First Town Board Meeting
On March 5, 1839 the Town of Wirt was made into a town with the following officers elected:
Supervisor: Jonah French
Town Clerk: Azariah Randolph
Commissioner of Highways: Joseph Allen
Collector: Abner B. Cole
Commissioners of Common Schools: Edward Wightman, Calvin Wheeler, Sheldon P. Stanton
Overseers of the Poor: Ezekiel Johnson and Chauncey Axtell
Inspectors of Common Schools: Clark Rogers, Pliny Evans, Ezekiel R. Clark
Constables: Abner B. Cole, Alan Stanton, John Truman
Sealer of Weights and Measures: John W. Jordan
Minutes of the first meeting were read as follows:
Resolved: That the annual meeting be held the first Tuesday of March each year.
Resolved: That we elect officers as listed above.
Resolved: That we raise as much money as the law will allow.
Resolved: That the meeting stand adjourned.
Old ledgers record that the annual meetings were usually held at the homes of the officers until March 4, 1854 when the meetings were held at the Forrest House.
During the years 1863, 1864 and 1865 any special meetings were called for the purpose of procuring Volunteers for the War Between the States.
December 23, 1863 at a special meeting it was-
Resolved- That the Town of Wirt shall pay to each volunteer, who shall enlist under the President’s call of October 17, 1863 or have enlisted, who shall apply on said call when mustered into the service of the United States the sum of $300.00 to be paid in bounty orders bearing interest from date as follows; the sum of $100.00 the first day of March 1866 and $100.00 the first day of March 1867. Said orders to be payable to the order of the Supervisor of Said Town.
William Withey, Town Clerk
Nine additional meetings were called for the procuring of Volunteers and moneys appropriated for them.
Fourteen men from the Town of Wirt joined the Union Army at the beginning of the War Between the States. Others volunteered from time to time. Fourteen died on the battlefields while six died in Andersonville Prison.
Cassius Maxson Post GAR was established in Richburg at the close of the war and flourished for any years, but ceased to function when the men who wore the blue, one by one, passed away. Crandall Lester, Richburg’s last GAR veteran passed away in 1924 at the age of 84. He served with the 160th regiment, New York Volunteers as Sergeant. He was honorably discharged October 17, 1864.
Taken from “The History of the Town of Wirt and Village of Richburg”
