First Court House and Jail mural was painted by Franz Rohrbeck at the Manitowoc County Courthouse in 1912
PROVIDED BY BOB FAY
Have you ever wondered why there is a large granite boulder and flag pole in a large grassy field on the east side of N. Rapids Road between Delta and Ellis Streets in Manitowoc Rapids?
The boulder with a bronze tablet marks the site of the First County Court House and Jail in Manitowoc County. The inscription on the bronze tablet reads:
THIS BOULDER
MARKS THE SQUARE WHERE THE
FIRST COURT HOUSE AND JAIL
WERE LOCATED
IN MANITOWOC COUNTY
BUILT 1840
MANITOWOC COUNTY
HISTORICAL SOCIETY
1941
Manitowoc County was created and set off from Brown County in Wisconsin Territory on December 7, 1836. A plat of the village of Manitowoc Rapids, the county seat, was made, containing 43 blocks on 160 acres. A public square, 300 ft. (N-S) × 400 ft. (E-W) was laid out near the center of the plat.
The First Court House marker was erected in 1941
PROVIDED BY BOB FAY
The first Court House was built on the public square in 1840 by Jacob W. Conroe at a cost of $650. The one-story clapboard-sided frame building was 24 × 38 ft., 8-9 ft. high, with a gabled roof and four windows (two on each of the north and south walls). The doorway and a porch on the front of the building faced west toward the Military Road (later known as the Green Bay Road), connecting Fort Howard at Green Bay with Fort Dearborn, Chicago.
Interior walls were plastered, but not painted. A brick chimney was located on the east wall, with a stove in the middle of the room. In June 1850, the County Board of Supervisors approved an 18 × 24 ft. addition to the Court House.
The first County Jail was built next to the “County House” on the public square in 1849 by M. F. Van Vleck at a cost of $235. The jail was constructed of 12-inch square timbers, fastened with wooden pegs. Windows were placed in iron frames, 3 inches wide and ½-inch thick, with grates, and the jail had a plank door, covered with sheet iron, which faced west.
Sketch of the First Court House Site at Manitowoc Rapids. PROVIDED BY MANITOWOC COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
In 1852, both buildings burned when a prisoner (judged insane and confined for safekeeping) tried to burn off the lock on the prison door with a red-hot poker.
In May 1853, county residents voted to move the county seat to the growing lake port of Manitowoc, which had outstripped The Rapids in population and commercial importance.
During WPA projects in the 1930s, the “old courthouse site” was leveled off” and the Green Bay Road deeply cut through the middle of the public square, creating remnant parcels of the square on either side of the highway.
In 1946, the County Board purchased nine adjacent lots on Block 28 to enlarge the east-half of the original square. This area today is bordered by N. 42nd Street (Rapids Road) on the west, 41st Street on the east, and by Delta and Ellis Streets on the south and north, respectively. Private residences are located on the west-half of the original public square.
According to Judge Emil Baensch in 1924, the first county buildings were originally located on the west-half of the public square, facing the Green Bay Road, which curved around “Court House Hill,” not where the marker is placed today.
Archaeological investigations by MPSD students led by Karyl Rommelfanger and the author from 1997 to 2000 failed to locate any evidence of the first court house and jail site on the east-half of the county-owned public square.
A scenic depiction of the first court house and jail at Manitowoc Rapids, painted by artist Franz Rohrbeck in 1912, is located on the west landing between the second and third floors of our present Beaux-Arts, Neo-Classical Manitowoc County Courthouse.
