Jefferson's location was selected to make use of the water power and transportation opportunities offered by the Rock River.

Jefferson's founders were settlers from New England, particularly Connecticut, rural Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, as well some from upstate New York born to parents who had migrated there from New England shortly after the American Revolution.

These people were "Yankees" descended from the English Puritans who settled New England in the 1600s.

They were part of a wave of New England farmers who headed west into what was then the wilds of the Northwest Territory during the early 1800s.

Most arrived as a result of the completion of the Erie Canal as well as the end of the Black Hawk War.

When they arrived in what is now Jefferson there was nothing but dense virgin forest and wild prairie, the New Englanders built farms, roads, and government buildings and established post routes.

They brought many of their Yankee New England values, such as a passion for education, establishing many schools as well as staunch support for abolitionism.

Due to the second Great Awakening some had converted to Methodism and others had become Baptists before moving to what is now Jefferson.

Gemuetlichkeit Days was started in 1971 to celebrate the German heritage of many of the residents of the Jefferson area.

East Elementary School was built as a public works project in 1939 during the Great Depression.

The fight song for Jefferson High School is a version of 'On Wisconsin' music with words dedicated to the students of JHS.