Mystery Place: Since 1907, Lawton family has owned land in LaGrange - Janesville Gazette
You can find the Lawton farms on Kettle Moraine Road, just west of County Highway H in the town of LaGrange. I say farms because if you look at the 2010 plat book you will see owners listed as William J. & Joyce Lawton Trust, Fred & Cynthia Lawton Trust & Gary Lawton and Ronny & Mary Rohloff. The 1857 plat map shows that George Esterly owned a good portion of these three farms, with land in Sections 21, 28 and 29. He came to this area from New York in 1837, purchased more than 1,000 acres and put in about 350 acres in wheat. Many of the machines proved to be failures, but by 1844 he had made a machine that would harvest 10 acres in a half day. The 1907 plat book shows the first indication of a Lawton as owner of a small portion of this land, Mrs. More Lawton names appear in the 1921 plat book. Owners listed include Fred Lawton, Wm. H. Lawton, F. & Wm. Lawton and L. H. Phelps. In 1930 the same names appear as F. M. Lawton, Wm. H. Lawton and L. H. Phelps. Prairie Farmer's Reliable Directory of Farmers and Breeders of Walworth County, Wisconsin says Fred Lawton came to the area. Source: www.gazettextra.com
