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Harold Gauer Posing near Mequon Sign

Harold Gauer, wearing a suit and bow tie, and holding an ice cream cone, stands smiling next to a sign on the shoulder of a road that reads "Mequon / Unincorporated." View the original source document: WHI 64820

Mequon is located 14 miles north of Milwaukee and is a seat of Ozaukee County. Mequon’s name is derived from an Indian word for ladle, which describes the shape of the Milwaukee River around Mequon. The Potawatomi and Menominee tribes lived here before French fur traders set up posts on the Milwaukee River.  

Mequon got its first permanent white settlers in 1836 when Isaac Bigelow and Daniel Strickland came to the area. They were followed by people from other parts of the U.S., England, Ireland and Germany. The settlers constructed flour, saw, and grain mills, all of which were powered by the Milwaukee River. By 1881, the village boasted two stores, two wagon shops, two blacksmith shops, one tailor, two shoe shops, three saloons, one hotel and a post office. Mequon’s location on the line of the Wisconsin Central Railroad made it easy for them to export and import products.

Wisconsin’s first Lutheran church was built in Mequon in 1840. Mequon resident Edward H Janssen (1815-1877) was a member of the State Constitutional Convention and then was elected the State Treasurer in 1851.  

Today, Mequon is both a farming, residential and commercial community and is the fourth-largest city in Wisconsin by land area.

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• Mequon, Wisconsin

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Source: WHS Library-Archives Staff, 2009