History of Dodgeville

In the summer of 1827, Henry Dodge, his family, and a party of 40 miners set out for the Upper Mississippi Lead Mine Region from their home in Missouri. For many years, adventurers and explorers had told tales of lead deposits so abundant that ore lay on top of the ground, and it was known that the local Indian tribes had smelted lead as a source of barter income since the late 1600’s.

The Dodge party traveled through Galena, Illinois, a well-established mining community. Because of his status as a militia general in the War of 1812, Dodge was persuaded to lead a military expedition against the Winnebago Indians. This show of strength took him as far north as the Wisconsin River.

The search for a mining claim brought Dodge to this area. He negotiated a treaty with the local Indians, who still held legal rights to the land, and established himself in a small ravine now traversed by our Fountain Street.

Dodge’s party, well skilled in the tasks of tree felling, smelter building, teamstering, and rock blasting, set about constructing a mining operation adjacent to a small stream. The party also built a fort for shelter and protection against potentially hostile Indians. The fort was comprised of a double log cabin and a blockhouse enclosed by a palisade of logs set on end in the ground to a depth of two feet. The enclosure stood 8-10 feet high and was approximately 75 feet square.

An early description of the encampment by an Indian Affairs Agent, whose jurisdiction encompassed the Dodgeville area, states that,

“General Dodge resides in a small stockade near the principal mine. There are about 20 log homes in the immediate vicinity besides several more remote. He has a double furnace in constant operation.”

A rough log cabin, located at 215 E. Fountain Street, is believed to be a structure from the original settlement. The roof framing and sheathing indicate a rebuilding in the 1840-50’s, when sawn lumber would have been available. It was at this time that the cabin was remodeled into the popular Greek Revival style, elements of which are still in evidence.

Dodge’s party was fortunate to find an extensive body of mineral, later known as the “Patch Diggings.” Within a few months of their arrival, the party had manufactured and hauled to Galena several thousand dollars worth of lead. Considered a valuable ore at that time, lead was used in the manufacture of paint, shot, printer’s type, and pewter.

By 1829, the Indians had ceded the entire area by treaty to the United States Government, but some tribes remained steadfast. With popular sentiment among the settlers favoring the removal of the Indians, and a strong demand for lead in manufacturing plants in the East, war was inevitable. The situation was finally resolved in a  military expedition led by Dodge against Black Hawk in 1832, when the Indians were irrevocably pushed west of Mississippi.

As the price of lead rose, and land was made available for sale, a steady stream of prospectors ventured northward up the Mississippi. Like the Dodge party, many were veterans of the Missouri lead mines. An influx of Europeans around 1840 included skilled miners from Cornwall, England. A British historian describes their migration:

“They came to the lead mines on the Mississippi, found prospects that were, if not as bright as they had been reported, reasonably good, and letters they wrote to kinsfolk and friends in the Old Country touched off direct emigration from Cornwall to southwest Wisconsin.”

The area quickly took on the appearance of a vigorously worked over landscape, pockmarked with numerous spoil piles, open pit sites, mine shafts, and log shacks. Lead production reached a zenith in 1845, with the most profitable surface deposits worked out. Many miners left for California in the Gold Rush of 1849, or set out for the copper mines along Lake Superior. Those who stayed, notably in the Cornish, began the task of extending the life of the mines with their expertise in hard-rock mining, water diversion, and explosive powders. Others turned to farming or became merchants.

By this time, two distinct settlements had evolved; Dodgeville, centered around the Dodge party stockade and smelter; and Dirty Hollow, which included the area known as Minersville, located in the valley Spring Street now traverses.

Over the next several years, a political battle divided Iowa County. Petitions circulated demanding the removal of the county seat from Mineral Point, where it had been since 1830, to Dodgeville, more ideally located at the center of the county. As controversy heated up, Dodgeville and Dirty Hollow incorporated into a village. A newspaper was established with the financial backing of a group of businessmen to advance their views on the new village’s merits. The ridge midway between the two settlements was chosen as the location for the proposed courthouse. The site was a virtual wasteland with mine tailings and mine shafts everywhere. Leveled by horse and drag, the area became suitable for building, and the cornerstone of what is now Wisconsin’s oldest courthouse was laid in 1859.

According to the 1860 census, Dodgeville’s population was 1224. Of the 240 family heads listed, 145 were English (many from Cornwall), 47 Welsh, 31 American, 7 Irish, 4 Norwegian, 3 German and 2 Canadian – forming an almost purely English-speaking community.

In the following decades, Dodgeville developed an active retail trade sector. Rail connections were made in 1881 with the construction of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad depot about one mile north of downtown. This line linked Dodgeville with Madison to the east and farming communities to the west. Seven years later, the Illinois Central Railroad provided a second and more accessible station from downtown to points south, with rail connections to Chicago.

A number of businesses catered to the farmer as agriculture flourished, with wheat, and later corn and oats as principal crops. One leading industry was the Stratman Carriage & Wagon Works, a company that occupied five buildings downtown and employed 30 men in the manufacture and sale of wagons, sleighs, plows, carriages, cutters, harrows, rollers, and cultivators.

Dodgeville’s first hospital, a 3-bed facility, was established in 1899 by Dr. William Reese on the second floor of the Roger’s Block. This small concern closed in 1914, when the Franciscan Sisters built St. Joseph’s Hospital at the south end of Iowa Street.

Mining intensified as a marked developed for zinc, an ore typically underlying lead deposits. Used in the manufacture of pain, it had advantages over lead as a pigment; it was also used as an alloy with copper to produce brass.

Zinc mining required a new scale of operations. The individual entrepreneur – the epitome of the early Dodgeville settler – was replaced by the corporation with their access to advanced technologies and sources of capital. In 1889, the Dodgeville Chronicle reported that fifteen mines employing 70 men were operating in the area, and that the “advanced price of ores” was responsible for the flurry of activity. Several mines operated through the World Wars, but eventually closed as demand diminished.

Today, Dodgeville remains an agriculturally based community, with new industries playing a larger part in a growing economy. Surrounded by natural beauty and an attractive downtown, Dodgeville has become a destination for travelers and those interested in early Wisconsin history.