Common Council resolutions and reports began to be organized by a numbering system in Dec. 1932. Before that time the resolutions were kept folded up in chronological order, roughly by subject or Council committee (such as Parks, Judiciary, Fire, Police, etc.). This set of pre-1932 resolutions represents those labeled as Reports of Officers, and date from almost the beginning of city government in 1856.

The original order of these reports was not maintained, although we encountered pockets of reports that were somewhat grouped by department and roughly by date. In arranging this series, the reports have been grouped together by office or department, therein chronologically. Currently, the only subject access to those is through the City Clerk who maintains a card file.

The reports are mostly financial in nature, and are generally a record of monthly and/or annual expenditures of the following departments/offices: Attorney (1895-1899), Clerk (1858-1905), Comptroller (1887-1932), Education/Superintendent (1866-1931), Fire (1861-1932), Health (1875-1932), Justice of the Peace at Large (1874-1901), Mayor (1858-1929), Parks (1905-1932), Police [includes Police Justice and City Marshall] (1857-1932), Poor (1872-1894), Public Library (1915-1930), Public Works/Engineer (1878-1932), Street Commissioner (1857-1887; 1919; 1930-1932), Surveyor (1857-1886), Toll [Bridge] Collector (1896-1899), Treasurer (1858-1911), Weed Commissioner (1891; 1911), Weights & Measures (1868-1932). A few miscellaneous files include employment office reports, financial and tax statistics, and social service and charity reports to Council.

Although the reports consist generally of financial statistics to the Common Council, a number of offices wrote narrative summaries which help to document change in La Crosse’s city government and community life over time. These departments are: Attorney, Education/Superintendent, Fire, Health, Mayor, Police [includes Police Justice], Poor, and Public Works/Engineer. The Justice of the Peace at Large reports list court cases, dates and costs only. The Police Justice (filed under Police) recorded every month each individual arrested, the charge and the fine or other punishment exacted well into the 1900s.

Offices that are not well represented in the series include: Attorney, Mayor, Poor, Public Library, Street Commissioner, Surveyor (after 1886), Treasurer (after 1911), and Weed Commissioner.