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Manitowoc County

Home » Wisconsin Counties and Towns » Manitowoc County

Established: 1836
County Seat: Manitowoc
Parent: Territorial County

* Records before the establishment of the county may be in the parent records.

Neighboring Counties

From: Handbook of Wisconsin by S. Silas, 1855

MANITOWOC.--Population 13,050 (1855).

pg. 84-85

This County is situated on Lake Michigan and is at present the most northern County on the Lake, at whose ports any business is done. It is heavily timbered, and does a large business in pine lumber. There are several large saw mills on the Manitowoc River. Much of the land is yet in the hands of the Government, and is of a superior quality. It is well watered, produces good wheat, and its numerous streams furnish abundance of power.

Manitowoc, at the mouth of Manitowoc River, is the principal place of business, and is well located for future growth and prosperity. A rail road is chartered to run from this place to Menasha, at the foot of Lake Winnebago, is now building, and will be completed at a time not far in the future. The Green Bay and Lake Shore Rail Road diverges from the Lake to Green Bay at this point.

Twin Rivers is another thriving port, also engaged in the lumber trade, six miles north-east of Manitowoc.

This County lies in the Green Bay land district--office at Menasha.

General Genealogy and History Links

This section contains links to websites that have multiple databases or webpages with genealogical information.

Vital Records

Birth, Death, & Marriage Records:
Earliest Registration Dates*:
Births 1858
Deaths 1864
Marriages 1859

Manitowoc Register of Deeds:
P.O. Box 421
Manitowoc, WI 54221-0421
Telephone: (920) 683-4011

Cemetery and Obituary Links

Census Links

Censuses contain valuable information about families. This section contains links to transcribed censuses, census indexes or census images for the county.

Residents of the County

This section contains links to family tree websites, biographies and information about individuals that lived in the county.

Area History

This section contains links of published histories and historical information about the county, its villages, cities or towns. Sometimes within these histories is information about founders, or other people that settled in the area. It may also include ethnic or religious histories of the communities.

  • Der Nord-Westen - Der Nord-Westen was a German-language newspaper published weekly on Thursdays in Manitowoc from 1855-1861, and, 1865 through 1909. Harold E. Bergman selected items deemed to be of genealogical interest and translated them from the German. -
  • Hermann Conrad Benke, 1869-1946 - Manitowoc owes great thanks to Hermann Conrad Benke, 1869-1946, a multi-faceted German-American who lived in the city for less than a decade but who documented the city and surrounding county in portraits and postcards for 20 years. -

Maps and Atlases

Military

  • Home Front: Manitowoc County in World War II - A digital collection of photographic images, oral histories, published sources and documents, artifacts, and other resources which help to document and explain the history of Manitowoc County, Wisconsin during the period from 1939 to 1947 -

Societies, Libraries and Offline Resources