Fond du Lac County

Through the first third of the nineteenth century Fond du Lac County was part of the Winnebago Indian nation. By the close of the 1830's, however, the central Wisconsin wilderness, the new Northwest, became a focal point for easterners hoping to create new lives for themselves. The county itself was created in 1836, the year that the first permanent settlers, Colwert and Edward Pier, arrived. The eventual city of Fond du Lac, which historian Joseph Schafer refers to as "the first location to be exploited entirely for speculative purposes," was effectively created by James Duane Doty, the Wisconsin territory's premier speculator. Doty had an eye to the transportation possibilities of Lake Winnebago and the construction of a canal to the the Rock River at the Horicon marsh and another to Sheboygan on Lake Michigan. Through Doty's lobbying efforts, the prospective city was made a candidate for the new Wisconsin territorial capital, although there were fewer than 140 white settlers in the entire county as late as the federal census of 1840.

Growth came rapidly beginning in the mid-1840's, as Yankees began arriving by the thousands to rebuild the homes, farms, and communities they knew in New England, New York, and Pennsylvania. By 1850, the county's townships were established. In far western Fond du Lac County, the population of Metomen, first settled in 1844, grew from 460 in 1847 to 720 by 1850 and 1617 by 1860. By 1870, Fond du Lac was the state's second largest city, a major railroad hub, and the county was second only to Dane in wheat production.

TOWNSHIPSBold signifies extended site
Alto | Ashford | Auburn | Byron | Calumet | Eden | Eldorado | Empire | Fond du Lac | Forest | Friendship | Lamartine | Marshfield | Metomen | Oakfield | Osceola | Ripon | Rosendale |Springvale | Taycheedah | Waupun

COMMUNITIES PAST AND PRESENTBold signifies extended site
Alto | Arcade | Ashford | Brandon | Calumet | Campbellsport | Dundee | Eblesville | Eden | Eldorado | Fairwater | Fond du Lac | Ladoga | Lamartine (Seven Mile Creek) | Marytown | Mount Calvary | New Cassel | New Prospect |  Oakfield | Peebles Corners | Pipe Village | Reeds Corners | Ripon | Rosendale | St. Cloud | Taycheedah | Van Dyne | Waucousta | Waupun
PRIMARY SOURCES
Federal Land Patents | State and Federal Censuses | Military Records | Maps and Plats | Cemetery Records | Post Offices | Newspapers | Historic Texts

AREA HISTORIES
Early History of Fond du Lac County | Richard Dart's "Settlement of Green Lake County" | John Scott Horner: A Biographical Sketch | Ripon's Booth War, 1860  | John Parker Exchanges in James Pond's Markesan Journal, 1861  |  Third Wisconsin Cavalry, Company C, 1861-65  | D. P. Mapes' Account of Early Ripon, 1870  |  History of Pine Hill/Utley, 1877-1939 |  Creation of the Brandon-Markesan Railroad Line, 1882 | History of German Methodism in the Town of Forest | Dutch Settlers in Alto, Wisconsin | History of the Fairwater Water Wheel, 1924-25