On March 1, 1838, Fanna Pier, the first white woman to live in Fond du Lac County, died at age 30 after a short illness, becoming the first white person to die in the county. She was buried two days later on this plot of high ground, with the eleven remaining pioneers in the county attending a funeral officiated by Rev. Cutting Marsh, missionary to the Stockbridge Indians. After arriving in Green Bay from Vermont in 1834, Fanna's husband, Colwert, and his brother Edward examined land as far away as southern Illinois for settlement and farming. On February 16, 1836, they left Green Bay by horse and sled to inspect land at the foot of Lake Winnebago, traveling mostly on the ice up the Fox River, down the east shore of the lake, and up the Fond du Lac River, reaching the center of the present-day city of Fond du Lac by noon on the 17th. They returned to Green Bay to purchase land, and Colwert came back in late May to become the first white settler in Fond du Lac County. Fanna joined him on June 6, 1836, and until March 11, 1837, when the Edward Pier family arrived, Colwert and Fanna were the county's only white residents. Colwert was later buried here with other early settlers.