10/28/2026
🏺 ARTIFACT SPOTLIGHT🏺
PHOTO: Waukesha County Historical Society Museum
Looking through the archives, I had a trip down memory lane when I found true BLUE blueprints. Looking closer, I realized I was looking at a portion of the township of Pewaukee.
The map at the top shows part of section 33, along with section 34 and section 35 of Pewaukee Township in 1914. As you can see, a large part of the city of Waukesha is located in Pewaukee Township. The year the blueprint at the bottom was drawn was probably around 1914 and helps give a fuller picture of what parts of the city of Waukesha are in Pewaukee Township. The yellow line to the right is St. Paul Ave. running along the Fox River and the yellow line to the left is Delafield St. Where Delafield and Summit (a thicker white line to the left of Delafield) meet is shown towards the bottom of the maps.
Wisconsin is one of 30 states that uses the Public Land Survey System. This system was created after the Revolutionary War to survey the land acquired from the British Crown and loyalists. The government wanted to both distribute land to revolutionary war soldiers and sell it to raise money to pay off debt from the war. Land that was owned by the British Crown prior to the Revolutionary War had been acquired primarily through colonization and treaties with Native American tribes, as well as through military conquests during conflicts.
Explained briefly, the Public Land Survey System established a meridian line (runs north-south) and baseline (runs east-west) as a starting point for measurements. The 4th Principal Meridian 1831 extension is the meridian used for Wisconsin and Minnesota. Pewaukee township is 7 townships north of the baseline and 19 ranges east of the 4th Principal Meridian extension.
Each township consists of 36 sections and each section is 640 acres. Every section is split into quarters (160 acres) called the northwest 1/4, northeast 1/4, southwest 1/4 and southeast 1/4. This information is used to give the legal description of a property.
Looking at an entry in the "1928 Prairie Farmer's Home and Country Directory of Waukesha County, Wisconsin", we can see that Otto Peters and his wife, whose maiden name was Augusta Kelaman, had three children. In 1928 he had lived for 44 years on what is Waukesha Route 7 in Pewaukee Township Section 34 and he owned 20 acres. His phone company was Wisconsin and his exchange was Waukesha.
Looking at the maps, there is a #34 in the middle of section 34. "O. Peters" and "20" show in the northeast corner of section 34 and his property was right on the city limits at the time. (Below the added orange star)
