Fond_Du_Lac

Fond Du Lac, a city and the county-seat of Fond du Lac county, Wisconsin, U.S.A., about 60 m. N. of Milwaukee, at the S. end of Lake Winnebago, and at the mouth of the Fond du Lac river, which is navigable for only a short distance. Pop. (1890) 12,024; (1900) 15,110, of whom 2952 were foreign-born; (1910) 18,797. The city is a railway centre of some importance, and is served by the Chicago, Milwaukee & St Paul, the Minneapolis, St Paul & Sault St Marie, and the Chicago & North-Western railways, by interurban electric lines, and by steamboat lines connecting through the Fox river with vessels on the Great Lakes. At North Fond du Lac, just beyond the city limits, are car-shops of the two last-mentioned railways, and in the city are manufactories of machinery, automobiles, wagons and carriages, awnings, leather, beer, flour, refrigerators, agricultural implements, toys and furniture. The total value of the city’s factory products in 1905 was $5,599,606, an increase of 95.7% since 1900. The city has a Protestant Episcopal cathedral, the Grafton Hall school for girls, and St Agnes hospital and convent, and a public library with about 25,000 volumes in 1908\. The first settlers on the site of Fond du Lac arrived about 1835\. Subsequently a village was laid out which was incorporated in 1847; a city charter was secured in 1852.

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