Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Its Register listings are the LaPrairie Grange Hall No. 79 and the Stark-Clint House. Below: maps from 1893 on and old-book passages.
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 La Prairie’s history is told.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of La Prairie. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of La Prairie.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of La Prairie yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
The Town of La Prairie is a town in Rock County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 784 at the 2020 census. The unincorporated community of Tiffany is located partially in the town.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 834 to 784 (-6%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention La Prairie, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The town of La Prairie is located in the southeast quarter of the county. It received its name from the fact that the whole town is almost entirely an open, unbroken prairie. The name is from the French, signifying " the meadow, or, the pasture." It was organized by act of the Legislature,, approved March 26, 1849, by which act those parts of the towns of Harmony and Turtle, which were then comprised in Township 2 north, of Range 13 east, were set oiFand organized as a separate town. The west half of Section 6 was subsequently set off to the city of Janesville. The first town meeting was held at the house of Justus P. Wheeler, on the 3d day of April, 1849 ; whole number of votes cast at this meeting was fifty-six. The town offi-
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Turtle Town possesses abundant timber and some very rich prairie land. Limestone is also found here, and clay for making brick. The town is watered by a number of streams. The town of La Prairie is almost wholly rolling prairie land, with a deep soil, underlaid by sand and gravel, and lime rock is found in some portions. It has but one water-course of any size, which runs across the southeast corner, and the only timber in the town is found on the banks of this stream, except a small grove in the northwest. The north half of the town of Harmony is nearly all timber, and the southern half nearly all prairie. A fine elevation of the prairie occurs at Mount Zion, in the eastern portion of the town, which commands a view of the country for
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Beloit, Newark, Avon, Spring Valley and Plymouth has always been designated as "Rock Prairie"; this should not be confounded with the Rock Prairie that lies in Harmony, Johnstown and Bradford and La Prairie.) The first of these was the Rev. J. W. C. Dietrichson (11) who landed at Milwaukee August 5, 1844, and came to the Koshkonong settlement in Dane county, Wisconsin, on the last days of August, same year. His first sermon preached at Koshkonong
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.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Two places: the LaPrairie Grange Hall No. 79 (listed 1977) and the Stark-Clint House (1985).
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 (5), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (2), Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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.
2012
2012
2012
2012
2004