Lincoln County, Wisconsin

Lincoln County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Merrill
Year Organized: 1874
Square Miles: 883

Court House:

1110 East Main Street
County Courthouse
Merrill, WI 54452-2554

Etymology - Origin of County Name

named in honor of President Abraham Lincoln - Gannett, Place Names, p. 161.

[Source: Kellogg, Louise Phelps. "Derivation of County Names" in Proceedings of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin for 1909, pages 219-231. ]

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Lincoln County is a county located in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Its county seat is Merrill.

Lincoln County has a lot to offer. It was created by the Wisconsin Legislature in 1874. In the beginning, Lincoln County included most of Oneida and Vilas Counties as well as parts of Langlade, Taylor, Price and Iron Counties. Lincoln County reached its' present size in 1885.

The early progress of Lincoln County is synonymous with the growth of the logging industry. The pines and virgin hardwood forests attracted loggers from far and wide. As operations grew, settlements sprang up bringing the retail stores and other business places. In clearing the forest, the lumbermen were opening the way for the farmer.

The City of Merrill was named for S.S. Merrill, then the General Manager of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad. In 1881, the first courthouse was built, which later housed the Lincoln County Teachers College. The present courthouse was completed in 1903 and was entered on the National register of Historic Places by the Secretary of the Interior on April 19, 1978.

The City of Tomahawk was incorporated in 1891. The pulp and paper industry played a large part in the City's history as it continues to do at the present time. Within the City, Bradley Park, named for the father of the City, William H. Bradley, covers over 100 acres of land, heavily wooded with virgin pine. Tomahawk lies in the heart of Wisconsin's vacationland.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 907 square miles (2,349 km²), of which, 883 square miles (2,288 km²) of it is land and 24 square miles (62 km²) of it (2.62%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Oneida County - north
Langlade County - east
Marathon County - south
Taylor County - west
Price County - northwest

Cities and Towns:

- Birch	town
- Bradley	town
- Corning	town
- Harding	town
- Harrison	town
- Merrill (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Parrish	town
- Russell	town
- Schley	town
- Skanawan	town
- Somo	town
- Summit	town
- Tomahawk	city	Incorporated Area

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resources

The history of our nation was a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names given the counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of this country!"

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."