Walworth County, Wisconsin - Chapter 7: Political Representation, 1912

At the first session of the second Territorial Assembly (which was the first session held at Madison), beginning November 26, 1838, Col. James Maxwell, of the town of Walworth, appeared in Council for the counties of Rock and Walworth, and held his seat through that and the next Assembly, which latter body adjourned February 19, 1842. To the fourth Assembly came Charles Minton Baker, of Geneva, serving from December 5, 1842, to February 3, 1846. His colleague for the joint district, which now had two members, was Edward Vernon Whiton, afterward the first chief justice of the Wisconsin supreme court. A high estimate has been placed upon the personal character and judicial fitness of Judge Whiton. They who best knew Judge Baker rated his ability little if any lower and his character quite as highly. At the fifth (and last) Territorial Assembly, Dr. Henry Clark, of Walworth, served in Council from January 4, 1847, to .March 13. 1848.

Othni Beardsley, of Troy, sat in the second Assembly as representative of this part of the joint district. At the next Assembly the district representation was doubled, and Dr. Jesse Carr Mills, of Spring Prairie, with Hugh Long, of Darien, were chosen; but Mr. Long resigned after one session and Dr. James Tripp, of Whitewater, served for the second session. Dr. Tripp, with John M. Capron, of Geneva, were chosen to the fourth Assembly, serving at the first session. At the second session William Ayres Bartlett, of Delavan, took Dr. Tripp's seat. At the third session Salmon Thomas, of Darien, and Dr. Mills replaced Messrs. Bartlett and Capron. At the fourth session this unstable membership was composed, for Walworth, now detached from Rock, of Warner Earl, of Whitewater, and Gaylord Graves, of East Troy. The last Assembly held two regular sessions, with a special session between. At the first of these appeared in Council, Dr. Henry (lark, and as representatives Palmer Gardner, of Spring Prairie, and Charles A. Bronson, of Lagrange. To the other sessions went Eleazar Wakeley, of Whitewater, and George Walworth, of Spring Prairie, as representatives.

Among the earliest attentions at the capital to the affairs of this county, and previous to 1838, was the appointment of justices of the peace by Governor Dodge and the consenting Council. There were William Cell for Walworth, William Bowman for Sugar Creek. Gaylord Graves for I .. 1 Troy, Truman Hibbard for Troy, Thomas McKaig for Geneva, Col. Perez Merrick for Lafayette, Benjamin Carpenter Pearce for Spring Prairie. Jeduthun Spooner for Sugar Creek, Salmon Thomas for Darien and Delavan, and Israel Williams, Jr., for Linn.

The county having been set off by legislative act early in 183N, there was yet time within the same year to nominate and elect county officers. The chosen were for sheriff, Sheldon Walling, of Geneva 1 near Elkhorn) ; for register of deeds, LeGrand Rockwell, of Elkhorn village; for treasurer, William Hollinshead, of Delavan; for surveyor, Edward Norris, of Delavan; for coroner, Hollis Latham, of Elkhorn; for county commissioners: For one year, Benjamin Ball, of Linn; for two years, William Bowman, of Sugar Creek; for three years, Nathaniel Bell, of Lafayette. In that year the vote of the county, confirmed by the Legislature, made Elkhorn village the county seat. The other competitor villages were Delavan. Geneva and Spring Prairie.

The county commissioners met and organized, and the county officers began their terms of office and their duties January 7, 1839, and that day may be regarded as one of the birthdays of Walworth county. The records remain to show how the commissioners and the register of deeds discharged their respective functions. The treasurer and coroner lived to be called old men. and yet died before they had become no longer useful to their fellow citizens, whom they had served in many ways. Their ability was equal to the needs of any service their modesty would permit them to undertake, their official integrity unquestioned, and their lives blameless. Neither of them was ever known to evade a plain duty or to perform it carelessly or in other ways badly. Less is now known of the surveyor, and nothing to his personal or official discredit. The sheriff had been, as he led his neighbors to think, suppose, or concede, a brigadier-general of New York militia; though, at his death in 1875, his widow could not find his commission among hi - half-dozen best-kept papers, nor remember which Governor had signed it. The adjutant-general"s office at Albany may contain thi cords of such an appointment. He was competent to instruct in the rudiments, at lea t, ol Scott's drill of the company, and he had some skill with drum-sticks. I Ms duties as sheriff seem to have been performed fairly, and in the condition of the county roads for at least half of the year such duty as that of mini-

The chairmanship of this first board of commissioners was given to Major Bell, though Mr. McCraken did not record this interesting fact until a later date. In 1840 Christopher Douglass, of Walworth, appeared in place of Mr. Ball, whose term had expired, and served two years of his term as chairman, Major Bell having resigned that post. In 184T Gaylord Graves, of East Troy, followed Mr. Bowman, and was chairman in 1842. George W. Arms, of Spring Prairie, succeeded Major Bell as member for [842, :in(l Robert llollcy, of Hudson, followed Mr. Douglass, who had resigned in that year. The clerks of the board were Volncy Anderson Mc- Craken, of Lagrange, for one year; Hollis Latham for two years; and Milo Kelsey, of Delavan (if not then of Darien), for part of 1842.

The greater part of the boarcTs business was to license taverns and stores, to lay out roads and road districts, to establish school districts and appoint inspectors, to make juror lists, and to name election judges and designate polling places. At the session of March 18, 1839, jurors were selected for ser\-ice at the April term of court: Grand jurors, Asa I'.lood, John Bruce, George Clark, Nicholas S. Comstock, Christopher Douglass, Solomon A. Dwinnell, diaries Dyer, Palmer Gardner, Josepli Griffin, Morris F. Hawes, Elias Jennings, Zerah Mead. Roderick .Merrick. Marshall Newell, Henry Phoenix, Jeduthun Spooner, Adolphus Spoor, Salmon Thomas, James Tripp, Robert \Y. Warren, William Weed, Daniel Whitmore, Israel Williams. Petit jurors, Charles M. Baker. Joseph Barker, William A. Bartlett, Othni Beardsley, Milo E. Bradley, Gorham Bunker, Jared B. Cornish, Gaylord Graves, Solomon Harvey, William Hibbard. Elias Hicks, William Hollinshead, Willard B. Johnson, George W. Kendall, John Lippitt, Allen McBride, James Maxwell, William K. May, Austin L. Merrick, Benjamin C. Pearce, Allen Perkins, Edwin Perry, William Stork, Elijah Worthington. The board was petitioned to lay out a road from Elkhorn village to Mr. Barker's (in Sugar Creek) and thence to the north line of the county.

At the session of April 1st a special election, for choice of township officers, was ordered, to take place Thursday, May 9th. Polling places were designated and election judges appointed: For Delavan, at Milo Kelsey's, with Henry Phoenix, William Hollinshead and John Bruce as judges; for Elkhorn, at Elijah Worthington's (in Lagrange), with George W. Kendall, Tared B. Cornish and Zerah Mead as judges; for Geneva, at Roberl W. Warren's, with Charles M. Goodsell. William K. May and Thomas McKaig as judges: for Spring Prairie, at Ansel A. Hemenway's, with Thomas Miller, Roderick Merrick and Solomon A. Dwinnell as judges; for Walworth, at James A. Maxwell's, with Christopher Douglass, William Bell and Amos Bailey as judges.

May 6, 1839 - William Stork, Morris Ross and Thomas McKaig appointed road viewers and directed to lav out a road from Geneva village by nearest and best route to Lamphear's house (in Bloomfield) and thence to state line near E. W. Brigham's. * Palmer Gardner, Richard

Chenery and Daniel Salisbury directed to view mad from northeast comer of section 2^, (Spring Prairie), vvesl our and a half miles, thence south one mile. * * * James Harkness, Sylvester < .. Smith and David S. Elting to lav a road from a point on east line of section 23 1 Lafayette), westward on or as near half section line as the ground will permit, to section 26, thence to a road to Sugar Creek Prairie or to a road from Elkhorn (village) to said Prairie. * * * Salmon Thomas, William Hollinshead and Samuel F. Phoenix to la)- road from Geneva and Beloit territorial road at suitable place on northwest quarter of section 5 (Linn) to run northwest to Charles S. Bailey's house (town of Delavan), thence to southwest corner of Mr. Phoenix's field, by the grist mill, to Racine and Janesville road on Rock Prairie (in Darien). * * * Jacob G. Sanders, John Boorman and William Bell to lay out road from quarter section stake, east line of section 17 (Walworth), west through middle of section to west side of Bigfoot Prairie, thence by nearest and best road to intersect Beloit and Southport road at or near west line of section 11 (Sharon) or to west line of county. * * * Elijah Worthington, George Esterly and Edward Norris to view road from point where the road to Orendorf's ferry through Eagle Prairie (Waukesha county) meets north line of county, thence southwesterly to or near quarter stake on north line of section 28 (Lagrange). Also, to view road beginning at or near the point where the Milwaukee and Janesville territorial road crosses north line of section 27, following section line west as far as land will admit good road, thence southwest to meet line of county, in the direction of Janesville. * * * At this session fourteen bills against the county were allowed. No. 1 was that of Andrew Ferguson, two dollars and seventy cents. The sum of this first batch of county orders Avas one hundred and twelve dollars and twenty cents, but no items of these bills are recorded.

September 9-12, 1839 - County divided into three assessment districts: District 1, the southern tier of towns with Darien and the west half of Delavan; district 2, Hudson, Geneva, east half of Delavan. Elkhorn, Sugar Creek, Lafayette, and Spring Prairie; district 3, the northern tier, with Richmond. * * * Plat and minutes of village of Elkhorn received and recorded. * * * LeGrand Rockwell appointed to sell lots in that village. (This refers to the county's quarter of section 36, town 3 north, range if) east, in which are the county buildings. ) * * Wolf bounty fixed

March 5, 1841 - Resolved, that it is expedient and in accordance with the wishes of a majority of the people of the count) to proceed to conclude the contract for building a court house in this county.

\\ ith the coming of a larger order of county administration these now ex-commissioners were not mustered out of public employment. Their short service had tried and proved their quality and had trained them fairly for further public usefulness, as the several county and town records well show. The county board of supervisors, with nine members (Major Meacham, of Troy, absent), met September 6, 1842. and chose as its chairman John M. Capron, of Geneva, a man of legislative experience, and as clerk, John Fish. In 1846 a member was added for the new town of Elkhorn, and the old town received the name Sugar Creek. In 1862, compliant with a statute of the previous year, the board was reduced to five members, one for each assembly district and a member for the county at large. This measure of policy or of economy - hardly a war measure - was in operation eight years. Members were elected biennially for a two-year term. In 1870 the old order returned, and the board met with twenty members, an addition of one member for each of the villages of Delavan, Geneva and Whitewater. In 1883 Whitewater, and in 1886 Lake Geneva became cities with ward rep resentation. each having three wards. Thus, four members were added. In 1894 Delavan and Elkhorn became statutory cities of the fourth class, each with three wards. Sharon village was incorporated in [893 and the villag of East Troy, Geneva Junction and Walworth in 1901, each having its member of the county board. Thus, since 1842 the membership <>f this f> has been doubled in number. Among the functions of the board is thai of appointing three superintendents of the county poorhouse and insane asylum; since 1887 a soldier's relief committee of three members: and since [90] a supervisor of assessments. The superintendents of the poor and insane choose a resident superintendent of the farm, buildings and inmates times one of the directing body. .Many members of tin's | ,f thirty-two the towns, villages and cities, are so often re-elected for their term oi year each that it never meets as a body wholly without experience in county affairs. As would naturally be thought, the names ,,f several of these members appear in the lists of assemblymen and sta f >ne member passed by rapidly succeeding steps, by way of the Assembly, I it of tinmighty at Washington.