The exact circumstances are unclear, but his business failed after a short time, and caused some substantial collateral financial damage to the farmers of the community.
[2] After his problems in Mansfield, he moved to Wooster, Ohio, where he met and married his wife Mary Troutman.
[1] A few years after their marriage, Silverman moved his family to the Wisconsin Territory, settling in the town of Trenton, in Washington County.
The new Ozaukee County government obtained a short-term injunction preventing records from being removed from their Port Washington offices.
[3] This led to an altercation at the Port Washington offices when Schantz's agents arrived to claim their property.
After this incident, Governor Leonard Farwell formally removed Silverman from office in June 1853 and appointed B. F. Pidge as sheriff of Ozaukee County.
[6] During this time, Silverman had also begun operating a pier in Port Washington, and conducted freight forwarding business.
De Bar worked numerous odd jobs in the area, and came into conflict with a farmer named John Muehr over $1.50 in wages.
According to the official records, after a disagreement, De Bar struck Muehr in the head and knocked him down a set of stairs.
[3] A speedy trial was arranged for August 7 by circuit judge Charles H. Larrabee, who summoned two companies of militia from outside West Bend to keep the peace, one of which was Silverman's Union Guards.
Silverman's company arrived first, formed a perimeter around the courthouse, and guarded De Bar as he was escorted in.
He was then hanged upside down from a tree for a short time, after which he was cut down and moved to another area, where he was hung by the neck until dead.
[13] He participated in all of the work of the 1859 legislative session, but resigned in the fall of 1859,[14] after he was nominated for State Treasurer in the 1859 election.
[15] He challenged the incumbent state treasurer Samuel D. Hastings, but fell far short in the general election.
Silverman subsequently accepted a commission to form a company of volunteers for the Union Army,[17] but he never personally went into the service.
[18] He remained only a few years though, moving south to Bond County, Illinois, where he was convicted of selling liquor in violation of federal laws.