Editing Shawano County, Wisconsin (section)

==History==
Its name is from a modified [[Ojibwa]] term meaning "southern";<ref>[http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/dictionary/index.asp?action=view&term_id=3698&term_type_id=2&term_type_text=Places&letter=S Shawano county [origin of place name&#93;<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080805183946/http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/dictionary/index.asp?action=view&term_id=3698&term_type_id=2&term_type_text=Places&letter=S |date=August 5, 2008}}</ref><ref>Shawano's Modern History Began in 1844 with Logging and Later Farming<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> it was the southern boundary of the Ojibwa nation.<ref>{{cite news|title=Here's How Iron Got Its Name |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/909510/wisconsin_county_names/|newspaper=The Rhinelander Daily News|date=June 16, 1932|page=2|via = [[Newspapers.com]]|access-date = August 24, 2014}} {{Open access}}</ref> A [[Menominee]] chief named ''Sawanoh'' led a band that lived in the area.<ref>[http://www.shawanocountry.com/live/history/ History]. Shawano Country Chamber of Commerce.</ref> Many citizens of Shawano believe the lake, county, and city (Town of Shawanaw founded 1853 and changed to Shawano in 1856), were named after Chief Sawanoh. A historical marker placed in 1958 near the lake along Highway 22 states the lake was named as the southern boundary of [[Chippewa]] (Ojibwe) territory.

Various historical recordings of the spelling of Shawano include Sawanoh, Shawanaw, Sharuno, Shabin, Savannah, and Savanah. This shows the influence of French, German, and English translation (v's, w's, and b's sounding very similar and thus being recorded incorrectly at times). Similar differences in spelling have been seen in the Mahican/Mahikan/Maikens tribe or Mohecan/Morhican/Mohican tribe, all referring to the same Algonquian-speaking people.

The federally recognized [[Stockbridge-Munsee Community]] (made up of [[Algonquian languages|Algonquian]]-speaking  [[Mahican]] and [[Lenape]]), whose ancestors traditionally lived in the East along the [[Hudson River Valley]], is located in Shawano County. Their reservation encompasses the towns of [[Bartelme, Wisconsin|Bartelme]] and [[Red Springs, Wisconsin|Red Springs]].

It was created as a separate county in 1853 under the name '''Shawanaw County'''. The county, unlike the city, retained the old spelling until 1864.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=1903|title=The Blue Book of the state of Wisconsin|url=http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/WI/WI-idx?id=WI.WIBlueBk1903|language=en-US}}</ref>

From the mid-nineteenth century on, the county was settled by European Americans, including many [[Germans|German]], and later, [[Polish people|Polish]] [[immigrants]]. They developed the county for agriculture. Before that, [[French-Canadian]] and British fur traders traveled widely through the area, trading with the [[Chippewa]] and other Native American peoples of the region.

The first non-Indian credited with exploring the region where Shawano is now located is Samuel Farnsworth. He paddled up the Wolf River in 1843 with a few men to scout the area for logging the vast forests. A small Menominee village was located along the Shawano lake Channel when their party arrived, and the Indians were friendly and cooperative. Charles Wescott and the Farnsworth group then set up a sawmill where the Channel meets the Wolf River.

Captain William Powell, an officer of the Black Hawk War, established a trading post on the Wolf River about two miles from the village in 1844. He had been an interpreter for the government when the treaties were signed allowing white people to settle this area of Wisconsin.

E. F. Sawyer platted a village near Powell's trading post in 1854 but public favor clung to the region adjacent to the old mill property and it was decided by popular vote to locate the county seat at Shawanaw, which was the name of the newly formed county.

The county, which was organized in 1853, was formed from areas of Oconto and Outagamie Counties. Forty-seven votes were cast and Elias Murray, Charles D Wescott and Elisha Alexander were elected supervisors. At that time there were 254 registered inhabitants, but only the men were allowed to vote.

When the county was first organized the name was spelled Shawanaw, taken from the Indian Sha-wa-Nah-Pay-Sa which meant “lake to the south” in Menominee and Chippewa. The spelling was changed in 1864 to its present Shawano, with three townships: Richmond, Waukechon and Shawano. Later others were added, making 25 townships.

In 1860 the first school house was erected in the county and Orlin Andrews was employed as its teacher. In 1898 there were 108 public schools in the county with 124 teachers.

A courthouse was erected on Main Street in 1857 and was replaced in 1879–80 at a cost of $17,000.00. The County Board authorized a new courthouse and jail in June 1953.

The earliest settlers who came to Shawano County consisted mostly of people from the New England States, Canada, and a few from British Columbia. A large influx of Bohemians settled in the Leopolis area and near Powell's Trading Post in the area about two miles from the city on Highway K. Norwegians settled in the area around Wittenberg, Lessor, Lunds and Navarino. Germans have been very predominate in the entire county, with 4,524 of the 27,475 inhabitants in 1900 born in Germany.<ref>Shawano County Sesquicentennial, 2003</ref>