Town of Woodville
Calumet County, Wisconsin
A rural crossroads where neighbors gathered and community bonds were forged
Dundas is a small unincorporated community in the Town of Woodville, Calumet County, about a mile and a half southwest of Hollandtown. Though it sits across the county line from the Town of Holland in Brown County, Dundas has always been closely tied to the Hollandtown area. For generations, Dundas families attended St. Francis Seraph Church, sent their children to its school, and joined in community events alongside their Holland neighbors. People from Dundas even built their own horse sheds on the west side of the church grounds so they could stable their teams during Sunday Mass.1
A post office was established in Dundas in 1846, two years before Wisconsin became a state.2 The community’s name has several possible origins. It may have been named by an early settler who had visited the Dundas Islands off the east coast of Africa, or by the first postmaster, DeWisner Halsted, for William H. Dundas of the U.S. Post Office Department, or for Halsted’s wife’s birthplace of Dundas, Ontario.3 The true origin remains an open question.
Dundas grew as a stopping point for travelers and mail carriers along the Military Road.4 When the Chicago and North Western Railway arrived around 1871, the community gained a depot and side track. Farmers could now ship grain and other goods to larger markets, and businesses followed: a grain elevator near the tracks, a general store, a cheese factory, a blacksmith, and a woodenware factory that made cheese boxes from local elm. When the woodenware factory burned, a canning factory took its place, becoming a significant local employer for decades.5
The farmers of Dundas and Holland were closely linked through agriculture and commerce. In 1897, farmers from both communities organized a dairy cooperative, and mail carriers picked up mail in Dundas and brought it to Hollandtown.6 The two communities shared a social and economic life that crossed the county boundary as naturally as the roads that connected them.
This page is a work in progress. The Town of Holland Area Historical Society is actively researching and expanding the historical record for all three of our communities. If you have photographs, documents, stories, or other materials related to Dundas and the Town of Woodville, we would love to hear from you.
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