Charlotte wrote:

• About 900 years ago there were people who traveled into this area.  We refer to them as Mound Builders and they were the earliest inhabitants of this area.  One mound, near Highway 50 past the Williams Bay entrance, was a bow and arrow mound.  The meaning and use are not understood.  Many animal type mounds were also found in the area.
• The Mound Builders were also known as part of the Aztalan culture with their headquarters in Cahokia, Illinois.  A wonderful place to study this group who had many similarities with those in central Mexico, is the Aztalan State Park in Jefferson County, Wisconsin.  Much of that park has yet to be excavated.  We do know that the Mississippian Culture wove cloth, sculpted statues, planted corn, ate venison and traded goods hundreds of miles away.
• Potawatomi Indians were the next inhabitants.  Their main camp was at Fontana and their summer camp was near Camp Augustana which is today’s Chapel on the Hill site.  The Indians were moved to Lawrence, Kansas by the government in the 1830’s.
• Christopher Payne was the first settler of Geneva in 1836.  There was a major dispute over ownership and Payne was run out of the area.  He went to the Lake Como (Duck Lake) area and built the dam and a mill at the east end of Como. The original dam was washed away in the 1850’s by a terrible storm and has been rebuilt several times to it's current state. Payne sold the Duck Lake mill site to his brother-in-law, George Trimbull, and moved on to Sugar Creek and built another dam.
• The damming of Lake Como raised the lake level to about six feet.  The lake was probably originally a wetland as Geneva Lake was formed during two glacial periods; the first formed the shape of the lake and the second formed the hills surrounding the lake.
• Farmers moved into the area buying land from the government for $1.25 an acre.  The farmers did not want the lake shore area as it was too rocky and there were too many trees to make it suitable for farming, thus leaving it for Chicagoans to discover after the 1871 Chicago fire.
• The first train service came into Lake Geneva in the 1850’s from Elgin, Illinois and lasted for four years.  The Irish laid the train tracks and stayed in the area buying land along today’s Highway 50 West, which is known as Irish Woods.  Later, the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad provided train service to the area.
• Many tourists came by Chicago and Northwestern Railroad.  The Chicago Northwestern Railroad spur between Lake Geneva and Williams Bay came in the 1880’s.  Later, when that track was torn up, the Lakeland Audubon Society received permission to establish a nature trail named Walworth County Warbler Walkway.  Later the town allowed people to buy the train track land that abutted their property, but the rest became Duck Lake Nature Trail.  This is a very popular trail for families and friends of nature.
• The Como train station, which was previously a boxcar, was placed adjacent to the Chicago and Northwestern track, fitted with a small platform and located across the street from present-day Mar’s Resort.  When a passenger got on the train in Chicago, they had to sit in a designated car, as the train would stop with that car at the narrow platform to drop passengers off at the Lake Como stop.  If a passenger failed to get on the proper car, they would fall into a ditch as they stepped off the car.
• The Irish immigrants also built the Catholic Church in Lake Geneva.  Its location was determined due to the Irish wives wanting to have Sunday as a "day off" for the Lord and if the church was too close, they would be home too soon!
• Woods School, still in operation today, was built for the Irish children.  Lizzie Watson was the well-known and respected teacher for years at this school.  The city schools loved receiving these Irish students as they had such a good educational foundation.
• A very large diamond was found near today’s Foley’s Bar on Highway 50.  It was believed that a glacier from the James Bay area brought it down to this area.  Today it is housed in the Smithsonian Institute.
• The Town of Geneva farm community did their shopping in Lake Geneva, Elkhorn, and Delavan.  The 700-block in Lake Geneva is an historic block on the National Trust and this was typical of the shopping area in the late 1870’s with its Italianate architecture.  Visit the Lake Geneva area museum for depictions of the past.
• In 1871, the Chicago fire changed this area forever.  As the lakeshore land was not desirable to farmers because it was too rocky, it was available for Chicagoans to purchase.  Not only did they purchase the lakeshore for their estates, but they also built farms in conjunction.  The first farm was the acreage between Highway 50 and McDonald Road from Forest Street west toward Williams Bay.  It belonged to the Shelton Sturges’ of Maple Lawn.  These farms provided many area people with employment.
• Horses have a wonderful history in this area.  On the C.K.G. Billings estate (the Wrigley farm) was the world-champion trotter “Lou Delbon” that in Cleveland broke the world record of 2:06 ¼ seconds against some of Billings’ other horses’ world records.  Other famous horses, like the world champion Dan Patch, were at the John J. Mitchell farm on the South Shore of Lake Geneva.
• A. G. Harris, the son of Norman W. Harris (today’s Driehaus Estate), raised horses at Kemah Farms.  Kemah Farms together with the R.T. Crane Farm form much of today’s Geneva National development.  Mr. A.G. Harris was so protective of his horses that he left a provision that stipulated that his buried horses must be left in perpetuity in their cemetery on his farm.  When they were excavating to build the Geneva National Golf Course they uprooted the cemetery and, as was stated in their deeds, had to rebury Mr. Harris’ horses.
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• The 1893 Columbian Exhibition brought to Lake Geneva many artifacts such as Ceylon Court, C.K.G. Billings’ Norwegian Chapel that was later transported to Little Norway, Wisconsin, the Idaho Building, and several workmen’s houses.  The first Arabian horses were brought here for the 1893 Exhibition.  After the fair, they were not shipped back to Arabia, but were purchased by Albert Harris and brought to the Kemah Farms in 1910.  Albert Harris then established the Arabian Horse Registry in America and became its first president.  The registry is located today in Colorado.
• “Ibn Julip”, a white stallion, was valued at more than one million dollars and was housed at Kemah Farms, now part of Geneva National, Kishwauketoe Nature conservancy, Calvary Community Church and Chippewa Resort in Williams Bay.  Legend has it that Albert W. Harris owned and used the last horse-drawn carriage in Chicago, even though automobiles were in popular use.
• Automobiles changed our landscaping again, although most of the roads were built on Indian trails.  Today’s Highway 50 West was Highway 36 beginning in Walworth, winding through downtown Lake Geneva east to Springfield corners and continuing toward Burlington.  It is now Highway 36 to Milwaukee.  The other main highway was Highway 12 from Chicago through Lake Geneva to what is now County Trunk H through the Lake Como area and Elkhorn north to Madison.
• In the early 1920’s, 20’ x 100’ lots were sold for $50 and a subscription to a Chicago newspaper.  Summer cottages sprang up on those lots in the Como Beach Subdivision, built mainly by Chicago people.  As time passed, many of these cottages became year-round homes.  With the advent of sewer and water, the size of the lots changed again for the third time.  Presently over 1000 homes are in the Como Beach Subdivision.
• In the roaring twenties, gambling and booze were available in the bars.  Then in the thirties, prohibition stopped many of these practices in public, but the speak-easies were prominent on both the south and north shores of Lake Como and along roadside bars on Highways 12 and 36.  Many gangsters and mob members could be found on the north and south shores of Lake Como due to our proximity to Chicago.  Both Al Capone and Bugs Moran, opposing gang members from Chicago, could be found in our area.  Gambling flourished also and was not curtailed until the election of Oscar Rennebohm as Governor of Wisconsin.  The Como Hotel (currently the French Country Inn) was a very popular place, with lots of drinking and gambling, cards and slot machines.  It has been rumored there are many slot machines at the bottom of Lake Como having been dumped there during a police raid on the Como Hotel.