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Armine Pickett (July 10, 1800 – April 25, 1875) was an American farmer, politician, and Wisconsin pioneer. He was the first white settler in the town of Utica, Winnebago County, Wisconsin, and the namesake of Pickett, Wisconsin. He also served one term in the Wisconsin State Assembly, representing southern Winnebago County in the 1861 session.

Biography

Armine Pickett was born in July 1800. He resided for some time at Litchfield, Ohio, before moving west to the Wisconsin Territory in 1840. In Wisconsin, he initially settled in Jefferson County, but went north in the fall of 1845 and eventually selected to settle in what is now the town of Utica, Winnebago County, Wisconsin.

Although his time in Jefferson County was brief, it did have a lasting impact on the economy of the state due to the actions of his wife, Anne. While living on a farm in the vicinity of Lake Mills, Wisconsin, Anne had the idea to enlist their neighbors and the neighbors' cows in a cooperative to manufacture cheese. The neighbors agreed and provided Anne with their milk, which Anne then manufactured into cheese. The finished cheese was then distributed to the various cow-owners who could trade it for other goods in nearby markets. Her venture was described as the first dairy cooperative in the United States, and the first commercial cheese factory in 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. 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).

He later ran for Wisconsin's 19th State Senate district as a candidate of the short-lived Democratic Reform or Liberal Reform Party, but was defeated in the 1874 general election.

He served as postmaster of the Welaunee or Weelaunee post office; and as chairman of the Town of Utica's 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.

Electoral history

Wisconsin Senate (1874)

References

1. Harney, Richard J. (1880). History of Winnebago County, Wisconsin, and Early History of the Northwest. Allen & Hicks. Retrieved July 2, 2022.
2. "Honor Woman Who Set Up First Dairy Co-Operative in Nation". The Capital Times. July 18, 1940. p. 9. Retrieved July 2, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
3. 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
4. Journal of the Assembly of Wisconsin: Annual Session, A.D. 1861. Madison: R.A. Calkins & Co., State Printers, 1861; p. 6
5. ^ "Official Directory". The Legislative Manual of the State of Wisconsin (Report). State of Wisconsin. 1876. p. 456. Retrieved July 1, 2022.
6. "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

• 1800 births
• 1875 deaths
• Farmers from Wisconsin
• County supervisors in Wisconsin
• People from Utica, Winnebago County, Wisconsin
• Republican Party members of the Wisconsin State Assembly
• Wisconsin Reformers (19th century)
• Wisconsin pioneers
• 19th-century members of the Wisconsin Legislature