Barron County, Wisconsin - Chapter 7: County Seat Changes and County Property, 1922

The first county seat of Dallas county, now Barron county, was located by the Legislature, March 2, 1868, in section 26, township 34, range 12, west, east of the present city of Barron. No official business was ever transacted there. The first meetings of the county board were held at Quaderer's Camp, across the creek from the present courthouse block in the present city of Barron.

April 13, 1869, the county rented the Johnson House, in the northeast quarter of the southeast quarter of section 27, township 34, range 12, west, just north of the river, and a little east of the present city of Barron, and the county offices and postoffice were established there.

Feb. 28, 1870, the board established the county headquarters at Barker's camp, section 7, township 34, range 11, west, now the town of Stanley.

Nov. 4, 1873, by a vote of 269 to 174, the citizens declared in favor of mov¬ ing the county seat to Rice Lake Mills, now the city of Rice Lake, and the board held its first meeting there in a hall rented from Knapp, Stout & Co., Jan. 16, 1874.

At that time the county was in the control of Knapp, Stout & Co. Its offi¬ cers were chosen by the company and elected by its employes. This company owned the land upon which the hamlet of Rice Lake had been started, and, nat¬ urally, desired to secure and keep for that place any advantages that county seat privileges might bring.

A few of the independent thinkers in the county planned otherwise. John Quaderer owned the camp and much of the land at Barron, and though he was originally a Knapp-Stout foreman, and was still contracting for them, he was one of the leaders against the company domination of county affairs.

Another one of the opposition was Woodbury S. Grover. Unlike most of the early settlers, Mr. Grover was not then working for the company, but had a little farm in Dallas township, to which he was devoting his time, in addi¬ tion to his duties as county clerk, and deputy to several other county officers.

At the election of 1874, the friends of Barron mustered enough votes to declare in favor of moving the county seat back to Barron, and elected Mr. Grover county clerk.

The company determined to carry the fight further, and there was talk of an injunction restraining the county officers from removing the records to Barron. Mr. Grover, in the meantime, had possession not only of the records pertaining to his own office as clerk, but also of the records of several other county officials to whom he was deputy.

The Governor proclaimed the change of county seat on Dec. 29, 1874. Word reached Rice Lake of the proclamation late in the afternoon a few days later. Accordingly, Mr. Grover, to forestall injunction proceedings, gathered the records, and on a cold, winter night made the trip from Rice Lake to Barron, where he deposited the records with John Quaderer. Henry Sawyer, the county treasurer, although favorable to Barron, was under the domination of the Knapp-Stout company, and refused to move his office and books.

The board met at Barron, Feb. 8, 1875, and designated the upper floor of the Quaderer hotel as the courthouse. This building is still standing on the south bank of Quaderer's creek, just south of the west end of the present court¬ house block. Mr. Sawyer was ordered by the board to move his office, but still refused to do so. The next day it was reported that Mr. Sawyer had not met all the legal requirements for qualifying for office, and his position was de¬ clared vacant. John Quaderer was appointed and took office Feb. 11, 1875.

The county seat being fixed, the board on March 11, 1875, appropriated $10,000 for the erection of the county buildings. Nov. 10, 1875, it was voted to lay a two-mill tax for county buildings. The vote was a tie, but was de¬ cided by the chairman. Feb. 28, 1876, by a vote of 4 to 3, it was decided to build a courthouse in Barron. The present courthouse block was presented by John Quaderer. John Rusk, A. G. Hall and John Rafferty, prominent members of the board, were appointed the building committee. March 21, 1876, it was reported that the contract for the courthouse had been let for $2,400 which was $283 more than the tax levy. April 23, 1876, the building was all complete except the plastering, and was occupied shortly thereafter. This courthouse, a two-story frame building, occupied the site of the present brick building, and faced the creek. The county offices were on the lower floor, while the court room was on the upper floor.

For some years, Barron county prisoners were incarcerated in the jail in Chippewa county. Late in 1878 it was voted to make provision for a local jail. Jan. 21, 1879, cells were purchased. April 16, 1879, it was voted to build a jail. This building stood north of the present courthouse on the north side of the street, on lot 12. It was two stories in height, the lower story being used for a jail and the upper for a residence. The building was 18 by 24 feet, and the jail part was ten feet high. Floor, walls and ceiling were made of 2 by 8 joists, set edgewise, several layers thick, and studded with spikes. Inside were the cells. This edifice was completed late in 1879, at a cost of about $800.

In the late eighties, the county seat fight was renewed with vigor, and although thirty years have since passed, the echoes of the contest have not yet died down.

Barron and Rice Lake were forging ahead. Political lines in the county were drawn between the supporters of these two places. Each of the two villages had dreams of becoming the county metropolis. When a bill was in¬ troduced in the Legislature in 1887, incorporating Rice Lake with four wards, the supporters of Barron immediately brought their influence to bear to have Barron likewise incorporated with four wards. Both cities were accordingly incorporated, thus leaving the balance of power on the county board undis¬ turbed.

From 1880 to 1890, the population of the county had more than doubled, increasing from 7,024 to 16,416. The need of better county buildings was ap¬ parent. Especially, was there a necessity for a better jail than the antiquated structure then in use.

At a meeting of the county board held in November, 1890, a petition was presented asking that the question of the change of county seat be submitted to the voters. This petition at that time contained a number of names greater than two-fifths of the number of names appearing on the poll lists of the last general election. The petition was referred to a committee and on Nov. 14, the committee asked for further time for consideration.

At that time the county board had 26 members, of whom 13 were friendly to Barron, and 12 to Rice Lake. The committee was therefore organized of men favorable to Barron. This committee examined the signatures to the petition, and the names on the poll list. Some of the signatures of the petition were stricken off for the reason that the signers did not appear on the poll lists. But even with these eliminated, the petition still appeared to contain more than the necessary two-fifths.

Friends of Barron at once set to work. As the result of this work, 196 persons who had signed the petition asked to have their names withdrawn. The committee eliminated these names, which brought the number of signa¬ tures below the necessary two-fifths.

On Jan. 9, 1891, the committee reported that they had examined the peti¬ tion, had stricken therefrom some names illegally there, and crossed out the 196 who wished to withdraw, thus leaving less than the legal number of names required to compel the board to submit the question to the voters. The com¬ mittee therefore recommended that the petition be denied. The recommenda¬ tion was accepted.

This action was carried to the Supreme court. The court held (La Londe vs. the Board of Supervisors of Barron County, 80 Wisconsin, 380), by a de¬ cision rendered in October, 1891, that as there were 2,573 names on the poll list, the list as acted upon by the committee on Jan. 9, 1891, had not contained two-fifths of those names, regardless of whether it had contained a sufficient number at the time of its presentation. The gist of legal questions involved was that the board was entitled to a reasonable time in which to examine the signatures of the petition, and that during the time of examination, voters who had signed the petition had a right to withdraw their signatures.

The building of the county jail was also involved in this county seat struggle. At the meeting of November, 1890, the same meeting at which the county seat petition was presented, the board proceeded with the preliminaries of erecting a county jail. The Barron members hoped by increasing the in¬ vestment in county buildings in Barron to put another spike in the retention of the county seat at that place.

These Barron supporters managed to muster one more vote than the cus¬ tomary thirteen, and by a vote of fourteen to eleven, appointed a building com¬ mittee which was given full power to procure the building of a jail on the county property at Barron. Money was appropriated, and the chairman and county clerk authorized to issue county orders to the amount of the appropria¬ tion. The committee proceeded without delay to advertise for bids for furnish¬ ing material for the construction of the jail.

Jan. 9, 1891, the contract for building the jail was awarded to C. D. Coe, who at once started work. Work was stopped by the injunction proceedings brought by John La Londe. After a hearing, the Circuit court dismissed the complaint and dissolved the injunction, Aug. 11, 1891. As soon as word was received in Barron that the injunction was dissolved, Mr. Coe at once resumed work, and county orders were issued to him to the amount of $6,100. Mr. La Londe appealed from the decision of the Circuit court and one of the judges of the Supreme court issued a restraining order, upon which work was again stopped.

When the final decision was rendered by the Supreme court on Oct. 20, 1891, work was again resumed. At the November, 1891, meeting of the board, provision was made for the payment of the county orders previously issued, and Mr. Coe was instructed to continue with the work, the previous contracts being all confirmed.

Sept. 1, 1892, it was reported to the board that the work was completed. The structure, with improvements, is the present sightly jail and sheriff's residence.

The building of a new courthouse came up for consideration at the Novem¬ ber meeting of the board in 1899. The spirit was friendly, but many of the board believed that the time was not quite ripe for the actual building. How¬ ever, $5,000 was appropriated toward the project, and a building committee was appointed, consisting of Aristide Mero, J. P. Kohl, H. C. Dolittle, S. W. Sparlin, Andrew Gullickson, C. W. Moore, L. J. Breen and E. N. Bowers. Dec. 15, 1899, plans were submitted by F. D. Orff, of Minneapolis. Nov. 11, 1900, the board determined to borrow $30,000. Jan. 21, 1901, the contracts were let, and on May 28, 1901, the cornerstone was laid. The building was prac¬ tically completed in time for the meeting of the county board in November, 1901. The total cost was $38,070.80. The cost of materials had risen even during the period of building, and so at an expenditure of approximately $40,000 the county secured a building worth many thousand more.

The courthouse is built on a solid stone foundation, which above the ground is faced with dressed Portage Entry sandstone. The superstructure is one of native brick, faced with Menomonie pressed brick, and is trimmed with red sandstone. The main entrance is on the north side, facing La Salle street, from which it is separated by a beautiful sloping lawn. A side entrance on the east faces the jail and affords easy entrance from that quarter. The interior is handsomely finished throughout with red oak.

In the early days there was a combined county and town system of look¬ ing after the poor. Transient paupers were cared for by the county, while each town looked after the paupers who were actual residents.

Jan. 17, 1884, the board decided that after April 1, 1884, the county should look after all the poor. G. C. Hodgkin was made superintendent of the poor. A committee, consisting of W. S. Grover, S. E. Washburn and C. S. Taylor, was appointed to purchase land for a poor farm. This committee purchased the northeast quarter of section 34, township 34, range 12 (Barron township), at $5 an acre, and forty acres in the southeast quarter of the southeast quarter of section 27, township 34, range 12, connecting the other piece of land with the Yellow river. Just north of this tract on the other bank of the river was the site of the first Barron county courthouse.

Jan. 7, 1885, it was voted to abandon the county system and return to the town system. But at the next meeting, Jan. 29, 1885, the board appropriated $2,000 for the erection of buildings on the farm. The building committee con¬ sisted of H. J. White and D. M. Monteith. Nov. 10, 1885, it was reported that the lower story was completed and the board voted to finish the building of the house and stables. Improvements have since been made from time to time until the county now has a pretty modern alms house, adequate barns and sheds, and a well cultivated farm, excellently stocked, and admirably equipped.