In The Beginning
One can get to Rome, Wisconsin from anywhere - Minneapolis, Chicago, Milwaukee - they’re all just a couple hours’ drive. Madison’s just an hour and a half, and the touristic Wisconsin Dells, less than 45 minutes.
And people do come - from near and far. They come for the lakes. And the golf. And the restaurants, bars, and shopping. They come for the farmers’ market, the off-roading, and the hiking. The trapshooting, tennis, and simply the unmatched beauty that Mother Nature so pridefully created.
They come for a day, a week, or a summer. Some come and never leave. Indeed, Rome is a destination with an increasingly wide appeal for people of all places.
But why is Rome where it is? How did it get here? And why, with a seemingly endless number of choices for a name, did the founders decide to share a name with the most famous city in the world?
Well, let’s find out. Let’s start at the beginning. Better yet, let’s start before the beginning.
Millions of years ago, much of central Wisconsin was more fish than fowl. Covered by an inland sea, the waters washed away the landscape and redistributed sand and silt to places that were otherwise rich and fertile. Powerful and destructive, the water coursed its way through the state leaving behind beautiful Cambrian rock towers that are as distinctive to the area as the redwoods are to California or the wetlands are to Florida,
Eventually forming the Wisconsin River, the waters continued to wash away the surface soils and left behind inferior sand flats devoid of vegetation - until, aided by the winds of change, dunes were formed, grasses and sedges took root, barren expanses became prairies, and finally the majestic pines awakened.
The first humans to walk these central sands of Wisconsin were the Ho-Chunk and the Menominee more than 10,000 years ago. These two Native American tribes made the most of the habitat through hunting and gathering rather than farming, which was dictated mainly by the poor quality of the soil.
Though valued today for all sorts of farming, the poverty of the soil then was considered to be some of the poorest in Wisconsin. Early farmers in neighboring counties flourished, while only farmers with limited means tested their mettle here, as viable farm production was more difficult and less fruitful.
But for those who did come, they weren’t deterred. In fact, the federal census of 1860 found that almost every “male head of household” in Rome earned his living as a farmer.
The town steadily grew as more and more wide-eyed settlers arrived, and Rome, Wisconsin was officially born on November 18, 1857. The federal government acknowledged Rome's existence the following year with the establishment of its very own post office on September 7, 1858 which operated for almost 100 years until it was dissolved in 1951, and Nekoosa became the recognized postal code.
But why the heck did these early settlers call it Rome?
That same 1860 census tallied a total of 130 residents, with 56 of them being born in New York’s Oneida County in a town called, you guessed it, Rome. It’s likely that these early settlers took the name to honor their origins. But it wasn’t just out of sentiment. There was sound rationale behind their decision. The two towns boasted a lot of similarities.
Both Romes are located in the heart of their respective states. Both claim the same landscape attributes with sandy soil and dunes, hardwood forests and pine barrens, and both owe their early success to waterways - whether natural or manmade.
As early as 1817, the Erie Canal connected Rome, New York to the rest of the country, and as early as the 1830s, the Wisconsin River was the main highway transporting timber and other goods up and down middle Wisconsin and destinations south where it connects with the Mississippi.
OK, that’s all well and good, but why did Rome, New York decide to share the name of the most storied city on the planet in the first place?
There are several theories as to how Rome, New York got its name; none are definitive. The most widely accepted theory, however, is that the town was named “Rome” as part of what is now called the Classical Naming Period, a time when upstate New York communities were being named after classical European cities and countries.
There's a Hamburg and a Madrid. A Denmark and an Amsterdam, and dozens more. This type of naming was, for some reason, a popular trend at the time. Was it a nostalgic connection back to what once was? Or simply a lack of imagination and creativity? I doubt the latter.
Another less popular, but a more romantic, theory comes from a series of novels written by James Fenimore Cooper, called The Leatherstocking Tales that chronicle the adventures of a fictional Natty Bumppo, a Daniel Boone wannabe. This newly emerging settlement in central Wisconsin was similar in many ways to the imaginary landscape of central New York, where Natty Bumpo’s adventures unfurled.
“...it was a wild land more densely populated by wolves, panthers, and bears than by humans.”
〜 James Fenimore Cooper, Author
I don’t know; I kinda like both theories. Either way, it doesn’t really matter. We’re just happy Mother Nature was busy doing what she was doing, and that the New Yorkers decided to take advantage of what she left behind.
Next up: Rome, Wisconsin - Then and Now. Chapter Two - The Early Years.
Written by: Lydell Capritta (with thanks to Mark Scarborough and his all-encompassing book, There’s No Place Like Rome, Celebrating the Journey).
