corner header home search engine what's new
sidebar USGenWeb Project photos tools histories databases archives about us WIGenWeb Project
Histories:  Trempealeau Co. Historical Accounts:

"History of Trempealeau County Wisconsin, 1917":

Chapter 9:

First County Board

-As transcribed from page 106

Trempealeau County was created by the legislature January 24, 1854, and a provision included in the act constituting the board of supervisors of Montoville, the board of supervisors of Trempealeau County until other towns should be created and town officers duly elected therein.1  Consequently, on March 11, 1854, the town board of Montoville, sitting as a board of supervisors of Trempealeau County, convened at Trempealeau, with Horace F. Owen as chairman and Isaac Noyes and William Nicholls as the other supervisors, and with Charles Cameron as clerk.2  At this meeting the town of Gale was set off, with practically all of the present area of Gale and northward to the county line.  The first town election was ordered held at the home of Benjamin F. Heuston, on April 4, following.  All of the county not included in Gale remained in Montoville, which thus constituted the present towns of Caledonia and Trempealeau and the west part of the county, north to the county line.

On September 12, 1854, B. F. Heuston was elected county judge, receiving 26 votes in Montoville and 8 in Gale.  George Batchelder received 11 in Montoville and 12 in Gale.  In November the following county officers were elected:  Charles Utter, district attorney; Ira E. Moore, sheriff; George H. Smith, clerk of the court; Charles Utter, clerk of the board; A. W. Armstrong, registrar; Hollister Wright, treasurer; George J. Turton, surveyor, and William Adams, coroner.  There were 44 votes cast, 36 in Montoville and 8 in Gale.  George H. Smith appointed William M. Young deputy clerk and Hollister Wright made John Nicholls his clerk as deputy county treasurer.3


Resources for the above information:

1 - General Laws of 1854, Chapter 2.

2 - All the proceedings of the successive boards mentioned in this chapter are found in the Minutes, which are in the custody of the County Clerk.  The list of officers which appears in this chapter is secured from the election returns, from the oaths of office filed, and from the Minutes.

3 - This list appears on p. 1035 in the History of Western Wisconsin (Chicago, 1881), and is supposedly from the pen of B. F. Heuston.  The election of the clerk of court, clerk of the board, register and treasurer are confirmed by the records.  The name of Ira E. Moore appears nowhere in the records, and A. M. Brandenburg apparently served as sheriff in 1855-56.  The records show that George J. Turton was appointed surveyor June 26, 1855.  No other mention of Charles Utter as district attorney can be found.  He was not a lawyer.  Hollister Wright filed his bond as treasurer Jan. 19, 1855, but on March 9, 1856, George Batchelder was paid for services as treasurer.  No confirmation appears of the election of William Adams as coroner.