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By 1836, Wisconsin finally had a large enough population to be eligible to become its own territory, a necessary step toward statehood. Henry Dodge was appointed as the first Wisconsin territorial governor. He and other territorial leaders worked to gain statehood.
The Territory of Wisconsin was an organized and incorporated territory of the United States that existed from July 3, 1836, [1] until May 29, 1848, when an eastern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Wisconsin.
New territories were created from old, and the most populous ones became states. Wisconsin was successively part of the original Northwest Territory (1788-1800), Indiana Territory (1800-1809), Illinois Territory (1809-1818), and Michigan Territory (1818-1836) before it became a territory in its own right (1836-1848).
By the mid-1840s, the population of Wisconsin Territory had exceeded 150,000, more than twice the number of people required for Wisconsin to become a state. In 1846, the territorial legislature voted to apply for statehood. That fall, 124 delegates debated the state constitution.
Wisconsin was successively part of the original Northwest (1788-1800), Indiana (1800-1809), Illinois (1809-1818) and Michigan (1818-1836) territories before it became a territory in its own right from 1836 until it became a state in 1848.
WISCONSIN TERRITORY. The Wisconsin Territory was not formed by act of Congress until 1836. It was a part of the Northwest Territory beginning in 1787, the Indiana Territory in 1800, the Illinois Territory in 1809, and the Michigan Territory in 1818.
In 1846 the first plank toll road from Milwaukee to Lisbon was chartered; but not until the territory became a state did the plank road system ameliorate the wretched roads of early-day Wisconsin. Railroads were much discussed; nine railways were incor- porated during the territorial epoch, but no rails were laid.
