Edward D. Holton

In November 1840, he set up his first shop in the corner of a warehouse.[5] He soon engaged in the surging wheat business, being the first to ship wheat from the port of Milwaukee in 1841. The wheat exports from Milwaukee were trivial in 1841, leaped to 95,000 bushels in 1845, and reached 1.1 million bushels in 1849, and Holton's fortune was well endowed by this trade. In 1849 he helped establish and became president of the Milwaukee Board of Trade, which was responsible for coordinating the wheat trade.[6]

In 1849, Holton helped found the Milwaukee and Prairie du Chien Railroad, and served as superintendent until 1851.[7][4]

In 1853, he helped form the Farmers and Millers Bank (a predecessor of Firstar Corporation) and became its first president.[8] During this period there was a good deal of turmoil in banking laws, and Holton was a key factor in rewriting legislation to settle the free-for-all laws.[9][4]

For a period of time he was a trustee of Milwaukee when it was a village.[10] In 1843, he was elected Milwaukee's first sheriff, running as an independent. At this early stage of his political career, Holton was already well known as an abolitionist and temperance advocate. While ordinarily these were political liabilities, he defeated future Wisconsin governor and Democrat William A. Barstow due to the fact that the Democrats were divided by an internal party squabble.[11]

In 1845, Holton was the Liberty Party candidate for territorial representative to Congress.[12]

In 1850 Holton was at the center of a fight over a law assigning to establishments selling liquor liability for harm caused by people who were intoxicated. The law was introduced by state senator John B. Smith and was known as the Smith liquor law. When demonstrations against the law turned into minor riots, a committee was organized to defend the law; Holton was named Chair of the committee. The outcome of the controversy had the unintended consequence that it strengthened the political position of the Democratic Party and weakened the Free-soilers allied with Holton.[13]

Holton was the nominee of the Free Soil Party for Governor of Wisconsin in the 1853 election. He was defeated by Democrat William A. Barstow, but finished far ahead of Whig Party candidate Henry S. Baird.

Holton was one of two principal candidates at the 1857 Wisconsin Republican Party convention, when the party was still very young. The other major candidate was Walter D. McIndoe, a lumber industrialist from Wausau. Holton's abolitionist passions and his connections with the Milwaukee elite gave him strong support, but McIndoe's more rough-hewn personality resonated better with the frontier character of the state at the time. As such, they split the vote, neither able to garner a majority for the nomination. When it became apparent that the convention was at an impasse, and the delegates were released from their obligation, the votes eventually were cast in favor of the third candidate, Alexander Randall, who became the obvious compromise candidate. Randall was the first in a long line of Republican governors in Wisconsin.[14]

Holton served in the Wisconsin Assembly in 1860, representing the Fourth Ward of Milwaukee.[15][16] In 1862, President Lincoln appointed him allotment commissioner, overseeing a policy where 1/3 of each Union soldier's pay was sent directly to family back home for safekeeping, intended to prevent wasteful spending in camp. He eventually had to resign the commission due to poor health.[4]