Cassville, Wisconsin

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cassville is a village in Grant County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 1,085 at the 2000 census. The village is located along the Mississippi River within the Town of Cassville.

Cassville was first settled in 1827, and was named for Lewis Cass, who was governor of Michigan Territory at the time. After the creation of Wisconsin Territory in 1836, Cassville was viewed by many as a likely candidate to be the territorial capital, owing to its central location in a territory that stretched from Lake Michigan to the Missouri River. Land speculators built up the site, but in the end the city of Madison, Wisconsin was selected as capital instead. This caused Cassville's developers to go bankrupt, and eventually Nelson Dewey, who had moved to Cassville in 1836 and later served as the first Governor of Wisconsin, bought up most of the village. Hoping to profit from this, he went about encouraging settlement at the site in an attempt to turn Cassville into a metropolis. In the meantime, Dewey was able to establish a large estate for himself outside the city. The estate, which he named Stonefield, is now a state historic site. Dewey himself was unable to occupy it for long, a fire destroyed his home in 1873, and shortly later financial misfortune forced him to sell the property. Cassville never became the major city that Dewey had envisioned. Today the city is primarily known for the Stonefield Historic Site, Nelson Dewey State Park, and the Cassville Ferry, which runs between Cassville and a nearbly landing in Iowa.

[edit] Geography

Cassville is located at 42°42′52″N, 90°59′18″W (42.714517, -90.988377)^GR1.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 2.8 km² (1.1 mi²). 2.8 km² (1.1 mi²) of it is land and 0.92% is water.

[edit] Demographics

As of the census^GR2 of 2000, there were 1,085 people, 488 households, and 302 families residing in the village. The population density was 387.9/km² (1,005.1/mi²). There were 572 housing units at an average density of 204.5/km² (529.9/mi²). The racial makeup of the village was 99.17% White, 0.46% Native American, 0.09% from other races, and 0.28% from two or more races. 0.37% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 488 households out of which 26.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 49.4% were married couples living together, 9.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 38.1% were non-families. 35.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 20.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.22 and the average family size was 2.82.

In the village the population was spread out with 24.1% under the age of 18, 5.3% from 18 to 24, 22.9% from 25 to 44, 23.8% from 45 to 64, and 24.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 42 years. For every 100 females there were 90.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 87.0 males.

The median income for a household in the village was $28,179, and the median income for a family was $35,625. Males had a median income of $29,271 versus $17,014 for females. The per capita income for the village was $16,010. About 10.3% of families and 14.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 13.1% of those under age 18 and 23.3% of those age 65 or over.