The streets bear the names of villages in Canton Glarus and today those labels appear along with numbered street signs. The “backtown” label continues to be used.Ī 12-block village is platted in the area where the Swiss colony began. where much of the first farming was done). As other businesses begin to cluster in the area of the mill, three distinct parts of the village emerge: the Vorderstätli (the “front town” or downtown area), the Hinterstätli (the “back town” area including the mill), and the Schönengrund (the “good land”, the savannah land south of today’s 6th Ave. ġ851 The first general store (including the first post office) is opened in New Glarus by brothers George, James and Conrad Ott, but they soon sell out and leave the colony because they were not from Canton Glarus.Īfter protracted negotiations for colony land, Joshua Wild builds a sawmill and mill pond at the northern edge of New Glarus. One area begins to be called the Bernertal. Immigrants from other parts of Switzerland, especially Canton Bern, begin settling in the central part of Green County. Wilhelm Streissguth arrives from Switzerland and organizes a Reformed Church congregation, using the log schoolhouse as the first church building. Many of the Swiss go to the courthouse at Monroe to file their declarations of intention to become citizens, since Wisconsin will allow immigrants to vote.ġ848 Wisconsin becomes the 30th state and in Green County town governments are organized in every township except New Glarus.ġ849 A log schoolhouse is built for the New Glarus School District.ġ850 After residents petition for their own government, the Town of New Glarus is organized at a meeting in the log schoolhouse. The area became known as the Biltental (Bilten Valley). The community’s first school is set up by Jacob Ernst, who asks for help from Switzerland.Ī territorial census is completed in preparation for statehood, showing only 13 homes and about 85 people remaining in the colony.ġ847 A second group of settlers, from the Canton Glarus village of Bilten, arrives in July and settles on land purchased south of New Glarus in what is now the Town of Washington. An additional 80 acres of woodland are purchased for the colony.ġ846 John Jacob Tschudy arrives from Glarus to help Fridolin Streiff manage the colony. In August, 131 of the 193 colonists who left Glarus in April arrive at “New” Glarus. They purchase 1,200 acres in Green County on July 17. Beginning of New Glarusġ845 Appeals Judge Niklaus Dürst and blacksmith Fridolin Streiff, sent by the Emigration Society of Canton Glarus, Switzerland, search for land in Illinois, Missouri, Iowa and Wisconsin. While there were land sales in the region, only “squatters” were in what became the Town of New Glarus. The original surveyor's sketch of what became the Town of New Glarus shows various streams meandering through the sections of land.ġ835 Land sales begin in southwestern Wisconsin. Many of the men were transients.ġ829 Ho-Chunk tribe cedes land south of the Wisconsin River to the United States in a treaty signed at Prairie du Chien.ġ833 The General Land Office completes surveys of townships.Ī detailed account of the early days of Green County and Southwestern Wisconsin can be found in Butterfield's 1887 History of Green County Pre-Settlement Yearsġ828 First non-Indian residents arrive in the region, setting up a trading house and mining lead at the Sugar River diggings. View Our Digital Collection of Documents and Photosįor more information, please email us.
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