Wisconsin Magazine of History

/Wisconsin IF Magazine of History Courts and Judges in Wisconsin Territory ALICE E. SMITH Prohihition and Democracy: The ]S[pbIe Experiment Reassessed PAUL A. CARTER "My Long and Somewhat Eventful Life": Frederick G. HoUman's Autohiography Edited by WILLIAM C. MARTEN Published by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin / Vol. 56, No. 3 / Spring, 1973 THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN JAMES MORTON SMITH, Director Officers E. DAVID CRONON, President GEORGE BANTA, JR., Honorary Vice-President JOHN C. GEILFUSS, First Vice-President E. E. HOMSTAD, Treasurer HOWARD W. MEAD, Second Vice-President JAMES MORTON SMITH, Secretary Board of Curators Ex Officio PATRICK J. LUCEY, Governor of the State CHARLES P. SMITH, State Treasurer ROBERT C. ZIMMERMAN, Secretary of State JOHN C. WEAVER, President of the University MRS. GORDON R. WALKER, President of the Women's Auxiliary Term Expires, 1973 THOMAS H. BARLAND MRS. RAYMOND J. KOLTES FREDERICK I. OLSON DONALD C. SLICHTER Eau Claire Madison Wauwatosa Milwaukee E. E. HOMSTAD CHARLES R. MCCALLUM F. HARWOOD ORBISON DR. LOUIS C. SMITH Black River Falls Hubertus Appleton Lancaster MRS. EDWARD C. JONES HOWARD W. MEAD NATHAN S. HEFFERNAN ROBERT S. ZIGMAN Fort Atkinson Madison Madison Milwaukee Term Expires, 1974 ROGER E. AXTELL PAUL E. HASSETT ROBERT B. L. MURPHY MILO K. SWANTON Janesville Madison Madison Madison HORACE M. BENSTEAD WILLIAM HUFFMAN MRS. WM. H. L. SMYTHE CEDRIC A. VIG Racine Wisconsin Rapids Milwaukee Rhinelander REED COLEMAN WARREN P. KNOWLES WILLIAM F. STARK CLARK WILKINSON Madison Madison Nashotah Baraboo Term Expires, 1975 E. DAVID CRONON JOHN C. GEILFUSS LLOYD HORNBOSTEL FRANCIS PAUL PRUCHA, S.J. Madison Milwaukee Beloit Milwaukee SCOTT M. CUTLIP BEN GUTHRIE ROBERT H. IRRMANN J. WARD RECTOR Madison Lac du Flambeau Beloit Milwaukee ROBERT A. GEHRKE MRS. R. L. HARTZELL JOHN PIKE CLIFFORD D. SWANSON Ripon Grantsburg Madison Stevens Point Honorary Honorary Life Members EDWARD D. CARPENTER, Cassville MRS. ESTHER NELSON, Madison RUTH H. DAVIS, Madison DOROTHY L. PARK, Madison MRS. MARGARET HAFSTAD, Rockdale MONICA STAEDTLER, Madison PRESTON E. MCNALL, Clearwater, Florida BENTON H. WILCOX, Madison WILLIAM ASHBY MCCLOY, New London, Connecticut PAUL VANDERBILT, Madison Fellows VERNON CARSTENSEN MERLE CURTI ALICE E. SMITH The Women's Auxiliary Officers MRS. GORDON R. WALKER, Racine, President MRS. DAVID S. FRANK, Madison, Vice-President MRS. JAMES S. VAUGHN, Milwaukee, Secretary MRS. HUGH HIGHSMITH, Fort Atkinson, Treasurer MRS. GEORGE SWART, Fort Atkinson, Ex Officio VOLUME 56, NUMBER 3 / SPRING, 1973 Wisconsin Magazine of History WILLIAM CONVERSE HAYGOOD, Editor WILLIAM C. MARTEN, Associate Editor Courts and Judges in Wisconsin Territory 179 ALICE E. SMITH Prohibition and Democracy: The Noble Experiment Reassessed 189 PAUL A. CARTER "My Long and Somewhat Eventful Life": Frederick G. Hollman's Autobiography 202 Edited by WILLIAM c. MARTEN Book Reviews 234 Book Review Index 258 Accessions 259 Contributors 264 Published Quarterly by The State Historical Society of Wisconsin THE WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY is published Microfilms, 313 North First Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan; quarterly by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, reprinted volumes available from Kraus Reprint Company, 816 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706. Distributed 16 East 46th Street, New York, New York. Communica to members as part of their dues (Annual membership, tions should be addressed to the editor. The Society does $7.50, or $5 for those 65 or over or members of affiliated not assume responsibility for statements made by contribu societies; Family membership, SIO.OO, or $7 for those 65 tors. Second-class postage paid at Madison and Stevens or over or members of affiliated societies; Contributing, $25; Point, Wis. Copyright © 1973 by the State Historical Business and Professional, $50; Sustaining, $100 or more Society of Wisconsin. Paid for in part by the Maria L. annually; Patron, $500 or more annually). Single numbers, and Simeon Mills Editorial Fund and by the George B, $1.75. Microfilmed copies available through University Burrows Fund. Wisconsin Before Statehood LINEAGE OF WISCONSIN Northwest Territory 1787-1800 Indiana Territory 1800-1809 Illinois Territory 1809-1818 Michigan Territory 1818-1836 Wisconsin Territory Created July 3, 1836 State of Wisconsin Entered Union May 29, 1848 CAPITALS OF WISCONSIN Belmont 1836 Burlington (Iowa) 1837-1838 Madison 1838-present GOVERNORS OF WISCONSIN TERRITORY (date of oath-taking) Henry Dodge July 4, 1836 James Duane Doty June 9, 18411 Nathaniel Tallmadge September 16, 1844 Henry Dodge May 13, 1845 SECRETARIES OF WISCONSIN TERRITORY (date of oath-taking) John S. Horner July 4, 1836 William B. Slaughter March 4, 1837 Francis J. Dunn February 18, 1841 Alexander P. Field c. May 3, 184P George R. C. Floyd November 15, 1843^ John Catlin March 14, 1846 JUDGES OF WISCONSIN TERRITORY (date of oath-taking) William C. Frazer July 13, 1836* Charles Dunn^ August 16, 1836 David Irvin September 8, 1836 Andrew G. Miller December 11, 1838 REPRESENTATIVES TO CONGRESS FROM WISCONSIN TERRITORY George W. Jones December 5, 1836-January 14, 1839 James Duane Doty January 14, 1839-March 3, 1841 Henry Dodge December 7, 1841-March 3, 1845 Morgan L. Martin December 1, 1845-March 3, 1847 John H. Tweedy March 4, 1847-May 29, 1848 ^ The date on which Doty arrived in Madison and assumed office. ^ Field's certification states that he took his oath of office between May 3 and May 5, 1841. ^ Floyd stated that he accepted his appointment on this date. * Died in office on October 18, 1838. " Chief justice. 178 COURTS AND JUDGES IN WISCONSIN TERRITORY By ALICE E. SMITH Seven years of research and writing preceded The selection and support of this branch the recent publication of the first of six vol of government lay almost wholly outside umes, each by a different author, which when popular control. The organic act established completed will constitute the first definitive three district courts and assigned their juris history of Wisconsin. In this initial volume diction and their functions,^ the legislature Alice E. Smith tells the story of how an unex laid out the districts; the President appointed plored wilderness evolved into a functioning the judges, a prosecuting attorney, and a state. The following, excerpted from the chap marshal; the federal government paid salaries ter entitled "Building a Government," deals and a part of the operating costs. Each judge with the colorful and disparate men who rode circuit among the county seats in his represented the ultimate law in the territorial district, and the three met annually as a su era. preme court to hear and adjudicate appeals W.C.H. from their own courts. For these services they received annual salaries of $1,800. The or ganic act also established probate and justice 'X'HE THIRD of the co-ordinate branches of the peace courts. In the first years the -•- [in addition to the legislative and exe governor, with the council's approval, ap cutive], the judiciary, was probably the least pointed these lower judicial officers. familiar to the general population, yet as The single controlling force, except, of statehood became imminent, everyone was course, the United States Supreme Court, was proposing "judicial reforms." Without inter the territorial supreme court. Within their ruption the system of courts that had been own districts, the judges were virtually auton inaugurated under the rule of Michigan Ter omous. Their appointments provided "good ritory was superseded by the more elaborate behavior" tenure. No higher authority existed framework devised for the new Territory of to help or hinder the judge in the exercise of Wisconsin, and the new judiciary began to what he conceived to be his duty, or to assist build up a body of doctrine governing public him if those duties grew beyond his ability and private affairs within its geographical to handle them effectively. A change in po jurisdiction. litical administration might cause him some uneasiness; a carping governor might report The History of Wisconsin, Volume I: From ^ The Wisconsin Territorial Act, incorporating in a single enactment the experience of the forty-nine Exploration to Statehood. By ALICE E. SMITH. years since the passage of the Northwest Ordinance, (State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madi became the model for future territorial organic acts. See John Porter Bloom (ed.). The Territorial Papers son, 1973. Pp. xiv, 753. Illustrations, maps, of the United States: Vol. 27, Wisconsin (Washing essay on sources, index. $15.00.) ton, 1969). 179 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1973 judicial shortcomings; dissatisfied residents of a county might petition for his removal; but during the twelve years of Wisconsin Ter ritory, the single change in the district judi ciary was brought about by death.^ The four territorial judges sent to Wiscon sin were probably typical of appointees sent to a remote frontier. The formation of Iowa Territory in 1838 necessitated a redistricting in Wisconsin that held for the duration of territorial existence. Chief Justice Charles I Dunn retained the first, or western, district, comprising Crawford, Iowa, and Grant coun ties, and counties that were formed from the three before 1848. In all respects Judge Dunn was in accord with his turbulent mining con stituency. Born and educated in Kentucky, he had practiced law in Illinois and served in the Black Hawk War. Through George W. Jones he received President Jackson's ap pointment as chief justice of the court of Wis consin in 1836.^ He settled at Belmont, where he remained until his death in 1872. The Dunn family entered into the social and professional life of the new community. The chief jus tice's wife was the daughter of a United States judge in Missouri; his brother Francis was, Society's Iconographic Collections like the judge, a Democrat and a lawyer and Territorial Judge Charles Dunn, father-in-law of Nel son Dewey, the state's first governor.

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