Wisconsin Counties and Towns
Columbia County Genealogy and History
Columbia County Genealogy Links WI Roots: Wisconsin Counties : Columbia
Established: 1846
County Seat: Portage
Parent: Portage County

Birth, Death, & Marriage Records:
 Earliest Registration Dates*:
Births 1860
Deaths 1877
Marriages 1849

Columbia Register of Deeds
400 DeWitt St. (location)
P.O. Box 133 (mailing)
Portage, WI 53821
Telephone: (608) 742-9677


COLUMBIA.
From: Handbook of Wisconsin by S. Silas, 1855
pg. 55-56

Population in 1850, 9,565; in 1855, 17960; increase 8,395.

The County is nearly in the centre of the present settled portion of the State, and lies on both the Wisconsin and Fox Rivers, which approach within two miles of each other at Portage City--the former a rapid, changeful current, subject to sudden rises, flowing between high banks and over falls; the latter sluggish and unchanging, with marshy banks, or spreading itself into doubtful lakes, and navigable with little water.

The land of the whole ofthis (sic) country is good, the surface diversified with rolling prairies and burr oak openings. There is little timber growing in this County, but the want of it is well supplies by the Wisconsin pineries, the timber from which is floated down the Wisconsin River to and past this county.

Few counties in the State have increased within the past five years with the rapidity of this. All north of the Fox River, then known as Indian lands, is now well filled with people. There is consequently little good Government land to be had--in truth, it was nearly all taken as soon as brought into market.

Portage City, on the Wisconsin and Fox, here connected by a canal, is the county seat, and one of the most prosperous and busy towns of the State. The Wisconsin is navigated up to this place. It contains a bank, two weekly papers are published there, and it commands the trade of a large country, especially that lying up the Wisconsin River.

Columbus, on the Catfish, contains a population of about 1,000, and is a busy, thriving place.

The La Crosse and Milwaukee, and the Milwaukee and Watertown Rail Roads are both to pass through this County, and will soon reach it. The Wisconsin Central Road has its terminus at Portage, connecting it with Chicago direct.


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Maps

  • Original Field Notes and Plat Maps From Wisconsin Public Land Survey Records. his website provides access to scanned images of the original General Land Office survey field notes and plat maps. All of this material is based on the township, range and section descriptions of the Public Land Survey System (PLSS). To effectively use this material, you will need to know this description for the property you are researching. This legal description can be derived from topographic maps, land ownership maps, deeds and or property tax bills among other sources. Offsite link

  • 1901 County Maps - The Wisconsin county maps presented here were scanned in individually from the large Wisconsin map in the Rand McNally New Standard Atlas of the World, Rand, McNally & Co., Chicago, 1901. They should be of interest to genealogists because they show the locations of many places that no longer exist. Offsite link by Rick Hagen

  • Current County Map, The Wisconsin Department of Transportation is pleased to provide highly detailed county maps online. Produced at a 1:100,000 scale the maps contain the following pieces of information: Major local road networks, Interstate corridors, U.S., state, and county routes, Recreation areas, Points of interest, Hospitals, Schools, Airports, Urban boundaries, Railroads, Town roads, Federal and state forest boundaries, Indian reservations, Township boundaries.

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