Mazomanie, Wisconsin
Encyclopedia
Dane County, Wisconsin
As of the census of 2000, there were 426,526 people, 173,484 households, and 100,794 families residing in the county. The population density was 355 people per square mile . There were 180,398 housing units at an average density of 150 per square mile...
, Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The population was 1,485 at the 2000 census. The village is located within the Town of Mazomanie
Mazomanie (town), Wisconsin
Mazomanie is a town in Dane County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 1,185 at the 2000 census. The Village of Mazomanie is located within the town.-Geography:...
. It is part of the Madison
Madison, Wisconsin
Madison is the capital of the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Dane County. It is also home to the University of Wisconsin–Madison....
Metropolitan Statistical Area
Madison metropolitan area
The Madison Metropolitan Statistical Area, as defined by the United States Census Bureau, is an area consisting of three counties in Wisconsin, anchored by the city of Madison. As of the 2010 census, the MSA had a population of 568,593.-Definitions:...
. Mazomanie is the only community in the state of Wisconsin to have a de facto legal public nude beach
Nude beach
A nude beach is a beach where users are legally at liberty to be nude. Sometimes the terms clothing-optional beach or free beach are used. Nude bathing is one of the most common forms of nudity in public. As beaches are usually on public lands, any member of the public is entitled to use the...
, known as Mazo Beach
Mazo Beach
Mazo Beach is the only legal public nude beach in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. It is located on the Wisconsin River between Mazomanie and Sauk City, Wisconsin. Because Mazomanie is in Dane County and Sauk City is in Sauk County, nudity is legal only on the beach. Nudity is also allowed on roughly...
.
Geography
Mazomanie is located at 43°10′28"N 89°47′47"W (43.174455, -89.796459).According to the United States Census Bureau
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...
, the village has a total area of 1.4 square miles (3.5 km²), of which, 1.4 square miles (3.5 km²) of it is land and 0.73% is water.
Demographics
As of the censusCensus
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
of 2000, there were 1,485 people, 594 households, and 427 families residing in the village. The population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
was 1,088.6 people per square mile (421.6/km²). There were 618 housing units at an average density of 453.0 per square mile (175.4/km²). The racial makeup of the village was 96.36% White, 0.88% Black or African American
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
, 0.47% Native American, 0.07% Asian, 1.14% from other races
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
, and 1.08% from two or more races. 1.95% of the population were Hispanic
Hispanic
Hispanic is a term that originally denoted a relationship to Hispania, which is to say the Iberian Peninsula: Andorra, Gibraltar, Portugal and Spain. During the Modern Era, Hispanic sometimes takes on a more limited meaning, particularly in the United States, where the term means a person of ...
or Latino
Latino
The demonyms Latino and Latina , are defined in English language dictionaries as:* "a person of Latin-American descent."* "A Latin American."* "A person of Hispanic, especially Latin-American, descent, often one living in the United States."...
of any race.
There were 594 households out of which 35.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 56.1% were married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
living together, 11.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 28.1% were non-families. 23.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.50 and the average family size was 2.94.
In the village the population was spread out with 27.3% under the age of 18, 6.6% from 18 to 24, 32.4% from 25 to 44, 22.4% from 45 to 64, and 11.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 103.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 95.7 males.
The median income for a household in the village was $49,191, and the median income for a family was $56,442. Males had a median income of $35,156 versus $28,424 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...
for the village was $21,634. About 2.5% of families and 6.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 12.5% of those under age 18 and 7.6% of those age 65 or over.
History
The land on which rests the town of Mazomanie fell within the hunting grounds of the Hočąk, or Winnebago, Indian nation. About a decade after the Winnebago cession of 1832, there were only a small number of white settlers in the area. What precipitated the birth of the town was the advent of the Milwaukee and Mississippi Raiload in 1855, which passed through the region to connect Milwaukee with La Crosse. The superintendent of the railroad, Edward Brodhead, bestowed the name upon the village that it now bears. Many years later, he was asked to give an account of the derivation of this name. “He (Mazomanie) was an Indian chief in our state and was well known to the old gentleman, H.L. Dousman, who said the Indians pronounced it as though it was spelled Man-zo-ma-nie and the English of it is Iron Horse, which I adopted for the name of a railroad town and also for the name of my horse.” This distinguished chief was Mą́zamąnį́ga, "Iron Walker." The Hočągara, who have persisted in the area despite many attempts to eject them, call this town Mą́zamąnį́, dropping the suffix -ga (a definite article used to indicate a person's name). The first syllable of this name is pronounced as Brodhead indicated ('man') since the /ą/ is nasalized. The first element of the name is mąs, "iron, metal, ax," which before a consonant may be softened to mąza- or mąze-, although the free standing form mąz is also known. This is seen in the variant forms mązara, mązera, "the ax." In like fashion, in the same souces, we find the names Mązawįga or Mązewįga, "Iron Woman." This accounts for the variant name of the chief recorded by Col. John Kinsey as Mau-zay-mau-nee-kaw [Mązemąnįka]. The second part of the name is formed by the word mąnį́, which means "to walk, he walks" — thus "Iron Walker." The double meaning of this name has long been appreciated: “The proprietors [of the railroad] have christened it Mazo-Manie, The-Iron-that-Walks, after a somewhat noted Indian chief; and as it is the offspring of an iron way, the name is not inappropriate.” The actual village of Iron Walker was located near Watertown, about 45 miles to the east. Dodsworth, however, adduces considerations that greatly complicate the eponymy of the present day Mazomanie. The town for some time was known as "Mazo Manie," and recalls in its spelling the name of a pair of Wahpeton Dakota chiefs of that era named Maz-zo-ma-nee. The Dakota (Sioux) langage is akin to Winnebago, and it may be immediately appreciated that these names are exactly cognate to one another. Both of the Dakota chiefs were known to H.L. Dousman, the aforementioned source of Brodhead's information about the Indian names. He also knew the Hočąk chief, having been caught up in the incident that led to that chief's notoriety. It transpired that in October of 1836, Iron Walker had shot dead the well-known interpreter Pierre Poquette in an affair of honor. He was initially convicted of murder, but in a second trial was acquitted. Dousman acted as guardian of Poquette's orphaned children and petitioned to secure for them a pension. Dodsworth concludes that the town was intended to have been named for the Dakota chief. However, the proper rendering of the Dakota name is Máza-máni, lacking the nasalized letter to which Brodhead referred. Furthermore, neither of them was "an Indian chief in our state [Wisconsin]," but were from Minnesota. The real attraction of the spelling and pronunciation now in effect is made clear in a newspaper article of the time: “We are daily asked how to pronounce this beautiful looking name. We have heard various ways, but none that sounded so naturally and well as by accenting the second syllable, thus Ma-zom-anie, the accent as in Menominee. That makes a very pretty thing of it. It is the station on the Mil. & Mis. R. R. 22 miles west of here.” The /o/ in the name is a pure artifact of introducing the Indian name into English, and is found in neither Dakota nor Winnebago. The present rendering of the town's name owes to euphony and spelling conventions, none of which invalidates Brodhead's attribution of the name to the gunslinging chief of the Hočągara.By the nation's centennial, Mazomanie had grown to 1,100 souls, making it the second largest community in Dane County. Since that time, the village has gained only 350 people, but its small size and slow growth has preserved its nineteenth century character. The village has 34 commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
. Best known among these is the Mazomanie Railroad Depot which has, with minor changes, remained as it was when it was built in 1857.
Education
Mazomanie has one elementary school: Mazomanie Elementary School, with about 200 students. The high school and middle school are located in a single building, the Wisconsin Heights High SchoolWisconsin Heights High School
Wisconsin Heights High School is a high school in Dane County, Wisconsin. It is located between Mazomanie and Black Earth, along U.S. Route 14 and is surrounded by the Wisconsin countryside. The school building houses both Wisconsin Heights High School and Wisconsin Heights Middle School, in...
.
Notable natives and residents
- Skylar Grey (formerly known as Holly Brook), singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer
- Lorenzo D. HarveyLorenzo D. Harvey-Biography:Harvey was born Lorenzo Dow Harvey in Deerfield, New Hampshire in 1848. He moved with his parents to Wisconsin in 1850, settling in Fulton, Wisconsin. Harvey would graduate from Milton College and become principal of high schools in Mazomanie, Wisconsin and Sheboygan, Wisconsin. In 1880,...
, Superintendent of Public Instruction of Wisconsin - Robert Joseph WellsRobert Joseph WellsRobert Joseph Wells was a member of the Minnesota House of Representatives.-Biography:Wells was born on October 4, 1856 in Mazomanie, Wisconsin. He married Sadie E. Langford in 1889 and had four children. Wells passed away on February 12, 1941 in Winter Haven, Florida. He was Baptist.-Career:Wells...
, MinnesotaMinnesotaMinnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
State Representative - Leonard G. WolfLeonard G. WolfLeonard George Wolf was a one-term Democratic U.S. Representative from Iowa's 2nd congressional district. He was elected in 1958 and defeated in 1960 when seeking re-election....
, United States House of RepresentativesUnited States House of RepresentativesThe United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
from IowaIowaIowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...