plur- ality was 3.522, his vote 73 4 per cent. of the county total. Governor La- Follette's plurality over Peck was but 248, or 4 per cent. At the same election his primary-election bill, which became the law of the state, was generally negatived by his Republican opponents, but it had a majority of the smaller vote cast. The aves were 2,083: noes, 2.042: a ratio of 50,5 10 495. \ the first application of this law to a choice for United States senator in 19to. Senator LaFollette received 2.926 of 3.833 Republican votes, a percentage of 76.3. The ratio of voters to whole population since 1800 has been ap preciably higher for this county than for the state. It is now too voters to 443 inhabitants. Four principal causes of this large proportion of voters are the considerable number of elderly families without minor children, the
IO2
WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.
small alien population. the generally easily accessible polling places and the active interest of men (and women) of all parties in nominations and elections.
As a party, the Whigs left too little trace in the public records by which to distinguish their actions from those of other men of their time, and it is not now easy to name any considerable number of them with certainty. As- suredly, they were not insignificant in number, and among them was their full proportion of men of character and ability. A majority of these men were sons and grandsons of Whigs of the Revolution, and it was their harmless boast that as a whole they were better representatives than their opponents of the higher intelligence and morality and the truer patriotism of the American people. As citizens of a community then in its formative stage they must have had their due influence upon the affairs of villages and towns, school districts, and religious societies. There seems to have been among them a few unavowed Abolitionists. More of them joined the Free- Soil Democrats of 1848 and 1852. Nearly all of them passed as if naturally into the Republican movement of 1854.
Democrats of the county were and are generally of like origin with their invincible opponents, who have found them as to personal value, if not as to number, not unworthy political foemen. Though so long kept from high places, they have not been without the weight and influence of their personal qualities on public business, and they have often found humbler official use- fulness in their towns. The chief difference between them and their out -- numbering competitors for places of honor, trust and profit may be found by simple subtraction. The several official lists include much of the active and publicly useful element of the Republican party. It is not aside from the general purpose of this work to name a few men of this greater of the sev- eral minorities-men of differing personal qualities, more or less honored in their party and not invalued by their fellow citizens of all parties. Of these were Maurice L. Ayers. John Brown, Henry B. Clark, David and Elisha Coon. George Cotton, Harvey M. Curtiss, Ebenezer Dayton, Francis Dillon, Andrew Ferguson. George Gale, Dr. Harmon Gray, Perry G. Harrington, Drs. John M. and Samuel W. Henderson, Augustus C. and Jesse R. Kinne. Hollis Latham. Ebenezer Latimer, Darins MeKibbin, John 11. Martin, John Mather, W'm. Pitt Meacham, James D. Merrill, Cyril L. Oatman. Dr. Alexander S. Palmer, George Passage. Soldan Powers, Otis Preston, LeGrand Rockwell, Charles Wales. Dr. Henry Warne, Archibald Woodard, Dr. George H. Young.
.
103
WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.
The Prohibitionists are sufficient in number to hold a column of the official ballot for their nominees. Their influence on the public weal is not to be measured with exactness by their showing at the polls. There is, no doubt, a strength not always of measurable political value in consistent and unselfish devotion to high, though to many men seemingly impracticable, aims.
The hardly visible Social Democratic body is chiefly of two or three cities, its entire vote less than one hundred.
CHAPTER XII.
MILITARY HISTORY OF WALWORTH COUNTY.
The militia system of New York (not to name other states similarly organized for defense and offense ) afforded such liberal distribution of mar- tial titles that it might now be wondered how any lawyer, working politician. inn-keeper. or other reputable and prosperous citizen could have escaped one of these marks of favor from the commander-in-chief, without peril of falling into or upon one of the nearly as plentiful judgeships. The grades of gen- eral, colonel and major were doubly preferred, for there was this uncertainty about the title of captain that it was no more the right of a real centurion than the possession of a master or ex-master of a canal boat or of a lake vessel of any or no tonnage. Captains, majors, colonels and generals came as early as others to Walworth. Dodge's and Doty's commissions were conclusive as to the genuineness of the fortunate holder's rank.
That there was a Sixth Regiment of Wisconsin Militia, and that as early, at least, as 1841, is evident from the terms of Col. Edward Elderkin's commission. Other officers now known were Lieutenant-Colonel Urban D. Meacham, Major James Alex. Maxwell, Adj't . Abel W. Wright. Capts. Lucius AAllen. James Harkness. Perry G. Harrington, Joseph L. Pratt.
The earliest statement in detail as to the organization of territorial militia found at the adjutant-general's office shows that in June, 1846. men of Col- umibia. Dane, Dodge, Jefferson, Portage, Rock, Sauk and Walworth, a regi- ment from each, were brigaded together, and in July the officers of the Wal- worth regiment were Col. Caleb Croswell of Delavan (a few years later of Baraboo), Lient .- Col. Urban D. Meacham (a few weeks later succeeded by William M. Clark ), and Major Thomas Morris Mellugh. In August, 1846. the men of Columbia, Dodge. Jefferson and Walworth constituted the First Brigade of the Third Division, commanded respectively by Brig .- Gen. John C. Gilman and Maj .- Gen. John W. Boyd.
Janvary 9, 1817, Walworth was divided into eight districts, to each as- signed a company.
First District-Whitewater and Richmond: Capt. Jesse Pease: Lieuts. Silas Walker. William Potts.
105
WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.
Second District-Elkhorn, Lagrange. Sugar Creek: Capt. Perry G. Harrington ; Lieuts. John G. Wood. William O. Garfield.
Third District-Troy, Lafayette: Capt. Charles K. Dean : Lieuts. Will- iam A. Smith, Charles W. Billings.
Fourth District-East Troy. Spring Prairie: No return of officers.
Fifth District-Darien, Sharon: Capt. Rial W. Weed, Lieut. David J. Best.
Sixth District-Delavan, Walworth: Capt. Hiram Boyce ; Lients. Daniel Dobbs. Beardsley Lake.
Seventh District-Geneva: No returns.
Eighth District-Bloomfield, Hudson, Linn: Capt. Isaac G. Miner : Lieuts. Albert T. Wheeler, John mes.
February 6. 1847. of Major-General Boyd's staff were Eleazar Wakeley. division inspector: Experience Estabrook, judge advocate; while Colonel Croswell's adjutant was Jacob M. Fish, and surgeon, Dr. Harmon Gray.
It is probable enough that a few young men of the county enlisted for service in the war with Mexico in the regular army, and that a few more were enrolled in one or more of the six regiments of Illinois volunteers for like service. But no official record, except the inaccessible rolls of the ad- jutant-general's office at Washington, tells who these men were and how they contributed to the patriotic work of "conquering a peace" with that faction- torn country. A few men who returned from that war as soldiers of other states came to live in Walworth.
Throughout the fourteen years of peace which followed the Mexican treaty of 1847. Wisconsin was prudently prepared against insurrection and invasion. Men of military age in each of the older counties constituted a regiment and they of the newer counties reported as battalions Officers were commissioned and appear in reports as generally present for duty, but the rank and file were not so generally visible. For an instance. Adjutant General Utley's report for 1853 shows that the sixth of twenty-nine regi- ments was that of Walworth, and was then 3.180 strong on paper. The Sixth Regiment was then of the Second Brigade funder Brig. Gen. Philo White of Racine ), of the First Division ( that of Maj. Gen. Rufus King of Milwaukee), and its seventeen companies, from as many towns, were lettera from A to Q. Its field and staff officers were Col. Erasmus D Richardson. of Geneva; Lieut .- Col. Adam E. Ray, of Troy: Major Edwin Brainard, of Delavan: Adj't Samuel IT. Stafford, of Bloomfield: Quartermaster lemery Thayer, of East Troy: Surgeon Alexander S. Palmer, of Geneva. The com panies, in order of company letter, with names of captains and enrolled strength of each, were thus reported :
106
WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.
A East Troy Henry B. Clark
B Troy John A. Perry
C Lagrange Volney A. McCraken
D Whitewater Richard O'Connor
E Richmond James Cotter
F Sugar Creek Perry G. Harrington Wyman Spooner, Jr., Theodore
G Lafayette William H. Conger
H Spring Prairie Ezekiel B. Smith
I Hudson Lathrop Bullen
J Geneva John M. Nelson
K Delavan William Pierce
L Darien Archibald Woodard
M Sharon E. C. Allen
N Walworth John M. Cramer
O Linn Albert T. Wheeler
P Bloomfield Charles W. Sibley
Q Elkhorn Hollis Latham
Lieutenants
John L. Wilson, Wm. Vanzant 178
Ralph Goodrich, Israel Dean 188
207
Charles King, Leander Birge 293
Geo. James, Jacob M. Fish 138
B. Edwards 146
Sherman M. Rockwood, Harvey M. Curtiss 126
Stephen Bull, Wm. R. Berry 240
Abner Farnum, Edw'd Quigley 169 Thomas J. Smith, Sam'l C. Spafard 256
H. A. Johnson, A. Briggs 300
Orange Carter. Henry Clark 171
Julius A. Treat, Robert Young 200
Elijah Easton, J. Weston 195
Robert Foot. Otis H. Hall 133
Henry S. Fox, Charles Allen I39
Alva J. Frost. Squire Stanford 99
Strength of regiment 3,180
In 1860 James B. Schrom. of Whitewater, was of the Governor's gen- eral staff as quartermaster. Daniel Graham, of Whitewater, and John F. Potter were colonels and aids to Governor Randall. Walworth was now of the Fifth Regiment and Kenosha of the Sixth, the two forming the First Brigade (under Brig .- Gen. J. C. Mckesson, of Wheatland) of the Second Division, commanded by Maj .- Gen. Daniel C. Tripp, of Whitewater. (The other brigade was of Jefferson and eastern Rock counties. ) General Tripp chose his staff from Whitewater, with two exceptions. All these officers ranked as colonels: Frank L. Kiser and Robert Williams, aids: Edward Barber, paymaster : Henry Warne. surgeon: Newton S. Murphey, judge-advo- cate ; William H. McCallum, chief of engineers; L. R. Humphrey, chaplain ; John T. Wentworth ( Geneva), commissary, and a Palmyrene as quarter- master. The field officers of the Fifth were Col. Caleb S. Blanchard, of East Troy : Lieut .- Col. Charles E. Bird, of Linn: Maj. Phipps W. Lake. of Wal- worth. Two volunteer companies were attached to this regiment : "Company
107
WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.
A" (so named ), of Whitewater, Capt. Lucius .A. Winchester, and the Geneva Independents. Capt. Daniel C. Roundy. Except that these two companies had each forty men, no further return was made of the Fifth Regiment. . 1 very few of all these names of militia officers may be found in the roster of soldiers of the Civil war, most of them having passed the age limit. Captain Wheeler, a young lawyer, was perhaps the only one named in these rosters commonly addressed by his martial title.
Having given to Mr. Lincoln in 1860 a majority of 2,319 in a total vote of 5.517. the citizens of Walworth noted with interest the quickly following events. until the affair of Fort Sumter made it certain that the Union could be preserved only by war. The morning newspapers of April 15, 1861, brought to them the President's call to arms, and that day's drum beating throughout the county summoned men to the evening's war meetings. Seats and standing places at these assemblages were over filled and speakers usually accounted dull found willing and applauding listeners. At such a time it was easy to tip even cool, slow tongues with fire. It was but to let loose the spirit of patriotism and of defiance to foreign and domestic enemies, and to forget such word as compromise. Mr. Winsor, of and at Elkhorn, who had voted for Douglas, speaking that evening, did not forget legal precision of terms in the unusually warm flow of his indictment of the nation's enemies. He had neither softer nor harsher word for them than "rebels," and thus they remain in history. Other speakers racked memory and invention for words and phrases likest to thunderbolts and hence fittest for expression of patriotic wrath. These village lawyers, retailers and farmers spoke that which their hearers felt. and to one clearly-seen point, the preservation of the Union by national authority.
The call upon Wisconsin was for one regiment of infantry for a service of three months. Governor Randall was at once offered companies enough to fill three or four regiments. There was not a company of uniformed and drilled men in the county, but a few headlong youths found each his way to Camp Scott, at Milwaukee, to enlist in such company as had not reached its maximum number of one hundred and ten men. The Second and Third regiments were organized by state authority, in order that the next call from Washington might be answered with partly-instructed sokliers. Thus, a few more boys of Walworth were enabled to push their way into carly service. In June places were made for two companies in organizing the Fourth. Com- pany A was of Whitewater and Company F of Geneva-other towns con- tributing to each. Several of the men of these companies were credited, as shown by descriptive rolls at Madison, with service from the later days of
108
WALWORTHI COUNTY, WISCONSIN.
April: for the record of Wisconsin men's service begins with their accept- ance as recruits and not with the often long-delayed mustering into federal service. The interval between enlistment and muster was not subtracted from the term of actual service, but the record of earlier enlistment is honorable, and the state made such provision as it was able to do, for subsistence, clothing and payment of its unmustered soldiers. After the action at Bull Run-in which a few men of Walworth advanced, stood. fired and left the field only at the order of William T. Sherman, their brigade commander, and at no faster pace than his-men of Delavan and Elkhorn joined to form Company AA of the Tenth. About the same time Company K, of the Eighth, at Racine, was filling its thin ranks with stout men of Bloomfield and Hudson. Sharon, Whitewater, Lagrange and Sugar Creek respectively officered and manned Companies C. H. I and K of the Thirteenth. A few men of several towns enlisted among stranger comrades in the First and Second Cavalry Regi- ments. Several of the boys of Hudson and Spring Prairie turned out for service in the Ninth Battery of Light Artillery. Of the Third Cavalry. Com- pany L was raised from the county at large. The towns not thus far named sent their men singly and in squads to regiments and batteries most easily reached at the instant of enlistment. Except the few men in the First In- fantry, all these men of 1861 enlisted for three years.
Defeat and retreat in the campaigns on the Virginian peninsula and the Rappahannock brought a new call for troops. The first regiment of Wis- consin, under that call, was the Twenty-second. Company C was taken from the Geneva quarter of the county, including also Elkhorn, and Company D from Whitewater. The Twenty-eighth was but a few days behind, its Com- pany D almost wholly of Whitewater. Company E of Sugar Creek and other towns, Company I of Lafayette. Spring Prairie and the Troys, Company K less of this county and few of any one town. Delavan supplied a colonel for the Fortieth, a regiment of one-hundred-day men : Delavan. Elkhorn and Walworth gave two captains and three lieutenants to Companies F and L. The men of F were mostly of Delavan. Elkhorn, Sharon and Walworth. Company K, Forty-ninth, was composed of men of Racine and Walworth counties. To this company Delavan gave a captain who became major, and Geneva gave a lieutenant. The First ( and only ) Regiment of Heavy Artillery had a considerable number of our men, unevenly distributed among its twelve companies. The whole enrollment, from first to last, was about 2,750- slightly more than the sum of the several quotas assigned. Hlad it been pos- sible to levy all the troops of the Civil war within one year the men of Wal- worth would have formed three average regiments. As it was, the circum-
109
WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.
stances of the war made the company the largest military unit in filling the county's quotas.
There is another, and in some respects better way of setting forth the martial patriotism of Walworth. Wisconsin sent out fifty-one regiments of infantry, four regiments of cavalry, one regiment of heavy artillery and thirteen batteries of light artillery. Men of Walworth were to be found in all these except the Twenty-first and Forty-first infantry regiments, and the Second. Eighth. Eleventh, and Twelfth light batteries. Besides all this service in home organizations, regiments and batteries of Illinois and of the regular army, the gun-boat river service, and the navy received cach a few estrays from the same source. Walworth men served in eighteen states and territories-in all the states of the Confederacy except Florida, in the border slave states, except Delaware and West Virginia, and in Colorado, Indian Territory, Kansas, Minnesota and Pennsylvania. Their enlistments began in April. 1861. and their service continued till May. 1866. Distributed among so many commands. the men of Walworth were parted to the far north and to the Gulf. to the eastern sea and to the western ridges of the con- tinent. By her young men Walworth followed to battle nearly every then and yet famous commander, and leaders now half forgotten. She followed her captains until they became colonels, and her colonels until they exchanged their regiments for brigades, divisions and corps. She advanced. attacked. besieged, assaulted: she entrenched, fortified. resisted. retreated, was cap- tured, and knew Libby and Andersonville from the inside: she preserved lines of communication, garrisoned posts, moved after murderous Sioux. hanged bushwhackers in border states, marched through sullen, ill-wishing Baltimore, regulated New Orleans, warned away the French forces in Mevi- co-and, in brief. performed nearly every glorious and inglorious duty that falls to the lot of soldiers. Her men came home to resume for a shorter or longer time their places in the ranks of useful citizens. Many of them went one by one to the no longer trackless and boundless west, and the Grand Army membership in the county whose quotas they had filled is largely of later coming comrades from other counties and states.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.