Sinsinawa () 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 ...

Grant County, Wisconsin Grant County is a county located in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census, the population was 51,938. Its county seat is Lancaster. The county is named after the Grant River, in turn named after a fur trader who lived in the area ...

, United States. The community is in the towns of Jamestown and Hazel Green, one mile north of the border with

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

. The community is east of

Dubuque, Iowa Dubuque (, ) is the county seat of Dubuque County, Iowa, United States, located along the Mississippi River. At the time of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population of Dubuque was 59,667. The city lies at the junction of Iowa, Il ...

, and west of the village of

Hazel Green, Wisconsin Hazel Green is a village in Grant and Lafayette counties in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The population was 1,256 at the 2010 census. Of this, 1,243 were in Grant County, and only 13 were in Lafayette County. The village is located mostly within ...

. The town is best known for being the mother house of the

Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters The Congregation of the Most Holy Rosary of the Order of Preachers, better known as the Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa is an American religious institute of the Regular, or religious branch of the Third Order of St. Dominic. It was founded in 184 ...

History

The community's name means either "

rattlesnake Rattlesnakes are venomous snakes that form the genera ''Crotalus'' and ''Sistrurus'' of the subfamily Crotalinae (the pit vipers). All rattlesnakes are vipers. Rattlesnakes are predators that live in a wide array of habitats, hunting small anim ...

" or "Home of the Young

Eagle Eagle is the common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. Most of the 68 species of eagle are from Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, just ...

" in

Sioux The Sioux or Oceti Sakowin (; Dakota language, Dakota: Help:IPA, /otʃʰeːtʰi ʃakoːwĩ/) are groups of Native Americans in the United States, Native American tribes and First Nations in Canada, First Nations peoples in North America. The ...

. The first white settler in the area was

George Wallace Jones George Wallace Jones (April 12, 1804 – July 22, 1896) was an American frontiersman, entrepreneur, attorney, and judge, was among the first two United States Senators to represent the state of Iowa after it was admitted to the Union in 1846 ...

, who purchased land for a

lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...

smelter Smelting is a process of applying heat to ore, to extract a base metal. It is a form of extractive metallurgy. It is used to extract many metals from their ores, including Silver mining#Ore processing, silver, iron-making, iron, copper extracti ...

in 1827. He soon sold the land to the Dominican priest

Samuel Mazzuchelli Samuel Charles Mazzuchelli, O.P. (November 4, 1806 – February 23, 1864) was a pioneer Italian Dominican friar and Catholic missionary priest who helped bring the church to the Iowa-Illinois-Wisconsin tri-state area. He founded several parishes ...

, who subsequently built a men's college,

Sinsinawa Mound College Sinsinawa Mound College for men (1846-1852) was located in Sinsinawa, Wisconsin. History The college was founded in 1846 by Samuel Charles Mazzuchelli, an Italian Catholic missionary. Dominican sisters were brought to the college in 1847. The colle ...

, in 1846. Mazzuchelli founded the Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters in 1847. This religious order founded a women's college and high school in Sinsinawa in 1865.

Sinsinawa Mound

Sinsinawa Mound is a cone-shaped hill in the area, from which the area gets its name. Sinsinawa River runs along the hill south towards the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

. The

Sinsinawa Mound raid The Sinsinawa Mound raid occurred on June 29, 1832, near the Sinsinawa mining settlement in Michigan Territory (present-day Grant County, Wisconsin in the United States). This incident, part of the Black Hawk War, resulted in the deaths of two ...

of June 29, 1832, part of the

Black Hawk War The Black Hawk War was a conflict between the United States and Native Americans led by Black Hawk, a Sauk leader. The war erupted after Black Hawk and a group of Sauks, Meskwakis (Fox), and Kickapoos, known as the "British Band", crosse ...

, took place near Sinsinawa Mound. In August 2007 there was a commemoration of the 175th anniversary on the war.

Notes

External links

Sinsinawathe word Sinsinawa
an
Sinsinawa Mound
from the ''Dictionary of Wisconsin History'', published by the Wisconsin State Historical Society {{authority control Unincorporated communities in Grant County, Wisconsin Unincorporated communities in Wisconsin