Editing Slinger, Wisconsin

{{short description|Village in Washington County, Wisconsin}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2024}}
{{Infobox settlement
|official_name            = Slinger, Wisconsin
|settlement_type          = [[Administrative divisions of Wisconsin#Village|Village]]
|nickname                 = Village of the Seven Hills
|motto                    =

<!-- Images -->
|image_skyline            = Slinger WI RR KMD.jpg
|imagesize                = 250px
|image_caption            = Facing NE near the railroad tracks
|image_flag               = 
|image_seal               =

<!-- Maps -->
|image_map                = File:Washington County Wisconsin Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Slinger Highlighted.svg
|mapsize                  = 250px
|map_caption              = Location of Slinger in Washington County, 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        = [[Washington County, Wisconsin|Washington]]

<!-- Government -->
|government_footnotes     = 
|government_type          = 
|leader_title             = 
|leader_name              = 
|leader_title1            = 
|leader_name1             = 
|established_title        = [[Municipal corporation|Incorporated]]
|established_date         = {{Start date and age|1869}}

<!-- Area -->
|unit_pref                = Imperial
|area_footnotes           = <ref name="CenPopGazetteer2019">{{cite web|title=2019 U.S. Gazetteer Files|url=https://www2.census.gov/geo/docs/maps-data/data/gazetteer/2019_Gazetteer/2019_gaz_place_55.txt|publisher=United States Census Bureau|access-date=August 7, 2020}}</ref>
|area_magnitude           = 
|area_total_km2           = 13.63
|area_land_km2            = 13.57
|area_water_km2           = 0.06
|area_total_sq_mi         = 5.26
|area_land_sq_mi          = 5.24
|area_water_sq_mi         = 0.02

<!-- Population -->
|population_as_of         = [[2020 United States Census|2020]]
|population_footnotes     = <ref name ="wwwcensusgov"/>
|population_total         = 5992
|population_density_km2   = 410.07
|population_density_sq_mi = 1062.02

<!-- 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|access-date=January 31, 2008|title=US Board on Geographic Names|publisher=[[United States Geological Survey]]|date=October 25, 2007}}</ref>
|elevation_m              = 324
|elevation_ft             = 1063
|coordinates              = {{coord|43|19|42|N|88|17|0|W|region:US_type:city|display=inline,title}}
|postal_code_type         = 
|postal_code              = 53086
|area_code                = [[Area code 262|262]]
|blank_name               = [[Federal Information Processing Standard|FIPS code]]
|blank_info               = 55-74400<ref name="GR2">{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov|publisher=[[United States Census Bureau]]|access-date=January 31, 2008|title=U.S. Census website}}</ref>
|blank1_name              = [[Geographic Names Information System|GNIS]] feature ID
|blank1_info              = 1574278<ref name="GR3" />
|website                  = {{Official URL}}
|footnotes                = 
|pop_est_footnotes = <ref name="USCensusEst2019CenPopScriptOnlyDirtyFixDoNotUse">{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/popest/data/tables.2019.html|date=May 24, 2020|title=Population and Housing Unit Estimates|publisher=United States Census Bureau|access-date=May 27, 2020}}</ref>
}}

'''Slinger''' (formerly '''Schleisingerville''') is a village in [[Washington County, Wisconsin|Washington County]], [[Wisconsin]], United States. The population was 5,992 at the [[2020 United States Census|2020 census]], and Slinger is on the outer edge of the [[Milwaukee metropolitan area|Milwaukee Metropolitan Area]]

==Toponymy==
The village was originally known as Schleisingerville, after [[Baruch Schleisinger Weil]], a merchant and politician who developed the community as a railroad stop in the 1840s and 1850s. Locals sometimes abbreviated the four-syllable name to "Slinger," and on May 3, 1921, the village residents overwhelmingly voted to make Slinger the official name.<ref>Mrs. Robt. Donath, Jerry Gundrum, and Eli. Gebhard. ''[http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/WI.SLH100Years Schleisingerville to Slinger 1869-1969: Historical Album and Centennial Program Book]''. Slinger, Wis.: Centennial Committee, 1969.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://project.wsjl.org/history.php |title=Wisconsin Small Jewish Communities History Project |access-date=October 14, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130209080309/http://project.wsjl.org/history.php |archive-date=February 9, 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Moyer|first1=Armond|last2=Moyer|first2=Winifred|title=The origins of unusual place-names|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89058322223;view=1up;seq=125|year=1958|publisher=Keystone Pub. Associates|page=121}}</ref>

==History==
[[File:Northern Pacific Railroad map circa 1900 Schleisingerville.png|left|thumb|Rail map of Wisconsin from 1900 centered on Schleisingerville]]

In the early 19th century, the Slinger area was home to [[Potawatomi]] Native Americans, who surrendered the land the United States Federal Government in 1833 through the [[1833 Treaty of Chicago]], which (after being ratified in 1835) required them to leave Wisconsin by 1838.<ref>{{cite web|title=Early history of Ozaukee County, Wisconsin|url=http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/WI/WI-idx?type=article&did=WI.OzEarlyHist.i0009&id=WI.OzEarlyHist&isize=M|publisher=University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries|access-date=January 1, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1 = Gerwing |first1 = Anselm J. |title = The Chicago Indian Treaty of 1833 |journal = Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society |date =Summer 1964 |volume = 57 |issue = 2 |pages = 117–142 |jstor = 40190019 |issn = 0019-2287 }}</ref> While many Potawatomis moved west of the Mississippi River to [[Kansas]], some chose to remain, and were referred to as "strolling Potawatomi" in contemporary documents because many of them were migrants who subsisted by [[squatting]] on their ancestral lands, which were now owned by white settlers.<ref name="Potawatomi History">{{cite web|title=Potawatomi History|url=https://www.mpm.edu/content/wirp/ICW-152|publisher=Milwaukee Public Museum|access-date=February 20, 2020}}</ref> One band of strolling Potawatomi travelled through [[Dodge County, Wisconsin|Dodge]], [[Jefferson County, Wisconsin|Jefferson]], and Washington counties, and was led by Chief Kewaskum, who had a camp on [[Pike Lake Unit, Kettle Moraine State Forest|Pike Lake]], west of Slinger. Kewaskum was friendly with the white settlers who began arriving in the 1840s.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Quickert |first1=Carl |title=Washington County, Wisconsin: Past and Present |date=1912 |publisher=S. J. Clarke Publishing Company |location=Chicago, IL |page=33}}</ref> He died sometime between 1847 and 1850, and the early settlers named the [[Kewaskum, Wisconsin|Village of Kewaskum]] in his honor.<ref>{{cite web|title=About Kewaskum|url=http://www.kewaskum.lib.wi.us/contact-us/who-was-chief-kewaskum |publisher=Kewaskum Public Library |access-date=March 17, 2020}}</ref> Itinerant Potawatomis lived in Washington County into the late 19th century, when many of them gathered in northern Wisconsin to form the [[Forest County Potawatomi Community]].<ref name="Potawatomi History"/>

[[Baruch Schleisinger Weil]], a [[American Jews|Jewish-American]] immigrant from [[Strasbourg]], [[Alsace]], laid the village's foundation when he bought 2,000 acres of land in Washington County on November 1, 1845. He soon built a general store to serve local farmers, loggers and Native Americans, and later opened a distillery. Other merchants and manufacturers, including blacksmiths, shoemakers, wagon makers and tanners, began settling in the area, which was called "Schleisingerville" in Weil's honor.<ref name="History">{{cite web|title=Schleisingerville to Slinger 125 Years |url=https://uwdc.library.wisc.edu/collections/wi/slingerlochist/ |publisher=University of Wisconsin-Madison Library|access-date=March 14, 2020}}</ref><ref name="S. J. Clarke Publishing Company">{{cite book |last1=Quickert |first1=Carl |title=Washington County, Wisconsin: Past and Present |date=1912 |publisher=S. J. Clarke Publishing Company |location=Chicago, IL |pages=45–46}}</ref> For the first two decades of its history, the community was part of the [[Polk, Wisconsin|Town of Polk]], which was organized on January 21, 1846.

In 1850, Weil opened a post office and in 1855 he worked to have the [[Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad|La Crosse and Milwaukee Railroad]] pass through the community.<ref name="Encyclopedia">{{cite web|title=Encyclopedia of Milwaukee: Village of Slinger |url=https://emke.uwm.edu/entry/village-of-slinger/ |publisher=University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee|access-date=March 14, 2020}}</ref> The rail line was completed on August 23, 1855.<ref name="History"/> The village grew because of its rail connections and incorporated out of some of the Town of Polk's land in 1869. From the mid-19th century into the mid-20th century, the community was predominantly rural, and most of the businesses supplied farmers and area residents.<ref name="Encyclopedia"/>

In its first decades, the village had a distinctly German culture. The first Catholic church opened in 1862, and the first Lutheran Church opened in 1863. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the village had a [[Turners|Turnverein]]<ref name="S. J. Clarke Publishing Company"/> and a German-language weekly newspaper called ''Der Botschafter'' (English: ''The Messenger'').<ref>{{cite book |last1=Quickert |first1=Carl |title=Washington County, Wisconsin: Past and Present |date=1912 |publisher=S. J. Clarke Publishing Company |location=Chicago, IL |pages=82}}</ref>

Following [[World War II]], the village saw the growth of heavy industry, including the Slinger Foundry Company, which manufactures parts for [[Briggs & Stratton]] and [[Harley-Davidson]]. Between 1970 and 2000, the village experienced rapid population growth and real estate development, and Washington County became increasingly suburbanized.<ref name="Encyclopedia"/>

==Geography==
Slinger is located at {{coord|43|19|42|N|88|17|0|W|type:city}} (43.328466, -88.283461).<ref name="GR1">{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov/geographies/reference-files/time-series/geo/gazetteer-files.html|publisher=[[United States Census Bureau]]|access-date=April 23, 2011|date=February 12, 2011|title=US Gazetteer files: 2010, 2000, and 1990}}</ref>

According to the [[United States Census Bureau]], the village has a total area of {{convert|5.31|sqmi|sqkm|2}}, of which, {{convert|5.29|sqmi|sqkm|2}} of it is land and {{convert|0.02|sqmi|sqkm|2}} is water.<ref name="Gazetteer files">{{cite web|title=US Gazetteer files 2010|url=https://www.census.gov/geo/www/gazetteer/files/Gaz_places_national.txt|publisher=[[United States Census Bureau]]|access-date=November 18, 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120125061959/http://www.census.gov/geo/www/gazetteer/files/Gaz_places_national.txt|archive-date=January 25, 2012}}</ref>

Slinger is known as the "village of seven hills" as it rests in the heart of the Kettle Moraine.<ref name="S. J. Clarke Publishing Company"/>

===Climate===
{|
|-
|{{climate chart
|  Slinger
| -14| -5| 85
| -13| -4| 79
| -7| 5| 80
| 2| 18| 152
| 5| 21| 122
| 13| 25| 146
| 17| 26| 92
| 16| 25| 92
| 11| 21| 72
| 7| 14| 113
| -2| 9| 65
| -10| -4| 73
|float=left
|clear=left
|source = <ref name = "nasa">{{Cite web |url= http://neo.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/dataset_index.php|title= NASA Earth Observations Data Set Index|access-date = January 30, 2016 |publisher= NASA}}</ref>
}}
|}

==Demographics==
{{US Census population
| align = left
| 1880 = 358
| 1890 = 432
| 1900 = 549
| 1910 = 538
| 1920 = 730
| 1930 = 769
| 1940 = 775
| 1950 = 919
| 1960 = 1161
| 1970 = 1216
| 1980 = 1612
| 1990 = 2340
| 2000 = 3901
| 2010 = 5068
| 2020 = 5992
| estyear = 2022
| estimate = 6294
| footnote = U.S. Decennial Census<ref name="DecennialCensus">{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/decennial-census.html|title=Census of Population and Housing|publisher=Census.gov|access-date=June 4, 2015}}</ref>
}}

===2010 census===
As of the [[census]]<ref name ="wwwcensusgov">{{cite web|title=U.S. Census website|url=https://www.census.gov|publisher=[[United States Census Bureau]]|access-date=November 18, 2012}}</ref> of 2010, there were 5,068 people, 2,029 households, and 1,390 families living in the village. The [[population density]] was {{convert|958.0|PD/sqmi|PD/km2|1}}. There were 2,182 housing units at an average density of {{convert|412.5|/sqmi|/km2|1}}. The racial makeup of the village was 97.2% [[White (U.S. Census)|White]], 0.5% [[African American (U.S. Census)|African American]], 0.2% [[Native American (U.S. Census)|Native American]], 0.6% [[Asian (U.S. Census)|Asian]], 0.3% from [[Race (U.S. Census)|other races]], and 1.1% from two or more races. [[Hispanic (U.S. Census)|Hispanic]] or [[Latino (U.S. Census)|Latino]] of any race were 2.3% of the population.

There were 2,029 households, of which 36.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 52.7% were [[Marriage|married couples]] living together, 11.0% had a female householder with no husband present, 4.8% had a male householder with no wife present, and 31.5% were non-families. 25.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 7.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.48 and the average family size was 2.99.

The median age in the village was 37.2 years. 26.4% of residents were under the age of 18; 6.6% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 28.8% were from 25 to 44; 27.9% were from 45 to 64; and 10.3% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the village was 49.0% male and 51.0% female.

===2000 census===
As of the [[census]]<ref name="GR2" /> of 2000, there were 3,901 people, 1,562 households, and 1,040 families living in the village. The [[population density]] was 1,046.8 people per square mile (403.8/km<sup>2</sup>). There were 1,607 housing units at an average density of 431.2 per square mile (166.3/km<sup>2</sup>). The racial makeup of the village was 97.95% [[White (U.S. Census)|White]], 0.26% [[African American (U.S. Census)|African American]], 0.15% [[Native American (U.S. Census)|Native American]], 0.18% [[Asian (U.S. Census)|Asian]], 0.05% [[Pacific Islander (U.S. Census)|Pacific Islander]], 0.41% from [[Race (United States Census)|other races]], and 1.00% from two or more races. [[Hispanic (U.S. Census)|Hispanic]] or [[Latino (U.S. Census)|Latino]] of any race were 1.38% of the population.

There were 1,562 households, out of which 34.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 51.8% were [[Marriage|married couples]] living together, 10.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 33.4% were non-families. 26.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.46 and the average family size was 3.02.

In the village, the population was spread out, with 26.8% under the age of 18, 7.4% from 18 to 24, 32.5% from 25 to 44, 21.1% from 45 to 64, and 12.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females, there were 97.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 95.2 males.

The median income for a household in the village was $47,125, and the median income for a family was $55,607. Males had a median income of $40,783 versus $25,723 for females. The [[per capita income]] for the village was $21,450. About 6.0% of families and 6.4% of the population were below the [[poverty line]], including 6.2% of those under age 18 and 10.7% of those age 65 or over.

==Recreation==
[[File:SlingerSuperSpeedway.jpg|thumb|right|[[Slinger Speedway]], August 2006]]
* [[Little Switzerland (Wisconsin)|Little Switzerland]] Ski area is in Slinger.
* Slinger is home to the [[Slinger Speedway]], the world's fastest quarter-mile paved oval..{{citation needed|date=October 2021}}
* Slinger contains the 1.14 acre Slinger splash pad.

==Education==
Slinger is served by the School District of Slinger.<ref>{{cite web|title=School District of Slinger|url=http://www.slinger.k12.wi.us/schools/high/}}</ref> Schools include Slinger Elementary School, Allenton Elementary, Addison Elementary, Slinger Middle School, and [[Slinger High School]]. Slinger is also home to St. Peter Catholic School, which provides private elementary education.<ref>{{Cite web |title=St. Peter Catholic School |url=https://www.stpeterslinger.org/st--peter-catholic-school |access-date=January 5, 2024 |website=St. Peter Catholic Congregation |language=en}}</ref>

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

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Slinger Advancement Association. ''[http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/WI.SLH125Years Slinger Historical Album: Schleisingerville to Slinger, 125 years, 1869-1994]''. Slinger, Wis.: 1994.

==External links==
{{Commons category|Slinger, Wisconsin}}
* {{Official website}}
* Sanborn fire insurance maps: [http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm/ref/collection/maps/id/10000 1894] [http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm/ref/collection/maps/id/10003 1900] [http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm/ref/collection/maps/id/9879 1913]

{{Washington County, Wisconsin}}

{{authority control}}

[[Category:Villages in Washington County, Wisconsin]]
[[Category:Villages in Wisconsin]]