Early History of Waupaca, Wisconsin

              COUNTY   SEAT. C3
(pasl'heir prime); and before iie left i!ie place they carried their threats in execuilion AVhen he came to Waupaca he said he would help us if we wo!ild liel|» him. After the Mgrecment was made, he told us that foriy-five boys under ten years of age had voted at AVey- auwega on tlie removal of ih'j eouaty seat, lit-tore sovou o'clock in Ihe morning. We thouglit that that giiue might be played by two as well as liy one; and set ourselves about protecting our interests. The place of voting in this town WIS at the idd Exchange Tavcr:i then run by J. J. Jones. The polls were jusl inside the front window and the ballots were h}.nd(;d through tha window. The center pane of glass in the lower s.'ish had been remoyed and through this hole the ballots were handed. All the rest of the window was closely curtained so that the (.nly poriion of voter seen was that visible through one small pane of a window. According to instructions men would step up and vote, the first lime giving their real names, li. a few minutcG they would return and vote under an assumed name. One Kian in particular, I remember lo have voted eighteen times under as many different names. Beginning w-ith Jjim Oleson he ended up with Peter Hooper.
About noon ten of Weyauwega's greatest bullies came by team to Waupaca for the express purpose of destroying the ballot box. When thty drove up, Big LaDow got out of the wagon near E. L. Browne's of* ficeaiid .x^kipped over the river bank juit across from the barrel factory. His intention was to follow Uj) the river bank to the old Exchange Tav¬ ern and in ihp absence of the election board, to steal the ballot box. We will soon SCO Vis succes-?. The remaining nine drove up to the Hig¬ gins Tavern. As soon as we heard ot Iheir arrival, we rushed down Main street to receive the company. Someof the men staid at the polls to guard them. A solid man named Peter Milchell had charge of our crowd. They had alighted before we came upon the scene, but Milcheil directed them to retake their seats in the wagon. It would have done you good to have seen them hurry  back  into that wagon.
He compelled them to stay there while he went lo the hotel bar and brought out the whi.»ike\'. After they had .sampled Waupaca's strongest tl.ty were started toward liome, accompanied by the Wau- p.tca marlial band consisting of a fife aud oae drum. The tune played was very appropriate to the occasion, being ''The girl I left behind me."   Soon after they had gone I saw Charley  Redfield  standing on