Editing Goodrich, Wisconsin

{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2024}}
{{Infobox settlement
|official_name            = Goodrich, Wisconsin
|settlement_type          = [[Town]]
|nickname                 = 
|motto                    =

<!-- Images -->
|image_skyline            = Goodrich Town Hall.JPG
|imagesize                = 
|image_caption            = Goodrich Town Hall in November 2013
|image_flag               = 
|image_seal               =

<!-- Maps -->
|image_map                = WIMap-doton-Goodrich.png
|mapsize                  = 250x200px
|map_caption              = Location of Goodrich, Wisconsin
|image_map1               = 
|mapsize1                 = 
|map_caption1             =

<!-- Location -->
|subdivision_type         = [[List of sovereign states|Country]]
|subdivision_name         = {{flag|United States}}
|subdivision_type1        = [[U.S. state|State]]
|subdivision_name1        = {{flag|Wisconsin}}
|subdivision_type2        = [[List of counties in Wisconsin|County]]
|subdivision_name2        = [[Taylor County, Wisconsin|Taylor]]

<!-- Government -->
|government_footnotes     = 
|government_type          = 
|leader_title             = 
|leader_name              = 
|leader_title1            = 
|leader_name1             = 
|established_title        = 
|established_date         =

<!-- Area -->
|unit_pref  =  Imperial
|area_footnotes           =

|area_magnitude           = 
|area_total_km2           = 94
|area_land_km2            = 94
|area_water_km2           = 0
|area_total_sq_mi         = 36.3
|area_land_sq_mi          = 36.3
|area_water_sq_mi         = 0

<!-- Population -->
|population_as_of         = [[United States Census, 2010|2010]]
|population_footnotes     = 
|population_total         = 510
|population_density_km2   = 5.4
|population_density_sq_mi = 14

<!-- General information -->
|timezone                 = [[North American Central Time Zone|Central (CST)]]
|utc_offset               = -6
|timezone_DST             = CDT
|utc_offset_DST           = -5
|elevation_footnotes      = <ref name="GR3">{{cite web|url=http://geonames.usgs.gov|accessdate=January 31, 2008|title=US Board on Geographic Names|publisher=[[United States Geological Survey]]|date=October 25, 2007}}</ref>
|elevation_m              = 443
|elevation_ft             = 1453
|coordinates              = {{coord|45|9|24|N|90|5|44|W|region:US-WI|display=inline}}
|postal_code_type         = 
|postal_code              = 
|area_code                = [[Area codes 715 and 534|715 & 534]] 
|blank_name               = [[Federal Information Processing Standard|FIPS code]]
|blank_info               = 55-29837<ref name="GR2">{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov |publisher=[[United States Census Bureau]] |accessdate=January 31, 2008 |title=U.S. Census website }}</ref>
|blank1_name              = [[Geographic Names Information System|GNIS]] feature ID
|blank1_info              = 1583290<ref name="GR3" />
|blank2_name              = [[Public Land Survey System|PLSS]] township
|blank2_info              = T31N R3E
|website                  = 
|footnotes                = 
}}

'''Goodrich''' is a town in [[Taylor County, Wisconsin|Taylor County]], [[Wisconsin]], United States. The population was 510 at the 2010 census.

==Geography==
According to the [[United States Census Bureau]], the town has a total area of 36.3&nbsp;square miles (94.&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup>), all of it land. The [[Big Rib River]] crosses the northeast corner of the town.

Other than streambanks, most of the surface of the town is fairly level, laid down by some unknown glacier and eroded long before the [[Wisconsin glaciation|last glacier]] which bulldozed the sharp [[Taylor County, Wisconsin#Geography|Perkinstown terminal moraine]] to the north. The soil of most of Goodrich is called Merrill [[till]], except for meltwater stream sediment along the Big Rib River.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Attig|first=John W.|title=Geologic Map and Cross Sections of Taylor County, Wisconsin|journal=Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey|date=1993|issue=Bulletin 90|url=https://wgnhs.wisc.edu/pubshare/B090-plate01.pdf|access-date=November 26, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Attig|first=John W.|title=Pleistocene Geology of Taylor County, Wisconsin|journal=Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey|year=1993|volume=Bulletin 90|url=https://wgnhs.wisc.edu/catalog/publication/000114|pages=3–8|access-date=November 29, 2023}}</ref>

==History==
The dells of the Big Rib River in Goodrich are probably the rapids where [[René Menard|Father René Menard]] disappeared in 1661, while attempting to reach a band of [[Hurons|Huron Indians]] near the headwaters of the [[Black River (Wisconsin)|Black River]]. He left his partner at the rapids to carry some supplies and was never seen again.<ref>Schmirler, A. A. A., [http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/wmh&CISOPTR=22009&CISOSHOW=21949&REC=1 "Wisconsin's Lost Missionary: The Mystery of Father Rene Menard"], ''The Wisconsin Magazine of History'', Volume 45, number 2, winter, 1961-1962.</ref>

The south and east edges of the six by six mile square that would become Goodrich were first [[Surveying|surveyed]] in 1851 by crews working for the U.S. government. In December 1861 a different crew of surveyors marked all the [[Section (United States land surveying)|section corners]] in the [[survey township|township]], walking through the woods and swamps, measuring with [[Gunter's chain|chain]] and [[Solar compass|compass]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Land Survey Information|url=http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/SurveyNotes/SurveyInfo.html|publisher=Board of  Commissioners of Public Lands|accessdate=May 31, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Field Notes for T31N R3E|url=http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/SurveyNotes/SurveyNotes-idx?type=PLSS&twp=T031NR003E|work=Original Field Notes and Plat Maps, 1833-1866|publisher=Board of Commissioners of Public Lands|accessdate=May 31, 2011}}</ref> When done, the deputy surveyor filed this general description:
<blockquote>''The surface of this Township is mostly gently rolling and the Soil is principally 2nd Rate being well adapted to agricultural purposes. The Timber is a mixture of [[Tsuga canadensis|Hemlock]] [[Betula alleghaniensis|Birch]] [[Sugar maple|Sugar]] (?) [[Abies balsamea|Fir]] and [[Maple]]. There is but little Swamp land in the Township but it is well watered by numerous small streams of pure water which are tributaries of the [[Big Rib River|Rib River]] which (?) through the Township in a South Easterly direction. It is a Stream that does not overflow having but few tributaries(?) to affect its rise and fall. There are no settlers in this Township.''<ref>{{cite web|last=Daugherty|first=William E|title=Interior Field Notes (Dec. 1861)|url=http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/SurveyNotes/SurveyNotes-idx?type=article&byte=2148552&isize=L&twp=T031NR003E|publisher=Board of Commissioners of Public Lands|accessdate=6 June 2011}}</ref></blockquote>

Around 1873 the [[Wisconsin Central Railroad (1871–1899)|Wisconsin Central Railroad]] built its line up through the forest that would become [[Medford, Wisconsin|Medford]], heading for [[Ashland, Wisconsin|Ashland]]. To finance this undertaking, the railroad was granted half the land for eighteen miles on either side of the track laid - generally the odd-numbered sections.<ref>{{cite book|last=Martin|first=Roy L.|title=History of the Wisconsin Central (Bulletin No. 54)|date=January 1941|publisher=The Railroad and Locomotive Society, Inc.|location=Baker Library, Harvard Business School|pages=41–42}}</ref>

An 1880 map of the area shows some sort of road entering what would become Goodrich from the Medford side, following the course of modern [[Wisconsin Highway 64|Highway 64]] for two miles, then angling south into Marathon County.<ref>{{cite book|last=Dahl|first=Ole Rasmussen|title=Map of Chippewa, Price & Taylor Counties and the northern part of Clark County|year=1880|publisher=The Milwaukee Litho & Engr Co.|location=Milwaukee, Wisconsin|url=http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/maps/id/1046/rec/3|access-date=December 7, 2023}}</ref>

A map from around 1900 showed one road following the course of 64 for a few miles, and two other roads along the southwest corner of the town. The map showed five settlers' homesteads along these roads. Otherwise, Goodrich had no roads or settlers. In contrast, lands nearer the railroad at Medford, [[Stetsonville, Wisconsin|Stetsonville]] and [[Chelsea (CDP), Wisconsin|Chelsea]] were fully settled by this time. Much of the unsettled part of this town was held in large blocks, with the largest owners P.A. Merino in the north, H.B. Claflin in the east, and G. Stout in the south. By this time, the Wisconsin Central railroad had sold off most of its odd-numbered sections, but still held some smaller blocks.<ref>{{cite book|last=Queary|first=O.K.|title=Map of Taylor County, Wisconsin|date=1900|publisher=Bogk & Rowland|location=Milwaukee, Wis.|url=https://content.wisconsinhistory.org/digital/collection/maps/id/1568|access-date=November 30, 2023}}</ref><ref name=Delorme>{{cite book|title=Wisconsin Atlas and Gazetteer|date=1999|publisher=DeLorme|location=Yarmouth, Maine|page=74|edition=6th}}</ref>

When Taylor County was formed in 1875, the six-mile square that would become Goodrich was part of a larger Town of Medford, which spanned the county east to west. In 1895 Browning and Goodrich were split off into a 12-mile-wide town called Browning. In 1903 the town of Goodrich was split out on its own.<ref>{{cite book|last=Ruesch|first=H.O.|editor-last=Kalmon|editor-first=Lars|title=Taylor County Historical Sketch|date=January 2012|publisher=Taylor County History Project|page=8}}</ref>

[[File:Goodrich center Taylor County Wisconsin.jpg|thumb|Remnants of the community of Goodrich, facing east on highway 64]]
The 1911 plat map shows the roads extended, with more settlers along them. The predecessor of highway 64 had been extended another mile to a community of Goodrich, with a sawmill and a school on the map, and a railroad entering from the south.<ref name=Paetzold>{{cite book|last=Paetzold|first=C.H.|title=Map of Taylor County|date=1911|publisher=C. Paetzold and Koehler Land Company|location=Medford, Wis.|url=https://content.wisconsinhistory.org/digital/collection/maps/id/20296|access-date=December 8, 2023|chapter=Plat map of T31N R3E}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Medford, Westboro, Lublin, Goodrich|date=1913|publisher=Geo. A. Ogle & Co.|location=Chicago|url=https://www.historicmapworks.com/Map/US/36907/Medford++Westboro++Lublin++Goodrich/Taylor+County+1913/Wisconsin/|access-date=December 8, 2023}}</ref> That railroad was [[William H. Upham#Postbellum career|Upham Manufacturing]]'s logging line coming up from [[Athens, Wisconsin|Athens]], by 1911 owned by the Copper River Land Co.<ref>{{cite book|last=Ruesch|first=Gordon|editor-last=Kalmon|editor-first=Lars|title=Taylor County Logging and Lumbering|date=January 2012|publisher=Taylor County History Project|page=26}}</ref> Another wagon road followed the course of Martin Road north from 64 to the town line, with shorter roads branching off to the west. Settlers were filling in along all these. Another rural school had appeared along the south boundary of the town. Large chunks still remained unsettled, mostly owned by the Rib River Land Co.<ref name=Paetzold/>

==Demographics==
As of the [[census]]<ref name="GR2" /> of 2010, there were 510 people, 188 households, and 144 families residing in the town. The [[population density]] was 14 people per square mile (5.4/km<sup>2</sup>). There were 243 housing units at an average density of 6.7 per square mile (2.6/km<sup>2</sup>). The racial makeup of the town was 99.8% [[White (U.S. Census)|White]], and 0.2% from two or more races. [[Hispanic (U.S. Census)|Hispanic]] or [[Latino (U.S. Census)|Latino]] people of any race were 0.2% of the population

There were 188 households, out of which 31.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 66.5% were [[Marriage|married couples]] living together, 4.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 23.4% were non-families. 20.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 22.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.71 and the average family size was 3.11.

In the town, the population was spread out, with 24.5% under the age of 18, 7.25% from 18 to 24, 23.5% from 25 to 44, 33.1% from 45 to 64, and 11.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40.6 years. For every 1 female there were 1.29 males. For every 1 female age 18 and over, there were 1.06 males.

As of the [[census]]<ref name="GR2" /> of 2000, The median income for a household in the town was $42,500, and the median income for a family was $45,000. Males had a median income of $27,788 versus $20,278 for females. The [[per capita income]] for the town was $16,724. About 8.8% of families and 10.3% of the population were below the [[poverty line]], including 11.6% of those under age 18 and 18.7% of those age 65 or over.

{{coord|45|08|58|N|90|05|08|W|type:city_region:US-WI|display=title}}

== Religion ==
The Town of Goodrich has two churches, Goodrich Community Church and St. Andrew's Lutheran Church.

==See also==
* [[List of towns in Wisconsin]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{commons category-inline|Goodrich, Wisconsin}}

{{Taylor County, Wisconsin}}

{{authority control}}

[[Category:Towns in Taylor County, Wisconsin]]
[[Category:Towns in Wisconsin]]