ALLENS GROVE: Founded by four brothers, Phiny, Sidney, Phillip and Harvey
Allen.**
BELLE'S CORNERS: Probably took its name from the first Postmaster, William
Belle.
BIG FOOT PRAIRIE: Named for Chief Big Foot of the Potawatomi Tribe.
BLOOMFIELD: Assumed to have been named because of blooming wildflowers in the
area.
BLOOMING PRAIRIE: So named for the carpet of blooming flowers in the area.
BRADLEYS: Now called Elkhorn, this settlement was orginally named after a tavern
keeper of the early 1850's.
BROOKS COVE:This cove, a part of Beulah Lake, is named after David Brooks, a
local landowner.
CEDAR POINT: Settlement on the east shore of Williams Bay. The Indian name was
Ke-she-ge-ki-ah-ke-tah-ke-wum meaning "cedar hill" or "cedar ridge."
DARIEN: John Bruce came from New York in 1857 and bought up most of the land
which is now Darien Township. He set aside a strip of land to be known as The
Commons as ealry New England towns had done. This area is now known as Darien
Village Park. Mr. Bruce sold lots around The Commons and gradually it became
known as Brucewille. In 1838 many settlers came from Darien, New York, and
decided to change the name. By 1860 Darien was said to have then the largest
shipping point for stock, grain and pine lumber between Milwaukee and the
Mississippi River.
DELAVAN: Henry and Samuel Phoenix, founders of Delavan, were sympathetic with
the temperance movement of the 1850's, and when they platted the town insisted
on total abstinence in the town. They moved the town after Edward Cornelius
Delavan, a rich man of Albany, New York and a prominent temperance leader until
1870. To the best of anyone's knowledge, Mr. Delavan never visited the town.
EAST TROY: So named by the first settlers from Troy, New York. The first claim
was on the banks of Honey Creek near the present site of the East Troy mill
where a Mr. Roberts pitched his tent. Asa Blood came to join him and to build
the first house. In 1836 this settlement was one township known as Troy, but
seven years later it was separated into Troy and East Troy townships.
ELKHORN: (The County Seat) In July 1836, Col. Samuel F. Phoenix was traveling
along an army trail when he came upon a stretch of prairie and sat down under a
burr oak tree to rest. He looked uup into the branches and saw a large elk's
horns that someone had hung there. He named the prairie Elkhorn, and the village
also took the name.
FAIRFIELD: Was first known as Maxsonville, after its first settlers, Jospeh
Maxson and his son Austin. Joseph operated the first post office and lived in a
log house. Soon after the post office was established, for an unknown reason,
the name of the settlement was changed to Fairfield.
FONTANA: On September 25,, 1839, a gathering was held in a small log house at
the head of the lake. It consisted of the seven heads of the families in the
neighborhood. Mathias Moore suggested the town be named Fontana. They thought it
was a french workd for "a place of many springs".
GENOA JUNCTION:(city) The village was laid out about 1859 by James F. Dickerson
and became a mill site named after Genoa, New York. When two railroad lines
formed a junction there, the word Junction was added to avoid confusion with
Genoa, Illinois. The name of the town was later changed to the Village of Genoa
City.
HONEY CREEK: Early settlers found many wild bees and rich stores of honey when
they first came across the stream. IT is the largest stream in the county, and
there is a town named after it.
KENDALL'S CORNER: Captain George Washington Kendall owned a tavern at this
corner.
LAGRANGE: The township is said to have been named after the native town of
Genearl LaFayette in LaGrange, France.
LAKE GENEVA: The Potawatomi Indians named the lake after their chief, Muck-Suck,
meaning Big Foot. The French called it Gros Pied. About 1836 John Brink surveyed
this vincinity and thought the lake was too beautiful for such an uncouth name.
The lake reminded him of Seneca Lake in New York, which had the town name of
Geneva on its shore. Since this lake is smaller than Seneca Lake, he thought one
name would serve both the lake and the village.
LINN: Dr. Lewis Field Linn of Missouri was Colonel Bentons' colleague in the
United States Senate from 1833 until his death.
LYONS: This township was set off from the town of Geneva in 1844 and named
Hudson. It is claimed the first settlers came from the Hudson River area in New
York State. Among them were William Hudson, James C. and Thomas K. Hudson,
althought their names were not found in the earliest records. In a few years the
city of Hudson in St. Croix County had become more prominent, so the name was
changed to Lyons after Thomas Lyons and his sons who had built a dam and a saw
mill by 1840. The railroad staion was first called Lyonsdale and then Lyons.
MILLARD: First known as Baker's Corners. Later named Millard in honor of
President Millard Fillmore.
PELL LAKE: Named for a Mr. Pell who drowned in the lake.
REEDER'S GROVE: John Redder settled in this section of the town of Sharon in
1837.
RICHMOND: The township was set off in 1841. Thomas James, Perry James, and
Robert Sherman came here from Richmond, Washington County, Rhode Island.
SHARON: Suupposedly some of the first settlers came from the town of Sharon in
New York State. The first people to settle here were William Van Ostrand and a
Mr. Southard woh came in 1842. By an act of the territoral legislature, approved
March 21, 1843, this township was set off from Delavan Township and called
Sharon.
SPRINGFIELD: Names and platted by the Racine - Mississippi Railroad.
SPRING PRAIRIE : The orginal name was Franklin. A large log tavern was built by
Dr. Hemminway in 1837 and used for religious services, public meetings, store,
post office and polling place. The name then adopted was Hemenway's the spelling
apparently altered a little for convenience. Abigal A Whitmore Hemminway
suggested the name Spring Prairie because of the natural springs that discharged
into Spring Brook, a branch of Sugar Creek.
SUGAR CREEK: Sugar maple trees along the creek were tapped by the Indains for
maple syrup. The Potawatomi Indain name was Sis-po-quiet-spee meaning "sugar
maples along the valley".
TIBBETS: The home of Samuel H. Tibbets served as a post office after 1842.
Previously it had been located at Kendall's Corner.
TROY: An early name for this settlement was Meacham after a tavern keeper known
as Major Meacham. Another local tavern owned by Austin McCracken gave the name
McCracken's for a short time. The first settlers came from Troy in New York.
TROY CENTER: This community was created by the Railroad Company because a
station was needed here at a meeting of highways. In 1871 the Railroad Company
bought land from Gardiner Briggs and laid out a village plat. A post office was
established, and a hotel, stores, warehouse, blacksmith shop and about thirty
comfortable homes. It was named Troy Center because it was located in the center
of the township.
VIENNA: The community was first called Martinsburg, after the John Martin family
who lived here. Winslow Page Storms built Vienna House here in 1848, a store, a
tavern and a post office. It is said that Mr. Storms came from a town named
Vienna in New York State.
VOREE: This settlement, in the town of Spring Prairie, was founded by Jesse
James Strang, a Mormon in 1844. He intended to build a city and a temple here,
but in 1847 he fled with his disciples to Mackinaw Straits. It is not known
whether he found the name for his holy city in the Book of Mormon, or whether it
was revwaled to him in another way. Voree means, "garden of Peace".
WALWORTH COUNTY: Colonel Samuel F. Phoenix, founder of Delavan, suggested that
the county be named in honor of Reuben Hyde Walworth, the last chancellor of New
York State, the cancery court was abolished at the close of his term. He was
known as a great equity jurist, and a man of outstanding character in
termperance work and other movements. Walworth was one of the very first
counties in Wisconsin.
WALWORTH: Christopher Douglass broke ground on the prairie in 1837, plower
furrows town and one half miles long. Later he built the first tavern, which
became known as Douglass Corners. Just to the north was Bell's Croners, a
trading center where a post office had been established since 1839. By 1851 the
post office was transferred to Douglass Corners and renamed after the county.
WHITEWATER: Indians called the river Wau-be-gan-naw-po-cat, which means "white
water" and referred to the white solft clay and sand in the bottom. When the
town was organized in 1842 it took the same name. The first settler arrived July
1, 1837.
WILLIAMS BAY: Isreal Williams was a New Englander who had fought in the War of
1812 as a captain. He came to the Lake Geneva region in 1836 with his wife, her
aged mother and his seven sons. He settled on the north shore of the lake on
this bay.
ZENDA: When the railroad came through this small town came into existence. The
post office was opened in 1902. The Railroad president's daughter was reading "
The Prisoner of Zenda" at the time, hence the name.
** additional information in the holding of WCHS
Most of the above information taken from "The Romance of Wisconsin Placenames",
by Robert Gard & L. G. Sorden. Reprinted with permission of the Walworth County
Sesquicentennial Committee, "Exploring Walworth County."