by Steve Tesmer | Apr 22, 2012 | Historic Places
Date in History: 1840 The first census ever taken in Jefferson County in 1840 found a total of 914 white inhabitants living here. Not surprisingly pioneer men outnumbered the women by a three to two ratio. It was also a land of the young as only 24 of the 536 males in...
by Steve Tesmer | Apr 22, 2012 | Historic Places
Date in History: 1850’s The small village of Jefferson was chosen as our county seat because of its central location. But by the 1850s the citizens of prosperous Watertown felt that they should have the county government. In 1856 the Mayor of Watertown convinced...
by Steve Tesmer | Apr 22, 2012 | Historic Places
Date in History: c. 1880 By the 1870s a small group of Irish immigrants had settled in Fort Atkinson, occupying a few unpainted shacks just east of the railroad tracks near the intersection of North Main and North Fourth Streets. “The Irish Patch,” as the...
by Steve Tesmer | Apr 22, 2012 | Historic Places
Date in History: 1991 When white settlers first arrived in Wisconsin, the landscape was already dotted with some 20,000 Indian mounds. In Jefferson County alone there were at least 700 mounds, the majority encircling Lake Koshkonong. Now Indian mounds were not...
by Steve Tesmer | Apr 22, 2012 | Historic Places
Date in History: 20th Century Hospital service in Fort Atkinson began in 1903 when Dr. Frank Brewer set up some surgical facilities and a few beds above a barbershop on South Main Street. Shortly thereafter, he added a wing on to his own house and ran the “Fort...
by Steve Tesmer | Apr 22, 2012 | Historic Places
Date in History: 1931 – 1940 On December 15th, 1931, an unusual hotel opened its doors in Fort Atkinson to accommodate the increasing tourist traffic coming to town. These “box-car tourists,” as they were called, were not your usual visitors with...
