James Jesse Strang House

At the division of the county into five towns, January 2, 1838, the two townships, each numbered 3 north, lying in ranges 17 and 18 east, were included in the town of Spring Prairie, and were so joined until March 21, 1843. when the westernmost town was set off as Lafayette. The name was suggested to Mrs. Abigail A. ( Whitmore) Heminway by the natural features of the southern half of the town - the springs being in sections 19 and 20 and discharging themselves into Spring brook, a branch of Sugar creek. Rochester and Burlington lie eastward.

Passage source: History of Walworth County, Wisconsin .., published 1912.

Vienna, on Sugar creek, was at first called Martinsburg, from the related Martin families who settled near that point. Judge Martin's saw mill gave place to a good grist mill, which in 1853 became the property of Edwan! /aim, who improved it greatly and for several years made his flour locally famous. His sons, Cornelius and Victor, continued the business for a few years. The mill was disused and then burned. Winslow Page Storms built the Vienna House in 1848 and used it for many years as a tavern and a store, and as a postoffice. It long ago became a private dwelling; for men go to Spring Prairie to buy, to Burlington for prescriptions, and each to his own door or gate for mail. A little burial ground lies a bit more than a half mile southwest of the village, on the way to Spring Prairie and to Burlington. Little mure than tradition now remains of Vienna and its past and prospective greatness.

Passage source: History of Walworth County, Wisconsin .., published 1912.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Spring Prairie Town - 5,113 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.