Hamilton is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

located in the Town of Cedarburg, Ozaukee 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. Much of the community is part of the Hamilton Historic District, a site 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 ...

. The NRHP-listed Concordia Mill is also located in the community.

History

Hamilton was settled by Irish immigrants in the early 1840s. It was originally named "New Dublin" and was the first white settlement in the Cedarburg area. The first documented resident was Joseph Gardenier, who built a log shanty on Cedar Creek as his headquarters for surveying for the construction of the Green Bay Road. It was renamed in 1847 after William S. Hamilton, a member of the legislature of the

Wisconsin Territory The Territory of Wisconsin was an organized and incorporated territory of the United States that existed from July 3, 1836, until May 29, 1848, when an eastern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Wisconsin. Belm ...

and son of

Alexander Hamilton Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757July 12, 1804) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the first U.S. secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795 dur ...

, the first U.S. Secretary of Treasury. In 1848, Hamilton became the first stop on the stagecoach route between Milwaukee and Green Bay. The community prospered until the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway was built in nearby Cedarburg in 1870. Cedarburg grew into an incorporated city, overshadowing rural Hamilton. In 1974, Hamilton was designated a historic site by the Wisconsin State Historical Society, and the Hamilton Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.

References

Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Wisconsin Geography of Ozaukee County, Wisconsin National Register of Historic Places in Ozaukee County, Wisconsin Unincorporated communities in Ozaukee County, Wisconsin Unincorporated communities in Wisconsin {{Wisconsin-NRHP-stub