Toomfoolery Surrounding The Establishment Of The County Seat The following are extracts from the book HISTORY OF WASHINGTON AND OZAUKEE COUNTIES, WISCONSIN along with some personal comments denoted with [ ]. Washington County was set off from Milwaukee County at the first session of the Wisconsin Territorial Legislature on 7 December 1836 and the seat of justice was to be Washington City (Wisconsin City having changed its name; present day Port Washington abandoned in 1837). By that act the territorial limits of the county were defined, but it was still virtually a part of Milwaukee County, being attached to that county for all judicial and civil purposes. It was, therefore, only established or created in 1836. In 1840, by act of the Territorial Legislature, approved 19 February, the county was organized for civil purposes. The government of the county was vested in a board of three Commissioners, [Reuben Wells, Levi Ostrander (chairman), and Barton Salisbury] who had within their province the entire civil business of the county - the laying-out of roads, and appointment of highway surveyors, the establishment of school districts and appointment of school agents, the calling of elections, the valuation of property, the support of paupers, grating of licenses, etc., etc. As under the previous act of 1836, the seat of justice had been established at Washington City, which was remote from the present settlements, and still in a torpid state; it was enacted that "the County Commissioners may hold their meetings at the house of William T. Bonniwell, [lived in Mequon] in said county, and law of this Territory, to the contrary notwithstanding." Thus early did the question concerning the county seat appear as a disturbing element, a question which ultimately led to the division of the county. The county still remained attached to Milwaukee for judicial purposes. 1 January 1844 the Commissioners met at Hamburg Village (now Grafton) which had been selected as the county seat by the vote of the people. 5 January 1846 was the last meeting under the county system of government by Board of Commissioners, the vote previously having been in favor of the town system. Up to this time, a period of little more than five years, the government had been administered by three County Commissioners, under what was known as the county system. During that time a large tide of immigration had set in, which, during the latter three years, had covered the entire county, and thriving settlements had sprung up in nearly every township in the southeastern part of the county as late as 1844. The western and northern portions of the county took place in the years 1844-45-46. [It had been found that a three commissioner county system of government could not handle the executive work that the rapid increase in population demanded. It was decided by vote of the inhabitants of the county in the fall of 1845, to adopt the town system of government. By this system, each town took the management of local affairs under it own supervision, the county business proper being in the hands of a delegate board made up of the chairman of each town and identified as the Board of Supervisors.] The first Board of Supervisors under the town system met in Grafton April 15, 1846. The increase in population from 1845 to 1853 was from 10,785 to 26, 915, the population having doubled one and a half times during those years, and the increase being largely in the western and central town of the county. In 1852 a new apportionment was made, erecting the county into two Senatorial and four Assembly Districts. Third Senatorial District: Mequon, Cedarburg, Grafton, Port Washington, Fredonia and Belgium. The Fourth Senatorial District: Erin, Richfield, Germantown, Jackson, Polk, Hartford, Addison, West Bend, Newerk, Trenton, Farmington, Kewaskum, Wayne. The four Assembly Districts: First - Belgium, Fredonia, Saukville, and Port Washington; Second - Cedarburg, Grafton, and Mequon; Third - Erin, Richfield, Polk, Jackson, and Germantown; Fourth - Hartford, Addison, Wayne, Kewaskum, West Bend, Trenton, and Farmington. One of the first experiences of nearly every new county is an earnest local contest for the location of the seat of justice or county seat. Washington County was no exception to the rule, further than it labored under such peculiar complications as to render the contest, not only more protracted than in any other county, but incapable of being brought to a termination except by a division of the county, and that, too, contrary to any general expression of the inhabitants, favoring the division. A vote was taken where to locate the count seat. 861 votes were cast but no majority was found.
371 | For County Farm (northeast Polk township)
88 | Northeast of Section 3, town 10, Range 20 (County Farm)
164 | Port Washington
100 | Cedarburg
74 | Hamburg (Grafton)
32 | Center of the County
20 | Good Location near the Center
12 | West Bend
It is at this time the population of the county having suddenly and largely increased by the influx of settlers into its hitherto unoccupied portions, and its business having assumed greater importance, the inconvenience and annoyance of the situation became intolerable. The whole county government was a sort of peripatetic institution, performing its function everywhere, and having a local habitation nowhere. In January 1847, since the county could not determine where to locate the county seat, the State Legislature established the county seat at Port Washington for five years. The location of the county seat, even temporarily, was not generally satisfactory to the majority of the inhabitants of the county. It was remote from the center of population, and its location was viewed by those favoring the rival villages as an advantage gained, not only for the present but in any future attempts to decide on a permanent location. Although they could not agree as to the location, they could easily accord in the opinion that Port Washington was not a desirable point. Much bad blood was stirred up, and the acquiescence in the decision of the act was by no means cheerful. 8 August 1848 an act was passed authorizing the people of Washington County to take a vote on the permanent location of the seat of justice. The third ballot created intense interest throughout the county and drew out the full voting strength. The rival towns spared no effort to bring the last voter to the polls. Three such votes were taken one on 25 September 1848, a second on 7 November 1848 and a third on 1 January 1849. Total votes cast, 2036, 2701 and 3740. First vote: Cedarburg 570, West Bend 335, Port Washington 697, Newark 149, Saukville 82, County Farm 180, and 22 others. The second vote was limited to Cedarburg 944, West Bend 1117, and Port Washington 640. In this vote, the towns of Germantown, Jackson, Mequon and Grafton were given for Cedarburg. The central and western towns voted for West Bend. The northeast cided with Port Washington. The third vote, Cedarburg 1643, West Bend 1111, and neither 986. In this case nether was the same as voting for Port Washington. [This vote could be considered a travesty of justice] The 986 votes by Belgium (all and then some), Port Washington (all but 1), Fredonia (all but 4), Saukville (10 of 86), Grafton (159 of 549) and a few more were in violation of the provisions of the act under which the election was held and showed indubitable signs of ballot-box stuffing, especially in the town of Belgium. The fraud was too apparent to be defended even by those who wished to defeat the election. Charges were also made of fraudulent voting in Port Washington and Grafton and as would be expected counter charges were made against West Bend. Port Washington had succeeded in her object so far as to delay the settlement of the question, but she had so embittered the other parts of the county, as to impair her strength in the future stages of the contest, both at home and in the Legislature. The Board of Supervisors of Washington County respectively requested the State Legislature to establish a permanent location for the county seat and thus relieve the county from the embarrassment and inconvenience of its present situation. 8 February 1850 an act was approved dividing the county, by the erection of a new county, under the name and title of Tuskola, embracing the two southern tiers of towns, Mequon, Germantown, Richfield, Erin, Grafton, Cedarburg, Jackson, Polk, and Hartford. Cedarburg was made the seat of justice of the new county, and Port Washington was, by the same act, designated as the permanent county seat of what remained of Washington County. [looks like someone was playing some tomfoolery in the back rooms of the State Capital] As part of this act, the electors of the towns of the new Tuskola County were required to vote for division and against division. Results were overwhelming with 275 for and 1,716 against. Cedarburg cast 174 yes votes. This whole scheme was the result of an alliance between Cedarburg and Port Washington. [the situation was not being settled and it grew worse] Matters got before the Supreme Court on an application for a writ of mandamus compelling the County Board to erect county buildings in accordance with a section of the act dividing the county. It required the Board of Supervisors on the first Monday of May next proceed to let the lowest bidder to contract for the erection of a good and commodious court house upon the plan and style ... upon the grounds in the village of Port Washington ... Although the mandamus sought was denied, accompanying the opinion, Chief Justice Alex W. Stow gave an individual opinion that the act ordering the building erected was constitutional, and further, that it permanently established the county seat in Port Washington. "It was his own personal opinion ..." [this did not help matters] It can be remember in 1847, the county seat was located in Port Washington for five years. This time period was expiring and another act was legislated: (1) the county seat be located in Grafton, (2) the legal voters of the county of Washington vote for removal from Grafton to West Bend. [this vote slapped the hands of the bad boys Cedarburg and Port Washington for they were no longer in the running] The result of the election has 1789 for removal to West Bend and 2496 against removal from Grafton. As in the previous voting, and justifiably so, allegations of fraud were made against Belgium, Port Washington and Cedarburg. The conclusion, the Legislature was heartily sick of the imbroglio which had lasted for the last thirteen years. Its members were in no mood to continue the quarrel indefinitely by any further legislation involving a popular vote of the people of the county. The West Bend and Port Washington fractions lobbied the Legislature to divide the county by the two senatorial districts established in 1852 and as we now know it today. The scheme met the ready support of both branches of the Legislature and was rushed through [to get this thing out of their hair being the lessor of two evils] before the inhabitants of the county at home had time to organize any vigorous opposition. In closing this account, the peculiar causes that prolonged the struggle may be briefly summed up. There existed no central feeling of unanimity beyond the nearest locality. The inhabitants were largely foreign, with little political experience under the laws of the Republic, and a vague though extravagant sense of the personal power they had acquired though the franchise. Further, the number of villages striving for the prize was larger than usual, and very nearly equal to the support they could command, though no one had without outside allies an over-shadowing vote. Hence, it was impossible, out of the disintegrated and conflicting elements, to agree on anything requiring a majority vote. It does not seem to have even entered into party politics, as, though all the phases of the quarrel, the county remained steadfastly Democratic. Neither did nationality or religion have any influence, as the Catholic or the German vote, if united, could at any time have controlled the county. It was strictly a sectional fight, incapable of ending itself, except through exhaustion. Unpopular as was the division at the time, and bitter as was the feeling of the various fractions, it is now generally conceded that the act of division, arbitrary as it appeared, was the wisest possible solution of the vexed question that the inhabitants had so long and unsuccessfully striven to decide for themselves. The two counties and the inhabitants thereof, are today good neighbors, and, the general good will evinced, shows that the long and bitter war has left no scar, even, as a reminder of those troublous times.