Emblems of the abolition movement in Dodge County before the Civil War: an advertisement for Frederick Douglass in the Dodge County Citizen, October 16, 1856, (top, courtesy Kevin Dier-Zimmel) and a portrait of Sherman Booth of Milwaukee and Burnett (bottom).

Each year is thinning the ranks of the adventurous pioneers who broke the pathway of emigration into "Old Dodge," and the unpropitious hand of Death still pursues its silent vocation, relentlessly smiting, one by one, the brave men and women who first established the landmarks of progress and civilization in the fastnesses of a vast wilderness…. No tongue can tell, no pen can portray, the hardships and vicissitudes endured by the little band of Argonauts who, forty years ago, quit the friendly shelter of parental roof-trees, many of them forever, and wandered away in quest of' titles to broad acres of virgin soil in the Far West. The bent forms, the furrowed brows, the tremulous voices of the few who have weathered the storms of frontier experience, and are spared to sanctify with their presence the little home dominions that have grown up about them, is sad, yet eloquent evidence of the trials confronted by the early settlers of Dodge County. Their deeds deserve a place in history that will long survive even the monuments of marble that may mark their graves.(The History of Dodge County, Wisconsin, Chicago: Western Historical Company, 1880)

Dedicated to documenting the history and telling the cultural and family stories of the area, this site is sponsored by the Wisconsin Local History Network. Its goal is to record and make available the county's historical materials for the Internet community. In so doing, it also hopes to make more visible the critical work of the county's historical societies in preserving the heritage of past and present generations of county residents:

Dodge County Historical Society and Museum
105 Park Avenue
Beaver Dam, WI 53916

Horicon Historical Society
PO Box 65
Horicon, WI 53032

Mayville Historical Society
919 Charles Street
Watertown, WI 53094

Neosho Historical Society
PO Box 105
Neosho, WI 53059

Watertown Historical Society
919 Charles Street
Watertown, WI 53094

Waupun Historical Society
115 East Franklin Street
Museum
22 South Madison Street
Waupun, WI 53963

This site is entirely dependent on the contributions of volunteers in transcribing the records, copying the photographs, locating the letters, and interpreting the information that it takes to develop and maintain it. If you have an interest in participating in the ongoing project of documenting the history of Dodge County on the Web, please contact Bob Schuster at rmschust@wisc.edu or at PO Box 146, Fairwater, Wisconsin 53931 (920-346-8346).