ELROY

Incorporated as a Village:  1879
First Town Chairman:  
Origin of Name:  Not known if  this is the true story.  Mr. Brintnall's daughter Lydia liked a man named Leroy and asked her father to apply for a post office named in his honor.  The US Post Office Dept. refused to grant the request since Wisconsin already had a village by that name.  Lydia thereby switched the first two letters of his name and the post office accepted "Elroy."    
First Village President:  C. E. Booth 
First Hardware Store:  Grimshaw Brothers before 1872
First Library and Librarian:  1906 and Edna Roberts
source: Juneau County, The First Hundred Years, published 1988

HISTORY OF ELROY

In 1860 Messrs. James and John Hutchinson built a grist mill in the town, around which the present flourishing village of Elroy has sprung up.

This village is situated in the township of Plymouth, on the line of the C.&N.W. Ry., 213 miles from Chicago and 197 miles from St. Paul. It is also the junction of the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railway, and is an important railroad town. The total valuation of the township and village reaches $215,754 and the tax rate is three per cent of this sum. The population of the township and village is 1,499. The Baraboo River flows through the town and furnishes abundant water power. The principal busienss interests are the Star and Eagle flouring mills, and general business enterprises are well represented.

The schools are in charge of Prof. H. M. Johnston. Value of school property $675. Number of children attending school 168. Number of children of school age 294.

It has two churches, German Evangelical and Catholic. The former was built in 1880 but the organization of the society dates back some fourteen years. The church property is valued at $2,000 and the pulpit is at present supplied.

The Catholic Church was built in 1878, had has a membership of nearly 500. Rev. Father Keller, of Union Center, is attending priest.

It has six secret organizations: Elroy Lodge, No. 202, F. & A.M., organized June 13, 1876, with a membership of twenty-seven; Elroy Lodge, I.O.O.F., No. 233, organized May 15, 1874, with thirty members; Ancient Order of United Workmen, Elroy Lodge, No. 83, chartered April 8, 1880, with a membership of twenty; and Perseverance Lodge, No. 556, of the Legion of Honor, chartered April 30, 1881, with thirteen members.

Source: History of Northern Wisconsin. Publisher: Western Historical Co., Chicago 1881 p. 387

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