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The Family Trees of Tomah,
Monroe County, Wisconsin
Welcome to a website that commemorates many of the families that settled in and around Tomah,
in Monroe County, Wisconsin.
Wisconsin was
established as a state in 1848, when it was separated from the Michigan
Territory. Then, Monroe County was established in March 1854, when the governor
separated it from La Crosse County. The city of Tomah was formed shortly after
that, with Robert E. Gillett erecting the first building--a log cabin--in May
1855, and it was incorporated in 1858.
Plentiful
farmland, numerous timber areas, new roads linked to other cities in Wisconsin,
and the railroads coming to the area resulted in strong growth
through the end of the 19th century and beyond.
There appear to have been four major origins of most of the early families
coming to the Tomah area:
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Many of the
English and Irish families emigrated in the
1600's and 1700's to New England, settling first in Massachusetts. They then
migrated over a period of several generations through Connecticut, Vermont,
New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, before settling in Wisconsin in the 1850's.
They were drawn to the area because of the federal government's offer of
inexpensive farmland for homesteading. The English and Irish families settled
primarily in the northern and eastern part of Monroe County in the areas of Greenfield,
LaGrange, Lincoln, Tomah, and Oakdale Townships. Some of the families in this
group were Austin, Bigelow, Calkins, Clay, Dewey,
Ferries, Goff, Griggs, Hoag, Jennings, McMullen, Purdy, Root, Street, Sweet,
Taylor, Wildes and Williams.
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Many of the
Dutch
families emigrated in the 1600's and 1700's to New York (then called New
Amsterdam)--some settling in New York City, and others in the up-state area.
As those areas became crowded and good farmland became scarce, some of the
families relocated to Wisconsin, with many moving through the Oconomowoc area
before settling in the Greenfield, Grant, Lincoln and LaGrange Townships in
the late-1800's. Examples of these family names were
Vandervort and
Vroman.
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A third, and very large, group was the
Prussian
immigrants that came from north-central Europe--currently Germany, Poland and Austria. In the early-1800's, King Friedrich Wilhelm III issued the
"Proclamation of Union" between the Lutheran and the Reformed churches of
Prussia, because he reasoned that he could write one service that would please
both factions. The Lutherans were forced to break up their own churches and
attend the "Union" churches. That religious persecution, combined with a
depressed economy and the prospect of having their sons fighting in the
military of a country they no longer loved, caused many families to leave
their homeland for better opportunities in America. Most of these north-central
European families emigrated in the 1860's, '70's and '80's and settled to the
southern part of Monroe County in Adrian, Ridgeville, Wilton, Clifton and
Oakdale Townships. Examples of these family names were
Achtenberg, Albrecht, Bartels, Behrens, Bernhardt, Betthauser, Blaschke,
Brandau, Brehmer, Eckelberg, Frohmader, Gabower, Gehrke (Gerke), Gnewikow,
Grabitske, Jaskiewicz (Kewit), Koopman, Kortbein, Kuckuck, Kuhl (Kuehl), Kuhn
(Kuehn/Keene), Kuthlow, Limp, Ludeking, Neitzel, Noth, Pergande, Prell, Preuss
(Prise), Roscovius, Rosenow, Schamens, Sonnenberg, Sonnenburg, Strozinsky,
Tauber (Tiber), Utke, Wadepfuhl, Waege, Waegner/Wegner/Wagner, Westphal/Westpfahl,
and Zellmer.
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The last major group consisted of
Mormon
families that moved from Ohio and Indiana to Wisconsin because they were in
search of timber to ship to new Mormon colonies that were being established in
Illinois and Missouri. Many of the Mormons settled north and east of Tomah in
Grant, Lincoln, Scott and Byron Townships. Eventually, most of the Mormon
families moved further west, but some remained in the area. Family names in
this group were
McNutt, Root,
Scott, Sutherland, and Wood.
For the most part, these families remained isolated among
themselves--attending their local churches, schools, and social functions;
intermarrying; etc. It wasn't until the popular use of the automobile in
the 1920's that there began to be a mixing of the various communities via
marriage. The attendance at the central High School in Tomah was also a
factor.
The reports in the
“surname letter” links below contain the surnames or individual families of
nearly 400 individuals who were part of the forming of Monroe
County in its early years. Within the various reports are hundreds of
additional family surnames that can now be found in Monroe County.
The genealogy database from which the reports are developed contains nearly 60,000 individuals—direct ancestors and/or their descendants and related family
members who settled and lived in the Tomah area at one time or another.
To search for a
particular family, click on a surname link, open any of the following reports
and go to the "Surname List" or "Name Index." Keep in mind that a particular
family name may occur in any number of surname links and family reports because
of marriage and indirect ancestral connections. Click on the camera icons wherever you see one, to see pictures.
I hope that you
enjoy your research of the Tomah area families. This information is by no means
complete, so if you have information that you would like to correct or have
added to any of the reports, please contact me at the e-mail address below. New
information and corrections will be added in future updates.
Links to the
Tomah-area family settler’s surnames:
A-B
C-E
F-G
H-J
K
L-N
O-P
Q-R
S
T-V
W-Z
The links below go
to additional websites featuring: (1) Tomah-area families that are direct
descendants of the Mayflower’s Pilgrim families; (2) a database of the
gravestones in Tomah's Oak Grove Cemetery; and (3) a website devoted to the
known direct ancestors of the
Griggs and Pergande families that settled in Monroe County. Surnames in the
latter website include those related to families such as Achtenberg, Dewey,
Griggs, Griswold, Jaskiewicz (Kewit), Pergande, Root and Wilde.
Gary Griggs
117-3 Whitetail Way
Pawleys Plantation
Pawleys Island, SC 29585
garygriggs@sc.rr.com
Prepared with:
RootsMagic
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