In 1850, the Milwaukee and Mississippi Rail Road Company began building a line across the lower third of Wisconsin between Milwaukee and Prairie du Chien. Chief Engineer Edward Brodhead concluded that this area's topographical features were ideal for a railroad servicing station and a commercial trading village, and in 1855 he platted the village and named it Mazomanie, an Indian name he believed meant Iron Horse. Mazomanie developed quickly after a dam and millrace were built to harness the water power of Black Earth Creek. The new railroad village revitalized the lagging farm economy of early settlers who had arrived in the 1840s under the auspices of the British Temperance Emigration Society. By the mid-1870s, Mazomanie was a thriving commercial and industrial center of over 1100 people, eventually supporting two flour mills, two creameries, a brewery, four blacksmith shops, a foundry, and factories producing knitted goods, cabinets, carriages, wagons, and agricultural implements. Many of Mazomanie's 19th-century buildings remain in the village today.