Editing Lancaster, Wisconsin (section)

==History==
Lancaster originated as a [[planned community]] to serve as the county seat for Grant County. Anticipating the county's establishment in 1836, Major Glendower M. Price, a [[Cassville, Wisconsin|Cassville]] merchant and land speculator, purchased the site of Lancaster for its central location in the county. Major Price platted the town on a compass-aligned grid in 1837, reserving a large central square for the new county government. He was persuaded to name the city Lancaster by a relative who migrated from [[Lancaster, Pennsylvania|Lancaster]], [[Pennsylvania]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Butterfield |first1=Consul Willshire |title=History of Grant County, Wisconsin |date=1881 |publisher=Western Historical Co. |location=Chicago |pages=640–641 |url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924028871494 |access-date=14 June 2022}}</ref> Maj. Price and Daniel Banfill contracted to construct the first county courthouse, which stood on the square from 1838–1851. A second courthouse was constructed in 1852–1853 and enlarged in 1865.{{sfn|Butterfield|1881|p=515}} The present, third courthouse was constructed on the site in 1902.<ref>{{cite web |title=126 W Maple St Property Record |url=https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Property/HI16167 |website=Wisconsin Historical Society |access-date=14 June 2022 |language=en |date=1 January 2012}}</ref>

Pleasant Ridge, one of the first African-American communities in Wisconsin, was founded just outside Lancaster by the Shepard family in 1849 and settled in the 1850s. Lancaster was the home of the first governor of Wisconsin, [[Nelson Dewey]].