History of Marquette County "Out of the 72 counties in Wisconsin, Marquette County - with its 14 townships covering 454 square miles - ranks 62nd in size. It was not always so. In the first 20 years of its existence, outlines of our county changed a half-dozen times, and before that Marquette County was a parcel moved like a pawn on a chess board from one national territory to another. Marquette County - named for the Jesuit priest who passed through on his way to the Mississippi River in 1773 - was formed from Brown County by action of the Territorial Legislature on Dec. 7, 1836. It was made up of 21 townships, including only a portion of what is now within county limits. The county seat was placed at the village of Marquette, although the judiciary remained with Brown County (Five eastern townships were assigned to both Marquette and Fond du Lac Counties.) By 1844 all branches of county government had been transferred to Marquette. Two townships were stripped from Marquette County when Winnebago was formed in 1840, and two more were lost to Fond du Lac in 1848 (the other three disputed in 1836 having already been declared a part of Fond du Lac). Wisconsin was now a state (1848) and the boundaries of Marquette County were adjusted again by the new legislature. Portions were attached from Portage County on the west, and from the north the section of Brown that was part of the Menominee Indian purchase, so that Marquette was then comprised of all of the area presently included in Waushara, Green Lake and Marquette Counties. The new county of Waushara was cut from Marquette in 1851, and Green Lake detached in 1858, leaving Marquette one-fourth the size it had been for nine years. The present boundaries - around twelve full and two factional townships - were defined in 1860 and have since remained untouched. As they stand today, Marquette County's 14 townships cover 291,765.4 acres of land plus 5,120 acres of lakes and streams. One drives a little less than 24 miles between boundaries on north and south, and 22 miles from the widest reaches of east and west."
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Taken from: Places and Faces, Vol. I, by Fran Sprain, with permission from the author, Isabella Press, Westfield, Wisconsin; copyright 1991.