Luther Hanchett

Luther Hanchett (October 25, 1825 – November 24, 1862) was an American lawyer, politician, and Wisconsin pioneer who represented Wisconsin in the United States House of Representatives and served as a member of the Wisconsin State Senate. He was born in Middlebury, Ohio, where he attended the common schools and received his early education. Raised in the Western Reserve region, he came of age in a period of rapid westward expansion and political change that would shape his later career on the Midwestern frontier.

After completing his common-school education, Hanchett studied law in Ohio and was admitted to the bar in 1846. He began his legal career as a practicing attorney in Fremont, Ohio, building professional experience in a growing community. In 1849, drawn by the opportunities of the developing Upper Midwest, he moved to Portage County, Wisconsin. There he continued to practice law but also became involved in lumber and mining enterprises, reflecting the economic foundations of central Wisconsin in the mid-nineteenth century.

Hanchett quickly emerged as a local leader in his adopted state. In Portage County he was elected district attorney, serving for two years and establishing himself as a prominent figure in the legal and civic life of the region. For a time he entered into a law partnership with James S. Alban, another influential Wisconsin lawyer and politician. On November 11, 1853, he married Alban’s daughter, Lucinda, further cementing his ties to the community and to a family active in public affairs. Alongside his legal practice, his engagement in lumber and mining underscored his role as both a professional and a pioneer in central Wisconsin.

Hanchett’s formal political career began in the Wisconsin Legislature. In 1856, he was elected to the Wisconsin State Senate as a Republican, representing the newly created 27th district, which then comprised Marathon, Portage, Waupaca, Waushara, and Wood counties. He was re-elected in 1858, serving during a period when the Republican Party was consolidating its strength in the North amid intensifying national debates over slavery and sectionalism. As a member of the Republican Party representing Wisconsin, Luther Hanchett contributed to the legislative process in the state senate, participating in the democratic process and representing the interests of his frontier constituents.

Building on his state-level experience, Hanchett was elected as a Republican to the 37th United States Congress to represent Wisconsin’s 2nd congressional district. He served one term in the U.S. House of Representatives, from March 4, 1861, until his death on November 24, 1862. His service in Congress occurred during a significant period in American history, as the nation was engulfed in the Civil War. In Washington he took part in the legislative work of a wartime Congress, representing Wisconsin’s interests and supporting the Union cause at a time of profound national crisis.

Hanchett died in office in Plover, Wisconsin, on November 24, 1862. He was interred in Plover Cemetery. His death placed his estate at the center of a protracted and ultimately tragic legal and financial dispute in Portage County. When he was first elected to the Wisconsin Senate in 1856, Hanchett had sought to extricate himself from a partnership with Amos Courtwright in a lumber mill. The two men agreed on a settlement of $2,000 to be paid to Hanchett for his share of the company, and, because Courtwright could not pay immediately, a mortgage was created for the amount owed to Hanchett. At the time of Hanchett’s death in 1862, the payment remained outstanding to his estate.

In 1867, Hanchett’s former law partner, James Oliver Raymond, married his widow, Lucinda, and moved to enforce the claim against Courtwright, seeking to seize part of the property owned by the Courtwright family. In 1870, a court ruled in favor of Raymond, but Amos Courtwright refused to be evicted from his property. The conflict escalated in 1875, when County Sheriff Joseph H. Baker went to the property to execute a writ of restitution against the Courtwrights. During the attempt to enforce the court’s order, Sheriff Baker was shot and killed by Isaiah Courtwright, the brother of Amos. The Courtwrights were arrested by the sheriff’s posse and taken to Stevens Point, but a few days later a mob of about 12 to 40 men broke into the jail, dragged them out, and hanged them. This violent episode, rooted in an unresolved business obligation originating with Hanchett’s lumber partnership, became one of the most notorious incidents in Portage County’s history and formed a grim postscript to the life and career of Luther Hanchett, one of Wisconsin’s early Republican leaders and a member of the United States Congress who died in office.