The History of Dodge County, Wisconsin

The history of Dodge County is one which contains many features identical with the history of Wisconsin, the preservation of which is essential to the truthful record of the State's life. The publishers of this volume have fully appreciated that fact and have so arranged the order of compilation as to give each prominent characteristic due place.

There is no effort herein to reach literary excellence, but rather a decided attempt to capture vagrant items of interest, and weave them together upon the thread of system. Many men will say that their own acts are not sufficiently expatiated upon, or commensurate credit given certain friends of theirs ; but the publishers have not aimed merely to please individuals. The work engaged in by them was of a higher nature. They have concentrated records for benefit of posterity, rather than for the selfish gratification of the vanity of certain parties.

In this volume, we believe we have given the present generation an invaluable reflex of the times and deeds of pioneer days, and to those pioneer men and women a monument far more lasting than cold marble. In order to be accurate, we have sent proofs of every page herein published to competent citizens of Dodge County, which they have corrected and approved.

 

Table of Contents

History of Wisconsin

Antiquities 19
Indian Tribes 21
Pre-Territorial Annals 29
Wisconsin Territory 41
Wisconsin As a State 52
Topography and Geology 110
Climatology 121
Tree, Shrubs and Vines 128
Fauna 134
Educational 140
Agriculture 151
Mineral Resources 162
Railroads 173
Lumber 185
Banking 191
Commerce and Manufactures 198
The Public Domain 210
Health 230
Statistics 249
Abstract of Wisconsin State Laws

Miscellaneous

History of Dodge County

Portraits

Biographical Sketches

 

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When, as early, it is believed, as 1634, civilized man first set foot upon the territory now included within the boundaries of Wisconsin, he discovered, to his surprise, that upon this wide area met and mingled clans of two distinct and wide-spread families — the Algonquins and Sioux. The tribes of the former, moving westward, checked the advance of the latter in their excursions eastward. As yet there had been no representatives of the Huron-Iroquois seen west of Lake Michigan — the members of this great family, at that date dwelling in safety in the extensive regions northward and southward of the Erie and Ontario lakes. Already had the French secured a foot-hold in the extensive valley of the St. Lawrence; and, naturally enough, the chain of the Great Lakes led their explorers to the mouth of Green bay, and up that water- course and its principal tributary, Fox river, to the Wisconsin, an affluent of the Mississippi On the right, in ascending this bay, was seen, for the first time, a nation of Indians, lighter in complexion than neighboring tribes, and remarkably well formed, now well known as the Menomonees.