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Oneida County Title & Abstract Inc. held its first board meeting in 1888 and since that time no other business has been so tied to the county’s documented history. Officially incorporated on Dec. 21, 1887 as Oneida County Land and Abstract, today the business, run by husband and wife team Jeanne and Marte Smith, relies on a vault of property deed listings that contain approximately 668,000 documents spanning the entire history of the county.

“Whoever have been the principals of this business have had a relationship with the courthouse, the register of deeds, the assessor, and the community since the very beginning,” said Marte Smith.

The title business is intricately complicated in its details, but essentially involves assuring land purchaser, sellers, and agents that a piece of property is free and clean of liens and judgments at the time of sale. The customers, generally speaking, are realtors, lenders, attorneys, and surveyors and the product is the certainty that all of the paper records involved in property ownership are accounted for.

See Title, Page 2A

“Title insurance is assurance of the marketability of property,” said Jeanne.

Jeanne Smith came to the title business straight out of college and has practiced for over 20 years since she broke in at Waupaca Abstract and Title in 1982.

“There is no real place to learn the business other than doing it,” she said.

Jeanne came to Oneida County Title & Abstract Inc. in 2000 and worked as the senior title examiner until she and her husband purchased the business from Dorothy Ernst in 2007.

The Smiths have been together for 22 years but they have only worked as partners for the past two.

“The key to our success together is to leave business at the office and remember to have fun as a couple,” said Jeanne.

Marte Smith has no illusions about who runs the business and he said he has had to adjust to being his wife’s right-hand man.

“Jeanne is the boss and not to be the boss was challenging for a while because it’s not something I was used to. But it’s alright. She’s a good boss,” Marte said.

Jeanne believes one of the building blocks of her business’ success is her reliance on a team decision-making process that involves her experienced staff.

“I make the final decisions when the team can’t come up with a decision but everything we do here, we do as a team,” said Jeanne Smith.

These days business is difficult, because property sales are down and the foreclosure market has been dominated by national clearing house title firms that use local businesses as sub-contractors.

“This market, the housing market, is never constant. It’s always peaks and valleys. With the housing market now it’s hard to purchase property because it’s hard to get a loan. That all has a direct effect on the business,” said Jeanne.

Rhinelander was founded on the promise of the timber boom. Huge tracts of white pine and hemlock were bought and sold as parcels of land. Buying and titling that land was Oneida County’s first business, and Oneida County Land and Abstract, founded by S.H. Alban, J.B. McEndoe, and John Barnes, played a primary role in how the city and county were developed. In 1890 the Brown brothers bought into the business and today our street names, subdivisions, and land parcels bear the names of many of its principle players.

The history of Oneida County Title & Abstract Inc. is not lost on its owners.

“There’s a sense of pride in carrying the torch. This business has a tradition that we want to uphold,” said Marte Smith.

For Jeanne, who also teaches title examination for the Wisconsin Land Title Association, the art of the industry is in keeping perfect track of the county’s land records.

“We want to carry on the history. That’s what it’s all about. The history of the public records,” said Jeanne Smith.

If the business’ success is predicated on the collective experience of Jeanne Smith and her staff, the guts of Oneida County Title & Abstract Inc. can be found in the back room where the company keeps tome on top of tome of tract indexes and legal documents. Every property in the county can be found in those books, described in a code of numbers and scribbles. All of the records are still kept as hard copies.

“I’m from the old school,” Jeanne said. “We still use paper.”

Everyday staff at Oneida County Title & Abstract Inc. examine the records and eventually patterns emerge.

“You could tell when the Depression hit here because people were being foreclosed on for back taxes,” said Jeanne. “History definitely repeats itself. You can see that in these documents.”

Jeanne has also found mysteries on paper. Early in Oneida County’s history two of the owners most often cited were women–– Martha Doolittle and Kate Pier–– at a time when women rarely possessed the legal right of ownership.

“My theory is, from what I understand, is the men owned the lumber companies and mills and they would title into their daughters’ names as their dowries,” said Jeanne.

To regular people, the title business could seem pretty boring, but Mr. and Mrs. Smith revel in their sea of documents and the stories the scribbles and scratches that represent government lots, forties, and sections tell about the way the land has changed hands for 120 years.

“Title insurance is assurance of the marketability of property,” said Jeanne.

Jeanne Smith came to the title business straight out of college and has practiced for over 20 years since she broke in at Waupaca Abstract and Title in 1982.

“There is no real place to learn the business other than doing it,” she said.

Jeanne came to Oneida County Title and Abstract in 2000 and worked as the senior title examiner until she and her husband purchased the business from Dorothy Ernst in 2007.

The Smiths have been together for 22 years but they have only worked as partners for the past two.

“The key to our success together is to leave business at the office and remember to have fun as a couple,” said Jeanne.

Marte Smith has no illusions about who runs the business and he said he has had to adjust to being his wife’s right-hand man.

“Jeanne is the boss and not to be the boss was challenging for a while because it’s not something I was used to. But it’s alright. She’s a good boss,” Marte said.

Jeanne believes one of the building blocks of her business’ success is her reliance on a team decision-making process that involves her experienced staff.

“I make the final decisions when the team can’t come up with a decision but everything we do here, we do as a team,” said Jeanne Smith.

These days business is difficult, because property sales are down and the foreclosure market has been dominated by national clearing house title firms that use local businesses as sub-contractors.

“This market, the housing market, is never constant. It’s always peaks and valleys. With the housing market now it’s hard to purchase property because it’s hard to get a loan. That all has a direct effect on the business,” said Jeanne.

Rhinelander was founded on the promise of the timber boom. Huge tracts of white pine and hemlock were bought and sold as parcels of land. Buying and titling that land was Oneida County’s first business, and Oneida County Land and Abstract, founded by S.H. Alban, J.P. Mackindow, and John Barnes, played a primary role in how the city and county were developed. In 1890 the Brown brothers bought into the business and today our street names, subdivisions, and land parcels bear the names of many of its principle players.

The history of Oneida County Title and Abstract is not lost on its owners.

“There’s a sense of pride in carrying the torch. This business has a tradition that we want to uphold,” said Marte Smith.

For Jeanne, who also teaches title examination for the Wisconsin Land Title Association, the art of the industry is in keeping perfect track of the county’s land records.

“We want to carry on the history. That’s what it’s all about. The history of the public records,” said Jeanne Smith.

If the business’ success is predicated on the collective experience of Jeanne Smith and her staff, the guts of Oneida County Title and Abstract can be found in the back room where the company keeps tome on top of tome of tract indexes and legal documents. Every property in the county can be found in those books, described in a code of numbers and scribbles. All of the records are still kept as hard copies.

“I’m from the old school,” Jeanne said. “We still use paper.”

Everyday staff at Oneida County Title and Abstract examine the records and eventually patterns emerge.

“You could tell when the Depression hit here because people were being foreclosed on for back taxes,” said Jeanne. “History definitely repeats itself. You can see that in these documents.”

Jeanne has also found mysteries on paper. Early in Oneida County’s history two of the owners most often cited were women–– Martha Dolittle and Kate Pier–– at a time when women rarely possessed the legal right of ownership.

“My theory is, from what I understand, is the men owned the lumber companies and mills and they would title into their daughters’ names as their dowries,” said Jeanne.

To regular people, the title business could seem pretty boring, but Mr. and Mrs. Smith revel in their sea of documents and the stories the scribbles and scratches that represent government lots, forties, and sections tell about the way the land has changed hands for 120 years.

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