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WAUPACA The town bearing this name, in which the city is located, is situated south of St. Lawrence and west of Royalton, The first settlers were E. C. Session, J. and W. Hibbard, W. G. Cooper and J. M Vaughan, who came there June 9, 1849. In the fall of the same year arrived David Scott, Dana Dewey, A. M. Garde, and others less well known. The first child born was Mary Hibbard, a daughter of Joseph Hibbard, May 25, 1850; the first church was built in 1851, and, the first teacher was Miss Dora Thompson (now Mrs. LeGro), in 1850; the first church by the Methodists in 1853, in 2hat is now the Fourth Ward of the city. The first sermon was preached by Rev. Silas Miller, a Methodist minister, in 1850, at the house of J. M. Vaughn. The town was organized in 1851. The first saw-mill was built in 1850 by Silas Miller, and the first grist-mill by W. C. Lord and Wilson Holt, in 1851. The first post office established in 1851, with Capt. D. Scott for Postmaster, the first route being from Green Bay to Plover. W. G. Cooper built the first house in 1849. The first law suit was held before S. F. Ware, Justice of the Peace, in 1850-Capt. Spencer vs. L. W. Thayer.
From Wisconsin County Histories, Waupaca County Edited by John M. Ware 1917
Transcribed and submitted to the Waupaca County Website
http://www.rootsweb.com/~wiwaupac/index.htm
TOWN OF WAUPACA
The original Town of Waupaca was one of the six civil divisions into which the county was divided by action of the county board, at Mukwa, on March 5, 1852. It was described as townships 21 and 23, range 11 east, and township 22, range 12 east, and included the present townships of Waupaca, Scandinavia and Farmington. The two last named were set off in 1853, leaving Waupaca Township as it is today. The first settlements in the township were made at the Falls and have been fully described in the history of the Village and City of Waupaca. The first two claims made for farming purposes were by J. M. Vaughn and T. M. Paine, on sections 34 and 35, in 1849. It was at Mr. Vaughn's house that Rev. Silas Miller, the Methodist elder at the Falls, preached the first sermon.
The first schoolhouse was built in 1851, in what was known as the Chandler and Vaughn district.
The first marriage was that of Thomas Billington and Emma Baxter, in the same year. Elder Baxter, father of the bride, officiated. At the first town meeting, held at the house of a Mr. Mackintosh on April 6, 1851, the following officers were elected: Chairman, S. F. Ware; supervisor, J. B. Hibbard; justices of the peace, S. F. Ware, Granville Jones, W. B. Hibbard and Mellen Chamberlain; constable, A. M. Garde. The assessor's figures for 1916 give a fair idea of the relative importance of the Town and City of Waupaca to the county as a whole, in the items of property valuation and tax production. The lands in the town are valued at $1,142,805, and the total of real and personal property at $1,522,203, or 3.86 of the total value in the county. The real and personal property of the city is valued at $2,394,089, or 6.07 per cent of the whole. So that town and city have nearly 10 per cent of the property value of the county, and pay taxes accordingly.
The town stands well up in the list of the star raisers of live stock. It has 2,204 cattle valued at $76,052 and 634 horses, valued at $64,138. The seven rural schools of the town under the supervision of the county superintendent represent a population of 281 between the ages of four and twenty.
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