Pier Cemetery

On March 1, 1838, Fanna Pier, the first white woman to live in Fond du Lac County, died at the age of 30 after a short illness. Her death was the first of a white person in the county. This plot of high ground was selected for the burial two days later. The eleven remaining pioneers in the county attended the funeral officiated by Rev. Cutting Marsh, missionary to the Stockbridge Indians. After arriving in Green Bay from Vermont in 1834, Fanna's husband, Colwert, and his brother, Edward, checked out land as far away as southern Illinois for the purpose of settling and farming. On February 16, 1836, they left Green Bay by horse and sled to look over land at the foot of Lake Winnebago. They traveled mostly on the ice up the Fox River, down the east shore of the lake and up the Fond du Lac River, reaching the center of the present-day city of Fond du Lac by noon on the 17th. They liked what they saw and returned to Green Bay to purchase land. Colwert returned in late May and settled down becoming the first white settler in Fond du Lac County. Fanna joined him June 6, 1836. From that date until March 11, 1837, when the Edward Pier family arrived, Colwert and Fanna were the only white residents in Fond du Lac County. Colwert was later buried here with other early settlers.

Wisconsin Historical Markers. Accessed March 19th 2021. http://www.wisconsinhistoricalmarkers.com/2014/07/pier-cemetery.html.