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DAYTON This was the first town in the county, separately organized as a town, it being detached from Lind and organized in 1853. The first town meeting was held at the house of Lyman Dayton, April 15, 1858. The first settler was a Mr. Hitchcock, who built a shanty in April, 1850. In July of the same year, Lyman Dayton, from whom the town derives its name, arrived. He was the first Postmaster, the office being established in 1851. The first schoolhouse was built in 1854. Miss Eunice Randall teaching the first school two years previous. Revs. S. Miller and Cutting Marsh strive for the honor of having preached the first sermon, the Presbyterians erecting the first church in Rural. N. P. Judson became the first store-keeper in 1852, J. A. Lathrop, building the first saw-mill the next year. First town offivers: W. C. Carr, Chairman; Samuel Show, Jas. A. Lathrop, Supervisors; J. Martin, Jr., Town Clerk; Thomas F. Thompson, Treasurer. Lyman Dayton was the first Postermaster, commening in 1851. The town is located south of Farmington and west of Lind. It contains three small villages-Rural, Palfreyville and Crystal River.
TOWN OF DAYTON
The first settlers in the Town of Dayton located along the Crystal River in 1850. The pioneers of that year to permanently locate were E. M. Sawyer, Thomas F. Thompson and George C. Van Horn, who all settled in section 7. Mr. Van Horn and his wife came to the northeast quarter of the southwest quarter of that section, driving the first team of horses into town. They hung a carpet over some poles, as it was early May, and while the young husband broke the first land in town and proceeded to collect logs and fashion timber for a house, Mrs. Van Horn cooked the meals and made things as comfortable as possible under the circumstances. The log hut was ready to occupy late in the summer. In June, 1850,' George Barnhart, Joseph Robbins and Aaron L., John and Anthony Forbes arrived with their families; in all twenty persons. Mr. Barnhart settled on section 11, and the others named on section 24, not far from Silver Lake.
LYMAN DAYTON In July, 1850, Lyman Dayton came from Connecticut, made the fourth claim in town and settled on the southeast quarter of the north-west quarter of section 15, just east of the center of the township. He became so prominent that when the town was organized, two years later, it was given his family name. He was the first justice of the peace of the town, and the third sheriff of the county, being elected to the latter office in 1854. Mr. Dayton was a farmer and resided in the town which bore his name until 1875, when he moved to Waupaca, where he died in April, 1877, at the age of eighty-four years. One of his sons, William M. Dayton, built the flour mill at Palfreyville, and in 1866 became identified with the milling interests of Waupaca.
TOWN ORGANIZED At a meeting of the county board held at Mukwa, December 7, 1852, township 21 north, range 11 east, was detached from the Town of Lind and organized under the name of Dayton. At the same meeting it was ordered that the first town meeting should be held at the house of Lyman Dayton, on the southeast quarter of the northeast quarter of section 15. At that gathering, held April 15, 1853, the following town officers were elected: Chairman of the board of supervisors, W. C. Carr; super-visors, Samuel Shaw and James Lathrop; town clerk, John Martin, Jr.; treasurer, Thomas F. Thompson; assessors, J. D. Chamberlain, S. F. Eaton and H. N. Waterhouse; town superintendent, Samuel Simeock; justices of the peace, Lyman Dayton, Aaron Carter and Amos D. Munger; constables, Edwin Packard, George Barnhart and William J. Chamberlain.
It was voted that the town meeting of 1854 be held at the house of W. C. Carr, at Crystal Lake; that of 1855 at the house of J. H. Jones, Rural, and that of 1856, at Parfreyville. Since the last named year, the town meetings have been held alternately at Rural and Parfreyville. The first assessment made in the Town of Dayton showed that its total property was valued at $9,630, and its taxes, $231.68. The true value of the lands in Dayton Township is now given at $996,324.
THE WAUPACA REPUBLICAN - Waupaca, WI -
July 27, 1876 Historical Sketch of Dayton. From a sketch of the town of Dayton, read by J. D. HOLMAN on the 4th, the following facts are gathered: The county of Waupaca as it now stands was organized as a town in 1850, and was called Waupaca. At the first meeting of the Board, May 6, 1851, at which Peter Meiklejohn and Tyler Caldwell were present, the county was divided into eight road districts, what is now the town of Dayton being included in district No. 5. This district was described as “All the land lying south and west of Spencer’s marsh, also all that called the Pleasant Valley country.” The county Board met in Mukwa, March 5, 1852, and divided the county into six townships, the two present towns of Dayton and Lind comprising one called Lind. That spring Lyman Dayton was elected chairman of the town: J. W. Chandler and Chas. Beadleston supervisors, and J. L. Rice, clerk. In December, 1852, the present town of Dayton was separated from Lind, and became the first single township in the county, separately organized as a town. The first town meeting held, after the organization, was at the house of Lyman Dayton, on Dec. 15, W. C. Carr being elected chairman. In 1854 was established the custom of holding alternate town meetings at Parfreyville and Rural, which has since been followed. The first settler in the town of Dayton was a Mr. Hitchcock who built a shanty on what is now the farm of W. D. Emmons, on Sec. 8. He staid but a few months. Samuel Shaw and Thos. F. Thompson both settled in the town in 1850. Geo.
C. VanHorn drove the first span of horses into the town in May, 1850, and
settled on the land where his family now live. He built the first log house in
In the spring of 1852 the Carrs, Simcocks, Packards, Eatons, S. Randall, J. Conklin, and others, who made what is still known as the Crystal Lake settlement, moved into the town. In 1853 W. D. Emmons, F. Shoemaker, G. W. Steinemates, J. Stratton, J. Day and A. Potts came into the town, and in 1854 M. H. Rice, S. W. Hoyt and R. Holman. During these years the settlers depended largely upon wild game for provision, and got their other supplies from Strong’s Landing – now Berlin – Sheboygan and Milwaukee. To show what straits the settlers were reduced to and the expediences resorted to for food, this is told of Mrs. VanHorn: Mr. VanHorn was away from home during the fall of 1850 or 51, in Racine county, at work with a threshing machine. The flour at home gave out, and Mrs. VanHorn went to a neighbor who had half an acre of buckwheat in the shock, and tried to buy some. He told her she was welcome to it, as he was soon to move away. She took a carpet for a threshing floor, and some bags to the field, gathered the shocks and with a stick threshed out eight bags of wheat and chaff. With the first favorable breeze she winnowed this out, took half a bushel of wheat on foot to Mr. Dayton’s, ground it in their coffee mill, leaving the bran for toll. In the fall of 1851 Mr. Parfrey built a mill, called the “pepper mill”, 16 x 20 feet, boarded up and down. The shafts were made of tamarac and oak, unhewn. The “wobble” of the machinery occasioned by crooked shafts, was counteracted by tightening pulleys weighted down with stones. The belts were made of bags sewn together, and cotton factory cloth. This mill was burned in 1854. The first frame house in town was built by J. H. Jones in 1851, and in 1852 he built the house now owned by W. J. Chamberlain, in Rural. He built the mill now owned by the Ashmuns, in 1856, which was not put in operation, however, until 1862. In 1853 a saw mill was put up at Crystal River, and in 1867 the carding mill now in operation at that place, was built. The first post office was established in 1851, called Nepawan, and L. Dayton was P.M. The first public school was taught by Miss Emmie Randall, in 1852. The first frame school house was built in Pleasant Valley in 1854, and is still in use. The first preaching in town was by a “Methodist minister, named Miller,” and Rev. Cutting Marsh, of Waupaca Falls. Rev. Samuel Simcock preached during the years 1852-5. In 1853 the total value of property assessed was $9,630.75, upon which a tax of $231.68 was paid. The total assessed valuation in 1875 was $126,593. The number of families in 1850 was eight; in 1875 the population was 817. The first furrow was turned in 1850. In 1876 the assessor reports 4,091 of crops growing, not including potatoes. Return to township map Return to homepage |