Sussex was named for County Sussex, England, home of prominent pioneers. Its first settlers were George Elliot and Richard Cooling in 1843. St. Alban’s Episcopal, the first church, was founded in 1842 in Weaver’s barn, and its present edifice was erected in 1864-’66 beside God’s Acre. The first schoolhouse was built in 1849. In earlier years the community had a saw-mill, brewery, grain elevator, lumber yard, and stores, and later a creamery, cheese factory, lime-kiln, and three railroads. For about 50 years it was Wisconsin’s chief center of hop-growing, introduced there in 1837 by John and James Weaver. In 1854 the first cooperative store in Wisconsin opened there. In 1888 James Templeton founded the hamlet of Templeton on the Soo Railroad. In 1920 Mammoth Spring Canning Co. began operations as a vegetable packer and became the largest beet packer in the country, with its famous Kewpie label symbolizing nation-wide popularity. Since 1930 Sussex has been the center of production of the widely used Lannon building stone, from nearby quarries opened in 1841. Sussex combined with Templeton to the east to become a village in 1924.