(Prepared by: Cindy Arbiture, President, Concord Historical Society, Inc.
June 5, 2007. Revised by: Roxanne Butler, President, CHS Inc, July 2025.)

A Brief History of the Concord Area
The Pre-European settlement history of Wisconsin includes the following cultures: Paleo, 7,000 to 5,000 B.C.; Archaic (Old Copper & Red Ocher culture) 3,000 to 250 B.C.; Hopewellian 100 B.C. to 500 A.D.; Middle Mississippian 1,000 to 1,300 A.D.; Woodland 1,000 B.C. to the arrival of European settlers. The Native American cultures that were displaced by European pioneers were the Sac, Fox, Potawatomi and Winnebago (now known as the Ho Chunk.) These are the descendants of the Woodland and Middle Mississippian prehistoric cultures. In the early 2000s, rare remains of the Archaic culture were found in the Town of Concord, and have been documented by the Wisconsin Historical Society and the Wisconsin Department of Transportation.

Concord Township’s thirty-six square miles was originally within the boundaries of Brown County. In September 1835, Milwaukee County was fully organized and detached from Brown County. Jefferson County was formed in December 1836 from Milwaukee County, but not fully organized until February 1839. Until 1841, Jefferson County had five original townships: Aztalan, Watertown, Jefferson, Finch and Bark River. The Town of Concord was part of the Watertown Township. Waukesha County is younger, being created from Milwaukee County in April 1846. Wisconsin became a state in May 1848. Since 1858, there are sixteen townships within Jefferson County.
 

Town of Concord Beginnings

On February 12, 1841, a new township composed of Towns Seven and Eight North, Range 16 East, separated from the Township of Watertown, forming the new Town of Union. On January 21, 1846, Union Township divided into two separate towns: Concord (Town Seven) and Ixonia (Town Eight.) The two towns took different paths in their future development. The railroad would be routed through Ixonia, providing opportunities there for commerce and industry. Concord remained a rural township, with a focus on agriculture and dairy farming.
The first general meeting of the Town of Concord was held on the first Tuesday of April 1846, at the house of Austin Kellogg. The meeting was organized by the election of Luther Thayer for Moderator and Jost D. Petrie for Clerk. Town officials were then elected for the ensuing year: Chairman of the Board of Supervisors, Horatio N. Carlton; Assistant Supervisors, Luther Thayer and William Sacia; Town Clerk, Jost D. Petrie; and Treasurer, William Dunning, Jr.

The Town of Concord grew due to its location as a central stopping point between Milwaukee and Madison, on the Wisconsin Stage Lines route along the old Territorial Road. Territorial roads were the first roads that often-followed Native American trails. Access to transportation routes has always played an important role in the development of any area. Concord had a population of 725 in 1850, which increased to 1,627 by 1870. Concord was a growing farming community with a town hall, post office, general stores, steam saw mill, schools, churches, a sorghum mill, barber shop, broom factory, and creameries producing cheese and butter. There are three remaining historic church buildings within the town: Concord Methodist Church, Saint Mary’s Help of Christians Catholic Church, and Saint Stephen’s Lutheran Church.

The 1850 federal census for Concord shows Austin Kellogg as the wealthiest man in town. He was the owner of the tavern/inn where the stagecoach stopped and some settlers resided there while improving their claims. Kellogg was appointed Lieutenant Colonel of the Third Regiment of the Militia of the State of Wisconsin for Jefferson County and also served three terms as a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly. He held the positions in Concord of Justice of the Peace and town chairman, and was twice elected as sheriff for Jefferson County.  Kellogg’s Inn survived for over 145 years in our town and was a prime example of Greek Revival Architecture, a neoclassic style that appears in many Yankee structures in New England. The inn was destroyed by fire in the mid-1990s and the land sits vacant. William Sacia, one of our first town officials, claimed to be the first pioneer settler. His old farmstead is located on County Road E, adjacent to the Oconomowoc River. It was said he built Concord’s first frame house in 1843.

Ten schools were dotted throughout the township: Bakertown (moved to Jefferson in 1965, then to Dodge County in 2010), Concord Center (now the town’s museum), East Side, Golden Lake, Hi Mount (nonextant), Lake Side, Lincoln, Pioneer, Sunny View, and Willow Glen. [The schools without explanations after were converted to homes.] There were also two parochial schools: the German Methodist and St Stephen’s Lutheran.
In the last decades, the town has lost many old homes, barns, and outbuildings. Some pioneer log structures may still remain under clapboard farm houses. Some historic barns contain unique features and still have original wood planking and beams that were cut in this area.

Quiners/Ingalls History
Concord Township was also home to the families of well-known author, Laura Ingalls Wilder. Laura’s maternal grandmother, Charlotte Tucker Quiner, purchased 40-acres in Concord’s Section 11 in February 1848, but the family was living here in 1846 per the Wisconsin Territory census. Laura’s paternal grandfather, Lansford Ingalls, father of Charles P. Ingalls, purchased 80-acres in Concord’s Section 12, east of Charlotte’s, in December 1853. The Ingalls were living in Concord when their son, George was born in July 1851. Laura’s mother, Caroline, a daughter of Henry and Charlotte Quiner, grew up in Concord, where she became a teacher.  Charles P. Ingalls and Caroline L. Quiner were married in Concord by Methodist Reverend James W. Lyman on February 1, 1860.  Charles and Caroline Ingalls moved to Pepin, Wisconsin in 1862, where Laura was born five years later.

Concord Historical Society, Inc. (CHS) & Concord Historical Museum
CHS was established in 1993, as a 501c-3, not-for-profit organization, to preserve history in the Town of Concord. CHS is a member of the Wisconsin Council for Local History and an affiliate member of the Wisconsin Historical Society.  The society collects photographs, family histories, plat maps, and any documents related to the town’s history; artifacts are also collected, such as school books and school items, pioneer history items, or things relevant to our past.

The society restored an authentic 1850s log cabin from Concord’s Section 32. The William R. Look Log Cabin was dedicated and donated to the Town of Concord on August 10, 2003. The log cabin is located in Dahnert Park, across from the Concord Historical Museum, W1185 Concord Center Drive. The town’s museum is in the old Concord Center School, built in the early 1860s that replaced a log school at the same location. In the 1950s, the Concord Center, Lincoln, Pioneer and Willow Glen schools decided to consolidate and build a new school down the road; the new school was completed in 1957. The new Concord Center School was the second four-room school built in the county, with Ixonia’s being the first. With the old school now vacant, it became Concord’s Town Hall; as the old town hall was built in 1864, had steep steps and needed repairs. Citing budget cuts, Concord Center’s four-room school was closed by the Watertown Unified School District in 2003. The township purchased it from the school district in August 2004 and it became the Concord Community Center and Concord’s Town Hall. ■