Title: Montgomery Morrison Cothren Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1841-1890

Creator:

• Cothren, Montgomery Morrison, 1819-1888

Call Number: Platteville Mss N

Quantity: 0.8 c.f. (2 archives boxes)

Repository:

Housed at the Southwest Wisconsin Room and Area Research Center, Ullsvik Hall, University of Wisconsin-Platteville; owned by the Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

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

UW-Platteville Southwest Wisconsin Room / Platteville Area Research Ctr. (Map)

Abstract:

Papers of Cothren, a Mineral Point, Wis., attorney, member of the territorial and state legislatures, and circuit court judge. Included is business correspondence, legal documents from cases he handled, land papers, bills, and receipts.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-pltv000n

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Montgomery Morrison Cothren (1819-1888) was a Mineral Point lawyer, Wisconsin territorial legislator, 1847 and 1848; state senator, 1850 and 1851; and Fifth Judicial Circuit judge, 1852-1865 and 1876-1882. He was born at Jerusalem, Yates County, New York, September 18, 1819. He attended public schools until he was about ten years old, when his family moved from New York to the Michigan Territory. This ended his formal education, but he continued to study and self-educate himself, particularly in the field of law. Around 1839 he came to Wisconsin and settled at New Diggings, where he spent the next four years teaching school and studying law. In 1843 he was made clerk of the Iowa County board and moved to Mineral Point, then the county seat. There, after being admitted to the State Bar in 1843, he opened a law office. He practiced law until he was elected to the lower house of the territorial legislature in 1847 and 1848. In 1850 and 1851 he was elected state senator and served as the chair-man of the judicial committee and as a member of the commission that collected the general laws of Wisconsin into the Revised Statutes of 1849.

When his senate term expired Cothren widened the scope of his political activities. In 1852 he was a Democratic presidential elector. In the same year he ran for judge of the fifth judicial circuit on the Democratic ticket and was elected, serving for twelve years. In 1863 he was the unsuccessful Democratic candidate for Chief Justice of the State Supreme Court. When his second term expired Cothren refused renomination and resumed his law practice at Mineral Point. However, he ran again and was elected circuit judge in 1876. During this term he twice campaigned unsuccessfully for other offices. In 1879 he ran for associate justice of the Supreme Court and in 1880 for Congress. He sought re-election to the circuit court in 1882, but was defeated by George Clementson. Judge Cothren returned again to Mineral Point and resumed his private practice. However, he retained his interest in political affairs, and when he died on October 27, 1888, just ten days before the election, he was a Democratic candidate for the state senate.

The Cathren collection covers a period from 1846 to around 1888. The papers have been classified into three groups; correspondence, 1846-1888; legal papers; and bills and receipts. The correspondence has been arranged chronologically. The volume of the correspondence is slight, making up only one-fifth of the collection. It pertains mainly to business affairs of the Judge, although there are a few personal letters throughout the papers. Oddly, there are very few letters relating to political affairs. The legal papers make up the bulk of the collection. They consist of the office copies of the documents prepared by Cothren for the various cases he handled. These papers have been arranged alphabetically, according to case names. (See index that follows the box list.) The remainder of the collection is made up of numerous bills and receipted bills. They too have been filed chronologically.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Scuyler Cothren Ladd, Dodgeville, Wisconsin, Sept. 8, 1954.

Box   1	Correspondence, 1846-1888
	Legal Cases and Papers
Box   1	A-L
Box   2	M-Z
Box   2	Land patents and certificates, 1841-1876
Box   2	Miscellaneous bills and receipts, 1846-1890

• Aiken v. Pease & Purfey
• Anderson v. Boswell at al.
• Andrews v. Brimer
• Ausley & Sullivan agreement
• Bainbridge, guardian of Henry Robison, Sarah Jane Robson, and Mary Ann Robson v. Stephens, Raw, & Warton
• Bennetts v. Owen
• Blinkeron v. O'Brannan
• Bowles (or Bolles) v. Jones and Mineral Point Mining Company
• Bradley & Metcalf v. Meigs
• Brennan v. Ohlerking
• Bracken v. Johnson, Bridge, & Bridge
• Bronson, administrator of Barnett Estate v. Dunn, administrator of Parisk Estate
• Brunner & Bower v. Mineral Point Railroad and Cobb, Superintendent
• Chadwick Estate v. White, administrator
• Champion v. Doty
• Champion v. Argull
• Champion v. March
• Cobb v. Burns
• Cole v. Lightfoot
• Collard agreements and wills
• Cook v. O'Donnell
• Cothren v. Champion
• Cothren v. Cominghton
• Cothren v. Lean
• Cothren to Stevens, mortgage
• Cothren to Stowers, mortgage
• Cutting v. Rock River Insurance Company
• Davenport v. Hollister & Stephens
• Davis v. Parkinson
• Dubuque, Platteville & Milwaukee R.R. Co. & Mineral Point R.R. Co. agreement
• Dunluth Land Matters (Horace Smead)
• Dunn, et al., v. Jones
• Eastman, et al., v. White
• Field v. Williams et al.
• Gates v. Butler & Cawley
• Gray v. Brainard
• Hammett, et al., v. White, et al.
• Heathcock & Lobilcock agreement
• Hennie v. Orht, et al.
• Hill v. Mineral Point Mining Company
• How v. McGiven & McDonald
• Hunt, et al., v. Ansley
• Johnson v. Bracken
• Johnson certificate and abstract of title
• Jones & Strong Land Matter
• Judson, sale of horse to Cothren
• Kearns v. McCarville
• Kelso v. Scright
• Kendall v. Kendall
• Knowlton v. Smith, et al.
• Laird, at al., v. Boyle, et al.
• Lancaster, Town of, v. Barr
• Langlai v. McEnter
• Lawringer v. Reger
• Lean v. Bayliss & Woods
• Lee v. Simpson, et al.
• Lee v. Lee
• Lindert & Schroter v. Morten
• Lionberger receipted list
• Lukey v. Thexton
• McCutchin v. Platt
• McDonald Case
• McManus Divorce Case
• Madden certificate
• Maddrell v. Nelson, Watson, & Chapman
• Magoon v. Grohot
• Magoon v. Scales
• Martin & Coman v. Mineral Point Railway Company
• Martin Estate
• Master's Complaint
• Mather v. Hutchinson
• Mathes v. Robbin
• Michell v. Eade
• Miller & Owen deed
• Mineral Point Mining Company v. Jones
• Mineral Point Mining Company agreement with Schuyler
• Moeller & Ehemann Marriage
• Morse & Williams v. Dewey & Richmond
• Murphy v. Pencock & Murphy
• Myers deed
• Olerich (or Ulerich) Case
• Otis - copy of judgment notes
• Owen - Wilbur deed
• Page v. Dubuque Platteville Railroad Company
• Peddlety v. Elliot
• Pieters, et al., v. Shanly
• Picket case
• Roach v. Roach
• Reomes v. McCarvel
• Rose v. Lymill
• Roundtree v. Griggs
• Salisbury affidavit
• Sam, et al., v. Troxel, et al.
• Schultz v. Garden
• Shaw v. Bainbridge, et al.
• Shook & Cunningham v. Vanmatre
• Sightcap v. Edwards
• Smith v. Garden
• Sobey v. Thomas & Owens
• Spears & Vanderhoof v. Bracken & Bracken
• Stephens power of attorney
• Stephens v. Mills & Magor
• Sturdevant, et al. v. Stowers
• Sylvester v. Clise, et al
• Temby v. Plowman & Plowman
• Thomas - will
• Thornton notation
• Townsend v. Peasely
• United States v. Jacob George
• Vaughn v. Mineral Point Railway Company - Subpoena
• Vincent sale of land rights to Cothren
• Welsh v. Kyle
• Webster to Hubbard, deed
• Weizen to McKinney
• Westford, Town of, v. Krouse
• Wilbur, quit-claim deed
• Wilkinson v. Wilkinson
• Wilson v. Weidenfeller at al.
• Wisconsin v. Boll
• Wisconsin v. Bremiss
• Wisconsin v. Daugherty
• Wisconsin v. Free
• Wisconsin v. Hastings
• Wisconsin v. Miller
• Wisconsin v. Odell
• Wisconsin v. Sullivan
• Wisconsin v. Vivian
• Wood tax receipt
• Worden v. Longwell
• Wright v. Sperry
• Young