The Name…
The Town of Wirt was formed from Bolivar and Friendship April 12, 1838 and named by Peleg Sherman after the writer, William Wirt. The first settlement was made in the northern part of the town of farms owned later by Mott Whitwood and D.S. Willard. The first pioneers were Benjamin Crabtree and Levi Abbott, who came from Amsterdam. Montgomery County in 1812. Other earlier settlers were Chauncey Axtel, Horace Ketchum, Alvan Richardson, Nathan Gilbert, James Smith, Simon Wightman, Reuben Whitney, Philip Applebee, Josiah Wheeler, Joseph Allen, Jonah French, Gilbert Thomas, Levi Applebee, Calvin Wheeler, Isaiah Jordan, Elisha Dakin, Robert Almy, Pliny Evans, Aaron Smith, Sheldon P Stanton, and John Scott. Clark E. Newton came early from Madison County and bought land west of South Branch creek. With his brother, H.B. Newton. He began clearing land on Lot 39. Mr. Newtown was a stone mason by trade and he helped plaster the first county courthouse in Angelica.
Awesome so far. Can’t wait for more info !! I never realized the Colonial Library and The Historical Society even had a website. Interesting !!!!!
Lea,
Great job. I would have no idea how Jane’s minutes are, have never had cause to ask for them.
It is obvious you hvae put a tremendous amount of time into this site. I am going to pass is along to all those in my address book who live in the Town of Wirt.
Looking forward to reading more.
Shirley Barnes
Lea,
Having been checking daily for a few days to see the next “unaficial” minutes. Love this site. Thanx
Shirley
Need to corect spelling of “unofficial”. Embarassing.
yeah this website is CRAP
Thank you for your recent comment on the Town of Wirt Website. I’m sorry that you don’t like this site, but isn’t it wonderful that you live in America. That means that you have the freedom to not read it. I started this site so that the taxpayers of Wirt would know what is happening in our wonderful little town. It’s time that public officials were accountable for their actions. I personally work for the County and could never get away with the actions that our town clerk gets away with. It is time for it to stop. If anyone would like to question anything that I have posted, all the meetings are taped and I can forward you a CD of the meetings or I can also email them to you. Just let me know if you would like one. Oh by the way, the town board also tapes their meetings.
I hope you enjoy not reading this site.
Lea Dorrett
Official minutes from the Town Clerk should be available tomorrow according to the last town meeting. It will be interesting what they will say and if they are available. Some of the board members would love to see the community take a more active roll and are starting to insist on some necessary changes. They need the support of the tax payers.
This message is addressed to anonymous: We as residents of Richburg/Wirt would like to thank you for your insightful comment to this site. It astounds me at the intelligence and maturity level of some citizens who still do not understand freedom of speech and truth. I for one am grateful to have a site to go to that will give me the truth about the happenings at the town meetings and some insight into the “superb” job (biting my tongue)that our elected officials are doing. And to be so proud of your comment “yeah this website is CRAP” as to sign your name is heartwarming. I take my hat off to you for your courage and intelligence when faced with such monumental decision as to whether you should visit a site that is obviously beyond your level of comprehension or click onto a new page. It’s just mind blowing when you consider what intelligence level you need to be at to stay away from a site that you do not appreciate or like. Your parents must be so proud of you as we all are.
I think that you all need to go to the meetings and LISTEN to what is being said!!!! The last special meeting was not illegal because it was voted to have the meeting in the last openly public board meeting. I would also like to ask all of you where you went to school? Your grammer is horrible and your spelling even worse. The problem with sites like this is that they are using our county tax dollars to function and the sole purpose of the site is to cause memebers of a so called “community” to sling dirty, immature comments at one another. I can, and will honestly say that it makes me ashamed to tell people that I am from this area.
I know that we all have the freedom of speech, but I also know that it is with shame that we use this nasty form to tell people what we think about them instead of having the maturity to go to the person. I think that if you feel the way that you do you should be willing to stand up for it and in order to do that you need to vote for elected officials and then support them. This support should not be without question, but the questions should be asked in a dignified manner and with respect if you expect to be treated with respect in return.
The real shame is that in order to protect our right to bitch and complain and then kiss ass to the persons face will forever be protected by the “freedom” that this site provides. I would love to talk with anyone who wishes to contact me.
How would anyone know there was going to be a special meeting if they had not been to the regular meeting? There certainly was plenty of time to post a notice of the special meeting.
It appears to me that some people are frustrated with some of the elected officials.
Please let me know how to contact you, I would love to talk to you.
Thank you,
Bob Dunbar (Cell 302-542-5790)
Dear DATFARMGURL: (Really? You couldn’t do better than that?)
I hate to address these issues in public when they could more easily and efficiently be discussed in private, but since you use false names and not the name your momma gave you, there seems to be no other avenue in which to address your “concerns”.
First let me suggest that you use your spell check program when chastising someone for horrible “grammer” (correct spelling would be GRAMMAR), and even worse spelling. (“memebers” would probably look better spelled correctly as “MEMBERS”, but who am I to correct you?) Maybe your problem is your ability to read above a certain grade level, as is clearly shown in your very first attempt at civility on a public board.
With the proofreading of your latest attempt at using your freedom of speech out of the way, let’s look closer at your suggestions or tirade, whichever works better for you.
“Sites like this is that they are using our county tax dollars to function” – If you would look a little closer at this site, it is a private site on a private server being maintained by a private citizen who is no way, shape or form in control of any tax dollars. If you know information that contradicts this, please be so bold as to share.
“Sling dirty, immature comments at one another” – I believe that until you posted your first intelligent post, this was a quiet site being used to supply information to a community where all of its citizens are not able to make it to town meetings and supply the community with some interesting history. I believe that most people did not know the history behind the name Wirt or have easy access to the first town meeting minutes. I for one am not intimidated or offended by a little history in my life, current or centuries old. If you are ashamed to tell people you are from this community then that would be your low self-esteem showing itself. I for one do not judge others of a community by one or two that challenge my own views or question the local government’s actions.
I believe that there is more truth in the town meeting minutes posted on this site than any that are posted as “Official” minutes by the town clerk. I tend to think that your main problem with this site is that too much honest information will be made public and more people will realize that they need to question the actions of our elected officials, and that possibly there is a need for change, instead of blindly trusting in people we think are in office to protect our interests.
I for one, would like to know more about the people handling MY tax dollars. I work hard to pay my taxes and other village expenses, and would like to be able to trust that this money is being used and reported properly. I am still wondering why I am paying for water in the summer months that I cannot freely use, or why the fee is being raised when the problem has not been repaired.
There is no mud-slinging, nor any name calling occurring on this site as the majority of people who visit this site and respond are eager to learn and not scared by what is posted. There is a justifiable question in the happenings at Town Hall, and rightly so. If stating these questions in a town meeting or directly to the person responsible would result in an honest answer or change, it may be done, but since nobody seems to think they are doing anything wrong, I greatly doubt it would be worth the air used to address the concerns. It would also be very unfair to the people attending a meeting. I have no problem addressing my concerns to the person I have an issue with, however, one must wonder why you remain cloaked in secrecy.
You stated that “I would love to talk with anyone who wishes to contact me,” yet you still do not use a proper name, but revert to the maturity level you seem to strive for. Or are you actually ashamed of yourself and not the community?
At the 4/14/08 regular town board meeting, the town clerk was instructed to have the minutes available within two weeks of the meeting. She was also instructed to send a copy to me in the pre-addressed stamped envelope that I provided. In those minutes the clerk stated the minutes may be available after two weeks. She did not make the minutes available within the two weeks nor did she send me a copy when instructed. The clerk put in those minutes that the clerk can make the minutes public after two weeks. At the 5/12/08 meeting the board requested that the previous minutes be corrected to indicate that the minutes will be available within two weeks. When the clerk did the correction for the 4/14/08 minutes she said enter the word “will” in place of the word “can”, in the minutes. No correction was made to change the word “after” to the word “within”. The clerk did not make the minutes available nor did she send them to me as instructed. The town clerk has chosen to do what she wants to, which is a reflection on herself and the town. The Town of Wirt Board has attempted on two occasions to have this corrected.
Bob Dunbar