New Glarus, Wisconsin
New Glarus is a village in Green County, Wisconsin, United States at the intersection of Wisconsin Highways 69 and 39. The village, and the town that surrounds it, were named after the canton of Glarus in eastern Switzerland. The community was founded in 1845 by immigrants from that canton and was incorporated in 1901.
About New Glarus, Wisconsin in brief
New Glarus is a village in Green County, Wisconsin, United States at the intersection of Wisconsin Highways 69 and 39. It has a population of 2,172 according to the 2010 census. The village, and the town that surrounds it, were named after the canton of Glarus in eastern Switzerland. The community was founded in 1845 by immigrants from that canton and was incorporated in 1901. In 1845, magistrates in Glarus dispatched two men, Nicolas Duerst and Fridolin Streiff, to find a suitable location for a colony in the New World. The men investigated several tracts of farm and timber land in the southern Wisconsin territory before deciding on two square miles along the Little Sugar River. Some said later it was not the best property available, but the valley and hilltops reminded them of their native Switzerland. Many of the pioneers were carpenters, mechanics, farmers; trades that proved useful as they prepared for the first winter in the Wisconsin Territory. A sum of USD 1,000 was used by the settlers that winter to purchase tools, cattle, seed, and other provisions, all of which had to be repaid with the price of the land within ten years of the formation of the colony. Twelve families stayed in the colony’s first winter. Three party died on the way to southern Wisconsin; many more joined the colony later the following year. In all, the New Glarus settlers purchased 1,200 acres for their new home. Three members of their party died in the way along the way; the balance found work or friends along theway.
In the early 1840s, after several years of failed crops and as food became scarce, much of the cantons in Switzerland found itself deep in poverty. Given the desperate economic conditions in Switzerland, 193 volunteers decided to leave their homeland to start anew in America. The group left Glarus on a barge bound for Rotterdam, from there they expected to sail into New York City where friends were scheduled to meet them. They first set foot in America after a 49-day voyage. From St. Louis they then boarded a steamboat for Galena, Illinois, after which they arrived at the land office in Mineral Point, Wisconsin. Shortly after arriving in Galena they were excited to learn DuerSt and Streiff were alive and had already secured land for theirnew settlement. The land that would become the Village of New Glusar was untamed wilderness, which had been inhabited by Native Americans for centuries. Even as late as 1845 the remnants of an old wigwam were still found near there. An Indian trail passed just south of present-day Newglarus, through what is now NewGlarus Woods State Park. That trail later became the main thoroughfare to and from Newglusar. It was a fertile basin bounded with hills and a large stand of trees nearby. It was also the site of the first European settlement in the state of Wisconsin.
You want to know more about New Glarus, Wisconsin?
This page is based on the article New Glarus, Wisconsin published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 30, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
