Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Most of Como was built recently: 8% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1965. Below: old-book passages.
The Como post office opened in 1894, the earliest record of the town by name.
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Como’s history is told.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Como yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Como is a census-designated place (CDP) in the town of Geneva, Walworth County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 2,356 at the 2020 census.
Its first post office opened in 1894. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 2,631 to 2,356 (-10%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Como, cut from the printed page as they were published.
westerly thi'ough Section 9, thence westerly through the southeast (quarter of Section 8 and the northwest quarter of Section 9, leaving the township on Section 7. It finally empties into Delavan Lake. Another creek has its source on Section 2, runs in a southerly direction through Sections 11, 14 and 23, and joins the creek near the outlet of Lake Como (Duck Lake). From the outlet of Lake Como, Como Creek inins northeasterly thi-ough Section 24, emptying into White Biver in the adjoining town of Lyons. The southwestern section, where stands the beautiful village of Geneva Lake, is watered by the stream flowing from the outlet of Geneva Lake, the source of White River.
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section 24 are a church, town hall, and store, for a few years a cheese factory (its business now transferred), a postoffice from 1896 until discontinued by the establishment of a rural delivery route from Lake Geneva. This incipient village is still named Como. John Chase's cheese factory, in section 10, in active operation for many years, has been absorbed by the Wisconsin Butter and Cheese Company. About 1837 Christopher Payne built a dam and saw mill at Duck lake outlet and sold it to George W. Trimble, his son-in-law, who sold it to Dr. Oliver S. Tiffany. With the coming of pine lumber the mill fell
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
After the settlement with the contesting claimants, Payne remained but a few months at Geneva Village. Before the mill was completed, he sold out his interest, and, in January, 1837, took up a new claim at the outlet of Duck Lake (now Lake Como), about two miles from the village, where he removed his family. There he built a saw-mill at a cost of some $1,500. His dam was near the crossing of the Elkhorn and Geneva road. It lasted, with some repairs, till 1858, at which time a freshet dilapidated it beyond hope of repair.
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As at first platted the village was a small quadrangle east of the creek, to which Walworth avenue descends not too abruptly. Village growth was limited northwardly by the valley of the creek and the high-banked shore of Como, and hence began eastward and southward, on a broad and easily drained area. Then it crossed the valley, which at the avenue is not very wide, to the more quickly-rising westward ascent, at the top of which a few pleasant suburban blocks lie in front of the School for the Deaf, which looks southward. Further growth carried the city eastward on the Elkhorn road
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Nobody well known was born in Como itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
The Como post office opened in 1894, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (1) and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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