OLD PEPIN COUNTY COURTHOUSE MUSEUM AND JAIL
Welcome to the Old Courthouse Museum. This building was constructed in 1873-74 for $7000, and, with the exception of the five years 1882 to 1886, it served as the Pepin County Courthouse until 1985. It and the jail next door are listed on the State and National Registers of Historic Places. In 1985, the Pepin County government moved to the current county government center located on 7th Avenue West near the golf course and the Old Pepin County Courthouse became this museum.
This building is now nearly 135 years old and you see in the hallway some of the building's more recent modifications. When built, it had no electricity or plumbing. As these technologies developed, they were added. The paneled walls, suspended ceilings, and fluorescent lights were installed in the 1960s, while this structure was still a working courthouse...a time when more thought was given to what was is in vogue and useful than to what was historical. However, several areas of the building are still close to original and will give you a good idea of what the actual finish may have looked like at the time it was built.
Let's begin out on the front porch. From all directions, the Pepin County Courthouse dominates this one square block of downtown Durand. It is a two-story Greek Revival wood-frame building with a giant order open portico. Decoration to the outside originally included: the louvered square belfry atop the portico; a lunette window centered in the pediment; simple semicircular fanlight windows above the double front doors and above the back door; and, segmental-arched windows (still visible from the inside in the upstairs courtroom, but now covered on the outside by rectangular frames to accommodate the modern aluminum siding and on the inside by suspended ceilings).
It is the only remaining wood-frame courthouse in Wisconsin and one of only two existing Greek Revival courthouses representing that era of construction. However, comprehensive interior remodeling, alterations to the windows, and installation of aluminum siding severely diminish this building's character as a true representative of that particular period of construction. Along the southwest wall in the main corridor are pictures showing different stages in the building's life.
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Pepin is a very old French name that dates back more than 1400 years. If you "Google" the word "pepin", you will get about one million places on the Internet that mention the word. Meanwhile, if you "Google" the exact phrase "Pepin County", you only get about 45,000 choices. Along the northeast wall of the main hallway, a few interesting bits of Pepin County history are matted in red.
Pepin County was created by a special act of the Wisconsin Legislature in February, 1858. It was a special act in the sense that any action of the Legislature not related to taxes or spending was referred to as a special act. The Father of Pepin County (or at least the man whose name has remained connected to the petition presented to the Legislature requesting creation of the county) is William Boyd Newcomb. He is also the Father/Founder of the Village of Pepin...and, one of the Fathers/Co-Founders of Dunn County. Not many men can boast being the Father of two counties, which were born within four years of one another.
This building is historically significant as the long time center of Pepin County government; as a cultural and educational center; as a focal point in the development of the City of Durand; and, as a pivotal element in settling the turbulent thirty year controversy surrounding the selection of a county seat. When created in 1858, the county's first seat of government was located in the Village of Pepin, home of William Boyd Newcomb. The very next year the issue was brought to a vote, but Pepin retained the title. However, in 1861, following another vote, the state legislature approved the selection of Durand as county seat, despite charges of fraudulent voting and mutilated ballots.
Initially, county business in Durand was conducted in Topping Hall in the business district. To solidify its hold on the county seat, the Village of Durand, led by its founder Miles Durand Prindle, built this courthouse during the winter of 1873-74 on property owned by Miles and Ada Prindle and deeded it to the county. The building quickly became the community's center, with social, educational and political events held here. However, just seven years later, during the year 1881, citizens voted to remove the county seat to Arkansaw. Some folks believed Durand was not meant to be the county seat. A majority of county voters agreed and removed the courthouse to Arkansaw, where it was located in a rented building for the next five years. Ownership of this building reverted back to Mr. Prindle, but it continued to be used as a center for a variety of civic, educational, and social functions. [In the plexiglass case on the wall of the central corridor next to the door to Room 3 is the key believed to be to the upstairs room of the Arkansaw building, which served as the temporary courthouse. The teeth of this key have been engraved with the name "Miles Knight"...Miletus S. Knight was the Under-Sheriff of Pepin County during this time period and would very likely have been holder of a key to the Arkansaw courthouse. However, additional research has presented a conflicting theory, i.e., a mill known as the Miles-Knight Mill was operating along the Arkansaw Creek about the same time and the key may have been to the mill.]
In 1886, when the question of county seat location was again brought to ballot, the building itself proved to be instrumental in removing the seat to Durand once and for all. The building being rented in Arkansaw was inadequate in size and unsafe for the storage of government records. The cost of new facilities would have meant imposition of a tax to raise the funds necessary to construct a new building. Miles Prindle had deeded this building to the City of Durand, which offered it to the county for a dollar if the county seat returned here. Economics and no new taxes won out; the seat was removed to Durand, where it has remained since.
The nameplate on each door identifies a county office, which may have been located in that room at one time or another. Just which rooms housed which offices originally is anyone's guess. The building went through numerous renovations and modifications throughout its 110 years as the center of county government. What you see today is the culmination of all the changes to the structure, including paneling on the walls, suspended ceilings, fluorescent lights, phones, electricity, heating system, dividing walls, covered basement entry, coal room, flush toilets, and all the rest of the finish and fixtures not part of the original construction.
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Room One displays are devoted: to the county's original inhabitants, Native Americans; to the City of Durand's founder, Miles Durand Prindle; to one of America's greatest female educators, Helen Parkhurst; to the bridges crossing the Chippewa River at Durand; and to a local artist, C. H. Gleason. The museum has six paintings by Gleason, five oils and one watercolor. At least two of the paintings are scenes believed to be of the Durand area and all are around one hundred years old. Gleason was born here in 1874, the year this building was completed, and died in 1950 at Mt. Vernon, Washington. Other items of interest include vintage fire-fighting equipment, a 1901 football helmet, a double-nippled baby bottle for feeding twins, and the Victrola.
Room Two celebrates: Pepin County residents who served in the American armed forces; the area's commerce; the county's religious institutions; and the everyday lives of its citizens. Items of interest include: a log cabin doll house modeled on a 19th-century log cabin that stood in the Town of Waterville; a replica of the one-room Maple Ridge School; another C.H. Gleason oil painting; a rare, nearly complete collection of History of the War of the Rebellion ( Civil War); the vintage baby stroller; the Dorwin's Mill 3-dimensional artwork; Mrs. Ethel Rayburn's Papal Cross; and, the foot-pump milking machine.
Room Three is our household room featuring: a 19th-century "Handy Washing Machine"; products, tools and appliances used in and around the home, vintage clothing, a hand-pump vacuum, and a parlor stove.
Room Four focuses on health care professions with equipment, furnishings, and other artifacts from a doctor's and a dentist's offices, a former local hospital, a pharmacy, and from a barbershop. Also, notice the "politically incorrect" mile marker for Durand Drug Co.
Room Five features artifacts from the former Durand Railroad Depot and old Post Office. Items of interest include the telegraph/Morse Code equipment, old scales, a hand-powered rail drilling tool, and a railroad car portable heater. Just outside the door to Room Five is an old hand-crank telephone.
Room Six is the tool room and includes tools for barn building, shoemaking, river rafting, farming, logging, and carpentry.
The building's centerpiece is the Courtroom on the second floor, featuring original walls, windows and woodwork. Note the segmental arched windows and the wainscot along the base of the walls all the way around the room. It's as close to the original as you will see.
The jail next door is attached to what was until 1984 the residence of the county Sheriff. The jail is significant for its original iron lattice-work iron cells which are relatively rare in Wisconsin. The jail was still being used until 1984.
Though many significant events occurred in the old courthouse, the most notorious by far occurred in November of 1881. Following the preliminary hearing held in the courtroom upstairs of a man accused in the shooting death of a local deputy sheriff the previous July, an angry mob overwhelmed and subdued the county law enforcement officers guarding the accused murderer. As the prisoner was brought down the winding stairs, the mob descended on the far out-numbered deputies. A hangman's noose appeared seemingly from nowhere and was looped around the prisoner's neck. He was yanked by neck out the door, dragged across the porch, down the steps, over to a tree in the yard and pulled up into the air; still handcuffed and wearing leg irons. It was a chilling November afternoon for the good citizens of Durand, who had to endure for many years after the reputation as a "hangin' town".
A month later, a terrible fire destroyed most of the wood-framed buildings in downtown Durand. The Courthouse was spared.