Deb's Note:  Much of this information is taken directly from Child's History of Waseca County, Minnesota by James E. Child, copyright 1905, and reproduced by the Waseca County Historical Society in 1976 http://www.historical.waseca.mn.us/waseca.htm

In 1854, the present county of Waseca was a portion of that extensive region of the country known as Blue Earth county.  Not a single white mate then had a habitation within its borders.  By 20 February 1855, Steele county was formed then Waseca County was broken off on February 27, 1857. Its name is a Dakota word, which has been explained by Prof. A. W. Williamson as follows: "Waseca (wasecha),--rich, especially in provisions. I was informed in 1855 by a gentleman who was a stranger to me, who professed to be one of the first settlers, that this name was given in response to inquiries as to the Indian word for fertile, and adopted as a name. In Dakota writing and books the word waseca is spelled as we spell the name, and is a word likely to be given in answer to such a question. The soil is also very fertile." The name was first applied to the earliest farming settlement in 1855, near the present city of this name. http://mnplaces.mnhs.org/county.cfm

At the meeting of the County Commissioners on 5 April 1858, the first separate township organizations were instituted.  What is now Janesville was then name Okaman and given two polling places -- one at the house a A. Tuttle, near the north end of Lake Elysian, and the other near the south end of the lake, at the house of Caesar deRegan.  On May 17, 1858, received the earlier name of its village -- Janesville. 

Old Janesville, the original village, on the west side of Lake Elysian, was called Empire, but an addition was platted in 1856 by J. W. Hosmer, who "named it Jane for Mrs. Jane Sprague, and then, by general consent of the villagers, the 'Jane' was enlarged by adding to it 'ville,' and Janesville resulted and was accepted as the name of the whole village" (Stennett, Place Names of the Chicago and Northwestern Railways, 1908, p. 87). During the winter of 1869-70 nearly all the buildings of the previous townsite were removed to the new railway village site, called East Janesville, platted in August 1869, for the Winona and St. Peter Railroad company. On May 10, 1870, the new village was incorporated as Janesville (History of Steele and Waseca Counties, pp. 616, 617, 622); the village was reincorporated on April 10, 1877. Old Janesville was also known as Ike Terill Trading Post when located in section 28. The post office was established in 1858. Among the first settlers was the Woolson family; son Albert Henry Woolson, who joined the army during the Civil War, was the last surviving member of the Union Army in the United States (born 1847 in New York and came to Minnesota in 1862, died in Duluth in 1956).

Around 1870, the Koplen clan first settled near Alma City, which had been surveyed and platted by S. E. Stebbins in 1865 and had a hotel, stores, and a blacksmith shop.  In 1905, Alma City was described as a "thriving village and the center of business for most of the people of Freedom (township) and a portion of the people of Alton (township).  It has a thriving school and a successful creamery."

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