Valders, Wisconsin

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Looking west at Valders from U.S. Route 151.

Valders is a village in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 948 at the 2000 census.

The village is famous within the state for its excellent dolomite limestone quarry, which produces building rock, harbor rock and gravel (and a minimal though sub-standard amount of marble). Gray Woodfordian Drift soil is also described as Valderan Drift. [1] The Valders lobe glacial advance was named after the village.

Valders also has a large pre-fabricated reinforced concrete factory, and is the center of a substantial dairy and grain producing area.

Valders was settled in the 1850's by immigrants from the Valdris valley of Norway. It did not really develop as a village until the arrival of the railroad in 1896, the traditional year of the founding. It was incorporated as a village under Wisconsin law in 1921, with William F. Christel as the first village president. [2]

Since the village was founded my Norwegians, it is natural the that first churches were Lutheran (Valders Lutheran parish, Our Savior Lutheran parish, and Gjerpin Lutheran parish). These were later combined into Faith Lutheran parish (ELCA). There is also a small Protestant Conference parish. After the arrival of the railroad many German settlers moved in that were primarily Catholic, but no parish was developed for them. To this day there is still a significant population of Catholics, with most of the area farmers, also Catholic, that worship at St. Gregory in St. Nazianz to the south, St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception in Clarks Mills to the North (presently joined to St. Michael in Whitelaw), or St. Thomas the Apostle in Newton to the east.

The Valders Area School District consists of one kindergarten through fourth grade elementary school, one fifth through eighth grade middle school, and one ninth through 12th grade comprehensive high school. The school serves approximately 1,200 students.

1 Famous residents
2 Geography
3 Demographics
4 External links

[edit] Famous residents

The most famous son of Valders is Thorstein Veblen, a late 19th century economist and sociologist.[3]

[edit] Geography

Valders is located at 44°3′58″N, 87°53′9″W (44.066029, -87.885710)^GR1.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 2.6 km² (1.0 mi²), all land.

[edit] Demographics

As of the census^GR2 of 2000, there were 948 people, 375 households, and 258 families residing in the village. The population density was 362.4/km² (935.6/mi²). There were 387 housing units at an average density of 147.9/km² (381.9/mi²). The racial makeup of the village was 99.26% White, 0.32% Native American, 0.32% Asian, 0.11% from other races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.53% of the population.

There were 375 households out of which 37.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.7% were married couples living together, 8.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 31.2% were non-families. 28.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 13.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.52 and the average family size was 3.10.

In the village the population was spread out with 28.9% under the age of 18, 8.1% from 18 to 24, 30.8% from 25 to 44, 19.6% from 45 to 64, and 12.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33 years. For every 100 females there were 92.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 98.8 males.

The median income for a household in the village was $45,167, and the median income for a family was $55,714. Males had a median income of $36,429 versus $24,440 for females. The per capita income for the village was $19,691. About 0.8% of families and 3.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 2.8% of those under age 18 and 6.6% of those age 65 or over.