Token Creek

Attracted by abundant water, early Indian inhabitants erected effigy mounds in the area. George Spaulding was the first white settler in 1841. The Town of Windsor's first election was held in 1847 at Charles Lawrence's Prairie House Inn, and a post office was established that year but discontinued in 1902. The name Token was derived from Tokaunee, a minor Indian chief. Completed in 1844, the Fort Winnebago Road from Madison passed through Token Creek. Guided by the landmark Big Hill, homesteaders and lumbermen journeyed through on their way to northern pineries. Token Creek had a school, Congregational church, two mills, and an early fish hatchery. Veterans of five wars, including the Revolutionary War, rest in the cemetery. Until it was destroyed by fire in 1881, the Token Creek Tavern was the area's social center, where under the glow of tallow candles couples danced to the fiddle music of Marcus Wheeler, father of poetess Ella Wheeler Wilcox. Token Creek declined after the railroads bypassed it.

Windsor, Wisconsin · United States