The Dodge County Courthouse on April 5, 2015
Dodge County was created in 1836 from unorganized land, probably part of the original Brown County. It was named after Henry Dodge who was the first governor (and the fourth governor as well) of the Wisconsin Territory. The Wisconsin Territory was formed in 1836; Dodge served as governor from 1836 to 1841 and again from 1845 to 1848.
The city of Juneau is the county seat, but Beaver Dam is the largest city in Dodge County. Juneau is named after Paul Juneau who was the son of Solomon Juneau who helped found Milwaukee, and indeed was Milwaukee’s first mayor. Juneau County is named for Solomon and Solomon’s cousin Joseph founded the city of Juneau Alaska.
Anyway, the first settler in what is now Juneau was Martin Rich who moved here in 1845. The settlement was originally named Victory but was renamed Juneau in honor of Paul Juneau who was a prominent citizen. Juneau was incorporated as a village in 1865; I’m not sure when it became a city.
Beaver Dam was first settled in 1841 and was named for an old beaver dam on one of the tributaries of the Beaver Dam River. Beaver Dam was incorporated as a city in 1856 which is the same year that the Milwaukee Railroad reached Beaver Dam.
The Dodge County courthouse is located at 210 West Center Street in Juneau; the county administration building is located at 127 East Oak Street, which is on the other side of Highway 26 from the courthouse complex. I visited Juneau on the afternoon of Sunday April 5, 2015. This was Easter Sunday so there were not a lot of people around, and Juneau is a fairly small community anyway. The courthouse was built in 2000; the old courthouse became the Administration building after it was remodeled. The new courthouse building is located between the new jail and the new sheriffs office.
After some pictures at the courthouse, I went over to the Administration building. This was part of the old courthouse complex; it was built as an addition to the courthouse in 1937 according to my research. The original part of the courthouse was demolished and the building was remodeled with a new addition about the time that the new courthouse was being built. The original courthouse bell (in use from 1889 to 1969) is preserved on the south lawn of the building, and there is a memorial to fallen law officers on the west side of the building. That struck me as a little unusual; at most of the courthouses (or former courthouses) that I’ve visited, if there is a memorial, it is to veterans of the armed forces.
I don’t have a lot of connections to Dodge County; typically it is just a county that I pass through on my way between Madison and the Fox Valley. The choir that I sing in occasionally performs at a retirement community in Beaver Dam and once we performed at a Reformation service at a Lutheran church just outside of Watertown. As a kid I remember stopping at the Dog ‘n Suds drive-in just north of Beaver Dam at the intersection of Hemlock Road and Highway 151. It was roughly halfway between my home in Appleton and my grandmother’s house in Madison, so it was a convenient stopping point. And I liked their hamburgers!