Sherman Smalley Stays Seated

One hundred years ago, the talk around town was all about Sherman Ellsworth Smalley, the long-time Cuba City attorney and former Wisconsin Assembly member, whose tumultuous bid for circuit court judge in the spring of 1921 kept the newspapers of the day humming.

Cuba City News-Herald (April 8, 1921)

Smalley was narrowly elected circuit judge of the fifth judicial district, but thanks to an unsigned, damning piece of campaign literature circulated just before the election, the Cuba City attorney and his supporters were accused of violating Wisconsin's corrupt practices act.* Forced to stand trial in his own courtroom, Judge Smalley was eventually acquitted when it could not be proven that he was behind the attack on his opponent, and he would remain on the circuit court bench in Lancaster for over twenty years.

As this front page of the Cuba City News-Herald after the ruling makes obvious, local editor W. H. "Goldy" Goldthorpe, was wholeheartedly behind Smalley. (He was even one of the witnesses at the corruption trial!)

The election scandal did not seem to impact Sherman Smalley's reputation, least of all in Cuba City, and the respect and admiration he received from his hometown was reciprocated. Smalley was a generous promoter of all things Cuba City and there was rarely a project or an event in which he did not take part.

*For more on the 1921 election scandal and the woman responsible for the infamous campaign pamphlet, check out this piece by Jerry L. Bower, written for the Richland County Historical Society's newsletter.