Bio: Bartlett, William Pitt (1881)

Contact: Crystal Wendt

----Surnames: Bartlett, Hart

----Source: History of Northern Wisconsin (Eau Claire County, Wis.) 1881, page 315

WILLIAM PITT BARTLETT, Eau Claire. Came to Watertown, Wis., Oct. 1, 1855; taught school there six months, and studied law in Enos & Skinner's law office. He was admitted to the Bar in 1856, and in May, 1857, came to Eau Claire, and has engaged in active practice since. He was the first lawyer and the only one in the county until July, 1857, when Alexander Meggett came. Mr. Bartlett has been a member of the School Board since the fourth week after his arrival; he was elected District Attorney in the Fall of 1857, and held that office until January. 1860. In the Fall of 1859, he was elected member of Assembly, appointed County Judge for two years in 1860; from 1863 to 1867 he was District Attorney; in the Fall of 1872, was again elected member of Assembly; in 1875, he was appointed Register of U. S. Land Office, and held that office over four years; his name was sent in for re-appointment, but he had it withdrawn. He is Alderman of the Third Ward, having been elected in the Spring of 1881, and immediately chosen President of the Common Council. He was born in Minot, Cumberland Co., Me. Aug. 13, 1829, and was reared in Somerset County. He entered Waterville College in 1849, graduating in 1853. He taught in the Hallowell Academy, pursuing his law studies; commenced while he was in college; he was admitted to the Bar of the Supreme Court of Wisconsin in 1860, and to the U. S. Supreme Court in 1874. He was married in Baraboo. Sauk Co., Aug. 15, 1861, to Hettie Hart, a daughter of Edward H. Hart, an early settler and still a resident of Sauk County. She was born in Middlebury, Summit Co., Ohio. They have five children — Livilla P., Edward W., Sumner P., Frank H. and Stanley.