Waukesha County Wisconsin Genealogy

Lannon Springs History

Source: Excerpts were taken from pages of an old 1880's publication on the history of Waukesha County.

This place was named in honor of William N. Lannon, on whose farm were some beautiful springs.

The first postoffice at the Springs was opened May 10, 1854, by William N. Lannon.

The first school was taught in 1848, and the first church services were held in 1842.

In the spring of 1843, William M. Saunders and William Brown opened the first store. Ashes were legal tender in those days, and any one trading with Saunders could get goods at half-price if he could tell a good story, and pay in ashes at that.

About 1875, Michael Keating built the Lannon Springs Hotel, which is. a model country caravansary. He has allowed no games to be played in it since it was opened.

What is now Lannon Springs was settled in 1842 by W. N. Lannon, Dennis McCarty, Erastus S. Comstock, John Golden, Jeffrey Burke, James Brogan, T. Kinsley - all Irish but - Mr. Comstock.

In 1848, a Scotchman named George Clark was killed near Henry Redford's while driving a load of lumber. The next year, John McDonnell, while bringing a young lady to the Springs, was killed in the same place. For some years thereafter, the people of the vicinity regarded the place with fear and superstition.

Mrs. James Brogan was the first person to die, and James Brogan the first person to be married at the Springs.

Father Kundig, of Milwaukee, held the first Catholic services at the Springs in 1842, at James Brogan's house. In 1848, the Catholics of this place joined with those of Brookfield, and built a church. In 1847, Rev. James Colton, now of Fond du Lac, took charge of the parish, and in 1848, built the stone church at the Springs. In the fall the parsonage was built. James Brogan donated an acre of land for the church and parsonage, and L. Kinsley one acre for the cemetery, called St. James Cemetery. Mrs. Jeffrey Burke, who died in 1848, was the first person buried in it.