The Village of Cooksville: Many Anniversaries in 2016 and 2017, by Larry Reed

For the little old village that it is— the village “that time forgot”—the Village of Cooksville has many special historical anniversaries to celebrate this year, 2016, and next year, 2017, all with nicely rounded numbers to remember, commemorating events from 55 to 175 years ago.

During this year, 2016, for instance, Cooksville celebrates the following special anniversaries:

♥ 170 years since the founding of the Village of Waucoma in 1846, which is Cooksville’s larger “Siamese” sister, as it were, attached to the east. Waucoma was platted by Dr. John Porter on land he bought from his Massachusetts neighbor Senator Daniel Webster. The two villages are now collectively known as “Cooksville.”

Cooksville map of 1891

♥ 160 years ago, in 1856, seven local men from “Waucoma” petitioned the Grand Lodge of Wisconsin Masons to establish a Waucoma Lodge. The petition was granted in 1858, and the Lodge headquarters eventually moved to the second floor of the Cooksville General Store, which the Lodge purchased in 1864 and still owns.

Cooksville Cemetery sign

♥ 155 years ago the Cooksville Cemetery was established on land purchased from Dr. John Porter for $25.00 and the “Waucoma Cemetery Association” was organized in 1861. (The Cemetery is located in Porter’s Village of Waucoma., thus its original name) However, the first burial ground in the village during the 1840s-50s was located behind the present Store in Cooksville proper. The earliest born person resting eternally in the Cemetery is Charlotte Rose Love born in 1772.

Cooksville Schoolhouse, photo c.1930

♥ 130 years ago, in 1886, the present Cooksville Schoolhouse was built to replace an earlier 1850 brick school building in the same location at the southeast corner of the Public Square. The first schoolhouse was too small and apparently had a weakened foundation. The 1886 one-room schoolhouse with its bell tower now serves the village as the Cooksville Community Center.

Cooksville Lutheran Church, built in 1897

 ♥ 125 years have passed since the Norwegian Lutheran Church Congregation was formed in Cooksville in 1891. Now known as the Cooksville Lutheran Church, its first church building was erected (near the cemetery) in 1892 but was struck by lightning and burned down It was replaced with the present church building in 1897.

Next year, 2017, the Village of Cooksville will commemorate its important anniversary of 175 years of formal existence, as well as several other events:

♥  But the history of the village first begins 180 years ago, in 1837,when  the lands in the area first went on sale by the United States government. It was that year when local land was sold to the Cook brothers and to Senator Daniel Webster in 1837—land  destined to be populated by the villages of Cooksville and Waucoma in the new and untamed Territory of Wisconsin.

The Cook House, built in 1842

♥ Then 175 years ago, in 1842, Cooksville was formally founded and platted as a village by the Cook brothers, John and Daniel. They had arrived two years earlier in 1840 by ox-drawn wagons from Ohio, and by 1842 they built a saw mill and the first frame house, probably replacing a log structure. They also platted the eponymous Village of Cooksville, which became the second village between Janesville and Madison. (The first village of Union had been established a few years earlier at the mid-way stage coach stop between the two small settlements of Janesville and Madison.) Cooksville grew until the railroad company decided not to send any steaming, smoking iron horses through the little Yankee village, which then quietly slumbered on the banks of the Badfish Creek, content with its special Public Square and its special mid-1800s local-brick and locally-sawn wood frame houses and buildings, now officially designated as significant historic structures.

Cooksville General Store

♥ 170 years ago, in 1847, the Cooksville General Store was established on Main Street. The Store still stands there, expanded somewhat as the village grew and still serving the community and visitors. It is known as the Oldest Operating General Store in Wisconsin. The old Masonic Lodge is on the second floor.

♥ 120 years ago the present Cooksville Lutheran Church (then called the Norwegian Lutheran Church) was constructed, in 1897. It still stands next to the cemetery and still rings its bell on Sundays, serving the community throughout its many years.

Map of Cooksville by Dorothy Kramer, 1955

♥ 55 years ago, in 1962, the Cooksville Community Center, Inc., was established by a group of local citizens who had purchased the old one-room Cooksville Schoolhouse when area school districts were consolidated in 1961. The citizens created the non-profit Community Center next to the Public Square, which serves the greater Cooksville area as a social center for parties, holiday celebrations, card games, family reunions, educational lectures, music, drama, birthday parties, weddings, and other events—and it can be rented for special occasions.

Now, in 2016 and also in 2017, Cooksville can rest on its past historical- architectural laurels that have provided the little rural village with its quiet, charming historic character in Porter Township, Rock County. And with everything up-to-date now. Even the old barns and outhouses still get some use. And the village welcomes visitors by car, bicycle, canoe (on the Badfish Creek), and sometimes by tour bus and sometimes by drivers who get lost on State Highway 138 which ends (or begins) in Cooksville on the corner where the old Stagecoach Inn used to stand.