Grant County, Wisconsin - Chapter 8: County Buildings and Institutions, 1900

Chapter 8: County Buildings and Institutions

The first meeting of the Board of County Commissioners in the spring of 1837, found the county without a public building for its offices and court, and the Board proceeded to consider the matter of building a court house, and at its next meeting it let the contract for the woodwork to G. M. Price, and for the masonwork to Daniel Banfill. This court house was finished in 1838. It was thirty-six feet square, two stories high, the first story ten feet and the second eight feet high. Banfill was to get $4,000, but it appears that only $3,060 was paid for the building, which was probably more than it was worth. It appears to have been rather a flimsy affair, for in 1851 it had become so dilapidated that it was not deemed advisable to under¬ take the extensive repairs necessary to make it tenable, but the erec¬ tion of a new building was decided upon. Clovis A. Lagrave, Thomas Eastman, and David McKee were appointed a committee to receive proposals for the new building. At the June special session of 1852 the Board removed Lagrave and Eastman and appointed in their places J. B. Turley and Wm. Bull. An appropriation of $700 had been made for building "a fire-proof office for the records of the county." The contract was let to Messrs. Wood, Alcorn and Prentiss, who soon began work and completed the building in 1853. With the second story raised it now forms the wing of the present court house.

The building was from the first too small, but nothing was done to provide a larger building till after the war, with its excitements and burdens, had passed. Then, in 1865, the Board at its annual session appropriated $5,000 for a new wing and the heightening of the old building. The contract was given to John Thornton. The new front, a brick 30x60, was finished in 1866. The contract price was $5,000, but the Board, after the completion of the building, allowed an addi- tional amount of $1,087.76, as the work had been done in a satisfac¬ tory manner and the Board was convinced that the cost to the contractor had exceeded the contract price. At the time of its comple¬ tion it was one of the finest court houses in the State outside of the large cities and is still creditable to the county in size and appearance, being sufficiently spacious and commodious for the business of the courts and the county officers and the safe and convenient keeping of the public records.

When the murderer Oliver was brought to Lancaster early in 1838, the county had no jail. At a special session of the Board in that year a contract for a log jail was let to Harvey Pepper for $400. This jail was made of oak logs, hewn, not only on the sides, but on the upper and under surfaces, so as to fit together without large cracks. It was lined within with two-inch oak planks. It had no windows to speak of and no doors except a trap-door in the ceiling through which de¬ scent into this oaken dungeon could be made with a ladder. Two or three holes, much too small for a man to crawl through, and at the top of the walls, let in a scanty amount of light. This jail was burned, it is supposed by an incendiary. In 1844 a stone jail, with a small frame residence for the jailor was erected, at a cost of $1,685. It was a very fine jail, as jails went in 1844 in the far West, but it was soon found to be too small, as well as badly ventilated. At its annual ses¬ sion in 1848 the Board decided to advertise for proposals for enlarg¬ ing the jail, but at its special session in January, 1849, it changed its determination, and decided that some air-holes cut in the wall for ven¬ tilation would make things tolerable until another Board should ven¬ ture to appropriate enough to enlarge the building. J. C. Squires was made the ventilating committee. In 1852 the Board became suffi¬ ciently ashamed of the rough little jailer's house, built in 1844, to provide for a new one.

Several prisoner having escaped from the old stone jail, it was finally decided that the county ought to have and should have a new iron cage sufficiently strong to hold even an expert burglar. Bids for the construction of a new jail were advertised for in 1872, and in July of that year the contract was let to Haugh & Co., of Indianapolis, Ind., for $20,500. Norris & Hinckley, of Monroe, Wis., obtained a sub-contract for all the building except the iron-work. The plans of the building were published in the Herald at the time of letting the contract, and were as follows :

44 The edifice will be made of brick and will be two stories high above the basement room, the latter having an altitude of seven feet, five inches, and extending three feet below the surface of the ground. The basement will be divided into two compartments, one of which (the front) is to be used as a fuel room, and contain the furnaces for heating the various rooms, cells, etc. , above. Eight basement windows will light this portion of the building, each grated with two horizontal and seven vertical bars of iron. The walls are to be one foot and six inches thick, laid with good building stone in the best sand and lime mortar. The dimensions of the building will be 36^x45%, all meas¬ ured outside of brick work. All outside walls above the water-table will be twelve inches in thickness, to be built of the best quality of Lancaster brick. The floors will be of bush-hammered limestone, seven inches thick laid level and properly bedded in mortar. All win¬ dow frames and sash to be of good solid oak.

"The building will contain twelve cells, six on the first floor and six on the second. Each cell will be 5 x 7 feet and eight feet high, made of jail-plate iron, a quarter of an inch thick and set on iron pillowblocks six inches from the floor. The doors to these cells will be two by six feet, made of articulated iron-work secured with heavy bolts and provided with strong locks. A corridor composed of articulated iron-work will surround the outer tier of cells on both the first and second floors. This grating will extend from floor to ceiling. Separ¬ ating the corridor from the gallery will be another grating of iron¬ work, the horizontal bars of which are to be of strong band-iron, and the upright of one-inch round iron, spaced three to a foot. The lower end of these bars will pass through the stone floor and be securely riv¬ eted. The gallery is to be two feet wide, and will extend all around the main prison. Besides the cells, gallery, and corridor already refer¬ red to, the first floor will contain a kitchen and guard-room; the sec¬ ond a jailer's bedroom and a female ward furnished with six beds and provided with an iron door. The walls on three sides of the main prison will be eight feet in hight, the wall on the north side the entire hight, the whole ceiling of the apartment containing the cells, as well as the floor, walls, and ceiling of the female ward, are to be lined with jail-plate iron a quarter of an inch thick. There will be eight windows in the prison and two in the female ward, each made secure with caststeel gratings, consisting of three horizontal and seven vertical bars, the latter let into the caps and sills two inches, and the spaces at the bottom around them filled with melted lead. There will be two swing¬ ing beds in each cell, and six in the ward for women. These will be hung with suspenders and hinged with strong hinges, four inches from the wall."

The original plan was changed by adding two feet to the hight of the basement and six inches to the thickness of the basement walls, and some other small additions. The jail was built on the corner of Maple and Jefferson Streets, on a lot which had been vacant, and near the old jail. In September, 1873, the building was completed and ac¬ cepted by the County Board. The lot cost $800 and the contractors were allowed $440 for changes from the original plan, making the total cost $21,740.

It was supposed that this elaborate iron cage would hold even an expert jail-breaker, but as years passed on one escape after another was made, greatly to the chagrin of the Sheriffs. One escape was made in a very simple manner. Crotty, who was in for a burglary in Platteville, managed to take out the screws which held the registerplate of the heating flue and crawled out through the flue. This was July 24, 1876. Two prisoners came near escaping September 27, 1877. They sawed off a bar of the door, and using it as a lever, pried apart the other bars so they could crawl through into the corridor, from which they passed to the upper story on the west end of which there was no iron-plating. Here they dug nearly through the wall, but when they had only one course of brick between them and free¬ dom, and they were waiting for dark to make a break, they were be¬ trayed by another prisoner and their plan of escape frustrated. On the night of August 3, 1890, three prisoners, the notorious Nick Ames, Dan Hayes, and Pat Higgins, escaped under the cover of a severe storm. The nights had been so hot that the Sheriff allowed the pris¬ oners to occupy tfie general room. A bar of the grating was sawn off with a saw made from an old butcher knife, which allowed the prisoners to escape into the corridor, and thence into the upper story, where they dug a hole through the brick wall and let themselves down with their blankets. In October, 1891, Messrs. Morris and Miller, professors of burglary, who were in for an operation at Montfort, got out by sawing off an iron bar with one of the handy little saws gen¬ tlemen of their profession know so well how to use and how to hide about their persons. Nick Ames also escaped again from the jail, not by burglary, but by making a sneak on the jailer m his foxy and stash* way.

It had been intended to add a jailer's residence to the jail at the time it was built, to cost $2,500, but opposition on the part of some members of the Board caused the project to be dropped for a time. In 1894, however, a contract was let to Messrs. Muesse & Patch to build a jailer's residence at a cost of $2,194. It was to be built as afront to the jail.building and in uniform style with it, having two stories of brick and a stone basement, 46x26 feet in size. The total cost of the building exceeded the contract price, being $2,237.95. The residence and jail together make a fine-looking building and one of. which the county may be proud.

The original poor farm, 240 acres in extent, was purchased by the county in 1845, at a cost of $3 an acre, of James Wilter, through the agency of Messrs. Barber & Dewey. Work was immediately begun on a poor house and in 1846 the house and farm were ready for occu¬ pancy for the county. Isaac Martin was appointed Superintendent, but retained the place only a short time when S. B. Chase, of Potosi, became Superintendent and remained so till 1849, when Charles Ash¬ ley, of Waterloo, took charge. At a special session of the Board in 1850 the poor farm was ordered to be leased and the paupers there to be returned to the towns whence they came. The farm was leased to Albert Skellenger as a tenant, but the county afterward took back the paupers which were a county charge, and Mr. Skellenger became man¬ ager of the poor farm, as such. He was succeeded by James Jones, and he by Franklin Halbert as Superintendent, who remained in charge till 1873, when he was succeeded by R. B. Showalter, who was Superintendent until 1881. The system was then changed from that of a superintendent to the contract system and the contract was let to Joseph Petty and Sons. But in 1884 the State Board of Control re¬ quired a return to the superintendent system. George E. Budd was placed in temporary charge and soon Mr. Showalter was reengaged as Superintend net. He was succeeded by George W. McFall, of Harri¬ son, who remained in charge till 1892, when he was succeeded by James Alderson, of Beetown, who still has charge. The management under these several superintendents has always been such as to win the highest encomiums from all who have observed the workings of the in¬ stitution and has given entire satisfaction to the County Board.

October 24, 1866, an insane pauper, Susan St. John, starting the fire in her cell. There were no men about the building, and the utmost efforts of the women to check the flames were in vain. Word was hastily sent to town, but assistance arrived too late. The loss was about $7,000 without insurance. A stone building on the Cox farm, south of the poor farm, was used temporarily as a poor house. In November, 1866, the Board appropriated $5,000 and provided for the erection of a building not to cost more than $8,000 for a poor house. The present building was then built, at a cost somewhat in excess of the maximum fixed by the Board. In 1888 the Board ap¬ propriated $8,000 to buy more land and at its last session, Novem¬ ber, 1899, it provided for the purchase of 240 acres of adjoining land to get a "scientific frontier," as Disraeli taught the English to say.

Some years ago Mr. Hier, of Jamestown, introduced a resolution to change the name of the county poor house to the "county home," and supported the resolution with an eloquent plea. That Board, however, did not share his sentiment, and the resolution came to naught. The Board of 1898 were of a different sentiment, and the poor supported by the county now live at the "county home."

County Insane Asylum

For some years previous to 1880 it had become a difficult problem what to do with the insane of Grant County. The quota of the county at the State asylum had long been overfull ; no more would be received there and the county had no fit place in which to keep them. The building of a county asylum was discussed, but met with strong opposition. At last at the annual session of the Board of Supervisors in 1881 C. G. Rodolf, of Muscoda, introduced a resolution to appro¬ priate $10,000 to build a county asylum for the insane to accommo¬ date sixty patients. The matter was vigorously debated, some want¬ ing an appropriation of at least $20,000 and others favoring a cheaper establishment that, as one member of the Board said, "could be burned every few years to disinfect it," as hen-houses are burned to get rid of vermin and bacteria ; while others opposed any appropria¬ tion at all. Finally Mr. Rodolf's resolution was carried, with only the dissenting votes of the representatives of Beetown, Bloomington, Boscobel, and Castle Rock, and a committee was appointed to let the contract and superintend the building.

for the sort of building the Board required for the $10,000 which had been fixed as the maximum cost ; but they had let the contract to Mayers & Lefeldt, of Prairie du Chien, for $16,400. They reported that the building was nearing completion and they had paid the con¬ tractors $10,000. They had put in furnaces and incurred other extra expenses, so that the total cost of the building would be $16,775, be¬ sides $1,145 for furnaces. At the session of 1883, the building com¬ mittee reported a further expense of $837 for completing the building.

The main building is 116 feet in length with an extreme width of 52 feet. It has two stories of 10 feet each with a basement 9 feet. It is built of brick with hollow walls. It is roofed with slate and tin, with an iron cornice. The basement is entirely above ground and con¬ tains the kitchen, dining room, and laundry. The building will easily accommodate sixty patients and with a little crowding eighty.

The committee reported that the county had 43 patients for the asylum : 18 had been kept in the poor house, 9 in jail, and the remain¬ der had been kept by private individuals. In 1882 the county had 51 insane in the State asylum, at a cost for the year of $4,373 for keeping and transportation. The committee stated that a further sum of $3,- 225 was necessary to complete and furnish the house.

Though the cost caused a good deal of mincing and grumbling, the whole county felt that it had an institution to be proud of, and one well worthy the high reputation of Old Grant. Besides, it was soon demonstrated that the asylum enabled the county to make a decided saving of expense in caring for its insane.

In 1886 a wing was built to the asylum at a cost of $8,366. It was of two stories, brick, with a stone basement, uniform in hight and style with the main building.

In 1899 another wing was added to the front of the building at a cost of $8,727.33. Much of the work was done by the inmates of the asylum and home, much reducing the cost, notwithstanding the great advance in the price of building material. This wing is intended prin¬ cipally as a dwelling for the Superintendent and his family.

A serious fire occurred at the asylum Sunday, Feb. 13, 1887. It was supposed to have caught from thefumace. Though it had gained considerable headway before it was discovered, it was put out by the inmates of the asylum and poor house, under the lead of Supt. Show- alter, before help arrived from the city. A woman named Catherine Murray remained in her room till dragged out, and was suffocated nearly to death by the smoke. She died a few days afterward. She had been ill, but it is supposed that the smoke and fright hastened her death.

The society was organized at Beetown in November, 1855. The cause of the organization just at that time and place is rather curious. In the summer of that year the postmaster at Beetown, Frank Barr, received from the Patent Office (the Agricultural Department was not then organized) fifteen or twenty volumes of agricultural books and a large quantity of seeds for the "Grant County Agricultural Society." Mr. Barr wrote to the Commissioner that he knew of no such society and inquired what he should do with the books and seeds. The Com¬ missioner replied that he had been informed that Wm. P. Dewey was secretary of the Grant Count Agricultural Society, but if no such so¬ ciety existed, the farmers would better get together and organize one, and they would continue to receive books and seeds. Mr. Barr men¬ tioned the matter to several prominent farmers, but no action was taken until a second letter came from the Commissioner urging organ¬ ization. Finally quite a number of farmers met at the church in Bee¬ town, elected J. E. Dodge President and Dr. John Dodge Secretary, and adopted a constitution and by-laws, and distributed the books and seeds. Among the seeds were some packages of the " King Philip brown corn," an improved variety of flint or "Yankee" corn, which soon became quite popular. Milas K. Young was the first who raised it.

Nearly all the members who joined that year, paying one dollar membership fee, were farmers of Beetown, Waterloo, and Blake's Prairie. The next year a good many Lancaster men took hold of the matter, and the first exhibition was held at Lancaster, in the fall of 1856. No record of the proceedings exists. The second exhibition was held at Lancaster, September 23 and 24, 1857. Premiums to the amount of $182.25 were awarded. Among those who took the largest premiums on horses and cattle were John Dodge, Samuel Lem¬ on, John Hale, George Morris, R. A. and John Welch, James Milner, and L. J. Woolley. Most of these afterward became famous as stock¬ breeders in the western part of the county.

the names of many of Grant County's most prominent citizens. The fair grounds are excellently located just east of the city, furnishing a level and spacious field for the race-track and the necessary buildings. The annual fairs, besides encouraging agriculture and the breeding of improved stock, furnished ideal opportunities for social reunions and enjoyable holidays. Many a gray-haired citizen of today remembers that it was a red-letter day in his youthful calendar when he took his "best girl" to the Grant County fair. In 1867, as a rival attraction to the trotting matches, there was a wolf-baiting at the fair. The wolf was declared the winner after a fight of an hour and a half, but the dogs were again set upon him and worried him out in about an¬ other hour.

The society still flourishes. Its officers for 1900 areas follows: Delos Abrams, president; George B. Wheeler, secretary; Richard Meyer, Jr., treasurer; Thomas Tuck wood, general manager; Peter Henkel, marshal.

Early in the great and bloodly struggle for the preservation of the Union steps for the preservation of the names and memories of those who gave their lives for the Union began to be considered. In a com¬ munication published in the Grant County Herald of September 16, 1862, Mr. George R. Laughton, of Platteville, proposed a monument for the soldier dead. This is said to be the first proposition of the kind made anywhere in the United States. Mr. Laughton's design was a plain marble shaft about fifteen feet high and from four to six feet square at the base, surmounted by the eagle and decorated with the flag and other military symbols. The proposition was widely ap¬ proved and committees were appointed to collect money, and they took many subscriptions.

The County Board held a special war meeting January 5, 1863. Mr. Laughton offered a resolution for the erection of a suitable monu¬ ment in the court house square to commemorate the fallen soldiers. The committee appointed to collect subscriptions, Addison Burr, of Lan¬ caster, Luther Basford, of Glen Haven, Cole & Seaton, of Boscobel, and G. R. Laughton, were recognized by the Board and given permis¬ sion to erect the monument in any part of the court house square. Within a month after that the subscriptions amounted to $700 ; but here the work languished. The tremendous strain of levying " sinews of war " in the shape of war taxes, bounty funds, and aid to the needy families of soldiers - matters which demanded instant attention - caused the matter of the monument to be postponed to a less exact¬ ing time.

Early in 1866, on the basis of subscriptions alread}* made and ex¬ pected to be made, a contract was let to S. D. Wright, of Whitewater, Wis., to erect the monument, at a price of $5,000. It was found, how¬ ever, that this amount could not be raised by subscription, and the County Board came to the relief of the committee. At a special ses¬ sion held in April, 1866, the Board ordered that George R. Lau'ghton, Addison Burr, Luther Basford, and Philetus Hoyt be appointed a committee to superintend the erection of a soldiers* monument at Lan¬ caster, and to expend for that purpose any money that might be ap¬ propriated by the Board for that purpose, under the provisions of a recent act of the legislature. The committee were authorized to make all needful contracts.

At another special session held July 9, 1866, the Board appropri¬ ated $4,469.43 in county orders payable April 1, 1867, and the next day, $3,200 more, of which $3,000 was payable May 1, 1867. J. C. Cover, S. F. Clise, J. W. Seaton, and A. Burr were appointed a com¬ mittee to carry the resolutions into effect. At the annual session in November, $800 more was appropriated, and A. Burr appointed to have charge of the monument and provide for its protection. July 4, 1867, was appointed as the time for its dedication, the people of the whole county were invited to attend, and the following commit¬ tee of arrangements appointed : was for evergreens and grading. Of this amount $1,319.57 was raised by subscription and $5,237.50 was appropriated by the Board and paid by the county.

The monument stands near the northeast comer of the court house square. The principal part is a square obelisk of marble, with a mar¬ ble base and a stone sub-base. The shaft is surmounted by an eagle perched on a globe, holding a laurel wreath in his beak. It is five feet square at the base and twenty-six feet high. The dedicatory inscrip¬ tion is on the east side of the central shaft, surrounded by a wreath, and reads thus :

"Dedicated to the memory of the brave soldiers of Grant County* who fell in defense of universal liberty, in the great rebellion of A. D. 1861. This marble contains their names, the many bloody battle¬ fields of the South contain their ashes, their memory is forever en¬ shrined in the hearts of their countrymen. "

"We hereby highly resolve that these honored dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that the government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth/ *

Above the inscription is an anchor resting on a Bible, surrounded by a garland. On the west side, beneath four crossed swords, is the inscription :

Surrounding this dominating central shaft are eight cenotaphs one foot square and four and a half feet high, at a distance of six feet from the main shaft. Each cenotaph has a Doric capital and upon it is carved a cannon pointing outward. On the sides of these cenotaphs are inscribed the names of 744 men who went ont from Grant County (a few in the regiments of other States) to defend the Union, and died in the service, whether from wounds or disease. A list of these names is given on subsequent pages.

The momument was formally dedicated July 4, 1867, as had been ordered by the Board. The white shafts were decorated with wreaths of flowers and evergreens and the old regimental flags. An immense concourse of the citizens of every town in the county was assembled to witness the solemn ceremonies.

After a speech of impassioned eloquence by Matt Carpenter, who spoke as only he in all Wisconsin could speak, the dedicatory address was delivered by Governor Fairchild. He closed with this solemn and stirring peroration :

"In the name of the people of Grant County, who have erected this marble pile in honor of their services and in commemoration of their death ; in the name of the State of Wisconsin, whose sons they were; in the name of our country, for whose preservation they fought and died, and whose gratitude is all their earthly reward ; and in the name of the Great Creator of the Universe, to whom all hearts, nations, and peoples of right belong, and to whom only the greatness of their sac¬ rifice is fully known, we dedicate this monument to the memory of those whose names are inscribed thereon."

Then the dedicatory ceremony was performed. A guard of the Grand Army of the Republic commanded by Sergeant-Major J. M. Alford, with reversed arms, bearing the tattered banner of the Twen¬ ty-fifth, which some of them had seen on the bloody battle-fields of Georgia, marched with funereal pace around the monument.

The guard then fired a voile}-, which is the soldier's farewell salute to dead comrades. Rev. S. W. Eaton, who had been the honored Chaplaiu of the Seventh Wisconsin, offered an appropriate and fervent prayer, which closed the ceremony.

Upon receiving the work, the Board passed a resolution compli¬ menting the contractor upon the satisfactory manner in which the work was done; but years later it was discovered that he was only a contractor after all, and had hidden some scamp work in the fair¬ looking marble base. This was found to be only a skin of thin slabs of marble filled in with rubbish not even cemented together, and the weight of the shaft was crushing it. To save a few dollars' worth of marble and cement he had risked the ruin of a costly work. In 1896, the Board appropriated $130 for the repair of the base.

* These names are both probably intended for Leonard Nettleton of Co. H, as there was no Leonard Middleton in the Sixth from Grant County, and Leonard Net¬ tleton was not in Co. K.