The village of Stetsonville lies partly in the town, straddling its west border with Little Black.

In the fall of 1854 a different crew of surveyors marked all the section corners in the township, walking through the woods and swamps, measuring with chain and compass.

[5][6] When done, the deputy surveyor filed this general description: This Township contains a large number of Swamps, all of which are unfit for cultivation.

The lands is nearly all unfit for farming purposes, the soil being very poor and in most places the stone and gravel comes to the surface.

[7]Around 1873 the Wisconsin Central Railroad Company built its line up through the forest just west of what would become Deer Creek, heading for Medford and eventually Ashland.

To finance this undertaking, the railroad was granted half the land for eighteen miles on either side of the track laid - generally the odd-numbered sections.

Some sort of road follows most of the course of modern Highway 13 up the west edge of the town, and a mile to the east one follows the course of Oriole Drive.

Two rural schools were marked on what would become Elm Avenue, one in section 36, and one on what would become CTH A four miles east of Stetsonville.

The Wisconsin Central still owned large chunks of the odd sections, especially on the east side of the town.