Dairy farming has been the main economic activity for much of the town's history,[3] and the Wallau Dairy Company of West Bend operated a large cheese factory on the town's west side in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

In 1848, Barton Salisbury built a dam on the Milwaukee River to generate power for his feed and saw mills.

[8] As early as 1848, a group of Free Will Baptists from New England settled in northwestern Trenton, near Wallace Lake.

They were led by Reverend Comfort Babcock Waller, who also founded a Free Will Baptist community in Scott, Sheboygan County, Wisconsin.

The group performed immersion baptisms on the lake's northeastern shore, even going so far as to cut holes in the ice to baptize their members in the dead of winter.

On November 22, 1862, the commissioner returned to West Bend with six companies of the 30th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment to prevent further disruptions.

[12] In the 20th century, Trenton lost some of its geographic area when the neighboring City of West Bend annexed land for residential subdivisions, commercial developments and the West Bend Municipal Airport.

[3] In the 21st century, Trenton has become a commuter town with approximately half of its residents working outside Washington County.