Herbert Hoover the candidate of the Republican Party had been elected President of the United States in 1928. I had voted for the first time at the Pleasant Prairie Town Hall located at where Hwy. 31 is now and 91st Ave. I voted for Mr. Hoover, something I have apologized for many times since. (Note: It was probably the only time Richard Lindgren voted Republican.) My dad was very angry with me; he had voted for Eugene Debs the Socialist Candidate. I voted for Mr. Debs in 1932 as did my father, but in 1940 I finally voted for Franklin Roosevelt as I did in 1944.
Hoover and the Conservative Congress passed the Reconstruction Finance Corporation Act in the early 30's. It was an act to recover from the stock market crash. Its purpose was to jump start the economy by finance businesses with loans so they could start up the stalled factories and place people back to work. This piece of legislation failed miserably. President Hoover had failed to realize what was needed to fuel businesses was customers to buy the products the factories could produce. The money loaned to the businesses never reached the consumer.
In 1932, Franklin Roosevelt became President and along with the Democratic Congress reversed the loan procedures. Roosevelt's New Deal Program established the Works Progress Administration and similar alphabet agencies, and jobs were found for the people. Many of these jobs were public buildings and programs where people could earn a wage and buy the products that manufactures began to bring forward. (Note: most notable constructions were Hoover Dam, LaGuardia Airport and the Bay Bridge.) In the late 1930's when WWII began, there was less need for government stimulated economy as the US and their allies prepared to fight and win the war for democracy. (Note: the WPA was terminated in 1943.)
In June of 1942 the Wisconsin Gas and Light Company sold its division of the trolley buses to the Kenosha Motor Coach Company. I decided to leave the company, and I immediately found work as an electrician with the Nash Motor who was in the process of remolding the plant to build aircraft engines for the government. We had entered the war with the allies in 1941 after the attack on Peral Harbor.
1942-1949
Early in 1947 an event occurred that would set me on a career, I would follow for the test of my lifer. George Molinaro who was a member of the UAW Local #72 Executive Board had been elected the represent Kenosha County in the State Legislature in the fall of 1946. He had been a member of the of the Kenosha County Board for several years, but he would not run of reelection to the Board. His brother, Joesph, was an attorney would run to replace him on the Board. George had been after me to also run for the Board, I was in the 18th District, this area was all within the city of Kenosha. I was not very anxious to be a County Board member, but I eventually agreed to run for the position in the 1947 April spring election. Joe and I had not known each other very well prior to being elected as County Board Supervisors, but we became close friends when were started serving on the Board in April.
We found the County Board was largely controlled by the Highway Committee of five Board members. When the Highway Committee wanted a resolution passed by the Board it was enacted. Our small group of decenters could hold up the resolution but they would finally enact the resolution.
I was not a very good Supervisor during my first term. I was also president of Local #72, a job that I took a great deal of my time and attention. We had approximately 12000 union members when Nash Motors returned to automobile production after the end of WWII. Both the company and the union were anxious for the Nash Motor car to be marketed as soon as possible. The car market was such that any new car built was snapped up as soon as it arrived at the dealers show rooms. We both hope the purchased of new Nash cars would continue when they needed a new car. My first term as president was continued in 1948, when I was reelected president of the union.
George Molinaro's term in the state legislature was not a fulltime job and he continued to work in the factor when the legislature was not in session. He was trying to build a Democratic Party in Kenosha, and he was constantly telling me I should run for a fulltime county office position. He finally got me to run for Kenosha County Clerk, whose office was in the Courthouse. The person presently in the office was a Democrat but not associated with the party or its officers. He had held the office for about sixteen years, but Molinaro concluded that he could be replaced by the new Democratic Party with its progressive party affiliates.
My election did not go as smoothly as I had predicted. The former clerk did not give up the job graciously. He had been elected in 1932 when Roosevelt was elected President and had held the office since. County officers had to run of reelection every two years and he rarely had any candidates run against him. Irene was not wholly in favor my attempt to win the election. She reminded me that I would have to run for reelection every two years if I wanted to continue as County Clerk. However, when I decided to run for the office, she became a very good supporter and helped greatly in my efforts.
After final filing date for nomination papers there was a primary election in September where there were three active candidates, the present clerk and I ran on the Democratic ticket where the winner would be the Democratic candidate in November and the Republican candidate who ran unopposed. I won the primary election which did not set to well with the present clerk. He was surprised that he lost and turned around and decided to run as an independent candidate in November.
It was a good campaign, Molinaro was correct, I was elected County Clerk, and I would take office on the first Monday in January 1949. I had to resign as president of Local #72 before becoming the Clerk of Kenosha County. The former clerk was not a happy person about his defeat and rarely even said hello to me at County Board Meetings in November and December of 1948. I still had to run my office at Local #72 until January and learn as much as possible about my new job. This was a difficult task with the attitude of the former clerk after he lost the election. I stayed away from the clerk office until I took office in January.
This changes the direction of my life and was the last many years. At the December; 1948, Board meeting I been elected custodian and purchasing agent for the Courthouse and jail. I received compensation for each of these two additional jobs, I believe it was approximately $800 a year. My clerk salary was less that I had been earning as an electrician at Nash Motors. The good side was I had two years until the next election and a Nash where my job depended on the sale of the company's automobiles. This was the second time when I became in charge of a department. The first time was when I became foreman of the Electric Trolly's maintenance department in 1931.
On that first Monday of January 1949, I drove to the Courthouse and parked on 56th St. in front of the building. I did not know if I had a special parking place. As I stood looking at the building. I thought about how proud I would have been if my father, who help build the Courthouse, could have been with me as I walked to up the stairs of the Courthouse on that date in January to assume my role as County Clerk. (My father pasted away in 1938). As I walked through the door thinking that this building was the reason, I now lived in Kenosha. We had arrived here in 1924, when my father was hired to build this brick and block structure. I never dreamed that one day I would have an office here.
As I walked into my office the four employees hired by the former clerk met me. I had only met one of the previously, Doris Dixon, who kept the minutes of each County Board meeting. The County Clerk was also the clerk for the County Board. The other three women who worked in this office I met for the first time. I asked them all too stay to teach me how to carry out the duties of the clerk. The former clerk was not present; I do not believe I ever saw him in the office in the next twenty years.
The Sunday following my taking office I took the family through the office after attending church. This was the second time Irene had been here in the office, the first time is when we applied for a marriage license in 1935.
My days ahead were filled with the duties of the office. In addition to being the Secretary of the County Board, I was the finance officer for the County. My office kept the books for the County when we listed all money coming in and made out checks for County expenses. The county budget was around a million dollars in 1949. I signed all the checks together with the County Treasure and the County Chairman of the Board. My signature and the Chairmans were on one stamp, and the Treasure signed them as they were printed. All bills except the payroll for County employees.
All bills over $5000 had to be approved by the County Board at their monthly meeting before they were paid. The were Jury fees, bounty payments, etc., paid each day as they were presented each day at the office. Another duty of the Clerk's office was to sell land appropriated by the County from individuals who failed to pay their property taxes for a few years. There were almost a thousand such properties for sale when I became the County Clerk. Each year the County Clerk and the County Board Finance Committee would list the properties taken by failure to pay taxes and set a price and the submit the list to the County Boars for their approval.
A date was set on a Saturday morning so that more people could attend the sale. The previous Clerk had held this sale in a weekday in the early afternoon. The price for each property was established by the Board as a minimal price. Each property was presented at the established price and if there were more than one bidder an auction was held, and the property went to the highest bidder. After the sale was completed, anyone would buy the property for the price set by the Board. The buyer would receive a quick claim deed.
The County held these auctions four times a year. During my first two years in office, I received the price of all the property sold by the County. Property not sold had to be taken back to the Board for repricing. We rarely sold more than a third of the properties at each auction. After ten years we had reduced the price to around hundred dollars.
I met with the County Board Committees each month. This included the Finance, Building and Grounds, Printing and Audit Committees to name a few. These meeting were held at night and left me very little time for any social activities. Including all my other responsibilities the County Board elected me to assume the role as the Building Custodian. I had to oversee the five courthouse and jail custodians and the heating Engineers. Their responsibilities were to keep the Courthouse and jail building clean and in repair. One individual worked during the day and did repairs work and move furniture during the time the Courthouse was open. The Courthouse janitors work nights, and the Engineers had shifts that covered the 24 hours including Saturday and Sunday. The Courthouse was open five days a week including Saturday morning. The jail building was open 24 hours a day.
Maintenance work was always on-going since the Courthouse was constructed in 1924. I told the building committee that the Courthouse and jail should have a regular schedule that included painting of the rooms and offices. The committed agreed and the Board authorized a schedule for maintaining the two buildings. Repairing plaster, repainting and general overall replacement old equipment were to name a few. One section of the Courthouse would be scheduled each year. The jail would be on a four-year rotation. The outside of both the Courthouse and jail buildings were also placed on a schedule. The heating engineers did the grass cutting and any outside/inside work necessary during the summer months.
There was one job that I did not plan for and was not in my job description as county clerk. I had noticed during my first year that the American flag was not flown on the courthouse. I asked the chief engineer, and he told me that rope on the flagpole located on the roof had broken. The flagpole had been built to laid down to change the rope when needed but due to the lack of maintaining the flagpole it had frozen in place and could not be lowered from its upright position to replace the rope. During the first nice day in spring, I asked the day engineer to meet me at 6:30am one morning so we could replace the rope on the flagpole. I put on a pair of shorts, went up to the roof and climbed to the top of the pole and replaced the rope. We didn't have a ladder long enough to reach the top is the reason I had to climb to the top. We had the flag up that day and replacing the rope was from then on was then placed on a yearly schedule.
During my first year in office, I soon found out that I would get no help from the former county clerk. I took several trips to the Racine Courthouse to talk to the Racine County Clerk. While many of our jobs were along the same lines the two counties were very different. Racine County had more County Supervisors than Kenosha. The Racine County Board elected a chairman and reelected each year. The present chairman held the office for the last eight years. In Kenosha the County Board replaced its chairman every two years. A city county supervisor was elected, and a county supervisor was elected as vice-chair. In two years, the county supervisor was elected a chairman, and a city supervisor was elected as vice-chair. This system began during the 1940's and continues with very little disruption until 1998. Both counties held County Board meetings once a month. The County Board committees usually met once a month, but more often if necessary.
There was a difference in the County Clerks work in the two counties because the Racine County Board Chairman held office hours each day the courthouse was open. In Kenosha a supervisor was elected every two years. It usually to him year to learn his job. The second years he was more knowledgeable, however, the chairman rarely spent half as much time on county business as his counterpart in Racine.
In May of 1949 I attended the first statewide conference of Wisconsin's County Clerks. The meeting was held in Janesville and there were approximately 65 county clerks from around the state in attendance. I met some of the county clerks from southeast Wisconsin area and in the days ahead I took the opportunity to drive up to see the clerks in Manitowoc Waukesha and other clerks in southeast Wisconsin. I learned a great deal from the clerks that I visited.
There were a few women in the role of county clerks, many of the in the smaller populated counties. They were not as aggressive as some of the men, so they did not take the opportunity to act as the chief officer of their respective counties. There were 25 to 30 male counties clerks who had taken it upon themselves to act as the chief officer of their counties; however, this was not a legal definition, but an assumed position taken by these individuals.
The clerks that I decided to alien with did not flaunt any extra authority but kept the county officials aware of the County Board wishes and decisions during the year. In some of the northern counties board meeting were usually scheduled 3 to 4 times a year with specials meetings called when deemed necessary. In some of the small, populated counties two or more counties would join some of their responsibilities to provide services to each county. This happened especially in the social services departments.
In addition to the jobs I have written about, the county clerk had in charge of the county wide elections. I had to locate the homes of the town/village clerks where the ballots were delivered each election. I had to locate the voting place for each town/village. The actual voting place was selected by the township/village boards. There were eight townships, two villages and the city in Kenosha County in 1948. The county was roughly 15 miles wide and 28 miles long. Kenosha was the fourth smallest county in area, but we were the eighth in population. Most of Wisconsin's population lived in the southeastern part of the state. Milwaukee was the largest city, by population, followed by Madison, Dane County, Racine then Kenosha and Green Bay.
The largest county in area was Marathon County in north central Wisconsin. The biggest job each county had was the highway system and the state trunk highways within their county boundaries. The state selected the builders of the highways, the counties were responsible for everyday maintenance, some of the repair work on the roads. The counties billed the state for this work. There was a State Board composed of state, county and city personnel who decided the price for standard maintenance. This board also agreed on various individual jobs when there was a need to repairs. The funds for new highways and repair and maintenance of existing highways were established by the state legislature. The funds were doled out the by the state highway department. The counties' receiving funding was delegated to the counties whose roads needed the most attention in accordance with the state legislative area representation.
The tax on gasoline was the primary source of highway funds. The governor of Wisconsin selected the State Highway Commissioner, who selected the office staff. In Kenosha County in 1949 the county supervisor on the County Highway Committee appeared to be the most influential member of the Kenosha County Board when I was elected to that board. As I have indicated previously the members of the board elections were held for the County Board Chair and Vice Chair including members of the various county committees. When I arrived at the meeting a member of the present highway committee handed me a list of the members, they wanted to be elected to specific positions and committees. I did not agree with the list and told him my position. He laughed and said, "that's OK, but the list of individuals would be elected" and he was correct.
One of new members of the board in addition to me was Joseph Molinaro, a brother of Geroge Molinaro who did not run for reelection to the board. Joe was an attorney, and we became good friends. Many of our ideas were along the same lines especially the present dominance of the highway committee which had to be eliminated. This was not an easy task it would take a few years, and I was only a board member for two years before I was elected County Clerk. Therefore, I did not have vote when the power of the highway committee was reduced. Joe Molinaro was the lead person in this accomplishment.
During the remaining of my tenure as County Clerk and later when I returned to the Board after retiring as County Clerk, no one committee dominated the board as the highway committee had done in the past. The Finance Committee had some influence, but they never dominated the way the former highway committee had controlled. Incidentally all bills sent to the state by the highway department had to be sent to the County Clerk for review before being submitted to the state for payment.