Tennyson, Wisconsin
16 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1900 and the latest in 1984. It stands in Potosi town. It lies in ZIP code area 53820. The Survey maps it on the Potosi quadrangle. 348 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 932 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresTennyson fell from 355 to 348 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 355 | |
| 2020 | 348 | -7 (-2%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
9 surveys from 16 printed sheetsMatched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.
- 1900 USGS Lancaster quadrangle1:125000
- 1904 USGS Lancaster quadrangle1:125000
- 1908 USGS Lancaster quadrangle1:125000, 5 printings
- 1957 USGS Potosi quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1959 USGS Dubuque quadrangle1:250000
- 1961 USGS Dubuque quadrangle1:250000
- 1962 USGS Dubuque quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1976 USGS Dubuque quadrangle1:250000
- 1984 USGS Dubuque North quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
What happened here
An account from the chapter on Potosi town. The inset identifies its exact source book and publication year.
Thu Jim Crow Murder
In 1838 occurred the "Jim Crow " murder, which created great excitement, not only in Potosi but throughout the county. The Long Range, referred to on page 517, was discovered by one Phipps, who failed to find the main body of mineral and sold to Moore & Watson. The wealth soon developed in the lode tempted some persons to try to obtain forcible possession of it, and to accomplish this they enlisted two or three of a gang of ruffians who then infested the settlement, ready for any evil deed that promised plunder.
In the county-history sources
9,006 words on this townshipHistory of Grant County, Wisconsin, published 1881; History of Grant County Wisconsin, published 1900 has no passage naming this settlement, which was common for smaller places. Its township is covered in full.
The chapter on Potosi Town covers the township.
Read the chapter on Potosi Town - 9,006 words.
Fires near this place
7 since 2018Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 7 fires within 5 miles of Tennyson between 2018 and 2020, burning about 25 acres in total. None started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 4 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 June 2018 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | 2618 |
| 27 April 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | 2320 |
| 25 April 2018 | Debris and open burning | 2.0 acres | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | 2018 |
| 25 April 2018 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | 2118 |
| 23 April 2018 | Debris and open burning | 2.0 acres | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | 1918 |
| 19 March 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 17 acres | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | 1218 |
| 17 March 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | 1118 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 24 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 24 workings within 5 miles of Tennyson: 11 unknowns, 9 past producers, 3 producers, 1 occurrence. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Lead, Zinc, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Stone. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beecher Sand Ltd. | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Bell Quarry | Stone | Unknown | ||
| Morsehead Quarry | Stone | Unknown | ||
| Bell Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| Pennecamp Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Ulbircht-Schaefer Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Ulbrick Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| Cardiff Mine No. 2 | Zinc, Lead | Past Producer | ||
| Cardiff No. 1 Mine | Zinc, Lead | Unknown | Sphalerite | |
| Cardiff No. 2 Mine | Zinc, Lead | Unknown | Sphalerite |
Storms near this place
7 since 2007Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Tennyson in 7 storm reports between 2007 and 2017: 2 tornado, 2 hail, 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 lightning. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Tennyson | $20,000 | The roof of a church was damaged in Tennyson. |
| April 2011 | Hail | Tennyson | $4,500 | no account filed |
| June 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Tennyson | $2,000 | A few trees were blown down along County Road O between Potosi and Platteville. |
| August 2008 | Lightning | Tennyson | $500 | A power pole was on fire due to a lightning strike. |
| May 2013 | Hail | Tennyson | - | Golf ball sized hail fell east of Potosi. |
| April 2009 | Tornado (EF0) | Tennyson | - | A trained spotter witnessed a brief touch down of a tornado five miles north of Dickeyville in an open field with no damage. |
| June 2007 | Tornado (EF0) | Tennyson | - | A small tornado touched down briefly between Dickeyville and the Tennyson area, but no damage was reported. |
Nearest settlements
The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| British Hollow | 1.1 miles | 16 | |
| Potosi | 1.4 miles | 16 | |
| Buena Vista | 1.6 miles | 16 | |
| Van Buren | 2.3 miles | 16 | |
| Rockville | 2.6 miles | 16 | |
| Cornelia | 5.7 miles | 17 | |
| Dickeyville | 6.6 miles | 17 | |
| Burton | 7.3 miles | 16 |
Elsewhere
Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.
| Wikipedia article on Tennyson | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1859812 | The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0). |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 1575312. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.








