# Peter Fagg

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**Peter Fagg** (January 14, 1837 – December 10, 1917[1]) was an American law enforcement officer, [retail clerk](/source/Retail_clerk), [debt collector](/source/Debt_collector), [temperance](/source/Temperance_movement_in_the_United_States) lecturer, [colporteur](/source/Colporteur), and politician from [Milwaukee](/source/Milwaukee) and [Madison](/source/Madison,_Wisconsin), [Wisconsin](/source/Wisconsin), who served a single term as a member of the [Wisconsin State Assembly](/source/Wisconsin_State_Assembly)'s 2nd [Milwaukee County](/source/Milwaukee_County,_Wisconsin) district (the 2nd [Ward](/source/Wards_of_the_United_States) of the City of Milwaukee). He was a member of the [Reform Party](/source/Reform_Party_(19th-century_Wisconsin)), a short-lived [coalition](/source/Coalition) of [Democrats](/source/Democratic_Party_(United_States)), [reform](/source/Reform) and [Liberal](/source/Liberal_Republican_Party_(United_States)) [Republicans](/source/Republican_Party_(United_States)), and [Grangers](/source/The_National_Grange_of_the_Order_of_Patrons_of_Husbandry) formed in 1873 in the [U.S. state](/source/U.S._state) of [Wisconsin](/source/Wisconsin), which had secured the election for two years of [William Robert Taylor](/source/William_Robert_Taylor) as [Governor of Wisconsin](/source/Governor_of_Wisconsin),[2] as well as electing a number of state legislators, but failed to thrive.

## Background

Fagg was born Pieter Fagg in [Vlissingen](/source/Vlissingen) in the [Kingdom of the Netherlands](/source/Kingdom_of_the_Netherlands) on January 14, 1837, son of Captain Johannes Gerardus Fagg (Zierikzee, 1804) and Sara Jacoba Smith (Vlissingen, 1813), and grandson of John Fagg and Jacoba Johanna van der Tollen, with John having [Scotch](/source/Scots_people) and [English](/source/English_people) ancestors. The captain was a ship owner, sailor, and merchant who owned a large grocery business in Vlissengen. His mother, Sarah Jacoba Smith, was a Vlissingen native from a prominent local family of English and Dutch ancestry. Captain Fagg never learned the [Dutch language](/source/Dutch_language), speaking only [English](/source/English_language).

Captain Johannes Fagg died at the age of 34, and for two years his wife managed the business. She married for a second time on March 5, 1841,[1][Frederick T. Zetteler](/source/Frederick_Zetteler), a son of the royal [tailor](/source/Tailor). A few years after Sarah's second marriage, and after the second bankruptcy of her husband the whole family came to the United States, taking passage at [Antwerp](/source/Antwerp) on a sailing ship that landed them at [New York City](/source/New_York_City). They proceeded to [Albany, New York](/source/Albany,_New_York), and thence by [canals](/source/Canals) and the [Great Lakes](/source/Great_Lakes) to [Milwaukee](/source/Milwaukee_County,_Wisconsin), landing July 3, 1848, and there they settled down on a farm. In 1853 Zetteler moved the family to Madison and opened a [general store](/source/General_store). The mother and children ran the store and the father worked for official offices of the State, including the [Secretary of State of Wisconsin](/source/Secretary_of_State_of_Wisconsin) and the State [Register of Deeds](/source/Register_of_Deeds), and Peter worked in the office of former [Governor](/source/List_of_governors_of_Wisconsin) [Leonard J. Farwell](/source/Leonard_J._Farwell). In 1858, a fire destroyed all of the family's property, and Zetteler returned to Milwaukee and went into the [real estate](/source/Real_estate) business.

Peter married Tyistke (original Dutch spelling: "Tjitske" [3]) Tillema (called "Mary") on May 3, 1859.[4] They moved to [Alto](/source/Alto,_Wisconsin) in [Fond du Lac County](/source/Fond_du_Lac_County,_Wisconsin) in 1861, where he worked as a [retail clerk](/source/Retail_clerk) in a general store. Fagg was elected a [justice of the peace](/source/Justice_of_the_peace) in Alto, and county supervisor for the same place, in 1862, and re-elected. In 1863 his stepfather was elected (as a Democrat) to the State Assembly back in Milwaukee.

Fagg was appointed as a [prison guard](/source/Prison_guard) in the [Wisconsin State Prison](/source/Waupun_Correctional_Institution) in 1865; then returned to Milwaukee in 1867, where he was appointed a [police officer](/source/Police_officer) under Chief William Beck. He became a [deputy sheriff](/source/Deputy_sheriff) under [Sheriffs](/source/Sheriff) Parsons and McDonald, and resigned in October, 1873. He worked as a [notary public](/source/Notary_public) and debt collector.

## Assembly

In 1874 he was elected to succeed fellow Reformer [Joseph Hamilton](/source/Joseph_Hamilton_(Wisconsin_legislator)) (who was not a candidate) under the label of "Democratic Reform." He won with 995 votes, to 451 for Thomas Armstrong, who ran as an "[Independent Republican](/source/Independent_Republican_(United_States))". He was re-elected the next year as an "[Independent Democrat](/source/Independent_Democrat)" (the Reform Party was beginning to break down), with 763 votes to 534 for regular Democrat George Tyre, serving with his stepfather Frederick Zetteler, who had just been elected once again to the Assembly from Milwaukee as a Democrat. Due to the division of the Assembly, no single party could assemble a majority. Fagg was persuaded to support Republican [Sam Fifield](/source/Sam_Fifield) for [Speaker of the House](/source/Speaker_(politics)). Fagg switched his vote and his influence, thus enabling the Republicans to control the Assembly. From that time on, he supported the Republican party cause, especially among his fellow [Dutch Americans](/source/Dutch_American).[5]

Fagg was not a candidate for re-election in 1876, and was succeeded by Hamilton (now running as a Democrat).

## After the Assembly

Fagg became briefly [postmaster](/source/Postmaster) of the [Wisconsin State Senate](/source/Wisconsin_State_Senate), then with the help of Republican Governor [William E. Smith](/source/William_E._Smith_(politician)) moved on to a clerical position in the office of the [Wisconsin Board of Commissioners of Public Lands](/source/Wisconsin_Board_of_Commissioners_of_Public_Lands), where he remained for nine years. In 1886, he was not reappointed due to his increasingly fervent religious and [temperance movement](/source/Temperance_movement) positions. Fagg had been a [teetotaler](/source/Teetotaler) for many years, and increasingly argued that the only acceptable place for him in political matters was as a lecturer for the cause of [Prohibition](/source/Prohibition). He became a [sale agent](/source/Salesperson) for books and Bibles. He was active in a number of [fraternal orders](/source/Fraternal_orders), held high office in the [Independent Order of Good Templars](/source/Independent_Order_of_Good_Templars)' Temple of Honor and Temperance and the [Knights of Pythias](/source/Knights_of_Pythias), and for years was a member of the [Independent Order of Odd Fellows](/source/Independent_Order_of_Odd_Fellows).

By 1895, Fagg was reported to have suffered financial reversals, and to be working as [day labor](/source/Day_labor) at the [Wisconsin State Capitol](/source/Wisconsin_State_Capitol) building.[6] He spent some time working in the library of the [State Historical Society](/source/Wisconsin_Historical_Society), and in the office of the [Secretary of State](/source/Secretary_of_State_of_Wisconsin). When he went to Milwaukee in 1896 to attend the funeral of his step-father, the *[Wisconsin State Journal](/source/Wisconsin_State_Journal)* observed, "Of the sixty-two voters in the family and connections of Peter Fagg, there is only one [D]emocrat."[7] In 1900, he was an agent authorized to collect money for [Boer](/source/Boer) soldiers wounded during the [Second Boer War](/source/Second_Boer_War).[8] (A Chicago paper had already reported Fagg as having donated to this cause, along with a number of [Irish-Americans](/source/Irish-Americans) presumably doing so to ["twist the lion's tail"](/source/Ireland%E2%80%93United_States_relations#Fenians).[9] When a bill was before the legislature to introduce [primary elections](/source/Primary_elections) as a replacement for nomination by party conventions, the *[Kenosha News](/source/Kenosha_News)* bemoaninbg the potential diminishing effect on party conventions, asked rhetorically (quoting a [*Chicago Record*](/source/Chicago_Record-Herald) reporter) "... where else can the Hon. Peter Fagg cut a picturesque and historical figure?"[10]

Fagg died December 10, 1917, after a long illness and six months of blindness, leaving his invalid wife, five sons and two daughters (a third had died just three years before).[11]

## References

1. [Database genealogie Planje, Planjer, Planije, Zetteler en aanverwanten](http://genealogie.planje.info/database), Genealogical database, in Dutch.

1. ["William Robert Taylor, Wisconsin Historical Society"](https://web.archive.org/web/20181001142716/https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/dictionary/index.asp?action=view&term_id=2700&keyword=taylor). Archived from [the original](http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/dictionary/index.asp?action=view&term_id=2700&keyword=taylor) on 2018-10-01. Retrieved 2014-03-15.

1. ["Tjitske (Mary) Tillema (1841-1922) » Genealogiesite Wietze Steensma » Genealogie Online"](https://web.archive.org/web/20191202210016/https://www.genealogieonline.nl/genealogiesite-wietze-steensma/I15084.php). *www.genealogieonline.nl*. Archived from [the original](https://www.genealogieonline.nl/genealogiesite-wietze-steensma/I15084.php) on 2019-12-02.

1. [Marriage certificate, Peter Fagg and Tyistke Tillema; Milwaukee County records](http://content.mpl.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/MCMC/id/5714)

1. Keyes, E. W. "When Peter Fagg Helped" *[Wisconsin State Journal](/source/Wisconsin_State_Journal)* reprinted in *[Milwaukee Journal](/source/Milwaukee_Journal)* August 26, 1895; p. 4, col. 5

1. Keyes, "When Peter Fagg Helped"

1. ["Obituary" *Wisconsin State Journal* August 21, 1896; p. 1, col. 4](https://www.newspapers.com/clip/95502960/obituary-f-t-zetteler/)

1. ["Good Evening" *Wisconsin State Journal* January 4, 1900; p. 5, col. 2](https://www.newspapers.com/clip/95501183/wisconsin-transvaal-red-cross-during-boe/)

1. ["Milwaukee Money For Boers; Irish Will Aid Hollanders in Raising Red Cross Fund"](https://www.newspapers.com/clip/95518711/milwaukee-money-for-boers-during-second/), *[The Chicago Inter Ocean](/source/The_Chicago_Inter_Ocean)* December 27, 1899; p. 2, col. 3

1. ["Primary Election" *Kenosha News* February 9, 1901; p. 4, col. 4](https://www.newspapers.com/clip/95523839/stevens-primary-election-bill-editoria/)

1. ["Peter Fagg, Aged Resident, Dies; Former Assemblyman Succumbs At Home Here After Long Illness" *Wisconsin State Journal* December 10, 1917; p. 1, col. 7](https://www.newspapers.com/clip/95683191/peter-fagg-obituary/)

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Peter Fagg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Fagg) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Fagg?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.