Title: Ashland (Wis.). Clerk: Records
Inclusive Dates: 1887-1950

Creator:

• Ashland (Wis.). Clerk

Call Number: Ashland Series 28

Quantity: 19.6 c.f. (26 archives boxes, 14 flat boxes, and 15 separate volumes)

Repository:

Housed at the Area Research Center, History Center and Archives, Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center; owned by the Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections.

Archival Locations:

Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center / Ashland Area Research Ctr. (Map)

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Abstract:

Records of the Ashland, Wisconsin Clerk, including records of the Common Council and some of its boards, city commissions and associations, the City Attorney, and financial and administrative city records created by the clerk, 1887-1950. Types of records include proceedings, reports, minutes, correspondence, financial information, ordinances, resolution, petition, chattel mortgages, and the appraisal of residential homes.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-ashl0028

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The City of Ashland was created from three earlier entities: the Town of Ashland, Bay City, and St. Mark. The Town of Ashland was first established in 1854 by Asaph Whittlesey and George Kilborn of La Pointe. The township was platted that year and the first post office was established in March 1855 under the name Whittlesey, there already being an Ashland in the state at that time. In 1856, Bay City and St. Mark (later known as the Vaughn Division) were platted. In that same year, hard economic times came to the region, and many residents left Ashland for La Pointe, which became the county seat. The last resident, Martin Beaser, left in 1866. In 1871, the railroad came to Ashland, and the town was reborn. The post office was reestablished under the name Ashland, and in 1872 reconstruction of the town began. In 1873 the county seat moved back to Ashland, and in April 1887 the City of Ashland was incorporated by the State. The mayor-council form of government was used except for 1913-1919, when it had a commission system. There were multiple attempts in the 1940s to shift the government to a manager system, and since 1994 the city has had both a Mayor and a City Manager.

The records of Ashland, Wisconsin are arranged into the following series based on city office or function: CITY ATTORNEY, COMMON COUNCIL, EDUCATION AND RECREATION, FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION, FIRE AND POLICE COMMISSION, MATRON OF COUNTY REST ROOM, and MAYOR. Series and headings are arranged alphabetically and chronologically thereunder.

The best overview of city government can be found in the Common Council Proceedings. However, it should be noted that there are significant gaps in the Proceedings: pre-1897, 1900-1914, and June 1938-1943. Therefore, documents that would normally have been discarded for those time periods, such as routine committee reports, quarterly reports, and bids, have been retained since they provide the only picture of the city government for those years.

Researchers should be aware that there is not a consistent document numbering system within the COMMON COUNCIL headings Resolutions and Ordinances, and CLERK heading Chattel Mortgages; and occasional renumbering (i.e. starting over at 1). In most cases, there are also file numbers written on each document in addition to the standard resolution and ordinance numbering. The file numbers written on Resolutions and Ordinances appear to be a running count of all documents. The Chattel Mortgage numbers are occasionally based on the rank within alpha character; e g. T 1-84, L 1-37.

In some headings, such as the Board of Education and Vaughn Library Association, annual reports may include apportionment requests, and occasionally separate financial documents.

The CITY ATTORNEY series is made up of Expenses and Legal Opinions. The Expenses cover only one year: 1902. The Legal Opinions are principally related to claims against the city for property damage or personal injury. Each Opinion includes an explanation of the decision and sometimes supporting information. The Attorney’s conclusion is also recorded in the Council Proceedings and the claims themselves are a heading under the COMMON COUNCIL series.

The largest series in the records is from the COMMON COUNCIL with 16 headings. Most are self-explanatory, such as various Boards and Committees, petitions, proceedings, ordinances, and resolutions. Several headings deserve special mention. The Abstract of Title for the Bay City Slip provides the ownership history of the Slip, which is adjacent to the selected location for the Wisconsin Central Railway (later Soo Line) ore dock.

The Board of Health records include two volumes identified as 'health books.' Volume 2 provides reports of contagious diseases (and is continued in Volume 3), such as diphtheria, scarlet fever, small pox, and typhoid fever, with typhoid also given a separate section (pages 205-212). All reports include patient information and quarantine data. The reports for May 14, 1893 - May 4, 1895 are on pages 1-4 of Volume 2 and for May 12, 1895 - February 6, 1908 on pages 1-38 of Volume 3. The Undertaker reports for 1893-1895 are found in Volume 2, pages 173-204, and list names and causes of death. Since disease is so closely associated with water and sewer conditions, Volume 2, pages 5-170, also includes notice, orders, and permit applications related to sanitation; most interesting is the inclusion of water test information (Volume 2, pages 213-223). Ashland devoted considerable time and expense to improving water quality in an effort to reduce typhoid fever outbreaks, and as early as 1890 employed a Sanitary Policeman. Much of this information is expanded upon in Volume 4 of the minutes. That information includes water quality reports from bacteriologist H.L. Russell, later the Dean of Agriculture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the namesake of Russell Labs. There appears to have been close coordination between the Board of Health and the Board of Public Works.

There were actually three boards devoted to education: Board of Education, Board of Industrial Education, and Board of Vocational Education. The material from these boards consists of financial annual reports.

There is a small selection of Unsorted Reports which have been retained solely because they cover time periods not covered in the Proceedings, and provide the only view of the government for those time periods. The reports are primarily concerned with public works projects. The 1948 documents were retained as they cover Ashland's involvement in the State Centennial.

The EDUCATION AND RECREATION series includes three headings: Municipal Band, Park Commission, and the Vaughn Library Association. The city was proud of its musical heritage and much was made of its Municipal Band composed of boys from multiple school districts. In 1925 it was the largest boys' band in the world, “with 265 uniformed and playing members,” as reported in the April 20, 1925 edition of the Daily Press. The annual reports of the band provide financial information and note the band's activities over the year.

The Park Commission records are primarily composed of a volume of Minutes which detail plant lists for the various boulevards and parks, and design issues. Of particular interest is the June 16, 1919 “bear resolution,” formally declining the offer of two bears to the city. There is also a small amount of information related to Mount Hope Cemetery.

The Vaughn Library Association records consist of annual reports containing financial information, book counts, circulation figures, and sometimes a narrative of the year's highlights. The Library was founded by Mrs. Emeline Patrick Vaughn in 1886 as a self-financing entity, but by the 1930s the city was assuming expenses.

The FINANCE and ADMINISTRATION series is comprised of four headings; Assessor, Clerk, Comptroller, and Treasurer. The Assessor heading is wholly composed of the assessment cards, 1934, which are filed by subdivision. The cards provide a snapshot of properties in 1934 and most cards include a description of the property, owner or tenant information, land value factors and assessment summary. Some also include a sketch of the property. A table of the cards can be found in the appendix, by type of property (residential, mercantile, or manufacturing), area of city, and blocks within area.

The Clerk heading includes annual reports, chattel mortgages, and election canvassing board reports. Comptroller and Treasurer headings are entirely composed of annual reports. Most of the chattel mortgages are indexed by last name in original Volume 4 (Archives Volume 12).

The FIRE AND POLICE COMMISSION series is primarily concerned with hiring and firing personnel. The series contains three headings; Chief of Police annual reports, Commission minutes, and Fire Chief annual and building reports. The Chief of Police annual reports generally provide employment and expense totals, equipment counts, fine and bail income, prisoner expenses, and yearly arrest totals for various types of crimes, with arrest breakdowns by gender, age, marital status, nationality, occupation, month, and dispositions of cases. Arrest totals by officer are also enumerated, as are fugitive arrests. Later reports also list car accidents, and location within city. By the 1940s, the reports are single page affairs, listing major arrest categories, amount of bonds forfeited, number of 'lodgers,' and number of juvenile complaints.

The Commission Minutes contain information on individual fire and police personnel, including disciplinary matters and policy recommendations to the Common Council.

Fire Chief annual reports and building reports list number and types of alarms, monetary losses, insurance statistics, mileage, feet of hose laid, employment and apparatus figures, and specifics for each fire house and hose house. In certain instances, fire responses are analyzed to determine measures that may have affected the outcome of the fire call. Improvements, recommendations, and accidents are also routine report sections. More recent reports provide much less detail on the operations of the fire department, and generally include a building report which lists the value and type of new construction within the city for the year, with information on the owners of newly constructed residences, and alterations to existing buildings.

The MATRON OF COUNTY REST ROOM series has been retained more as a curiosity, and contains annual reports from 1926-1931, 1933-1938, which enumerate the visitors to the Rest Room by state and country, and includes running totals for the entire time frame. The county rest room had been requested by a local women's group, and was apparently open only to female visitors to the city, not residents. Other cities, such as Pasadena, California, also maintained public rest rooms with matron services, with some providing refreshments.

The MAYOR series consists of two biannual reports, 1929 and 1931, and are essentially 'State of the City' reports for the administration of Mayor M.E. Dillon.

Acquisition Information

Accession Number: C1979/042

Ashland Series 28	Series: City Attorney
Box   1 Folder   1	Expenses, 1902
Box   1 Folder   2-3	Opinions, 1893-1936, 1947-1948, scattered
	Series: Common Council	⇧
Box   1 Folder   4	Abstract of title for Bay City Slip, Ellis Division, 1913
Volume   1	Board of Review Proceedings, 1893-1899 (pages 50-216)
Box   2 Folder   1-5	1899-1901
Box   1 Folder   5-9	1903-1905
Box   3 Folder   1-11	1906-1907, 1911-1918
	Boards
Box   3 Folder   12	Community Labor Board Annual Reports, 1920-1931, scattered
	Board of Education
	Annual reports
Box   3 Folder   13	1901-1903, 1905-1909, 1911, 1913, 1919-1920
Box   4 Folder   1-2	1921-1938
Box   4 Folder   3-8	Minutes, 1944-1946
Box   4 Folder   9	School District Audit Report, 1939-1944
	Board of Health
Box   5 Folder   1	City Sealer, Plumbing, Electrical and Health Inspector annual reports, 1912-1924, 1926-1929, 1931, 1933-1936, 1938-1939
Box   5 Folder   2	City/Visiting Nurse annual reports, 1920-1922
Volume   2-3	Health (contagious diseases) books, 1893-1908
Volume   4	Minutes, 1890-1946
Box   5 Folder   3	Welfare Committee monthly reports, 1938
Box   5 Folder   4	Board of Industrial Education Annual reports, 1927
	Board of Public Works
Box   5 Folder   5	Annual reports, 1945-1946
Box   5 Folder   6-9	Ashland Power and Street Railway Company annual reports, 1899-1900, 1902-1906
Box   6 Folder   1	City Engineer Annual report, 1912, 1915-1916
Box   6 Folder   2	Estimate of expenses, 1901-1902
Volume   5	Minutes, 1889-1913
Box   6 Folder   3	Preliminary plans and estimates for a treatment plant, 1937
Box   6 Folder   4	Proceedings, 1894, 1896
Box   6 Folder   5-6	Street Department monthly reports, 1938
Box   6 Folder   7	Water Utility Annual Reports, 1939, 1943
Box   6 Folder   8	Board of Vocational Education Annual reports, 1928-1932, 1935, 1945
Box   6 Folder   9	Claims against City, 1947-1948
	Correspondence
Box   6 Folder   10-11	1888-1891, 1900-1902
Box   7 Folder   1-6	1903-1914, 1937-1939
Box   7 Folder   7	Finance Committee Annual report, 1919
Box   7 Folder   8	License committee reports, 1945-1947
Box   7 Folder   9-10	Notices and applications, 1948-1949
Volume   7	Ordinance book, Number 1-239, 1887-1908
Box   8 Folder   1-2	Ordinances, 1893-1897, 1948-1949
Volume   1	Paving and Sewer Bonds, 1891-1892, pages 2-10
	Petitions
Box   8 Folder   3-9	Prior to 1894, 1900-1905
Box   9 Folder   1-6	1906-1912
Box   10 Folder   1-3	1913-1914, 1938-1943
Box   10 Folder   4-5	Petitions to change government structure, 1947-1949
	Proceedings
Box   10 Folder   6	1893-1897
Box   11 Folder   1-4	1897-1899, 1915 July - 1916 June
Box   12 Folder   1-3	1916 June - 1919 April
Box   13 Folder   1-3	1919 May - 1923 April
Box   14 Folder   1-4	1923 April - 1927 October
Box   15 Folder   1-4	1927 November - 1933 June
Box   16 Folder   1-3	1933 July - 1935 November
Box   17 Folder   1-4	1935 November - 1938 May
Box   10 Folder   7-8	1944-1945
Box   18 Folder   1-5	1946-1950
	Resolutions
Box   18 Folder   6-9	1888-1893, 1919, Files #1-202
Box   19 Folder   1-8	1890-1916, Files #203-637
Box   20 Folder   1-9	1898-1922, Files #638-1116
Box   21 Folder   1	1902-1923, 1941, Files #1150-1184
Volume   8	1896-1900, Files #1-145
Box   22 Folder   1-4	1900-1905, Index, #146-479
Box   23 Folder   1-5	1906-1911, Index, #480-801
Box   24 Folder   1-4	1911-1918, Files #802-852, #1-181
Box   25 Folder   1-3	1918-1924, Files #182-420
Box   26 Folder   1-3	1923-1932, Files #420 1/4-652
Box   27 Folder   1-2	1932-1936, Files #653-802
	Unsorted reports
Box   21 Folder   2-5	1893, 1900-1908
Box   28 Folder   1-5	1909-1914, 1938-1943, 1948
	Series: Education and Recreation	⇧
Box   28 Folder   6	Municipal Band annual reports, 1925-1927, 1944
	Park Commission
Box   28 Folder   7	Annual report, 1925
Box   28 Folder   8	Cemetery Sexton Reports of the Mount Hope Cemetery, 1919, 1934-1935
Volume   6	Minutes, 1905-1945
Box   28 Folder   9-10	Vaughn Library Association annual reports, 1911-1912, 1920-1924, 1926-1929, 1931-1934, 1936
	Series: Finance and Administration	⇧
Box   29-35	Assessor, Residential appraisal cards, 1934 Note: See Appendix.
	Clerk
Box   36 Folder   1-4	Annual reports, 1900-1906, 1908-1910, 1913-1926, 1928-1938, 1940-1946
Box   36 Folder   5	Canvassing Board Reports, elections of 1943, 1946, 1947
	Chattel mortgages, L-Z, 1896-1920
Box   36 Folder   6	L, 1-64
Box   37 Folder   1-7	L, 65-184 to O
Box   38 Folder   1-9	P-S
Box   39 Folder   1-8	T-Z
	Indexes to chattel mortgages
Volume   9	#1-2474, 1887-1893
Volume   10	Original Volume 2, #2475-3949, 1893-1898
Volume   11	Original Volume 3, 1896-1910 Note: New numbering system: now numbered within alpha designation.
Volume   12	Original Volume 4, 1906-1920
Volume   13	Original Volume 6, 1929-1931
Box   39 Folder   9	Comptroller Annual reports, 1901-1903
Box   39 Folder   10	Treasurer Annual reports, 1907-1908, 1910, 1912-1913, 1920-1921
	Series: Fire and Police Commission	⇧
Box   39 Folder   11-12	Chief of Police Annual reports, 1902, 1905, 1910-1926, 1928-1931, 1934, 1942, 1944-1948
	Commission Minutes
Volume   14	1898-1924
Volume   15	1924-1946
Box   40 Folder   1-3	Fire Chief Annual and Building reports, 1902-1904, 1906-1948
	Series: Matron of County Rest Room	⇧
Box   40 Folder   4	Annual reports, 1926-1931, 1933-1938
	Series: Mayor	⇧
Box   40 Folder   5	Biannual reports, 1929, 1931

Box	Residential/Mercantile	Area/Additions	Blocks
30	Residential	Harrington & Tomkins	3-4, 6-9, 13-14, 16, 25
30	Residential	Lakeview Addition	1-4
30	Residential	Austrains Addition	1, 2, 5, 8
30	Residential	Dalrymples Addition	5, 8, 10, 14-15, 19
30	Residential	Vaughn and Humbird Additions	2-3, 6-8, 10-14, 16-18, 20-21
30	Residential	Washington Square	197
30	Residential	Lakeshore Division	7, 14, 16-21, 24-26, 28-31, 35-36, 48, 51-59, 62, 71, 73-86, 88
30	Residential	Polk Addition	1-10, 12
31	Residential	Edwards and Quams Addition	3, 7
31	Residential	Washburn Park Addition	1-2, 4, 6
31	Residential	Kennan and Fuller Addition	2-3, 6-8, 12-14, 20, 31, 34-38
31	Residential	Fuller Addition	2-4, 6-9, 11-15, 17-18
31	Residential	Vaughn Division	70-71, 73-75, 111-113, 117
31	Residential	Ashland Proper	1-22
31	Residential	Ashland Proper	23-33, 44
31	Mercantile	Ashland Proper	1-3, 5-7, 19-21, 24-26, 31-33, 45-46, 48-50, 53, 55, 59, 67, 90, 93, 95-97
32	Residential	Ashland Proper	45-47, 49, 61-65
32	Residential	Ashland Proper	66-70, 73-81, 83, 85
32	Residential	Ashland Proper	89-90, 92-93, 95-97, 111, 113, 116
32	Mercantile	Ellis Division	119-123, 131, 147-148, 150-151, 161-166
32	Mercantile	Vaughn Division	70, 73-77, 111-114, 118
32	Mercantile	Wilmarth unplatted land	.
33	Mercantile	City of Ashland. Ellis Division	53-57, 59, 77-81, 84
33	Mercantile	Washington Square	1
33	Mercantile	Austrains Addition	2-6, 8
33	Mercantile	City of Ashland. Ellis Division	192-193, 195-196, 239, 253, 300, 405-406, 5&6 407-409
33	Manufacturing	Ellis Division	9, 11-14
33	Manufacturing	Ellis Division	120
33	Manufacturing	Austrains Addition	5
33	Residential	Phillips Addition	1
33	Residential	Phillips Addition	2
33	Residential	Ellis Division	38-47, 54-64
33	Mercantile	City of Ashland, Phillips Addition	1
33	Residential	Wilmarth & Sheffield (sic)	2-3, 5-7, 9-10, 12
33	Residential	Commercial Addition	8, 13-14, 17, 25-26
33	Residential	Sheffield Addition	3-4, 6, 13
34	Residential	City of Ashland. Superior Addition	12-16, 23, 26, 31-33, 58, 64
34	Residential	Ellis Division	31-37
34	Residential	Ellis Division	101-109
34	Residential	Ellis Division	65-67, 77-79, 81-82, 84-92, 94-100
34	Mercantile	City of Ashland. Ellis Division	106-111
34	Manufacturing	Ashland Proper	21
34	Manufacturing	Ashland Proper	3
34	Manufacturing	Ashland Proper	48
34	Manufacturing	Ashland Proper	92
34	Manufacturing	Ashland Proper	95-97
34	Manufacturing	Lake Shore Division	4-5
34	Manufacturing	Lake Shore Division	9-10
34	Manufacturing	Ellis Division	104
34	Manufacturing	Ellis Division	82
34	Manufacturing	Ellis Division	77
34	Manufacturing	Vaughn Division	112
35	Residential	Ellis Division	161, 169-173, 175-176, 178, 180, 183, 185-189, 191-195
35	Residential	Ellis Division	123-127, 132-135, 137-148
35	Residential	Ellis Division	207-219
36	Residential	Ellis Division	221, 223, 226, 228-241
36	Residential	Ellis Division	252-263, 265-266, 268, 272-274, 277, 279-284
36	Residential	Ellis Division	299-304, 306-311, 318, 321, 346, 374