Luke Stoughton was born in Vermont in 1799. As a youth he learned a mechanic's trade and traveled around the east working at his vocation. In 1836 he married Eliza Page, a Vermont girl, and settled down in Vermont. Tales of fertile farmlands in Wisconsin to be had for almost nothing came to Luke and he moved his family to Wisconsin in 1838 and bought a farm north of Janesville. Luke was attracted to a plot of land in the bend of the Catfish River and was struck with its' possibilities. In 1847 he purchased all the land around the Yahara River and started the town he named Stoughton.
