Colby Township

Clark County
Townships

Colby Township

written and contributed by Kay Scholtz <scholtz@tznet.com>

Note: There are presently 33 townships in Clark County.
Thirty-two townships are of standard size each covering six square miles.
The Township of Foster includes two 6 square mile areas.

The county board created Colby in November of 1873 and its first town meeting was held in April of 1874. Colby was named for Gardner L. Colby (1810-1879) of Boston, Massachusetts. The township took its name from the Colby Railway Station on the Wisconsin Central Railway line that was built through the area shortly before the town's organization. Gardner Colby, of the Colby-Philips Construction Company, greatly funded and supervised building of 340 miles of railroad for the Wisconsin Central Railway extending to Lake Superior after retiring from a very successful business life in Boston. Colby's interests involved merchandising, shipping, and woolen enterprises. He was well known for his philanthropy, donating large sums of money to Colby College in Waterville, Maine. As a poor child he had worked in a potash factory at the age of 12 in Waterville near the college that now bears his name. His son, Charles Colby, was president of the Wisconsin Central Railway. Gardner Colby died a year after his completion of the railway.