The reopening of the Muscoda post office, about 1850, synchronizes with
the first movement of pioneer farmers into the good lands tributary
to that place. A number of tracts of land were purchased by actual
settlers in this and adjoining townships in the years 1849 to 1851.
Indeed, Conrad Kircher’s purchase dates from 1847. Charles Miller and
Emanuel Dunston bought land in 1849; Isaac Dale and Moses Manlove in
1851. We know also that the Moore family owned land at Muscoda as early
as 1851. Across the river, in township 9-1 W, Robert Galloway, William
Pickering, William and Andrew Miller, and two or three others bought
in 1849; several in 1850; and a few others before 1854, when the great
rush came.
A similar story can be told for township 9-1 E (now Orion) where
J. H. Schuermann and Daniel Mainwaring (settlers) bought lands in
1849; Albert C. Dooley in 1850; and Jacob Roggy in 1851. One of the
purchasers of 1848, John H. Siegrist, was probably the earliest actual
settler in the township. A half dozen families bought in township 8-1
E as early as 1849; and a few others were added before 1854. A very
few settlers were to be found in township 7-1 W prior to 1854, and
while there were a good many settlers and miners in township 7-1 E,
the greater part of that township was served from Highland where a
post office was established as early at least as 1847 and where there
was much lead mining activity, and from Blue River which had a post
office from 1839. These mining centers doubtless drew their supplies
from the steamers unloading at Muscoda, for the road to the river
at that point had been open for many years, but settlement was more
numerous and local activity much more intense, as revealed by the post
office returns. The Highland post office led the Muscoda post office in
importance for just about ten years--from 1847 to 1856. With the coming
of the railroad, Muscoda drew ahead.