Dexterville is an
unincorporated community
An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...
in the town of
Dexter
Dexter may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Dexter, the main character of the American animated series ''Dexter's Laboratory'' that aired from 1996 to 2003
* Dexter, a fictional character in the British Diary of a Bad Man#Main, web series ''Diar ...
,
Wood County,
Wisconsin
Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
, United States.
It is located at the intersection of
Wisconsin Highway 80
State Trunk Highway 80 (abbreviated as Highway 80, STH-80 or WIS 80) is a state highway in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. It runs north–south in southwest and west central Wisconsin from just south of Marshfield, near the geographic center o ...
and
Wisconsin Highway 54
State Trunk Highway 54 (often called Highway 54, STH-54 or WIS 54) is a Wisconsin state highway running east–west across central Wisconsin. It is in length.
Route description Minnesota state line to Plover
WIS 54 begins at the we ...
.
History
Dexterville was founded in about 1848. In 1850, the sawmilling magnate
George Hiles moved to the area and set up a lumbermill in Dexterville. Dexter township may be named after
Dexter, Michigan
Dexter is a city in Washtenaw County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 4,067 at the 2010 census.
Dexter Township is located to the northwest and does not border the city, and the two are administered autonomously. The townshi ...
, the native home of a first settler, although folk etymology maintains the township is named after the mule of a local pioneer. Hiles was granted a post office for Dexterville in 1858. He created the Milwaukee, Dexterville, and Northern Railroad in 1887 to carry timber from the area. The railroad was purchased by the
Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad
The Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (CMStP&P), often referred to as the "Milwaukee Road" , was a Class I railroad that operated in the Midwest and Northwest of the United States from 1847 until 1986.
The company experience ...
a few years later, and passed through the community in 1890.
The Dexterville Dam is located on the southern edge of Lake Dexter; it dams the
Yellow River
The Yellow River or Huang He (Chinese: , Standard Beijing Mandarin, Mandarin: ''Huáng hé'' ) is the second-longest river in China, after the Yangtze River, and the List of rivers by length, sixth-longest river system in the world at th ...
, creating Dexter Lake. The dam was created by
Wood County to provide waterfront for the current Dexter County Park. A county worker died performing maintenance on the dam in 2009.
Notable people
*
Amos E. Germer
Amos E. Germer (May 28, 1862 – September 8, 1935) was an American politician and lawyer.
Born in Cincinnatus, New York, Germer was educated at Cornell University, University of Iowa, and the Lake Forest University Law School. In 1883, Germer ...
, lawyer and politician, lived in Dexterville.
['Wisconsin Blue Book 1899,' Biographical Sketch of Amos E. Germer, pg. 792]
Notes
External links
1909 plat map of Dexterville1928 plat map
{{authority control
Unincorporated communities in Wisconsin
Unincorporated communities in Wood County, Wisconsin