The man after whom our city was named, left Rome NY in 1835 where, as a civil engineer, at age 24, he ventured to the Wisconsin Territory to undertake surveys. When the former Indian settlement of Milwaukee beckoned, Benjamin Hyde Edgerton journeyed "through a pathless wilderness" to reach his destination, finding Solomon Juneau, an Indian trader, and a handful of others, the only whites in residence. Appointed city engineer by Juneau, he was responsible for naming the city’s streets and was instrumental in the growth of Wisconsin’s largest city.

In 1849-50, surveys were being made for the pioneer railroad in Wisconsin, and Edgerton was employed locating the line to Waukesha, then continuing through to the Mississippi River. Edgerton was named chief engineer and paymaster of the Milwaukee and Prairie du Chien Railroad until the road was absorbed into the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul system.

The "exceptional" clay deposits and many persuasive letters by citizens of Edgerton induced Oscar Jacobus of Chicago to move his glaze pottery business here in 1888. The factory was built near the clay pits at the end of West Lawton Street, and still stands today.

Most important to this business was the talent of his wife, Pauline Bogart Jacobus, whom he had married 1861. She was born at Fort Plain NY and studied under John Sargent in Cincinnati. Sargeant came to Edgerton to build four kilns used to fire the pottery in the three story warehouse.

The couple had built quite a reputation for their previous pottery line, known as Pauline Ware, and these business contacts proved invaluable as the Pauline Pottery establishment grew. These products were sold to Tiffany’s of New York, Kimballs of Boston, and Marshall Field’s of Chicago. Pauline supervised 13 women in pottery decorating, while Oscar supervised 20 men making battery cell cups for Illinois Bell Telephone Co.

Unfortunately, Oscar died five years later in 1893. The invention of the dry cell battery had begun the decline of his portion of the firm, and after his death the pottery business was neglected and it, too, declined. Pauline moved to her home, "The Bogart", located at the corner of Jacobus Road and Hwy 51, on the north edge of Edgerton and had one of the original kilns moved brick by brick to this location and rebuilt. She also began giving classes in leather tooling, stenciling and clay molding and took in summer guests or boarders from Chicago, but finally closed the business in 1909.

Credited with founding Edgerton’s hospital, Edith Lockwood was born June 10, 1880, in Brooklyn WI, took her nursing training at Trinity School in Milwaukee, graduating in 1900. She lived in Brooklyn and Evansville until moving to Edgerton in 1907.

Miss Lockwood started a small hospital in her home at 506 Blaine Street in 1918. It consisted of 12 beds but, because Dr. A. T. Shearer found a need for hospital care for some of his patients, the number of beds grew to 26 and it continued as a hospital from 1918 to 1923. Many of the cases were babies and tonsillectomy patents.

Miss Lockwood delivered 300 babies, some of whom survive today. Many remember her rocking babies 24-hours a day when ill. And some of these "babies" later helped tend to her when she was taken ill.

On her 75^th birthday in 1955, she was honored with an "Auntie Lockwood Day" celebration attended by 400 people, some of them "Lockwood babies". She was a member of the United Methodist Church and an Honorary Charter Member of Edgerton Hospital’s Auxiliary.

The present hospital was built in 1923 with two later additions and will celebrate its 80^th anniversary this year.

"I contracted polio when I was 14. I thought then that my life had come to an end. Later Ii said nothing is all bad. If I had not become ill with that disease I probably would nto have become the writer that I am.

"I wrote 32 books; some of them were about Edgerton. The Edgerton stories were not all well received. Some people thought I was unkind to my hometown. Others even said the books were inappropriate. Today I’ve been told they are very entertaining even though some of the local residents were upset at the time. The last two Edgerton-area books were not controversial. One, "Rascal" was made into a movie by Walt Disney. It is the book for which I am best remembered.

"Edgerton provided me with some very pleasant memories. Without the I would not have been as successful as I am."

The daughter of J. P. Towne, Edgerton’s first lawyer, she graduated from Milwaukee Normal and taught kindergarten in Madison until she returned home to keep house for her father after the death of her mother.

She and her sister Meta became active in social and civic affairs, founding the Culture Club in 1897. The Women of the City Federation, of which she was a leading member, founded the Public Library whose books were kept in a dressmaker’s shop until this formidable group of ladies convinced Andrew Carnegie to build the present library building. A member of the library Board of Trustees for many years, she was also active on the Board of Health that pioneered local testing of milk for tuberculin.

As a friend of Pauline Jacobus, Angie persuaded her brother Lou Towne, who had joined his father in the law firm, to help support the artist and her husband Oscar in their new venture – Pauline Pottery.

Mary Willson was the mother of Benjamin and Dexter Willson, founders of Willson’s Monarch Laboratories, later known as Willson-Monarch. Founded in 1882, the firm reached its heyday prior to World War 1. A precursor to Amway and Watkins, it sold elixirs and tonics to farm families throughout the Midwest. Its viability waned when the war called all the salesmen into service and the government commandeered the alcohol needed to create the popular products.

Other lines of goods were also manufactured in Edgerton, including baking goods, toiletries and cleaning agents. The business was headquartered at the intersection of Hwys. 51 and 59 downtown. Benjamin Willson built the dark stone mansion on the hill one block east of his workplace.