politician, soldier, newspaperman, b. Monson, Mass. He moved to Wisconsin in 1844, settling in Racine. During the 1850's he supported the Free Soil party, was state assemblyman (1851-1852), later joined the Republican party, and was state senator (1861-1862). Appointed state adjutant general in 1861, Utley was instrumental in securing the rapid mobilization of Wisconsin Units for the Civil War. In 1862 he was commissioned colonel of the 22nd Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, and while commanding this regiment in Kentucky gained nation-wide attention by harboring a fugitive slave, whom he refused to deliver in spite of a Kentucky circuit court order. The case was continued following the war, and Utley was eventually forced to pay a large judgment, but was reimbursed by the federal government. Taken prisoner while campaigning in Tennessee, Utley was confined to the Confederate Libby Prison; upon his release, he resigned his commission (1864) and returned to Racine. There he purchased the Racine Daily Journal, editing and publishing it from 1865 to 1873. From 1883 until his death, he edited the Racine Daily Times, and from 1884 until his death was also editor of Utley's Dollar Weekly. F. S. Stone, ed., Racine . . . and Racine Co. (2 vols., Chicago, 1916); Racine Journal-Times, Oct. 25, 1950; WPA field notes.Learn More
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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]
