Germantown

History

The land that became Germantown was originally inhabited by members of the Potawatomi tribe. The Potawatomi surrendered the land that became Germantown to the United States Federal Government in 1833 through the 1833 Treaty of Chicago, which (after being ratified in 1835) required them to leave Wisconsin by 1838. While many Native people moved west of the Mississippi River to Kansas, some chose to remain or return after temporarily settling in the west, and were referred to as "strolling Potawatomi" in contemporary documents because many of them were migrants who subsisted by squatting on their ancestral lands, which were now owned by White settlers. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Potawatomi who evaded forced removal gathered in northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where many worked in the timber industry and formed the Forest County Potawatomi Community. The community was originally designated as the Wisconsin Territory's "Town Nine," making it the oldest settlement in Washington County. Beginning in the 1840s, many German immigrants—particularly from the regions of Bavaria, Hessen, Rheinland, Pommern, and Prussia—settled in the area, which led to it being named "Germantown". The territorial legislature created the Town of Germantown on January 21, 1846, and the first town meeting was on April 7 of the same year. The town included the then-unincorporated communities of Dheinsville, Goldenthal, Kuhberg (later known as Victory Center), Meeker Hill, Rockfield, South Germantown, and Willow Creek. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Germantown's economy relied heavily on agriculture, including dairy farming. The southern part of Germantown is rich in Silurian limestone, which was quarried beginning in the 1870s, particularly in the…

Geography

Germantown is located at (43.223206, −88.120433). According to Wisconsin First Nations (a Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction resource), Germantown is located on Potawatomi treaty land. The village also falls within the lands of the Peoria, Menominee, Miami, and Sioux Indigenous peoples, as shown by Canadian not-for-profit organization Native Land Digital. The United States Census Bureau indicates Germantown has a total area of , of which, of it is land and is water.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  29,815
• Black-capped Chickadee

  Poecile atricapillus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  28,182
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  26,184
• American Goldfinch

  Spinus tristis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  25,016
• Mourning Dove

  Zenaida macroura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  23,257
• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  22,542
• Downy Woodpecker

  Dryobates pubescens (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  20,712
• House Finch

  Haemorhous mexicanus (P.L.Statius Müller, 1776) · Aves
  20,457