Watertown (WI)
| Watertown, Wisconsin | |
|---|---|
| City | |
Main Street in downtown Watertown
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 Location of Watertown in Dodge County, Wisconsin. |
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| Coordinates: 43°12′N 88°43′W / 43.200°N 88.717°WCoordinates: 43°12′N 88°43′W / 43.200°N 88.717°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Wisconsin |
| Counties | Jefferson, Dodge |
| Government | |
| • Type | Mayor – Common Council |
| • Mayor | John David |
| Area | |
| • Total | 12.51 sq mi (32.40 km2) |
| • Land | 12.11 sq mi (31.36 km2) |
| • Water | 0.40 sq mi (1.04 km2) |
| Elevation | 853 ft (260 m) |
| Population (2010) | |
| • Total | 23,861 |
| • Estimate (2016) | 23,817 |
| • Density | 1,970.4/sq mi (760.8/km2) |
| Time zone | Central (CST) (UTC-6) |
| • Summer (DST) | CDT (UTC-5) |
| Area code(s) | 920 |
| FIPS code | 55-83975 |
| GNIS feature ID | 1576295 |
| Website | www.ci.watertown.wi.us |
Watertown is a city in Dodge and Jefferson counties in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Most of the city's population is in Jefferson County. Division Street, several blocks north of downtown, marks the county line. The population of Watertown was 23,861 at the 2010 census. Of this, 15,402 were in Jefferson County, and 8,459 were in Dodge County.
Watertown is the largest city in the Watertown-Fort Atkinson micropolitan area, which also includes Johnson Creek and Jefferson.
Watertown was first settled by Timothy Johnson, who built a cabin on the west side of the Rock River in 1836. He was born in Middleton, Middlesex County, Connecticut, on the 28th of June, 1792. A park on the west side of the city is named in his honor. The area was settled to utilize the power of the Rock River, which falls 20 feet (6.1 m) in two miles (two 10-foot (3.0 m) dams). In contrast, the Rock River falls only 34 feet (10 m) in 58 miles (93 km) upstream from Watertown. The water power was first used for sawmills, and later prompted the construction of two hydroelectric dams, one downtown (where the river flows south) and one on the eastern edge of the city (where the river flows north).
Watertown was a New England settlement. The original founders of Watertown consisted entirely of settlers from New England, particularly Connecticut, rural Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, as well some from upstate New York who were born to parents who had migrated to that region from New England shortly after the American Revolution. These people were "Yankees", that is to say they were descended from the English Puritans who settled New England in the 1600s. They were part of a wave of New England farmers who headed west into what was then the wilds of the Northwest Territory during the early 1800s. Most of them arrived as a result of the completion of the Erie Canal as well as the end of the Black Hawk War. When they arrived in what is now Watertown there was nothing but dense virgin forest and wild prairie, the New Englanders laid out farms, constructed roads, erected government buildings and established post routes. They brought with them many of their Yankee New England values, such as a passion for education, establishing many schools as well as staunch support for abolitionism. They were mostly members of the Congregationalist Church though some were Episcopalian. Due to the second Great Awakening some of them had converted to Methodism and some had become Baptists before moving to what is now Watertown. Watertown, like much of Wisconsin, would be culturally very continuous with early New England culture for most of its early history.
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Wikipedia