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Agriculture attracted the first white settler to the county, who located near
Watertown in 1836. In 1838, settlers located the Fox Lake and the government
offered the land in the County for sale. Dodge County's population in 1838 was
18 people. In 1839, Fox Lake became the first settlement and Waupun the second.
In 1840, the 67 resident of Dodge County organized a county government. Beaver
Dam and Oak Grove was established in 1841. Early agriculture in the county
focused on wheat, oats, corn, potatoes, apples and livestock.
Many parts of the county were covered by forest, although oak savannas, wetlands
and prairie were also common. Dams for sawmills and grist mills were established
in 1838 in Watertown, 1840 in Columbus, 1841 in Beaver Dam, 1844 in Danville,
and 1845 in Hustisford and Fox Lake. Dams and mills soon followed at Horicon,
Portland, Kekoskee, Mayville, Theresa, Rubicon and Ashippun. Timber was used for
local construction, but after the discovery of iron, much of what remained was
converted to charcoal for smelting.
Hotels were built in Fox Lake in 1839 and Beaver Dam in 1841. The first store
opened in Waupun in 1845. In 1848 a newspaper began publication in Beaver Dam.
The first road through the county was cut after 1843 between Watertown and Fox
Lake. A stage was operating by 1848 and a railroad was completed in 1856. The
state prison was established in Waupun in 1852. A bank opened in Fox Lake in
1854.
The county population reached 149 in 1842. Settlement of Dodge County largely
occurred between 1842 and 1860. The population surged to 7787 by1846, reached
19,140 by 1850 and by 1860 more than 44,500 people lived in Dodge County. A
major share of the newcomers was native-born Americans from the east and German
immigrants. Scandinavians, Welsh and Irish were also important. Nearly all of
the many communities in Dodge County were well established by 1860.
Manufacturing in Dodge County, of the goods needed by limited local markets, is
nearly as old as white settlement itself. Watertown had a wagon factory in 1841,
added a brick factory and flour mill in 1842, a woolen mill in 1844, a
distillery in 1845 and a brewery in 1848. By 1850 there were 30 manufacturing
plants in the county. The early 1850's saw the opening of a tannery in
Watertown, a flour mill in Hustisford, a foundry and iron manufacturing company
in Horicon and a plow factory in Waupun. Farm implement manufacturers were
established in Beaver Dam and Watertown in 1855.
Iron was discovered in the Town of Hubbard at Iron Ridge and in the Town of
Williamstown in the 1840's. A blast furnace was built in Mayville in 1849. From
1869 to 1872, about 174,000 tons of iron ore were removed.
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