Travel Back in Time to Watertown

Early immigrants to Watertown were mostly from New England, but in the 1850s, more and more Germans made Watertown their home. In fact, German immigration to the area was so significant that by 1917 seventy to eighty percent of the population in the county was of German heritage. Lots of great Wisconsin history in this historic location! Images are from the Wisconsin Historical Society, University of Wisconsin Digital Collections, and UW-Milwaukee Digital Collections.

View of Watertown looking west from Boughton Street Hill. ca. 1901.
Brass band marches down the street in Watertown ca. 1880-ca. 1910.
Watertown Alpine Bowl.
Service station in Watertown.
The Octagon House, on a high hill, overlooks the Rock River. In this house of octagon shape, as the name indicates, all the walls are of Milwaukee brick, hauled there by teams taking four days to make the trip from Milwaukee. There 57 rooms, and it was built in 1853.
The first kindergarten in America can be found in Watertown! It is located on the same grounds as the Octagon House and was founded by Margarethe Meyer Schurz in 1856.
In this petition, folks from Watertown, in Jefferson County, offer their town as the new site for the Wisconsin Territorial government, should the capital be relocated from Madison. This document is part of the really quite fantastic Wisconsin Citizen Petitions, 1836-1891.