The Ballot Box, Part 1: The First Democratic and Wild Bill, an Early Election History Surrounding Traverse City

By any measure, November 2024 will go down as one of the most consequential elections in modern political history. Only a month and a day until election day, The ticker looks back at other notable elections from local history.

This week in the first part of The Ballot Box, we turn back the clock to 1851, when Traverse City was officially born.

Although long a Native American territory owned by the tribes of the Council of Three Fires, the land now called Grand Traverse County changed after tribes in the Treaty of 1836 gave millions of acres of what is now Michigan to the United States federal government had ceded to Washington. (Michigan officially became the 26th state the following year.) According to the Old Mission Peninsula Historical Society (OMPHS), the treaty required the federal government to provide the tribes with “a farmer, a blacksmith, and a carpenter.” Reverend Peter Dougherty, a Presbyterian minister, was sent to take on these duties in 1839 and founded the first non-native settlement in the region – the “Old Mission”.

“Peter also took care of the supplies [the tribes] with a mission, a school and a Christian education,” explains OMPHS. “In return, the United States would offer for sale the lands where the Ottawa and Chippewa people have hunted, farmed and lived for many generations.”

One of these buyers was Captain Harris Boardman of Naperville, Illinois, who purchased a tract of land at the mouth of the Ottaway River in 1847 and built a sawmill there.

On April 7, 1851, the growing area was established as Grand Traverse County by Public Act 141 of 1851, making Boardman’s Mills – the commercial center of the young Traverse City – the county seat.

The first elections were held in Grand Traverse County on August 4, 1851. According to Stephen Siciliano, board president of the Traverse Area Historical Society, the special election was held at the home of Horace Boardman. The Boardman house, considered the first house ever built in Traverse City, was located “near what is now Eighth Street and Boardman Avenue,” according to MyNorth.com. Per Siciliano, 28 people voted in this inaugural election, appointing, among others, William H. Case as the county’s first sheriff, Orlin P. Hughson as district attorney, and Boardman himself as treasurer.

Interestingly, says Siciliano, Hughson became a fugitive just a few years later: “One item on the board’s first order of business in July 1853 was to issue a reward for Hughson, who had eluded the sheriff during his arrest.” Siciliano reads from the local history book Sprague’s story. Hughson’s specific alleged crime is not mentioned.

Siciliano also points to the early 20th century as the setting for some of the most notable local electoral events. In 1906, Traverse City voters elected Emanuel Wilhelm as city councilman, a milestone as Wilhelm was the first Democrat elected to city office “since Traverse City was founded in 1852.” Wilhelm then served as mayor of Traverse City for two years.

Siciliano notes that the man who directly replaced Wilhelm as city leader, William “Wild Bill” Germaine (pictured), was one of the most famous “dazzling” personalities ever elected to office in Traverse City.

“From what you hear, Wild Bill was very charismatic and very popular with most people,” TAHS said in a 2019 Facebook post. “He served two separate terms as city mayor but was removed from his second term by the governor.” Abuse of power. He also seems to have a drinking problem. In fact, applying today’s knowledge, it appears that Wild Bill may have been what we now call ‘bipolar.’

According to TAHS, Wild Bill “spent a lot of time in prison because of his drinking” and once even shot his sister’s boyfriend while drunk; No charges were filed. Wild Bill was also the prime suspect in a mysterious fire that broke out in a house on the southeast corner of State and Wellington – a house where he used to live with his ex-wife Ola Hull. The house was saved and is still standing today. Meanwhile, Wild Bill was arrested and charged with arson.

“Despite evidence that Wild Bill’s brother purchased gasoline (the accelerant used) less than 30 minutes before the fire started, a jury did not want to convict Wild Bill because he was so popular,” TAHS wrote of the incident.