By any metric, November 2024 promises to go down as one of the most consequential elections in modern political history. With just one month to go to election day, The Ticker looks back to other notable elections from local history.

This week, for part one of "The Ballot Box," let’s wind back the clock to 1851, when Traverse City was officially born.

Though it was long a Native American territory belonging to the tribes of the Council of Three Fires, the land that is now Grand Traverse County transformed after tribes ceded millions of acres of what is now Michigan to the United States Federal Government in the 1836 Treaty of 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 dispatched in 1839 to fill those roles, establishing the first non-native settlement in the region – the “Old Mission."

“Peter worked to also provide [the tribes] with a mission, a school, and a Christian education,” OMPHS states. “In return, the U.S. would open up the lands for sale on which the Ottawa and Chippewa had hunted, farmed, and lived for many generations.”

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

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

On August 4, 1851, Grand Traverse County saw its first election. According to Traverse Area Historical Society Board President Stephen Siciliano, the special election was held at Horace Boardman’s house. The Boardman house, which has been cited as the first ever built in Traverse City, was located “near present-day Eighth Street and Boardman Avenue,” according to MyNorth.com. Per Siciliano, 28 people voted in that inaugural election, appointing among others William H. Case as the county’s first sheriff, Orlin P. Hughson as prosecuting attorney, and Boardman himself as treasurer.

Interestingly, Siciliano says, Hughson would become a fugitive just a few years later: “An item on the Board of Supervisors' first agenda in July, 1853, was to post a reward for Hughson who had escaped from the sheriff while under arrest,” Siciliano reads from the local history book Sprague’s History. Hughson’s specific alleged crime is not noted.

Siciliano also points to the early 1900s for some of the most notable local electoral events. In 1906, Traverse City voters elected Emanuel Wilhelm as alderman, a milestone given that Wilhelm was the first Democrat elected to any city office “since Traverse City was platted in 1852.” Wilhelm would go on to serve as Traverse City’s mayor for two years.

Siciliano notes that the man Wilhelm directly succeeded as the city’s leader, William “Wild Bill” Germaine (pictured), was one of the most famously “colorful” personalities ever elected to office in Traverse City.

“By all accounts, Wild Bill was very charismatic and was well liked by most folks,” TAHS shared in a Facebook post back in 2019. “He served two separate terms as town mayor, but was removed by the Governor from his second term for abuse of power. Also, it appears he had an alcohol problem. In fact, applying what is known today, it seems that Wild Bill might have been what we now call 'bipolar'.”

Per the TAHS, Wild Bill “spent a lot of time in the jail because of his alcohol use,” and on one occasion even shot his sister’s boyfriend while intoxicated; no charges were filed. Wild Bill was also the top suspect in a mysterious fire that occurred at a home on the southeast corner of State and Wellington – a home he’d formerly lived in with his ex-wife, Ola Hull. The house was able to be salvaged and still stands today. Wild Bill, meanwhile, was arrested and charged for arson.

“Even though it was shown that Wild Bill's brother bought gasoline (the accelerant used) less than 30 minutes before the start of the fire, a jury would not convict Wild Bill, such was his popularity,” TAHS wrote of the incident.