Main Street Historic District

The town of Whitewater is in the extreme northwestern portion of the county. The surf acp varies, the southeastern corner of the town being rolling land or hilly. Fully three-fourths the town, however, is comparatively flat, of which one-fom-th consists of swamp land. West of the village of Whitewater is a prairie covering two sections. With the above exceptions, the town originally consisted of openings, with patches of white and black oak and poplar. Its soil is that usually found in a flat country, but is occasionally of a light sandy variety. Near the village are several limestone quaiTies. The tovra is watered by Whitewater Creek, consisting of two branches, one rising in the town of Lima, the other in Richmond; they both flow north into the Bark River. Bass, Whitewater and Round Lakes ai-e all in the southeastern part of the town, and abound in pickerel and bass; there is also the pond south and east of the Tillage. Several mineral springs have been discovered in this latter vicinity, but have not been analyzed. Originally, fom- Indian mounds of quite imposing dimensions existed a short distance from the northeast corner of Section 7 : the largest was sixty -five feet long, twenty feet wide and five and a half feet high. When C. R. Gibbs came into possession of the property, the mound was leveled for the site of his residence. Excavations to unearth its contents have never been made. Northeast of this mound, about V2i) rods, are three other elevations of cone- like form, twenty feet across at the base and seven feet high. Aside from this locality, no other signs of prehistoric life, within the present limits of the town, have been found. Limestone quarries have been discovered near the village.

Passage source: History of Walworth County, Wisconsin, Containing an Account of Its Settlement, Growth, Development and Resources...its War Record, Biographical Sketches, Portraits of Prominent Men and Early Settlers; the Whole Preceded by a History of Wisconsin...and an Abstract of Its Laws and Constitution.., published 1882.

Whitewater is an agi-icultural town, fiilly one-quarter of its population following that pursuit. A quarter of its farms are devoted to dairying, there being several cheese factories in the town. Corn, oats, wheat, barley and buckwheat are the chief grain products. The-first land was broken and the first crop raised by Dr. Edward Brewer, who came from Milwaukee in May, 1837, took up a claim in the southwest (juarter of Section 7, and then co*ntracted for the tilling of ten acres of land during the coming season. He had been accompanied by William and Leander Birge, the three returning in July with Charles Hamilton, bringing with them seven yoke of cattle, one wagon and two breaking plows. The jxirty was five days coming from Milwaukee, and gladdened the heart of their host, Samuel Prince, the first permanent settler, l)y bringing with them all the " solids " of metropolitan fare - pork, potatoes, tea, coffee, flour, etc., etc. Dr. Brewer and Hamilton then went to work to improve the claim on Section 7. The Birges went on to Cold Spring, liiit returned, jumped Norman Pratt's claim to the southeast quarter of Section 2, and commenced to till the soil as the second fanners. The expense of living in those times was simply enormous, but, with the advent of new settlers and the raising of abundant crops in 183'.(, the condition of the pioneers commenced to " look up." The next year, an assessment of property was made, preparatory to raising a tax for a court house and school purposes. The total valuation of the town property was $57,974. From the old Isooks of Benjamin Bosworth, who had opened the first store in Whitewater the previous year, it ap- I)ears that the farmers were not getting wealthy from the sales of their products: Spring wheat, 36 to 40 cents per bushel; winter wheat, 40 to 46 cents; corn, 30 cents; butter, 16 cents per pound; eggs, 8 cents per dozen. The next four years witnessed uiiusual growth in the settlement of Whitewater and in the prosperity of the town. But the Assessors will have to explain the decline in the value of property to $52,863. This figiu-e was based upon 13,540 acres of land, including the village which had been taken up, five-sevenths of which was owned by resi dents. There were over 10,000 acres of Goverment land yet in the market. The harvest of 1844 good, and put the early settlers in splendid spirits. During the winter, the farmers hauled their produce principally to Milwaukee, and returned laden with household provisions, goods or cash. The succeeding eight years passed away, and the country became thickly settled with prosperous farmers, who demanded some easier means of getting their grain to market. The crops for 184(5 to LS51 were poor - the latter year' a total failure. The "pink-eye'" years will long be remembered by all the early farmers of the town and county. The Milwaukee & Mississippi Railroad was completed to Whitewater in September, 1852, and the whole condition of things was changed. Business men and the farmers who had mortgaged then- lands, rejoiced with new hope. Only the dozen tavern-keepers between Whitewater and Milwaukee, who, in past time, had reaped such a harvest fi'om the constant and necessary travel only they put on long faces. In October, 1853, winter wheat was selling at Janesville for 80 cents per bushel, and in Milwaukee, during September, for as high as fl.80.

Passage source: History of Walworth County, Wisconsin, Containing an Account of Its Settlement, Growth, Development and Resources...its War Record, Biographical Sketches, Portraits of Prominent Men and Early Settlers; the Whole Preceded by a History of Wisconsin...and an Abstract of Its Laws and Constitution.., published 1882.

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 Whitewater City - 70,076 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.