Albert T. Twesme

Albert T. Twesme
County Judge
(1946 - 1949)Born on a farm in southern Trempealeau County on August 7, 1879, Albert Theodore Twesme was the sixth child of Norwegian immigrant parents. He attended school at Beach Corners and the Gale College in Galesville, before enrolling at the University of Wisconsin where he received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in 1906 and his Law Degree in 1908. He worked his way through college by stoking furnaces and selling books. As a student, he was a charter member of Alpha Tau Omega fraternity and participated in Debate Club, Glee Club and Crew. Twesme began the practice of law in his hometown of Galesville, where except for his service as county judge, he practiced continuously until his death. At one time he had a branch office in La Crosse. His son, Albert L. Twesme joined the practice in 1940.

Twesme was long active in local and state politics. He was elected to the State Assembly in 1908. In 1932 he was defeated as Republican candidate for the office of Attorney General of the State of Wisconsin, and in 1934 he lost his bid for position of Congressman from the 9th District. As president of the Village of Galesville, 1915-1917, he was instrumental in developing beautiful Cance Park on Ridge Avenue. In 1917, when an epidemic struck the town, Twesme alerted Mayo Clinic physicians who traced the origin of the problem to the town's milk supply. This convinced the citizens of the need for pasteurization of all milk intended for public consumption. Because of his prompt attention to the crisis, Twesme received an award from the Mayo Clinic Foundation, for it was partly through his efforts that pasteurization of milk became a general practice. When he served as City Attorney in the 1930's Twesme was effective in the plan to re-route Highway 53 through Galesville's Main Street.

On May 13, 1946, Governor Walter S. Goodland announced the appointment of Albert T. Twesme as county judge to fill the vacancy created by illness of Judge John C. Gaveney. The following April he was elected to continue in that office. In his capacity as judge, he served as pension administrator for the county, and always strove for the betterment of state public institutions.

The judge's favorite sport was golf, and it was fitting that the active jurist died while engaged in playing the game he liked so well. Death came to Albert T. Twesme on June 27, 1949, when he suffered a fatal heart attack on the fifth hole of Maple Grove Country Club in West Salem, Wisconsin. His son Albert L. Twesme, was in the foursome just behind his father.

Albert T. Twesme was united in marriage to Lue Clark Burns of Trempealeau, Wisconsin in November of 1909. To this union were born two children, Albert L. Twesme and Betty Burns Cowman.

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