Map key

Who Settled Dodge County? Birthplaces of Dodge County residents, 1850–1880

Open the layers button in the upper right of the map to choose a census theme, a historic map to lay underneath, and the base map. Only one census theme shows at a time. Click any town for its full breakdown: every birthplace group for 1850, 1870 and 1880 side by side, with the theme you are viewing highlighted.

Tools

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Fade maps — slide the census layer toward clear to see the historic map or the land underneath. A second slider fades the historic map itself.
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Compare — pick any two layers, one for each side, and drag the bar left and right. Compare two years (Yankee-born 1850 against German stock 1880), two groups, or a census theme against an 1873 plat map. Swap sides flips them; Stop comparing returns to the normal map.
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Share view — copies a link to exactly what you are looking at: the place, zoom, theme and historic map, or both sides of a comparison.
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About — a short description of the map and links to this key and the full sources.

How to read the colors

Each town is shaded by the percent of its residents in the selected group. Darker means a larger share. The scale for each group is the same in every year, so 1850 and 1880 can be compared directly. Click a town to see the actual numbers.

smallest sharelargest share
Gray: no data — the town was not yet separate in that census (Fox Lake and Westford in 1850; the Dodge County wards of Watertown, Waupun and Randolph before they were counted separately), or the group is not recorded that year.

1850 – where residents were born

Percent of all residents, of every age, born in each place.

Yankee-born — born in New York or New England (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut).
German-born — born in any of the German states. The 1850 census rarely recorded which state.
Irish, Welsh, English & Scottish, Norwegian, Canadian-born — born in that country.
Wisconsin-born — mostly children of the settlers, whatever their parents' origin.

1870 – where residents were born

Yankee-born, German-born, Irish-born, Wisconsin-born — as for 1850.
Prussian, Mecklenburg and Bavarian-born — by 1870 the census usually named the German state. “Prussia” includes Pomerania, Brandenburg and the other Prussian provinces. The town breakdowns also list Württemberg, Saxony, Hesse, Baden and Hanover.

1880 – including children of immigrants

The 1880 census recorded each person's father's birthplace, so these themes count the immigrant generation and their Wisconsin-born children together.

German stock — born in Germany, or father born in Germany.
Yankee stock — born in New York or New England, or father was.
Irish, Welsh, British and Norwegian stock — born in that country, or father was. British includes England, Scotland and Wales.
German-born and Wisconsin-born 1880 — birthplace only, for comparison with 1850 and 1870.

Population change 1890–1910

Percent change in each town's population between the 1890 and 1910 censuses. Cities and villages are shown separately from their towns here.

Lost more than 15%
Lost 7.5–15%
Lost up to 7.5%
Grew up to 25%
Grew 25–60%
Grew more than 60%

Original land patents to 1868

Who first bought each 40 acres from the government, and when. Turn it on under “Land” in the layers list; the 7,577 parcels load the first time you switch it on, which takes a few seconds. Darker parcels were bought earlier. The patents sit underneath the census colors, which fade to half strength when you switch the patents on; use Fade maps to adjust either one. Click anywhere to see the parcel's buyer, date, land description and a link to the original patent, followed by that town's birthplaces.

Patented 1840–1844
Patented 1845–1847
Patented 1848
Patented 1849
Patented 1850–1854
Patented 1855–1859
Patented 1860–1868

Try it in Compare: land patents on one side and German stock 1880 on the other shows where the earliest buyers settled and who came after them.

Treaty lands, 1832 and 1833

Before any of this land could be sold, it was taken by treaty. Turn it on under “Land” in the layers list. Click anywhere for the story of who gave up that land, when, and the nations that carry on today.

Ho-Chunk homeland, ceded September 15, 1832 — west of the Rock River (Treaty of Fort Armstrong).
Potawatomi, Odawa and Ojibwe land, ceded September 26, 1833 — east of the Rock River (Treaty of Chicago).
Rock River — the dividing line. The 1832 treaty ran its boundary “up Rock river to its source.” North of Horicon Marsh, where the line leaves the river, it follows C. C. Royce’s 1899 map.

Try it in Compare: treaty lands on one side and German stock 1880 on the other. The 1833 side became the most German part of the county.

Historic maps underneath

Choose one under “Historic map underneath,” then use Fade maps to see it through the census colors.

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1830s–40s Original Land Survey Plats (GLO) — the first federal township surveys.
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1840 Map of Wiskonsin Territory — compiled from the public surveys.
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1873 Plat Atlas and 1890 Plat Atlas — landowners' names on every farm.
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1878 Map of Dodge County — county map with roads, railroads and villages.

Notes on the towns

Census records of the time did not separate cities and villages from the town around them, so for the birthplace themes each city is combined with its town: Horicon and Iron Ridge with Hubbard, Mayville and Kekoskee with Williamstown, Juneau with Oak Grove, Beaver Dam city with Beaver Dam town, and so on. Click a town to see what it includes. Watertown, Waupun and Randolph are shown for their Dodge County wards only.

The 1860 census is not mapped: it recorded post offices rather than towns, so its residents cannot be placed in towns reliably. Town outlines are today's boundaries, which differ slightly from those of the 1800s.

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