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Of /Yac/A/E (Oc/A/Ty I # / E\/OLUTIOA/ OF /YAC/A/E (OC/A/TY Cfr P*-/*£I I i On Oct. 16, 1818, the part of Michigan territory lying west 4M ?>¥'Lake Michigan was divided Into two counties;-Brown ana Craw- ford, the former comprising the east half of the s^o^e; the lat- •'wHat is now {££/ ter the west half, Including most of^Iowa and Minnesota. On Sept. 6, 1834, Milwaukee county was set off from Brown county, and included the whole southeastern portion of the state, about 100 miles sfluare;-.10,000 square miles. Milwaukee county ; was organized by abt of the Michigan territorial legislature, ap­ proved August 25, 1835, entltled"an act to organize the counties "M ( 2 ) •ts^f of Allegan and Milwaukee." During the same session of the Mich­ igan legislature, and in fact upon the same day on which the act organizing Milwaukee county was approved, tne "boy governor" of Michigan territory, Stevens T. Mason, appointed and commissioned the following officials;of Milwaukee county;- Chief Justice, Wil­ liam Clark; associate Justices, Joel Sage and James Griffin; County Clerk, Albert Fowler; Sheriff, Benoni W. Finch; and Judge of Probate, Gilbert Knapp. Joel Sage and Gilbert Knapp were resi­ dents of Root River (Racine) then part of Milwaukee county. Gil­ bert Knapp, founder of Racine, was therefore the first County Judge of Milwaukee county, and a large oil portrait of him hangs today, on the walls of the Milwaukee court houfie.attesting that fact, M* pcrfnUU A with imam of others acOKiXX»«XXKacit following nliikr that office. Foot-note (I) History of Milwaukee, by Winfleid 3mlth « (2) " Forrest. f, t A/CFMEKS Busy In 1836 there were only about 11,000 white people in Wis- cons in as now bounded.'%nd very few of them were in Milwaukee (79 oj (I) * county. I can discover no evidence that Gilbert Knapp ever "held court", or gdCSE performed any of the other functions of that office while county Judge of Milwaukee county; or that Joel Sage ever "sat" as Associate Justice of that county. Racine county was set off from Milwaukee county on December 7, 1836, only sixteen months after their appointment, and the Inference Is /la l&Eti fair that they were^caiied upon to perform few,if any, of the us­ ual functions of their respective offices during that interval. (Foot-note) (I) A. census of Wisconsin, reported by the sheriffs of the four counties as of July, Io36, was as follows*- Bro"*n county, 2706; Crawford county, 830] Iowa county, 5234; Milwaukee county, 2893» a total for the territory of II, 683. Henry M. Hubbard was the then sheriff of Milwaukee county. 3 * ,. 7?AC/NE dcu/VTY &/YST/T//TED Racine county was ..constituted, and naued in an act of the A Territorial Legislature, approved December t7, 1836* entitled •An act to divide the counties of Brown and Milwaukee". One of the provisions of this act -was the following;- "The townships numbered one, two, three and four north.of ranges 19, 20, 21, 22 and 23 east of the said fourth princi­ pal meridian, shall be, and the same are hereby constituted a separate county, and be caned Racine; and the Seat of Jus­ tice of said county is hereby established in the town of Racine. The county of Racine shall be organized from and af- ter the passage of this act, &c, ba^F/^jaMu^t^^faftwyu. &>. Jfr/ That is, In plain words;- The first five townships ^ west of Lake Michigan, in the first four tiers of townships north of the state line, shall constitute SKA" Racine county. This included all of the territory in what are now Racine and Kenosha counties. Kenosha was set off from Racine county in 1850, being given nearly one-half of the territory in­ volved. The action of the Territorial Legislature in December, 1836, in giving the name "Racine" to the county, -..as in the nature of official approval and ratification of the info«aal action of the early set tiers in. the spring of the game year, when the name Racine h&4~*****i selected for the village. I*/ (I) Foot-note;-The whole of the Northwest Territory ,when surveyed, was laid out in townships, each off which was 6 miles square, except where for unavoidable reasons they were fractional, see "Surveys". (£) Foot-note;- See Appendix; "Names". TmrTtm mftMi/ti Cm/a y By act of the territorial legislature, approved Jan. 2, i 4 4> 1838, the county of Racine was divided into towns, three in —now Racine county— the north half, and three in the south half,—Kenosna county,, The northern towns were Racine, Mt. Pleasant and Rochester; the southern; Southport, 3alero and Pleasant Prairie. The town of-Racine as set off in the above act, comprised all of the territory included in the present limits of Racire county, east of a line drawn due north and south approximately five miles west of Lake B^jihijtEn'at the mouth of Root River;-. a total of about flfty^square miles. Mt. Pleasant as set off in the above act comprised all of the territory ten miles west of the west line of the town of square Racine (described above ) totaling 120-miles. Rochester Included all of the territory in Racine county west of the town of Mt. Pleasant,(described above) twelve miles square; a total of 144 square miles. It was provided in the above act that the polls of elec­ tion for the town of Racine "shall be opened at the hotel of John M. Myers, in the village of Racine J"; for the town of Mt. pleasant "at the house of George F. X&K&SKSSK Robinson, in the ; and village of Mt. Pleasant*;* for the town of Rochester "at the house of Stebbins and Duncan, in the village of Rochester, and at Moses Smith's in Burlington". PAC/NE COUNTY TCWA/S *" Following Is a list of names of the towns of Racine county, In the order in which they were set off and organized, with the dates on which the legislation authorizing them was approved, and Stmt mi* *NM* changes in boundary lines. TOWNS. Racine; set off by act of the legislature approved Jan. 2, 1838 Name changed to "Orwell" I859 Town of Orwell vacated I860 Mount Pleasant; set off by act of Legis. approved Jan. 2, 1838 boundaries reset Aug. 7, 1842 Part of town of Orwell attached I860 Rochester; set off by act of Legis. App. Jan. 2, 1838 re-located and bounded liar, 8, 1839 " by Bd. of Supervisors Nov. 17, 1852 Burlington; set off by act of Legis. App. Mar. 8, 1839 re-located by Bd. of Supervisors Nov. 17, I852 Caledonia; set off and bounded by act approved Feby. 7, 1842 portion of Orwell annexed I860 Yorkville; set off by act of Legis. Approved Feby. 2, 1846 relocated by Bd. of Supervisors Jan. 12,1850 Raymond; set off and named Black Hawk Feby. 2, 1846 name changed to Raymond by act app. • 3, 1846 Norway; set off and bounded by act of Legis. App. " II, 1847 Dover; set off and organized by Res.Aof Supervisors; Jan. 12, 1850 Waterford; set off & organized by Res. of Bd. of Sup. Nov. 17, I852 I RACIiiE COUNTY COURT ^ / By act of tne state legislature, approved Feby. 8, 11850, alternately /^rj ) it was provided tnat "Every other general and special termAof the county court, shall hereafter be neld at the Odd Felloes Han, in the town of Burlington, or at such other place as the Judge of said county court shall direct until herein otherwise provided." The same act also provided that "From the first Monday in March, 1853, every other general and special term of the county court shall be held in the village of Waterford for a term of three years". All of which was contingent on £M bonds being furnished by the citizens of Burlington and Waterford, that a good and suf- 1X&&SX. ficient court room would be furnished In each case, without cost to the county. Whether or hot the county court wets held in either of the above towns does not appear in any record that I have seen. ' How/{mPVs TROUBLES WERE COMPOSED 1 In' the historical address of Charles E. Dyer, published in Pamphlet form in I87I, by tne Racine County Old Settlers' soci­ ety, there appears an account, quite in detail, of Cap't. Knapp1;s troubles in validating his claim to the site of Racine. It was written by a good lawyer, who knew capt. Knapp intimately, and doubtless consulted him, as well as the records of the proceed­ ings, and his account is doubtless technically correct in every detail; it is as follows;— "At this point in our history we find Knapp, Hubbard and Barker the claimants of the original plat of Rauine; Stephen Campbell in possession of tne Harbor Addition, ana Joel Sage settxyu upon the tract on the west side of the river. The war­ fare which they were obliged to wage lr. maintenance of their titles, are not an unimportant or uninteresting feature of tA.oae romantic times. Let us therefore give you a brief record of the fortunes of these pioneers in acquiring their rights to the iar.ds, upon v/hich, to this day, valuable muniments of ti­ ll* are founded." In 1836, Capt. Knapp, not feeling entirely satisfied •ItA Ala rights ao a settler to the lande to wnich ha made claim, procured, from Jaques vaux, a float title to lata one and tw«v, section nine (-»)» «uich «•• t&fl receiver's receipt issued June 19.
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