Hartford is a city in Washington and Dodge counties in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 16,000. All of this population resided in Washington County; the portion of the city in Dodge County consists of only industrial and commercial parcels. Located approximately northwest of downtown Milwaukee and from city limits, Hartford is located on the outer edge of the Milwaukee metropolitan area.

History Early history and settlement

In the early 19th century, Hartford was inhabited by the Potawatomi and Menominee people, who had a trading post on the Rubicon River and a village on the eastern shore of Pike Lake. In 1831, the Menominee surrendered their claims to the land to the United States Federal Government through the Treaty of Washington, and the Potawatomi surrendered their land claims in 1833 through the 1833 Treaty of Chicago, which (after being ratified in 1835) required them to leave the area by 1838. However, when the first White settlers arrived in 1843, they found that the Potawatomi were still living at the Pike Lake village. Some Native Americans remained in the area and were referred to as "strolling Potawatomi" in contemporary documents because many of them were migrants who subsisted by squatting on their ancestral lands, which were now owned by White settlers. Eventually the Potawatomi who evaded forced removal gathered in northern Wisconsin, where they formed the Forest County Potawatomi Community.

In July 1843, Timothy Hall became the first White person to purchase and settle land in the Hartford area, although when he arrived he found a Canadian named Jehial Case squatting near his land. Later that year, German immigrant settlers John Thiel and Nicolaus Simon surveyed the Hartford area and determined that the Rubicon River would be a suitable location for a hydropowered mill. The following year, James and George Rossman joined Simon and Thiel's venture. The men purchased forty acres abutting the rapids of the Rubicon River and constructed a dam and a sawmill that harnessed the river's power to make lumber from the old-growth forests covering the area. In 1846, a third Rossman brother, Charles, arrived in Hartford and constructed a gristmill to process grain grown by the settlers. On January 31, 1846, the land was incorporated as the Town of Wright, before the name was changed to the Town of Hartford in February 1847, after Hartford, Connecticut. Many of the original settlers were Yankees from New England and were part of a wave of farmers who headed west in the early 1800s, though some other settlers—including Theil and Simon—were German immigrants. The early settlers cleared land for farming; constructed roads; created a post office;The New England Connecting Barn, Wilbur Zelinsky, Geographical Review Vol. 48, No. 4 (Oct., 1958), pp. 540-553 erected churches, starting with the First Congregational Church of Hartford which formed in 1847 and followed by Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran, and Catholic churches in the 1850s; and established businesses to serve the town's agricultural economy, including equipment wholesalers, general stores, and dry goods dealers.

The La Crosse and Milwaukee Railroad was constructed through the community in 1855, with Louis Thiel, son of surveyor John Thiel, being a gatekeeper at the St. Paul railroad. And while rail connections were important to Hartford's growth into the early 1900s, the company failed in 1861. Many local landowners had taken out mortgages on land for the railroad in exchange for company shares. The company's failure left the landowners with mortgages to pay off, creating a local crisis in which some families were forced to sell their farms. The Hartford Home League newspaper started during the crisis to advocate for the farmers.

The community's early years saw increasing tension between the settlers and Native Americans. For example, on August 25, 1861, a group of approximately a dozen Native Americans was living near Horicon Marsh, northwest of Hartford. They owned a horse, which got loose and wandered into a neighboring settler's cornfield. The settler shot and killed the horse, and the Native Americans vowed to take revenge. The story traveled quickly, becoming increasingly exaggerated as it spread. By the time the story reached Hartford on August 26, the dozen peaceful Native Americans had been transfigured into an army of 5,000 warriors preparing to massacre the settlers in the area. Many able-bodied men in Hartford armed themselves, formed a war party, and set out to fight the Native Americans. But when they arrived at Horicon Marsh they found that the threat was entirely fictional. The incident caused widespread fear among the local Native American community as well as in the surrounding settler communities.

Growth and industrialization

Hartford incorporated as a city in 1883. While Hartford had a large German-American population in the 19th century and was home to several German cultural associations, including the Hartford Turners, the Hartford Schützenverein, and a chapter of the Sons of Hermann, the Germans in Hartford tended to be more assimilated than Germans in other Washington County communities. In 1912, one historian observed that in Washington County "there have always been places where the American [culture] predominated. Take the example of the two cities in the county. Hartford always was more of an American community than West Bend."

In the final decades of the 1800s and first years of the 1900s, Hartford's economy shifted from being a small market town serving the local farmers to being a larger industrial community. In 1906, the Kissel Motor Car Company opened and quickly became the community's largest employer, creating hundreds of jobs and bringing European immigrant laborers into the community. Hartford was also home to the International Stamping Company, which manufactured automobile parts; the Hartford Canning Company, which processed local farmers' crops such as peas, which were a cash crop in the area; the knitting mills of the Paramount Knitting Company; a glove factory; three tanneries, and a brewery.

During World War II, Hartford's factories contributed to the war effort. The Kissel car factory, which was sold to the West Bend Aluminum Company in 1944, was retooled to make shell casings, rocket containers, affordable kitchenware and canisters for gas masks. The Hartford Canning Company produced military rations. In the summer of 1944, the U.S. military tried to fill labor shortages in the Hartford area by contracting German prisoners of war to work on pea farms. Initially, the prisoners were transported from a requisitioned hotel on Lake Keesus in Waukesha County. In October 1944, the military requisitioned the Schwartz Ballroom on Jefferson Street (operating as the "Chandelier Ballroom" as of 2020) to serve as a prisoner of war camp for 600 Germans. The prisoners were contracted to work on farms as well as in canneries, hemp mills, dairy facilities and tanneries. The camp closed in January 1946 and the prisoners were repatriated to Germany.

Hartford's population grew during the post–World War II economic expansion. The population more than doubled between 1950 and 1960, and the community has continued to grow in subsequent decades. While many of the early 20th century manufacturers, including the Kissel Motor Car Company, have closed, Hartford is home to several large manufacturers, including Broan-NuTone, which manufactures ventilation systems. In 1990, the city annexed land from the neighboring Town of Rubicon in Dodge County to expand its industrial zone.

Historic landmarks

Several buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places and among them are some of the Kissel houses as well as houses they built for others.

The Hartford post office contains an oil on canvas mural, Autumn Wisconsin Landscape, painted in 1940 by Ethel Spears. It was produced for the Section of Painting and Sculpture (later the Section of Fine Arts) of the Treasury Department as part of the WPA Depression-era employment projects.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is water.

Hartford is located within the Kettle Moraine, a large moraine formed when the Green Bay and Lake Michigan Lobes collided. These glacial movements created varied land formations such as kettles, lakes, hills, and kames that distinguish the region.

Tornado of 2006 The city was the site of an F1 tornado on June 18, 2006, which caused minor damage to homes in the area, and major damage on the city's south side. Lincoln Elementary School and the Silver Bell Motel both suffered roof and structural damage.

Climate

Transportation Hartford Municipal Airport serves the city and surrounding communities. An air ambulance service has operated at the airport since 2021.

The former Milwaukee Road line between Milwaukee and Oshkosh runs through Hartford.

Demographics

2020 census As of the 2020 census, Hartford had a population of 15,626. The median age was 39.4 years. 23.9% of residents were under the age of 18 and 17.4% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 96.3 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 94.2 males age 18 and over.

98.1% of residents lived in urban areas, while 1.9% lived in rural areas.

There were 6,595 households in Hartford, of which 29.3% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 47.7% were married-couple households, 18.7% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 26.0% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 31.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 14.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.

There were 6,834 housing units, of which 3.5% were vacant. The homeowner vacancy rate was 0.5% and the rental vacancy rate was 3.6%.

+ Racial composition as of the 2020 census Race Number Percent White 14,059 90.0% Black or African American 170 1.1% American Indian and Alaska Native 53 0.3% Asian 158 1.0% Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander 4 0.0% Some other race 364 2.3% Two or more races 818 5.2% Hispanic or Latino (of any race) 974 6.2%

2010 census As of the census of 2010, there were 14,223 people, 5,685 households, and 3,721 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 6,032 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 94.7% White, 0.9% African American, 0.5% Native American, 0.8% Asian, 1.8% from other races, and 1.2% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino people of any race were 4.8% of the population.

There were 5,685 households, of which 35.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 51.4% were married couples living together, 9.1% had a female householder with no husband present, 5.0% had a male householder with no wife present, and 34.5% were non-families. 28.3% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.47 and the average family size was 3.06.

The median age in the city was 35.6 years. 26.5% of residents were under the age of 18; 7.5% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 29.4% were from 25 to 44; 23.1% were from 45 to 64; and 13.6% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 49.1% male and 50.9% female.

2000 census As of the census of 2000, there were 10,978 people, 1,397 households, and 1,152 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 1,438 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the town was 98.88% White, 0.20% African American, 0.10% Native American, 0.37% Asian, 0.15% from other races, and 0.30% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino people of any race were 0.55% of the population.