The history of Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, Part 14

Author:
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago, Western historical company
Number of Pages: 1082

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The counties of Oconto, Brown, Kewaunee, Door, Manitowoc, Outagamie and Shawano were all more or less swept by this besom of destruction ; but in Oconto county, and for some distance into Menomonee county, Michigan, across the Menomonee river, on the west shore of

WISCONSIN AS A STATE.

the bay and throughout the whole length and breadth of the peninsula,-that is, the territory lying between the bay and Lake Michigan,-the fires were the most devastating. The first week in October passed ; then came an actual whirlwind of fire-ten or more miles in width and of indefinite length. The manner of its progress was extraordinary. It destroyed a vast amount of property and many lives. It has been described as a tempestuous sea of flame, accompanied by a most violent hurricane, which multiplied the force of the destructive element. Forests, farin improvements and entire villages were consumed. Men, women and children perished-awfully perished. Even those who fled and sought refuge from the fire in cleared fields, in swamps, lakes and rivers, found, many of them, no safety there, but were burned to death or died of suf- focation.

This dreadful and consmining fire was heralded by a sound likened to that of a railroad train - to the roar of a waterfall - to the noise of a battle at a distance. Not human beings only, but horses, oxen, cows, dogs, swine - every thing that had life - ran to escape the impend- ing destruction. The smoke was suffocating and blinding ; the roar of the tempest deafening ; the atmosphere scorching. Children were separated from their parents, and trampled upon by crazed beasts. Husbands and wives rushed in wild dismay, they knew not where. Death rode triumphantly upon that devastating, fiery flood. More than one thousand men, women and children perished. More than three thousand were rendered destitute-utterly beggared. Mothers were left with fatherless children ; fathers with motherless children. Every where were homeless orphans. All around lay suffering, helpless humanity, burned and maimed. Such was the sickening spectacle after the impetuous and irresistible wave of fire swept over that portion of the State. This appalling calamity happened on the 8th and 9th of October. The loss of property has been estimated at four million dollars.

At the tidings of this fearful visitation, Governor Fairchild hastened to the burnt district, to assist, as much as was in his power, the distressed sufferers. He issued, on the 13th of the month, a stirring appeal to the citizens of Wisconsin, for aid. It was promptly responded to from all portions of the State outside the devastated region. Liberal contributions in money, clothing and provisions were sent - some from other States, and even from foreign countries. Northwestern Wisconsin also suffered severely, during these months of drouth, from large fires.

A compilation of the public statutes of Wisconsin was prepared during the year 1871, by David Taylor, and published in two volumes, generally known as the Revised Statutes of 1871. It was wholly a private undertaking ; but the legislature authorized the secretary of state to purchase five hundred copies for the use of the State, at its regular session in 1872.

THIRTEENTH ADMINISTRATION. - C. C. WASHBURN, GOVERNOR - 1872-1873.

The thirteenth gubernatorial administration in Wisconsin commenced on Monday, January 1, 1872. The only changes made, in the present administration from the previous one, were in the offices of governor and lieutenant governor.

The twenty-fifth regular session of the legislature began on the roth of January, with a republican majority in both houses. Daniel Hall was elected speaker of the assembly. The next day the governor delivered to a joint convention of the legislature his first annual message - a lengthy document, setting forth in detail the general condition of State affairs. The recent great conflagrations were referred to, and relief suggested. The work of this session of the Leg- islature was peculiarly difficult, owing to the many general laws which the last constitutional amendment made necessary. The apportionment of the State into new congressional districts was another perplexing and onerous task. Eight districts were formed instead of six, as at the commencement of the last decade. By this, the fourth congressional apportionment, each district

HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.

elects one member. The first district consists of the counties of Rock, Racine, Kenosha, Wal- worth, and Waukesha ; the second, of Jefferson, Dane, Sauk, and Columbia ; the third, of Grant, Iowa, LaFayette, Green, Richland, and Crawford ; the fourth, of Milwaukee, Ozaukee, and Wash- ington ; the fifth, of Dodge, Fond du Lac, Sheboygan and Manitowoc ; the sixth, of Green Lake, Waushara, Waupaca, Outagamie, Winnebago, Calumet, Brown, Kewaunee and Door; the sev- enth, of Vernon, La Crosse, Monroe, Jackson, Trempealeau, Buffalo, Pepin, Pierce, St. Croix, Eau Claire, and Clark ; the eighth, of Oconto, Shawano, Portage, Wood, Juneau, Adams, Marquette, Marathon, Dunn, Chippewa, Barron, Polk, Burnett, Bayfield, Douglas, and Ashland. To this district have since been added the new counties of Lincoln, Taylor, Price, Marinette and New.

After a session of seventy-seven days, the legislature finished its work, adjourning on the twenty-seventh of March. At the ensuing November election, the republican ticket for presi- dent and vice president of the United States was successful. The ten electors chosen cast their votes in the electoral college for Grant and Wilson. In the eight congressional districts, six republicans and two democrats were elected to the forty-third congress; the last mentioned from the fourth and fifth districts. C. G. Williams represented the first district; G. W. Hazel- ton the second; J. Allen Barber the third ; Alexander Mitchell the fourth ; C. A. Eldredge the fifth ; Philetus Sawyer the sixth ; J. M. Rusk the seventh ; and A. G. McDill the eighth district.

Throughout Wisconsin, as in all portions of the Union outside the State, a singular pesti- Ience prevailed among horses in the months of November and December, 1872, very few escap- ing. Horses kept in warm, well ventilated stables, avoiding currents of air, with little or no medicine, and fed upon nutritious and laxative food, soon recovered. Although but few died, yet the loss to the State was considerable, especially in villages and cities, resulting from the diffi- culty to substitute other animals in the place of the horse during the continuance of the disease.

The twenty-sixth regular session of the State legislature commenced on the eighth day of January, 1873, with a republican majority in both houses. Henry D. Barron was elected speaker of the assembly. On the ninth, Governor Washburn's message- his second annual one -was delivered to the two houses. It opened with a brief reference to the abundant returns from agricultural pursuits, to the developments of the industries of the state, to the advance in manufacturing, to the rapid extension in railways, and to the general and satisfactory progress in education, throughout Wisconsin. He followed with several recommendations- claiming that "many vast and overshadowing corporations in the United States are justly a source of alarm," and that "the legislature can not scan too closely every measure that should come before it which proposed to give additional rights and privileges to the railways of the state." He also recommended that the " granting of passes to the class of state officials who, through their public office, have power to confer or withhold benefits to a railroad company, be prohibited." The message was favorably commented upon by the press of the state, of all parties. "If Governor Washburn," says one of the opposition papers of his administration, " is not a great statesman, he is certainly not a small politician." One of the first measures of this legislature was the elec- tion of United States senator, to fill the place of Timothy O. Howe, whose term of office would expire on the fourth of March next ensuing On the twenty-second of January the two houses met in joint convention, when it was announced that by the previous action of the senate and assembly, Timothy O. Howe was again elected to that office for the term of six years. On the twentieth of March, the legislature adjourned sine die, after a session of seventy-two days.

Milton H. Pettitt, the lieutenant governor, died on the 23d day of March following the adjournment. By this sudden and unexpected death, the State lost an upright and conscientious public officer.

FOND DU LAC.

WISCONSIN AS A STATE.

Among the important acts passed by this legislature was one providing for a geological sur- vey of the State, to be begun in Ashland and Douglas counties, and completed within four years, by a chief geologist and four assistants, to be appointed by the governor, appropriating for the work an annual payment of thirteen thousand dollars. An act providing for a geological survey, of the State, passed by the legislature, and approved March 25, 1853, authorized the governor to appoint a state geologist, who was to select a suitable person as assistant geologist. Their duties were to make a geological and mineralogical survey of the State. Under this law Edward Daniels, on the first day of April, 1853, was appointed state geologist, superseded on the 12th day of August, 1854, by James G. Percival, who died in office on the 2d of May, 1856, at Hazel Green. By an act approved March 3, 1857, James Hall, Ezra Carr and Edward Daniels were appointed by the legislature geological commissioners. By an act approved April 2, r860, Hall was made principal of the commission. The survey was interrupted by a repeal, March 21, 1862, of previous laws promoting it. However, to complete the survey, the matter was reinstated by the act of this legislature, approved March 29, the governor, under that act, appointing as chief geologist Increase A. Lapham, April 10, 1873.

Another act changed the management of the state prison - providing for the appointment by the governor of three directors; one for two years, one for four years, and one for six years, in place of a state prison commissioner, who had been elected by the people every two years, along with other officers of the State.

At the Spring election, Orsamus Cole, who had been eighteen years upon the bench, was re-elected, without opposition, an associate justice of the supreme court, for a term of six years · from the first Monday in January following. The two tickets in the field at the Fall election were the republican and the people's reform. The latter was successful ; the political scepter pissing out of the hands of the republicans, after a supremacy in the State continuing unbroken since the beginning of the seventh administration, when A. W. Randall (governor for a second term) and the residue of the State officers were elected - all republicans.

The general success among the cultivators of the soil throughout the state during the year, notwithstanding "the crisis," was marked and satisfactory ; but the financial disturbances during the latter part of the Fall and the first part of the Winter, resulted in a general depreciation of prices.

FOURTEENTH ADMINISTRATION. - WILLIAM R. TAYLOR, GOVERNOR -1874-75.

The fourteenth administration of Wisconsin commenced at noon on Monday, the fifth day of January, 1874, by the inauguration of William R. Taylor as governor; Charles D. Parker, lieutenant governor; Peter Doyle, secretary of state; Ferdinand Kuehn, state treasurer ; A. Scott Sloan, attorney general; Edward Searing, superintendent of public instruction; and Martin J. Argard, state commissioner of immigration. These officers were not elected by any distinctive political party as such, but as the representatives of a new political organization, including "all Democrats, Liberal Republicans, and other electors of Wisconsin, friendly to genuine reform through equal and impartial legislation, honesty in office, and rigid economy in the administration of affairs." Among the marked characteristics of the platform agreed upon by the convention nominating the above-mentioned ticket was a declaration by the members that they would " vote for no candidate for office whose nomination is the fruit of his own importunity, or of a corrupt combination among partisan leaders ;" another, " that the sovereignty of the State over corporations of its own creation shall be sacredly respected, to the full extent of protecting the people against every form of monopoly or extor- tion," not denying, however, an encouragement to wholesome enterprise on the part of aggre-

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HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.

gated capital -- this "plank " having special reference to a long series of alleged grievances assumed to have been endured by the people on account of discriminations in railroad charges and a consequent burdensome taxation upon labor-especially upon the agricultural industry of the State.

The twenty-seventh regular session of the Wisconsin legislature commenced at Madison on the fourteenth of January. The two houses were politically antagonistic in their majorities ; the senate was republican, while the assembly had a "reform" majority. In the latter branch, Gabriel Bouck was elected speaker. Governor Taylor, on the fifteenth, met the legislature in joint convention and delivered his message. " An era," said he, "of apparent prosperity without parallel in the previous history of the nation, has been succeeded by financial reverses affecting all classes of industry, and largely modifying the standard of values." "Accompanying these financial disturbances," added the governor, " has come an imperative demand from the people for a purer political morality, a more equitable apportionment of the burdens and blessings of government, and a more rigid economy in the administration of public affairs."

Among the important acts passed by this legislature was one generally known as the " Potter Law," from the circumstance of the bill being introduced by Robert L. D. Potter, sen- ator, representing the twenty-fifth senatorial district of the state. The railroad companies for a number of years had, as before intimated, been complained of by the people, who charged them with unjust discriminations and exorbitantly high rates for the transportation of passengers and merchandize. All the railroad charters were granted by acts at different times of the State leg- islature, under the constitution which declares that "corporations may be formed under general laws, but shall not be created by a special act, exeept for municipal purposes and in cases. where, in the judgment of the legislature, the objects of the corporations can not be attained under general laws. All general laws, or special acts, enacted under the provisions of this. section, may be altered or repealed by the legislature at any time after their passage." The complaints of the people seem to have remained unheeded, resulting in the passage of the " Potter Law." This law limited the compensation for the transportation of passengers, classi- fied freight, and regulated prices for its transportation within the State. It also required the governor on or before the first of May, 1874, by and with the consent of the senate, to appoint three railroad commissioners; one for one year, one for two years, and one for three years, whose terms of office should commence on the fourteenth day of May, and that the governor, thereafter, on the first day of May, of each year, should appoint one commissioner for three years. Under this law, the governor appointed J. H. Osborn, for three years; George H. Paul, for two years ; and J. W. Hoyt, for one year. Under executive direction, this commission inau- gurated its labors by compiling, classifying, and putting into convenient form for public use for the first time, all the railroad legislation of the State.

At the outset the two chief railroad corporations of the State-the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul, and the Chicago and Northwestern-served formal notice upon the governor of Wis- consin that they would not respect the provisions of the new railroad law. Under his oath of office, to support the constitution of the State, it was the duty of Governor Taylor to expedite all such measures as should be resolved upon by the legislature, and to take care that the laws be faithfully executed. No alternative, therefore, was left the chief executive but to enforce the law by all the means placed in his hands for that purpose. He promptly responded to the noti- fication of the railroad companies by a proclamation, dated May 1, 1874, in which he enjoined compliance with the statute, declaring that all the functions of his office would be exercised in faithfully executing the laws, and invoking the aid of all good citizens thereto. "The law of the land," said Governor Taylor, "must be respected and obeyed." " While none," continued he,

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WISCONSIN AS A STATE.

" are so weak as to be without its protection, none are so strong as to be above its restraints. If provisions of the law be deemed oppressive, resistance to its mandates will not abate, but rather multiply the anticipated evils." "It is the right," he added, "of all to test its validity through the constituted channels, but with that right is coupled the duty of yielding a general obedience to its requirements until it has been pronounced invalid by competent authority."

The railroad companies claimed not merely the unconstitutionality of the law, but that its enforcement would bankrupt the companies, and suspend the operation of their lines. The governor, in reply, pleaded the inviolability of his oath of office and his pledged faith to the people. The result was an appeal to the courts. in which the State, under the direction of its governor, was compelled to confront an array of the most formidable legal talent of the country. Upon the result in Wisconsin depended the vitality of much similar legislation in neighboring States, and Governor Taylor and his associate representatives of State authority were thus compelled to bear the brunt of a controversy of national extent and consequence. The contention extended both to State and United States courts, the main question involved being the constitutional power of the State over corporations of its own creation. In all respects, the State was fully sustained in its position, and, ultimately, judgments were rendered against the corporations in all the State and federal courts, including the supreme court of the United States, and estab- lishing finally the complete and absolute power of the people, through the legislature, to modify or altogether repeal the charters of corporations.

Another act of the session of 1874 abolished the office of State commissioner of immigra- tion, "on and after " the first Monday of January, 1876. The legislature adjourned on the twelfth of March, 1874, after a session of fifty-eight days.

The office of state prison commissioner having. by operation of law, become vacant on the fifth day of January, 1874, the governor, on the twenty-third of that month, appointed for State prison directors, Joel Rich, for two years; William E. Smith, for four years; and Nelson Dewey, for six years: these to take the place of that officer.

On the sixteenth of June, Chief Justice Dixon, whose term of office would have expired on the first Monday in January, 1876, resigned his seat upon the bench of the supreme court, Governor Taylor appointing Edward G. Ryan in his place until his successor should be elected and qualified. At the November election of this year, the members chosen to the forty-fourth congress were-Charles G. Williams, from the first district; Lucian B. Caswell, from the second; Henry S. Magoon, from the third; William Pitt Lynde, from the fourth; Samuel D. Burchard, from the fifth; A. M. Kimball, from the sixth; Jeremiah M. Rusk, from the seventh, and George W. Cate, from the eighth district. Lynde, Burchard and Cate were "reform ; " the residue were republican.

At the same election, an amendment to section 3 of article TI of the constitution of the State was duly ratified and adopted by the people. Under this section, as it now stands, it is the duty of the legislature, and they are by it empowered, to provide for the organization of cities and incorporated villages, and to restrict their power of taxation, assessment, borrowing money, contracting debts, and loaning their credit, so as to prevent abuses in assessments and taxation, and in contracting debts, by such municipal corporations. No county, city, town, village, school district, or other municipal corporation, shall be allowed to become indebted in any manner, or for any purpose, to any Amount, including existing indebtedness in the aggregate, exceeding five per centum on the value of the taxable property therein, to be ascertained by the last assessment for State and county taxes previous to the incurring of such indebtedness. Any county, city, town, village, school district, or other municipal corporation, incurring any indebt- edness as aforesaid, shall, before, or at the time of doing so, provide for the collection of a direct

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HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.

annual tax sufficient to pay the interest on such debt as it falls due, and also to pay and discharge the principal thereof within twenty years from the time of contracting the same.

In 1872, the first appropriation for fish culture in Wisconsin was made by the legislature, subject to the direction of the United States commissioner of fisheries. In 1871, a further sum was appropriated, and the governor of the State authorized to appoint three commissioners, whose duties were, upon receiving any spawn or fish, by or through the United States commis- sioner of fish and fisheries, to immediately place such spawn in the care of responsible pisci- culturists of the State, to be hatched and distributed in the different waters in and surrounding Wisconsin. Two more members have since been added by law to the commission; their labors have been much extended, and liberal appropriations made to further the object they have in view-with flattering prospects of their finally being able to stock the streams and lakes of the State with the best varieties of food fish.

The year 1874, in Wisconsin, was characterized as one of general prosperity among farmers, excepting the growers of wheat. The crop of that cereal was light, and, in places, entirely destroyed by the chinch-bug. As a consequence, considerable depression existed in business in the wheat-growing districts. Trade and commerce continued throughout the year at a low ebb, the direct result of the monetary crisis of 1873.

The legislature commenced its twenty-eighth regular session on the thirteenth of January, 1875, with a republican majority in both houses. F. W. Horn was elected speaker of the assembly. The governor delivered his message in person, on the fourteenth, to the two houses. " Thanking God for all His mercies," are his opening words, " I congratulate you that order and peace reign throughout the length and breadth of our State. Our material prosperity has not fulfilled our anticipations But let us remember that we bear no burden of financial depression not common to all the States, and that the penalties of folly are the foundation of wisdom." In regard to the "Potter Law," the governor said, " It is not my opinion that this law expressed the best judgment of the legislature which enacted it. While the general principles upon which it is founded command our unqualified approbation, and can never be surrendered, it must be conceded that the law is defective in some of its details. . ... The great object sought to be accomplished by our people," continued the speaker, "is not the management of railroad property by themselves, but to prevent its mismanagement by others." Concerning the charge that Wisconsin was warring upon railways within her limits, the governor added, "She has never proposed such a war. She proposes none now. She asks only honesty, justice and the peace of mutual good will. To all men concerned, her people say in sincerity and in truth that every dollar invested in our State shall be lawfully entitled to its just protection, whencesoever the danger comes. In demanding justice for all, the State will deny justice to none. In forbidding mismanagement, the State will impose no restraints upon any management that is honest and just. In this, the moral and hereditary instincts of our people furnish a stronger bond of good faith than the judgments of courts or the obligations of paper constitutions. Honest capital may be timid and easily frightened; yet it is more certain to seek investment among a people whose laws are at all times a shield for the weak and a reliance for the strong - where the wholesome restraints of judicious legislation are felt alike by the exalted and the humble, the rich and the poor."

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The history of Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, Part 14

Author: Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Chicago, Western historical company Number of Pages: 1082

Author:
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago, Western historical company
Number of Pages: 1082