POLITICAL RECORD OF

ONTONAGON COUNTY'S EARLY ELECTIONS

Ontonagon County was laid off, boundaries defined and named, by an act of the Legislature entitled "An act to divide the Upper Peninsula into six counties and define the boundaries of the same," approved March 9, 1843. It was attached to Chippewa County for judicial purposes.

An act approved May 18, 1846, entitled " An act to organize the counties of Houghton, Schoolcraft, Ontonagon and Marquette," provided that the county of Ontonagon, as laid off and bounded by the act of 1843, should be organized by an election of county officers, to be held on the first Monday of August, 1846, including a County Judge. The county was, by this act, attached to Houghton County for judicial and other purposes. The act of 1843 also provided that the first election should be held for all this territory, including Ontonagon, at Copper Harbor, Eagle River and L'Anse. By another act, approved March 17, 1847, it was provided that an election for county officers in Houghton County, including Ontonagon as attached territory, should be held in all the townships thereof, on the first Tuesday of July, 1847.

An act, approved April 3, 1848, was passed, providing for the organizing of four counties in the Upper Peninsula, Section 3, and defining and naming Ontonagon County as one of them. The act provided for the election of county officers on the first Tuesday of July, 1848, in Ontonagon County, which, with Marquette and Schoolcraft, are attached to Houghton for judicial purposes.

1849

Election of county officers held November 6, 1849. 

Twenty-one votes cast by the pioneer electors, of which John S. Barry, for Governor, received seven, and Flavius Littlejohn, for Lieutenant Governor, received thirteen. Samuel O. Knapp, Daniel P. Cash, J. B. Townsend, P. B. Eastman, John Smith, Francis Anthony, Edmond Lockwood, James K. Paul, Edwin Emmons, Josiah B. Jeffrey, Henry H. Wolcott, Asa A. Jeffrey, Daniel Beaser, W. French, S. Shelley, J. W. Parker, George B. Mansfield, Thomas McDonald, Peter Geise, Lathrop Johnson and Josiah Chandler

The election of county officers was held void, since the organization of the county was not then perfected legally.  Had the election not been voided, those elected to fill county positions were:

1852

The first or organizing election of the county was held on the last Tuesday of September, 1852 at two voting precincts - one in the township of Ontonagon, and the other in the township of Pewabic, which townships were defined and named by legislative enactment March 16, 1847.

The following were the county officers thus chosen:

These officers, together with the Board of Supervisors, organized and placed the civic machinery of the county in operation. The first Board of Supervisors was composed of Augustus Coburn, of Ontonagon Township, and James Van Alstine, of Pewabic Township, chosen, with other township officers in their respective townships, at the said first election.

Again, no act had legally perfected a separate county organization of Ontonagon, although a special election was held therein on the last Tuesday of September, 1852, and an organization thereof thus perfected, but was held illegal because it was irregularly held as to time and manner. However, a curative act was passed, approved January 17, 1853, which provided "that the election of county officers in Ontonagon County, held on the last Tuesday of September, 1852, and the organization of said county under and by virtue of said election, be and the same is hereby held and deemed to have been duly organized on and after January 1, 1853."

The same act also provided " that all of Houghton County lying west of the line between Ranges 35 and 36, heretofore constituting a part of said county, is hereby annexed to and constitutes a part of Ontonagon County." Thus the detachment of Ontonagon County from Houghton for election, judicial and revenue purposes, and the complete organization thereof by itself, dates from January 1, 1853, notwithstanding all the legislative acts and efforts made to this end prior thereto.

1853

Held on Friday, July 15, 1853, at which the following county officers were elected:

The vote cast at this election was sixty-one, which the foregoing persons received entire. The vote was canvassed July 19, 1853, by Levi Hanna as Chairman; D. Pittman, as Clerk of the Board of County Canvassers. This was the second election under the legally perfected county organization.

Representatives elected during the 1859-1874 elections:

The vote of Ontonagon County for President from 1860-1880:

The total vote in the county for Governor from 1854 to 1880 was:

Kinsley S. Bingham (1808-1861). Governor, 1855-1858 - Bingham served as Michigan Democratic congressman, 1847-1851, Republican governor, 1855-1858, and U.S. senator, 1859-1861. Wife Mary Warden; son James (First Lieutenant, Sixteenth Michigan Infantry, who died in 1862).

Moses Wisner (1815-1864). Governor, 1859-1860 - Wife, Angelina.

Austin Blair (1818-1894). Governor, 1861-1864 -

Henry H. Crapo (1804-1869). Governor, 1865-1868 -

Henry P. Baldwin (1814-1892). Governor, 1869-1872 -

John J. Bagley (1832-1881). Governor, 1873-1876 - Bagley was a Detroit businessman, Republican governor of Michigan, 1873-1876, and candidate for the U. S. Senate in 1881.

Charles M. Croswell (1825-1886). Governor, 1877-1880 - Croswell served as Republican state senator from Adrian, Michigan, and governor of Michigan, 1877-1880.

David H. Jerome (1829-1896). Governor, 1881-1882 -

1882

*Was elected by the people, served part of his term, and appointed H.L M. Powers in his place, whereupon the Board of Supervisors appointed William J. Coulter to till M. A. Powers' vacancy, which H. M. Powers declined to recognize, and " held the fort" until the Circuit Court, at its term in September, 1882, invited him to vacate, whereupon W. J. Coulter assumed the duties of the office until the Supreme Court determined the matter.

**Held the office from 1856, by election, successively until 1876, when Capt. Henry Buzzo was elected, and died soon after he entered upon his second term, in 1881, whereupon Mr. Loranger was appointed to fill the vacancy.

Source: Western Historical Company. History of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Chicago: The Western Historical Company, 1883.