Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1907-02-12
THAT NEW COUNTY.

A committee of five was appointed at
a recent meeting held in Marshtieid
to discuss the new county question,
the committee to draft a bill to
be presented to the legislature petit
tioniDg that body to create a new
county from portions of Marathon,
Wood and Clark counties. The COM
mittee is composed of Marshfield men.
This committee will have entire charge
of the work of pushing the matter and
Will appoint subcommittee to collect
donatlans to pay tie expense ct carry
ing on slle work, aid secure signatures.
The MarathonfCounty Register says:
- inasmuch as it is impossible for
Marshfield to wrest the county seat of
Wood county from Grand Rapids, they
must needs create county of their own,
and to accomplish this they would slice
off two tiers of townships from the west
side of Marathon, one tier from the east
side and two from the north end of
Clark and in order to leaven the batch
they would add four or five townships
and the city of Marshfield from Wood
county. The proposed new county
would be about 60 miles long and in
some places but 12 miles wide 1t
would have population of over 10000
and an area of over 200 square miles.
1t would contain the very cream of the
land in the Garden of Wisconsin, and
would from the start, be the banner
agriculsaral and dairy county of the
state"
From every one of our exchanges
published in the territory effected, ex-
cept those published in Marshfield, we
find opposition to the movement and
this opposition is liable to become more
pronounced as time drags along
Bill No. 78a, introduced in the legis-
lature by As!sembiyman Nicholas
county and the organization of the de-
tached portion into a new county,"
passed in 1898. The most important
sections read as follows:
"a petition in writing shall be filed
with the county clerk, describing that
part of the county proposed to
be detached and organized into
separate county and praying that the
question of dividing the county as
therein proposed be submitted to vote
of the people of the county. The terri
tory therein described shall be contigu-
Gus and the boundaries of no town,
incorporated village or city shall be
changed by such division. The petition
shall be signed by at least three per cent
of the voters of each voting precinct in
the county and in the aggregate by not
less than five per cent. oil the voters of
said county. The basis of percentage
in each case shall be the sum total of
the votes cast for county clerk on the
various tickets at the last preceding
November election. The petition shall
be filed with the county clerk at least
sixty days before the time of submitting
the question to the vote people, which
time shall be the first Tuesday following
apparently an omission) the filing of
the petition. Any qualified elector of
the county may vote for division or
against division on separate printed
ballot to be deposited in a box used
only for such ballots, and the votes cast
upon this question shall be canvassed
in the same manner as votes are can
vassed for county officers, and said can
vass when so made, shall be recorded
by the county clerk of said county, in
his Office, and certified copy of the
same shall be forthwith forwarded by
said clerk to the secretary of state to be
filed in bis office, and the secretary of
state shall thereupon notify the govern
or of the r, -ults of said election"
The bill provides that the county
clerk shall give notice of the election
through at least two newspapers, des-
cribing the territory sought to be de-
tached.
"All the county officers shall continue
in Office until the expiration of their
respective terms of office and until their
successors are qualified irrespective of
what place in the original county they
may have their legal residence. The
new county shall not be liable for any
Indebtedness of the original county and
shall have 40 claim against the original
county, except such county property as
shall be situated within its boundaries.
But the new county, when organized,
shall be entitled to receive such por
ton of the county tax levied and col
lected during the preceding year as the
aggregate equa!ized valuation made by
the board of supervisors of the county
for the preceding year of all the real and
personal property therein bears to the
equalized value by the same board of
supervisors of the property situated
within the boundaries of the new
county,
After the governor has been notified
of the result of the election he shall, if
''for division" carries. designate the
the new county by some name and
appoint county judge, district at
torney, clerk of the circuit court, county
surveyor, county superintendent OF
schools and coroner and they shall
hold office until the first Monday in
January following the succeeding gener-
al election. If this bill is passed its pro-
visions will undoubtedly stop any divis-
ion of this county, for such move
would hardly carry in an election in