Armine Pickett

Armine Pickett (ca. 1800 - April 25, 1875) was an American farmer, the first white settler in the town of Utica, Wisconsin.

In late August 1860, Pickett sheltered abolitionist Sherman Booth at his farm, where an unsuccessful attempt was made to arrest Booth under the Fugitive Slave Act for helping to free escaped slave Joshua Glover.[1] A few months later, on November 6, 1860, he was elected a Republican member of the Wisconsin State Assembly for the Third Winnebago County Assembly district (the Towns of Black Wolf, Utica, Nepeuskin, Rushford, Omro and Nekemi).[2]

He later ran for Wisconsin Senate, District 19 as a candidate of the short-lived Democratic Reform or Liberal Reform Party.

He served as postmaster of the Welaunee or Weelaunee post office; and as chairman of the board of supervisors.

The settlement of Pickett. Pickett Station or Pickett's Station, formerly named Weelaunee, was renamed in his honor.

He died April 25, 1875.[3]

References

  1. ↑ Carter, George W. "The Booth War in Ripon", in Proceedings of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin at Its Fiftieth Annual Meeting Held December 11, 1902 Madison: For the Society, 1902; pp. 169-172
  2. ↑ Journal of the Assembly of Wisconsin: Annual Session, A.D. 1861. Madison: R.A. Calkins & Co., State Printers, 1861; p. 6
  3. ↑ "Necrology 1874-1875" in Report and Collections of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, for the Years 1873, 1874, 1875 and 1876. Vol. VII' Madison: E. B. Bolens, State Printer, 1876; p. 468