Marquette County [origin of place name] | Wisconsin Historical Society

Historical Essay

Marquette County [origin of place name]

Marquette County [origin of place name] | Wisconsin Historical Society
Dictionary of Wisconsin History.

Was named in honor of Father Jacques Marquette, the French Jesuit explorer, who passed through this region in 1673. Sieur Joliet and companion, Father Marquette, in 1673 explored the region in which the village of Marquette in Green Lake county is located. The travelers stopped for several days in the village of the Mascouten Indians on which site the present village of Marquette is situated at the southeast end of Lake Puckaway. The village, township, and county of Marquette all were named after Father Marquette. A Vermonter by the name of Luther Gleason established an Indian trading post on the village site in 1829.

Description from John W. Hunt's 1853 Wisconsin Gazetteer: "MARQUETTE, County, is bounded on the north by Waushara, east by Winnebago and Fond du Lac, on the south by Dodge and Columbia, and on the west by Adams, and is 24 by 30 miles square. It was set off from Brown, December 7, 1836... Of late the subject of the county seat has created considerable excite ment, and the question is now being litigated between the villages of Dartford, on the north side of Green Lake, in the eastern portion of the county, and Marquette, on the south side of Puckawa Lake, in the southern portion of the county. The county is celebrated for its good lands, deep lakes, fine water powers, and its industrious and thrifty inhabitants. It is watered by Fox river (Neenah) and its branches. ¿ The population in 1840 was 18; 1842, 59; 1846, 986; 1847, 2,264; including Waushara, 1850, 8,642; 237 farms, 9 manufactories, 1,747 dwellings."

 View a related article at Wisconsin Magazine of History Archives.

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[Source: Card file at the WHS Library reference deskWaupun Leader-News, December 8th 1938.]