“The Boss,” Elisha W. Keyes, during the heyday of his political power in 1865 as photographed by James Botdker. Though Postmaster Keyes never held elective office, he and his Madison associates --the so-called Madison Regency-- controlled Republican politics in Wisconsin during the 1860s and 1870s thanks to their masterful distribution of patronage. SHSW WHi(X3)1766

Keyes, Elisha W. (Postmaster)