The Many Maps of Wisconsin, Cooksville and Waucoma

Many old maps illustrate the eventual locale of the little historic Village of Cooksville. The maps, sketched or drawn or printed or painted, trace the geopolitical history of the location of the village from the 1700s to the 2000s.

Here are some of those maps that put Cooksville “on the map” in 1842— after which Cooksville vies with Waucoma for naming rights for the village.

1757 - French map, with Native American names

These various maps of North America, the old French Ouisconsin, the early United States of America, the Northwest Territory, the Territory of Wisconsin, and finally the State of Wisconsin and  Rock County, eventually lead to the small settlement of the Cook family in 1840.

1783 - States claim the new western lands.

Note the map that illustrates Thomas Jefferson's proposed names for part of the new Territorial lands in 1784. Thank God and Native Americans, the name for some of the land is "Wisconsin."

1784 - Thomas Jefferson's suggested names.

The Village of Cooksville, formally platted in 1842, first appears on maps of the new Wisconsin county, named after a large rock next to the river near Henry Jane’s new, eponymous settlement of Janesville. Soon, in 1846, a new Village of Waucoma appears on maps next to Cooksville in the oak-openings on the prairie in Rock County.

Mid-19^th century maps of the small rectangle of the township named Porter (first named Oak Township) contain the small blocks and lots of the two neighboring villages of Cooksville and Waucoma next to the Bad Fish Creek (first called Waucoma Creek).

The land that is now the Town of Porter was first surveyed  1833 for its land and water character.

1833 - Surveyor's sketch map of Porter Township area

1846 - Village of Waucoma, with Cooksville to the west near the mill.

1858 - Cooksville and Waucoma along Main, Rock, Water, Washington and Fourth streets.

1938 - Dorothy Kramer map (north to the right).

1955 - Dorothy Kramer map

1980 - Cooksville Historic District in the National Register of Historic Places.

*   *   *   

[Copies of maps are in the Cooksville Archives.]