
Hello, my name is Linda. I'm the site coordinator for the
Fond du Lac County Biographies Project. This project was
organized by Jeff Murphy in May of 1997 by using the
established Kentucky Biographies Project as a model. State
coordinators were sought to set up their own state project.
They were offered the system design and tools created for the
KY project, but were free to set up their project in any way
they chose.
Volunteers are needed to enter, edit, and archive the
biographies for each project. If you have biographies for
Fond du Lac County families, whether related to you or not,
please e-mail me
Linda
and
I will post them here!
I prefer that you copy and paste in an e-mail rather than
sending as an attachment, but will accept them any way you
need to send them.!
If you would like to volunteer to coordinate a county please
contact the Wisconsin State Coordinator
Linda Pingel
There are still several counties up for adoption and we need
your help.
How to Submit a
Biography
Send them to
me via e-mail
Wisconsin
Biographies Data Entry Guidelines
Wisconsin
Biographies
US Biographies
ADDITIONAL SITES FOR FURTHER RESEARCH
Fond du Lac Local
History Pages
Fond du Lac County
Genweb
"The Omnibus
Portal"
The history
of Germantown, Richfield, and Congregations of
St. Boniface in Goldendale, St. Mary in
Richfield, Christ Evangelical in Dheinsville, St. John United
Church of Christ in Kuhburg, Our Savior United Church of
Chirst in Rockfield/Germantown, or Stony Hills in Germantown
and the history of the Catholic Church in early Washington
County, Wisconsin.
Please
note: Biographies and Obituaries submitted by Cherie Pennau
were only transcribed and submitted for this site. Cherie is
not researching, or related to the families.
HISTORY
OF FOND DU LAC COUNTY
Through
the first third of the nineteenth century Fond du Lac County
was part of the Winnebago Indian nation. By the close of the
1830's, however, the central Wisconsin wilderness, the new
Northwest, became a focal point for easterners hoping to
create new lives for themselves. The county itself was created
in 1836, the year that the first permanent settlers, Colwert
and Edward Pier, arrived. The eventual city of Fond du Lac,
which historian Joseph Schafer refers to as "the first
location to be exploited entirely for speculative purposes,"
was effectively created by James Duane Doty, the Wisconsin
territory's premier speculator. Doty had an eye to the
transportation possibilities of Lake Winnebago and the
construction of a canal to the the Rock River at the Horicon
marsh and another to Sheboygan on Lake Michigan. Through
Doty's lobbying efforts, the prospective city was made a
candidate for the new Wisconsin territorial capital, although
there were fewer than 140 white settlers in the entire county
as late as the federal census of 1840. Growth came rapidly
beginning in the mid-1840's, as Yankees began arriving by the
thousands to rebuild the homes, farms, and communities they
knew in New England, New York, and Pennsylvania. By 1850, the
county's townships were established. In far western Fond du
Lac County, the population of Metomen, first settled in 1844,
grew from 460 in 1847 to 720 by 1850 and 1617 by 1860. By
1870, Fond du Lac was the state's second largest city, a major
railroad hub, and the county was second only to Dane in wheat
production.
INDEX OF SURNAMES
Click on the letters below to take you to the surname
beginning
with that letter.
Send me your biographies I will post them!
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