The first Brown County Courthouse

GREEN BAY – After the War of 1812, the population of the Great Lakes region grew.

What is now the state of Wisconsin had been part of the Northwest Territory, the Indiana Territory, the Illinois Territory, and in 1818, became part of the Michigan Territory.

The Michigan Territory was extended west to the Mississippi River and three counties were subdivided from it — Crawford County in the west, with a county seat in Prairie du Chien; Brown County to the east, with a county seat in Green Bay; and Michilimackinac County to the north, with a county seat in Mackinac.

“The settlers, coming as they did in such numbers after the (war) made the need of a separate territorial government imperative,” Wisconsin Superintendent of Schools E.G. Doudna wrote in his 1920 history book, Our Wisconsin.

Brown County was organized by the Hon. Lewis Cass, then governor of the Michigan Territory, in October 1818.

At the time, the county included the area that is now Kenosha, Racine, Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Sheboygan, Manitowoc, Kewaunee, Door, Walworth, Waukesha, Washington, Fond du Lac, Calumet, Outagamie, Shawano, Oconto, Winnebago, Dodge, Jefferson, Rock, Columbia, Marquette, Waushara, Waupaca, Brown and a portion of Dane and Green counties.

Matthew Irwin was appointed as Brown County’s chief justice, commissioner, judge of probate, justice of the peace, sheriff, commissioner and clerk.

For five years, prisoners had to be transported by canoe to Detroit for trial.

“It was almost 600 miles to Detroit, the capital of Michigan, and the means of communication were so primitive that the settlers felt it to be as far away as a foreign capital,” Doudna stated.

In 1823, Congress passed an act creating an additional judicial district which included Brown, Crawford and Michilimackinac counties, and the Hon. James D. Doty was appointed judge.

Doty was administered the oath of office on June 30, 1824.

“As early as 1824, Judge James Doty had made an effort to have a separate territory organized. He proposed to call the new territory Chippewa, and he included within its boundaries the northern peninsula of Michigan and a large section of the present state of Minnesota,” Doudna said.

Cass approved a county seat to be located within six miles of the mouth of the Fox River.

A log building at Menomineeville was selected as the location of the county seat and Doty traveled between Prairie du Chien, Mackinac Island and Menomineeville to fulfill his judicial duties between the established counties.

Following the establishment of the Wisconsin Territory, an act was created to change the county seat which read, “That the seat of justice in the county of Brown shall from and after the first day of April 1837, be established with at Navarino, Astor or De Pere, as may be decided by the qualified voters of the said county, as is hereinafter provided.”

When the Green Bay vote was split between Navarino and Astor, De Pere saw the majority of the vote and became the county seat.

The log courthouse previously used as the courthouse at Menomineeville was then dragged over the ice of the Fox River to De Pere.

The log structure was later replaced by a two-story building on the intersection of the De Pere streets of George and Washington.

The first floor held the jail facilities and the second story contained the courtroom.

De Pere remained the county seat for 17 years, 1837-54.

In 1840, court sessions were split between Green Bay and De Pere, with spring sessions held in Green Bay and fall sessions in De Pere.

In 1854, Green Bay was incorporated as a city, and another vote was held to select the location of the county seat, and this time Green Bay won out.

The De Pere facility continued to operate as a jail and the second floor was rented out.

The building was also used as a school.

“Eventually, Brown County sold the building at auction although the local jail continued to occupy the lower level. When the First Presbyterian Church organized in 1849 parishioners held services in the old courthouse building until they were able to build their own church in 1854,” a De Pere Historical Society article stated.

“In the early morning of March 12, 1871, the De Pere courthouse building burned to the ground. Two locals had been arrested and jailed two days prior on drunk and disorderly charges. One was released the next day but found himself back in jail again that night. He reportedly told the marshal that ‘he’d be sorry’ the next morning for putting him in jail again. The two prisoners perished in the fire.

“An inquest following the event found that the prisoner who threatened the marshal may well have set the blaze in an attempt to gain his freedom.
“A stone marker erected in 1930 and rededicated in June 2009 now commemorates the location of the first Brown County Courthouse in De Pere.”