Discovering History: The County Courthouse

Discovering History The County Courthouse

Discovering History The County Courthouse

by Paul Wolter & Beverly Vaillancourt, M.Ed design by PowerUp Design, LLC

images courtesy of the Sauk County Historical Society

Sauk County Historical Society 900 2nd Avenue PO Box 651 Baraboo, Wisconsin 53913 saukcountyhistory.org ©2023 Sauk County Historical Society Press Printed by Minutemen Press, Baraboo, WI, USA All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any means, electronic, recorded, or otherwise, without the express prior written consent of the Sauk County

Words to Know

Baraboo

jail

clerks

judges

clock tower

law enforcement

county seat

officials

courthouse

Prairie du Sac

deputies

public square

downtown

sheriff

government

Square

hexagon

statue

inmate

West Square Building

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The County Courthouse The job of the county government is to pass laws that serve and protect people, provide important services such as law enforcement, keep record public records, conduct elections, and collect taxes.

The first courthouse for Sauk County was finished in 1845 in Prairie du Sac. At the time, Prairie du Sac was the original county seat, or government city. It was later decided to move the county seat to a new village along the Baraboo River.

The new courthouse was finished in 1848 in Baraboo. The building was built on the north side of the square. It was used as a courthouse and as office space for county government officials.

The second floor contained a large room which was used for the court. It was also used for social gatherings, school purposes and for church meetings.

Discovering History

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The county government also built a jail made out of logs. It most likely looked like this log building.

It was not very large and it was easy for people who were locked into the building to escape. One inmate escaped by simply pulling up the floorboards inside and digging his way out under the wall.

3

In 1855 work began on a new courthouse made of brick. This time the courthouse was built in the center of the public square.

The courthouse contained offices for judges, clerks, and other officials like the register of deeds who recorded land sales and birth, death, and marriage records. The county treasurer also worked here to collect tax money and pay the bills for the county.

• Why do you think the new county courthuse was much larger than the old courthouse built in 1848?

• What were the jobs of the judges, clerks and Register of Deeds?

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A New Jail A new jail was built and was opened in 1857. It was built of stone in the shape of a hexagon, which means the building was not square but rather it had six sides.

This jail was built right where the Baraboo post office is today.

The jail building had cells for inmates and was also a home for the sheriff and his family.

The sheriff and his deputies were the law enforcement for the entire county.

For many years the brick courthouse and the stone jail were used for county government.

The old brick courthouse was used by the county for nearly 50 years. In 1904 officials decided to build a new courthouse and tear down the old one.

Do you recognize the statue in the right side of this picture? It is the Civil War memorial that is still on the Square.

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This is one of the earliest pictures of the Square in downtown Baraboo from about 1872. The courthouse is the large building at left. A wooden fence was built around the courthouse park to keep roaming cows and other animals off the lawn.

All of the roads in Baraboo were dirt for many years and could get very muddy when it rained.

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In 1906 a new courthouse for Sauk County was finished. This building is still in use today. Can you tell what is different about the courthouse from when it was first built with how it looks today? Compare the two photos.

1906 courthouse

courthouse today

The courthouse did not have a clock tower on the top when it was first built.

This was added about ten years later.

If you go to downtown Baraboo you can see the Sauk County Courthouse in the center of the Downtown Square. In the 1960s an addition was built more than doubling the size of the original courthouse.

Today the courthouse is where people who have broken a law must go to hear what happens to them. Sometimes they must pay a fine. Sometimes they must go to jail. If officials decide no law was broken, the person is able to go free.

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Gattiker Memorial Clock The Gattiker memorial clock was installed in 1915 after the cupola on the courthouse was built for the four six-foot diameter clock faces and the bells.

The clock mechanism was housed about twenty feet below in the attic of the courthouse. It was designed and built by the Seth Thomas Clock Company of Thomaston, Connecticut. The two bells were cast by the McShane Bell Foundry of Baltimore, Maryland. The largest bell which is used to strike the hour is nearly four feet in diameter and weighs about one ton. The bell for the chiming of the half hour is thirty inches in diameter and weighs about 600 pounds.

The clock and bells became functional in the summer of 1915 and eventually the system of weights was replaced with electric motors which ran the clock mechanism directly. The chimes of the courthouse clock were heard for nearly 100 years across Baraboo before parts of the mechanism simply wore out.

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The clock was removed in pieces from the attic of the courthouse and taken to the shop of Phil Wright, who owns The Tower Clock Company in South Charleston, Ohio. Phil Wright is one of only a handful of experts in the nation that can restore tower clocks like the one from Sauk County.

After weeks of work Wright restored the clock mechanism to working order. He brought it back to Baraboo, but not quite to the courthouse.

The next project was to restore the exterior of the tower at the courthouse. While waiting for that to happen, the county decided to display the clock mechanism at the Sauk County History Center for safe keeping. In 2023 the clock mechanism was moved from the History Center to the restored clock tower. Today you can hear the clock chime while in downtown Baraboo!

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In 1997 a new building was finished to provide more room for Sauk County government. The new building, called the West Square Building, is found across the street from the old courthouse but is connected to it with an underground tunnel.

A new jail or law enforcement center opened on May 12, 2003. It is 145,000 square feet in size. That’s a lot of space. It has enough bed space for 463 inmates. It is located on the east side of the city of Baraboo. The sheriff is still the top law enforcement official for Sauk County.

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For over 170 years Baraboo has been the county seat for Sauk County. In that time the county has grown from just a few hundred citizens to over 67,000 citizens.

Below are two maps of Sauk County. The map on the left was drawn in 1872.

The map on the right is from 1975. Compare the two maps that are 103 years apart. What changes do you notice? Is the county the same shape? Are there more roads? Are there more communities?

1975

1872 11

Think about It

• Open your History Journal.

• Write the definitions of the Words to Know.

• Write two to three sentences to explain why Sauk County built new courthouses over the year.

• Write two to three sentences about your community.

• Write two or three sentences about how the county has changed since the first courthouse was built in 1845.

• Add one interesting idea to your History Journal. Share your idea with someone else.

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Projects • Go to https://saukcountyhistory.org/photo-collections and click on the photo collections for your community. Look for early historic photos. Make a list of photos you would like to use for a photo collage. You have permission to use the photos for a school project.

• Visit the Sauk County West Square Building. There are four floors to visit.

Stop in some of the offices. Ask officials to explain what they do for the county. Be sure to bring along your History Journal to write down answers to your questions. Look for artwork while in the West Square Building. What does the artwork tell about Sauk County?

• Attend a local government meeting. Speak to the board during public comment on an issue that you feel is important to the community.

• Interview a local government official in your village, city, or town. Ask the official what he or she sees as important issues for the community. Ask what new activities or changes or improvements are planned for the community.

• Take photos of interesting things in your community. Put together a PowerPoint presentation of your photos titled My Community. Share your community with your class.

• Think up a project of your own about government or early settlement in Sauk County. What can you do to help others learn more about government or early settlement?

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My History Journal _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________

My History Journal _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________

My History Journal _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________

My History Journal _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________

Prairie de Sac, Wisconsin