Madison, Wisconsin, USA
1895 - Madison

Madison, a city, the capital of Wisconsin, and seat of justice of Dane co., is pleasantly situated on an isthmus between Lakes Mendota and Monona, 80 miles W. of Milwaukee, and 132 miles N.W. of Chicago, in lat. 43° 5' N., lon. 89° 20' W. Elevation, 788 feet. It stands in the centre of a broad valley, surrounded by heights, from which the city can be seen at a distance of several miles. The isthmus is about three-quarters of a mile in width. Lake Mendota, which lies on the N.W. side of the town, is 6 miles long by 4 miles wide. It is a beautiful sheet of water, with clean gravelly shores. The depth is sufficient for navigation by steamboats, and is estimated at about 60 feet. Lake Monona is rather smaller. When this place was selected for the seat of government, in 1836, it contained no building but a solitary log cabin. The capitol is a beautiful structure, built of stone at an expense of $500,000, standing on ground 70 feet above the level of the lakes, and in the centre of a public park. The streets which lead from the capitol towards the cardinal points descend gradually to the shores of the lakes, excepting the one which extends west ward to College Hill. On this eminence, 1 mile W. of the capitol, and about 125 feet above the lake, is situated the University of Wisconsin, which was instituted in 1849 and has 43 professors and over 1000 students. It is open to both sexes. Madison contains a court-house, 16 churches, an opera-house costing over $75,000, a national bank, 3 other banks, an asylum for the insane, a stereotype-foundry, 2 large flouring-mills, several carriage-factories, and manufactures of farming-implements, reapers, tools, machinery, sash, doors, blinds, &c. Three daily and several weekly newspapers are published here. The city is on the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad, and is connected with Milwaukee by three railroads, one of which extends westward to Prairie du Chien. Pop. in 1860, 6611; in 1870, 91.76; in 1880, 10,324; in 1890, 13,426.

Lippincott's Gazetteer of the World: A Complete Pronouncing Gazetteer Or Geographical Dictionary of the World Containing Notices of Over One Hundred and Twenty-five Thousand Places ... Joseph Thomas January 1, 1895 J.B. Lippincott

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