Madison - Wisconsin - History
The four lakes region was formed by the glaciers when they retreated about 13,000 years ago. Between 300 and 1,300 AD Native American "mound builders" occupied the area. Of the thousands of effigy mounds that once surrounded the lakes only a few remain to remind us of this unique culture. By the time the Yankee settlers began to arrive, the Winnebago Nation called the area home and continued to camp near the lakes into the 1940's.
James Duane Doty, a territorial Judge and land speculator, traveled through Madison's Isthmus in May 1829 and liked the site so much that he bought 1,200 acres for $1,500 and platted a grid of streets. In 1836, he persuaded the territorial legislature meeting in Belmont, WI to designate Madison, then his paper city, as the site for the new capital. Doty named the city Madison for James Madison, the 4th President of the U.S. who had died on June 28, 1836 and he named the streets around the capitol square for the other signers of the U.S. Constitution. In April 1837, Eben and Rosaline Peck moved to the Isthmus from Blue Mounds and built a log cabin boarding house near S. Butler St. to accommodate the workers who came from Milwaukee to build the Capitol. Rosaline gave birth to Madison's first non-Indian baby and named her Victoria Wisconsiana.
Nine years later when the Village of Madison was incorporated the population had reached 626. Wisconsin became a state in 1848. Madison became a city in 1856 and boasted a population of 6,864. The first settlers were Yankees from the eastern states. They were soon followed by German, Irish and Norwegian immigrants. Italians, Greeks, Jews and Blacks also found a home here after the turn of the Century.
Madison is one of the most striking examples that could be selected in the United States of a city which should have a distinct individuality, marked characteristics separating it from and in many respects elevating it above other cities. Its topography, its lake scenery, its early selection as the Capital and as the seat of the State University, its population, its history, - such influential factors as these should surely have found expression in a city plan, a city development and a city life with a form and flavor unlike that of any other place.
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