The Ripon incident known locally as the Booth War occurred in August through October
of 1860. It was a reaction to a decision by the US Supreme Court vacating a decision
made by the Wisconsin Supreme Court and involved primarily Riponites Edward
Daniels, Oscar H. LaGrange, Alvan Bovay, and William Starr.
Sherman Booth of Milwaukee rescued from jail Joshua Glover a fugitive slave and
helped him escape to Canada in 1854. Booth spent the next five years in and out of jail
and court where he claimed the Fugitive Slave Act was unconstitutional. The Wisconsin
Supreme court sided with Booth, which prompted the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the
case and find against Booth and Wisconsin in March 1859. Booth was rearrested and
jailed in Milwaukee the following year.
By that summer outrage against the government decision was peaking, and Daniels
talked LaGrange into helping him break Booth out of jail. On August 1, 1860 they were successful in the jail break and the three men rode the train to Waupun. At that point
LaGrange claims that he went home. Daniels and Booth arrived in Ripon Saturday
evening, August 4 and Booth gave a speech at City Hall. U.S. deputy marshals then
attempted to arrest Booth but were thrown out. Resolutions by Bovay and Starr
assured that Booth would not be arrested in Ripon. Another rally was held the next day
at a grove. After that LaGrange said that he had lost interest in Booth who had wanted
LaGrange to ambush the marshals sent to arrest him.
Booth spent the next two months hiding in various places around the Ripon area. He
was rearrested in Berlin, Wisconsin in October and returned to jail. President Buchanan
pardoned him two days before Lincoln’s inauguration.
Riponites indicted for the incident included Booth, LaGrange, Bovay, and Starr. As the
initial fracas died down, people’s attention returned to the upcoming presidential
election. LaGrange said that his indictment was dismissed while he was commanding
the Ripon Rifles in Racine at the start of the Civil War. LaGrange became a Civil War
hero, and after the war he was the superintendent of the United States Mint in San
Francisco from 1878-1989, and Governor of the Los Angeles National Home for
Disabled Soldiers from 1899-1908.
Accounts of the Booth events in Ripon were written by LaGrange and his friend, George
W. Carter. These give us an interesting view of law enforcement in a rural area where
everyone knows each other.
