Before settlement, the Town of Vernon consisted of sugar maple and white oak forests, savanna, and marsh that provided the Potawatomi with food, medicine, shelter, tools, and fibers. On November 1, 1836, Prucius Putnam, John Dodge, and brothers Curtis and Orien Haseltine, Jr. arrived from Vermont and built a log hut near present day Hwy L and Maple Ave., naming the area Vernon. Later settlers were Scots, Germans, Irish, and Norwegians, coming primarily from Vermont and New York. Prairie soil was turned for farming, and maples were tapped for sugar while maple, oak, and black walnut were used to build houses and plank roads. Allen Haseltine, the first settler child born there, was born in 1838. A highly crafted cobblestone home was erected in 1842, the Vernon Reformed Presbyterian Church arose in 1854, and in 1857 the Waukesha County Poor House began forty years of service by accepting an abandoned child. By 1896, Vernon had various churches, grocery stores, seven cemeteries, and six post offices.