Stockbridge, Wisconsin History
Stockbridge is a village in Calumet County, Wisconsin, United States. Stockbridge is known as “The Sturgeon Center of the World,” and was named after the Stockbridge Indians after they moved here from Stockbridge, New York, in the 1830s.
Calumet County Park is located 4 miles northeast of the city. The park has native American effigy mounds.
There are two places in Stockbridge listed on the List of Registered Historic Places in Wisconsin: Stockbridge Harbor and Stockbridge Indian Cemetery.
- 1830 – According to the 1978 edition of The Stockbridge Story. Early explorers described the Town like this. “The area was beautiful. The land was low and marshy at first, and then rose to heights some 200 feet high, with limestone ledges lining the cliffs. They found fast running streams with enough current to run mills. The view was breathtaking. Forest of the best timber sloped down to the edge of the lake and to the south beyond the horizon”
- 1832-1856 – The Town of Stockbridge was formed through a series of Indian Treaties.
- 1832 – The Town received its name from the Stockbridge Munsee Indian Tribe that relocated here from Stockbridge Massachusetts.
- 1832 – The land in Stockbridge was originally surveyed by 60 acre lots rather than by metes and bounds because the government thought the Indians would understand the location of a piece of land by saying lot #278 rather than by a description such as N/W ¼ of the N/E corner of section etc.
- 1853 – In His Gazetteer, John Hunt described the Town as a “heavy growth of hard Timber”.
- 1856 – The Calumet County Seat originally located in Stockbridge was moved to Chilton.
- 1860-1880 – Dairy and Cheese making took over wheat growing as a main source of income for Farmers.
- 1936 – Land was purchased by Calumet County for developing Calumet County Park.
- 1949 – The Stockbridge Community Fire Dept. was established.
- 1972 – Construction of the Community Hall and Fire station was completed.
- 1994 – The Stockbridge First Responders were organized.
