Title: La Crosse, Wisconsin, Office of the City Clerk, Reports of City Officers
Date: 1857-1932

Creator:

• La Crosse (Wis.). City Clerk.

Unique Identifier: La Crosse Series 022

Quantity: 8.8 cubic feet

Physical Description: 22 archives boxes

Repository:

La Crosse Public Library
Contact Information

Archival Location:

La Crosse Public Library (Map)

Abstract:

Reports written by city officers to the Common Council, 1857-1932. The materials are arranged by office; therein chronologically. There isn’t any further indexing to this collection at this time other than what the City Clerk has on index cards.

The reports are mostly financial in nature, and are generally a record of monthly and/or annual expenditures of the following departments/offices: Attorney (1895-1899), Clerk (1858-1905), Comptroller (1887-1932), Education/Superintendent (1866-1931), Fire (1861-1932), Health (1875-1932), Justice of the Peace at Large (1874-1901), Mayor (1858-1929), Parks (1905-1932), Police [includes Police Justice and City Marshall] (1857-1932), Poor (1872-1894), Public Library (1915-1930), Public Works/Engineer (1878-1932), Street Commissioner (1857-1887; 1919; 1930-1932), Surveyor (1857-1886), Toll [Bridge] Collector (1896-1899), Treasurer (1858-1911), Weed Commissioner (1891; 1911), Weights & Measures (1868-1932).

A few miscellaneous files include employment office reports, financial and tax statistics, and social service and charity reports to Council. Although the reports generally consist of financial statistics to the Common Council, a number of offices wrote narrative summaries which help to document change in La Crosse’s city government and community life over time. The reports of the Police Justice are particularly fascinating as each individual arrested, the charge, and the fine or other punishment exacted was documented well into the 1900s.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.lcpl-lacrosseseries022

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45254022

(Accession No. 1996.004) Resolutions were located in the City Clerk's basement area of City Hall; came to the Archives as part of the Mayor's Special Committee on Historic Records, Dec. 1996

Materials in this collection are available for patron use.

[Identification of item], La Crosse, Wisconsin, Office of the City Clerk, Reports of City Officers, La Crosse Series 022, La Crosse Public Library Archives, La Crosse, WI

Processed by Anita Taylor Doering with assistance from Jaime Dechant, Jan. 1998

Common Council resolutions and reports began to be organized by a numbering system in Dec. 1932. Before that time the resolutions were kept folded up in chronological order, roughly by subject or Council committee (such as Parks, Judiciary, Fire, Police, etc.). This set of pre-1932 resolutions represents those labeled as Reports of Officers, and date from almost the beginning of city government in 1856.

The original order of these reports was not maintained, although we encountered pockets of reports that were somewhat grouped by department and roughly by date. In arranging this series, the reports have been grouped together by office or department, therein chronologically. Currently, the only subject access to those is through the City Clerk who maintains a card file.

The reports are mostly financial in nature, and are generally a record of monthly and/or annual expenditures of the following departments/offices: Attorney (1895-1899), Clerk (1858-1905), Comptroller (1887-1932), Education/Superintendent (1866-1931), Fire (1861-1932), Health (1875-1932), Justice of the Peace at Large (1874-1901), Mayor (1858-1929), Parks (1905-1932), Police [includes Police Justice and City Marshall] (1857-1932), Poor (1872-1894), Public Library (1915-1930), Public Works/Engineer (1878-1932), Street Commissioner (1857-1887; 1919; 1930-1932), Surveyor (1857-1886), Toll [Bridge] Collector (1896-1899), Treasurer (1858-1911), Weed Commissioner (1891; 1911), Weights & Measures (1868-1932). A few miscellaneous files include employment office reports, financial and tax statistics, and social service and charity reports to Council.

Although the reports consist generally of financial statistics to the Common Council, a number of offices wrote narrative summaries which help to document change in La Crosse’s city government and community life over time. These departments are: Attorney, Education/Superintendent, Fire, Health, Mayor, Police [includes Police Justice], Poor, and Public Works/Engineer. The Justice of the Peace at Large reports list court cases, dates and costs only. The Police Justice (filed under Police) recorded every month each individual arrested, the charge and the fine or other punishment exacted well into the 1900s.

Offices that are not well represented in the series include: Attorney, Mayor, Poor, Public Library, Street Commissioner, Surveyor (after 1886), Treasurer (after 1911), and Weed Commissioner.

• Finance, Public--Wisconsin--La Crosse
• La Crosse (Wis.)--Appropriations and expenditures
• Municipal government--Wisconsin--La Crosse
• Public records--Wisconsin--La Crosse

Box 1   Folder 1	Attorney, 1895-1899
Box 1   Folder 2-4	Clerk, 1858-1889
Box 2-4 Box 5   Folder 1	Comptroller, 1887-1932
Box 5   Folder 2-4	Education/Superintendent, 1866-1931
Box 6	Fire, 1861-1932
Box 7   Folder 8	Health, 1875-1932
Mixed materials   8   Folder 1-3	Health/City Physician, 1927-1932
Box 9   Folder 1-3	Justice of the Peace at Large, 1874-1901
Box 9   Folder 4 Box 10   Folder 1	Mayor, 1858-1929
Box 10   Folder 2-3 Box 11   Folder 1	Parks, 1905-1932
Box 11   Folder 2-3 Box 12-13 Box 14   Folder 1-3	Police, 1857-1932
Box 14   Folder 4	Poor, 1872-1894
Box 15   Folder 1	Public library, 1915-1930
Box 15   Folder 2-4 Box 16 Box 17   Folder 1-3	Public Works/Engineer, 1878-1932
Box 17   Folder 4	Street Commissioner, 1857-1932
Box 17   Folder 5	Surveyor, 1857-1886
Box 17   Folder 6	Toll Collector, 1896-1899
Box 18-20 Box 21   Folder 1	Treasurer, 1858-1911
Box 21   Folder 2	Weed Commissioner, 1891, 1911
Box 21   Folder 3-5 Box 22   Folder 1-3	Weights and Measures, 1868-1932
	Miscellaneous
Box 22   Folder 4	General, 1919-1926
Box 22   Folder 5-6	Employment office related, 1919-1932
Box 22   Folder 7	Financial and tax statistics, 1922-1925
Box 22   Folder 8	Social services and charity, 1919-1931