SUMMIT TWP
Organized: 1855
Origin of Name: The high plateau here is the "summit" of Juneau Co.
First Settlers: H. Weller, Elias Kingsbury, C. Blish, Philo Sterling,
F. Potter, Peter Sterling,
E. T. Boyington
First Church: Big Creek, 1865
First School: The "Potter" School, 1855
First Recorded Town Tax: $869.72, 1865
First Town Chairman: J. C. Chadwick
- A state road connecting Mauston to Reedsburg was laid through Summit in 1854. The Juneau portion proved to be very useful in the Civil War when iron ore mined at Ironton in Sauk County was shipped to the railroad at Mauston.
- Summit early became one of Juneau's leading farm towns. Durham Cattle and Shropshire Sheep were popular breeds prior to the arrival of the Holstein and the falling off in sheep raising. Summit had 1296 sheep in 1869, more than any town in Juneau.
- Civil wars of a local sort marked the annual sessions of the County Board in the 1850's, '60's, '70's and '80's. Supervisors from farming towns like Summit argued that the timbered land in the northern half of the County was undervalued by assessors, thereby driving up taxes in the southern towns. They also complained about the loggers practice of abandoning land after it was logged, no longer paying taxes, and shifting the burden to the farm towns. Northern supervisors were quick to point out that logging required a large capital investment that, in effect, made their land worthless. In addition, once the logs were removed, the cut-over, sand and marsh land was worth only a fraction of the rich land in Summit, and should be taxed accordingly. The disputes continued annually until the 1890's when the last of Juneau's big timber was logged.
source: Juneau County, The First Hundred Years, published 1988
CENSUS1860 Census - Summit
1870 Census - Summit
1880 Census - Summit
1900 Census - Summit
1910 Census - Summit
1920 Census - Summit