Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Fountain Prairie yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Fountain Prairie is a town in Columbia County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 938 at the 2020 census. The unincorporated community of Englewood is located in the town. The town is approximately 35 miles (56 km) northeast of Madison.
Its first post office opened in 1852. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 887 to 938 (+6%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Fountain Prairie in 1880
Passages that mention Fountain Prairie, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The history of Columbia county, Wisconsin, containing an account of its settlement ..1880 · page 981Read the page →
Read the text
after the foundation was laid, and he was its proprietor for the next eight years ; disposing of the hotel at that time, he has since continued the hardware trade. Mr. Whitney was Postmaster at Columbus in an early day ; he has several times been a member of the Village Board and City Council. He now owns a farm of 300 acres in the town of Columbus ; four farms in the town of Fountain Prairie — one of 280 acres, another of 308, a third of 130 acres, and the fourth of 120 acres ; he also has three farms in the town of Otsego — the first contains 300 acres, the second 260, the third 130 acres ; two in Dodge Co.— one of 200 acres, near Loss Lake, the other of 180 acres, in the town of Calamus ; he also has two farms, of 120 acres each, near Augusta, Eau Claire Co., Wis., and one of 160 acres at Fairmount, Minn. Mr.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The history of Columbia county, Wisconsin, containing an account of its settlement ..1880 · page 747Read the page →
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Fountain Prairie, 1852 to 1955
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Fountain Prairie. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1955Columbus sheet · 1:62,500
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Fountain Prairie.
On the National Register
1 historic place in Fountain Prairie
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
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 (3), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System 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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