Farmington, Washington County, Wisconsin
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Farmington is a town in Washington County,
Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...
, United States. The population was 3,239 at the 2000 census. The unincorporated communities of Boltonville, Cheeseville, Fillmore, and Orchard Grove are located in the town. The unincorporated community of Saint Michaels is also located partially in the town.


Geography

Farmington is located in the Kettle Moraine region of Wisconsin, home to unique geographical features formed by the Laurentide Ice Sheet, a massive glacier that covered much of Canada and the northern United States during the prehistoric Wisconsin glaciation. The town contains many kames, eskers, drumlins, kettles, rivers, and streams created by the glacier. The north branch of the Milwaukee River flows through the town, as do Stony Creek and Wallace Creek. The town's lakes, including Ehne Lake, Erler Lake, Green Lake, Lake Twelve, and Miller Lake, were are kettle lakes, created by the glaciers. According to the
United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...
, the town has a total area of 36.7 square miles (95.0 km2), of which, 36.4 square miles (94.2 km2) of it is land and 0.3 square miles (0.8 km2) of it (0.82%) is water.


History

The Farmington area's earliest known inhabitants were pre-Columbian Mound Builders, who constructed effigy mounds sometime between 650 CE and 1300 CE. They survived by hunting, fishing, and gathering wild plants. They constructed tools from bone, wood, stone, and occasionally copper. They also made pottery. They were semi-nomadic. They built effigy mounds shaped like mammals, reptiles, birds and other creatures, both real and mythical, as well as conical, oval, and linear mounds, some of which contain human burials. At least forty-seven mounds, known as the Hagner Group, existed in Farmington. Some mounds were destroyed by white settlers to create farm fields, but twenty-eight survive as of 2020 in Lizard Mound County Park. In the early 19th century, Farmington was home to Potawatomi and Menominee Native Americans. The Menominee surrendered their claims to the land to the United States Federal Government in 1831 through the Treaty of Washington. The Potawatomi surrendered the land the United States Federal Government in 1833 through the 1833 Treaty of Chicago, which (after being ratified in 1835) required them to leave Wisconsin by 1838. While many Native people moved west of the Mississippi River to
Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...
, some chose to remain, and were referred to as "strolling Potawatomi" in contemporary documents because many of them were migrants who subsisted by squatting on their ancestral lands, which were now owned by white settlers. Eventually the Native Americans who evaded forced removal gathered in northern Wisconsin, where they formed the Forest County Potawatomi Community. Farmington was part of the Town of West Bend until February 11, 1847, when the Wisconsin Territorial legislature created the Town of Clarence, which was renamed the Town of Farmington on March 11, 1848. The early settlers were predominantly German and Irish immigrants. In the early 1850s, a group of immigrants from Saxony established Fillmore in the eastern part of the town. They named the settlement for Millard Fillmore, who was president at the time. Fillmore is the location of the 1855 Saxonia House brewery, which was a gathering place for locals. In 1862, some of the Saxon immigrants organized the Farmington Turnverein, a German cultural association, and in 1868, they built the Fillmore Turner Hall, which still stands as of 2020. In 1854, Harlow Bolton established the Boltonville settlement on Stony Creek in the northeastern part of the town. The early settlers used the creek to power grist and saw mills. There was also a cheese factory, as well as shops, a post office, and a school. In the 19th and 20th centuries, dairy farming was widespread in Farmington, leading to the construction of numerous cheese factories, including an 1871 factory in Orchard Grove and an 1881 factory in Cheeseville. Farmington saw significant population growth in the final decades of the 20th century and the first decades of the 21st century. The economy is still primarily agricultural, with roughly 60% of the land devoted to farming.


Historic Places

Farmington is home to four sites listed on the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
: * Lizard Mound County Park: A well-preserved cluster of twenty-eight pre-Columbian effigy mounds, including a 250-foot lizard mound, similarly sized panther and bird mounds, and smaller linear and conical mounds. *Saxonia House: In 1855, immigrants from the Kingdom of Saxony built Saxonia House as an inn and brewery in Fillmore. Constructed with a traditionally German half-timbered-under-
stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and ...
technique, the building also contains an 1860 brewery cave with a vaulted brick ceiling for lagering and storing beer. * St. John of God Roman Catholic Church, Convent, and School: The church was built near Boltonville in 1891 and served a predominately Irish congregation. The site includes a cemetery and the nearby ruins of an 1868 convent and school of the Sisters of St. Agnes. * St. Peter's Church: German
Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
farmers constructed St. Peter's Church from fieldstone in 1861 and also built a nearby school in 1874.


Demographics

As of the
census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...
of 2000, there were 3,239 people, 1,116 households, and 945 families residing in the town. The
population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...
was 89.0 people per square mile (34.4/km2). There were 1,183 housing units at an average density of 32.5 per square mile (12.6/km2). The racial makeup of the town was 99.17%
White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
, 0.09%
African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...
, 0.22% Native American, 0.09% Asian, 0.03%
Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...
, and 0.40% from two or more races.
Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...
or Latino of any race were 0.90% of the population. There were 1,116 households, out of which 38.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 77.8% were married couples living together, 3.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 15.3% were non-families. 11.4% of all households were made up of individuals, and 3.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.90 and the average family size was 3.14. In the town, the population was spread out, with 27.4% under the age of 18, 6.4% from 18 to 24, 31.9% from 25 to 44, 25.8% from 45 to 64, and 8.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females, there were 104.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 106.6 males. The median income for a household in the town was $61,667, and the median income for a family was $63,508. Males had a median income of $41,953 versus $25,595 for females. The
per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...
for the town was $23,082. About 1.9% of families and 3.5% of the population were below the
poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...
, including 7.3% of those under age 18 and 1.2% of those age 65 or over.


Parks

* Leonard J. Yahr County Park: Once the site of a sawmill and match factory, the park now contains hiking trails and a public beach on the shore of Erler Lake. * Lizard Mound County Park: The park contains self guided walking trail through a collection of twenty-eight earthen mounds in animal and geometric shapes built between 1,000–1,500 years ago by Native Americans.


References


External links


Town of Farmington
{{authority control Towns in Washington County, Wisconsin Towns in Wisconsin