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Chelsea is a town in Taylor County,
Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...
, United States. The population was 113 at the 2010 census. The census-designated places of Chelsea and
Whittlesey Whittlesey (also Whittlesea) is a market town and civil parish in the Fenland District, Fenland district of Cambridgeshire, England. Whittlesey is east of Peterborough. The population of the parish was 17,667 at the 2021 Census. Toponymy W ...
are located in the town.


Geography

According to the
United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...
, the CDP has a total area of , all of it land. Most of Chelsea is hilly, with small glacial lakes. It lies within the Perkinstown
terminal moraine A terminal moraine, also called an end moraine, is a type of moraine that forms at the terminal (edge) of a glacier, marking its maximum advance. At this point, debris that has accumulated by plucking and abrasion, has been pushed by the front e ...
, which is described under Taylor County.


History

The six by seven mile square that would become Chelsea was first surveyed in 1861 by a crew working for the U.S. government. Then in April 1862 another crew marked all the section corners in the
township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...
, walking through the woods and swamps, measuring with chain and
compass A compass is a device that shows the cardinal directions used for navigation and geographic orientation. It commonly consists of a magnetized needle or other element, such as a compass card or compass rose, which can pivot to align itself with No ...
. When done, the deputy surveyor filed this general description:
''The Surface of this Township is generally rolling and considerably Swampy. Timber principally Hemlock mixed with
Birch A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech- oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' contains 3 ...
Sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecul ...
Spruce A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' ( ), a genus of about 40 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal ecosystem, boreal (taiga) regions of the Northern hemisphere. ''Picea'' ...
(?) Tamarac Cedar and White Pine. It is watered by numerous Small Streams which unite and form two of considerable size one running in a Southerly direction and the other running NW and becoming a tributary of Chipewa river. The Township on the whole would not be very well adapted to agricultural purposes.''
In the early 1870s the Wisconsin Central Railroad Company built its line up through the forest on the east side of the six-mile square that would become Chelsea. To finance this undertaking, the railroad was granted half the land for 18 miles on either side of the track laid - generally the odd sections. The railroad built two stations in this town:
Whittlesey Whittlesey (also Whittlesea) is a market town and civil parish in the Fenland District, Fenland district of Cambridgeshire, England. Whittlesey is east of Peterborough. The population of the parish was 17,667 at the 2021 Census. Toponymy W ...
and Chelsea. Sawmills were built near each station and logging commenced. When Taylor County was formed in 1875, Chelsea was six miles north to south, but it spanned the full width of the county, including all modern towns from Pershing to Greenwood. An 1880 map shows some sort of road roughly following the course of modern highway 13 up to Chelsea station, then heading west along the course of modern Quarter Lane. The 1911 plat map of the six mile square that would become Chelsea shows much of the same as 1880, but the road/track along Quarter Lane had disappeared. By then the whole east and south edges of the town had a fairly complete grid of roads and dirt tracks. In addition, that same area was starting to fill in with settlers holding parcels 40 acres and up. Outside that band on the east and south, roads are sparse and much of the land is in larger chunks, with Medford Mfg. Co, Wisconsin Central Railway, and M.H. Mould the largest holders. The map shows a sawmill at Chelsea and a brickyard south of Whittlesey. That Langenberg brickyard dug
clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...
onsite from a layer ten to twelve feet thick, and formed and fired bricks in "permanent up draft kilns." The brickyard produced 200,000 bricks in 1898, the year it opened. A writer from the Wisconsin Geological Survey observed, "This is one of the best common clays that has come under my observation." In 1933 much of the northwest quarter of Chelsea was designated part of the Chequamegon National Forest As logging operations declined, the railroad continued hauling freight and passengers, but that business too eventually dwindled and in 1988 the trains stopped running on this stretch of railroad. The following year, local residents and the railroad agreed to allow use of the railroad bed as a multi-use recreational trail - the Pine Line - which now runs along the east side of Chelsea.


Demographics


2010 census

As of the
census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...
of 2010, there were 113 people, 43 households, and 31 families living in the CDP. The
population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...
was . There were 51 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the CDP was 99.1%
White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
and 0.9% from other races.
Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...
or Latino of any race were 0.9% of the population. There were 43 households, out of which 23.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.5% were
married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...
living together, 9.3% had a female householder with no husband present, 9.3% had a male householder with no wife present, and 27.9% were non-families. 18.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 4.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.63 and the average family size was 2.94. The median age in the CDP was 37.8 years. 23.9% of residents were under the age of 18; 11.5% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 20.4% were from 25 to 44; 27.5% were from 45 to 64; and 16.8% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the CDP was 44.2% male and 55.8% female.


2000 census

As of the
census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...
of 2000, there were 719 people, 274 households, and 201 families living in the town. The
population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...
was 17.8 people per square mile (6.9/km2). There were 310 housing units at an average density of 7.7 per square mile (3.0/km2). The racial makeup of the town was 99.58%
White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
, 0.14% Asian, and 0.28% from two or more races.
Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...
or Latino of any race were 0.42% of the population. There were 274 households, out of which 34.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 59.5% were
married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...
living together, 7.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 26.6% were non-families. 21.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 7.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.62 and the average family size was 3.10. In the town, the population was spread out, with 26.3% under the age of 18, 8.2% from 18 to 24, 30.6% from 25 to 44, 22.3% from 45 to 64, and 12.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females, there were 95.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 103.1 males. The median income for a household in the town was $44,659, and the median income for a family was $50,000. Males had a median income of $32,500 versus $26,429 for females. The
per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...
for the town was $19,798. About 0.9% of families and 3.5% of the population were below the
poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...
, including 2.2% of those under age 18 and 2.2% of those age 65 or over.


Notable people

* Joseph Schmittfranz, Wisconsin State Representative, was born in the town'Wisconsin Blue Book 1931,' Biographical Sketch of Joseph Schmittfranz, pg. 216


References

{{authority control Towns in Taylor County, Wisconsin Towns in Wisconsin