History of Reedsburg and the Upper Baraboo Valley, by Merton Edwin Krug, Publ. February 1929 by the author. Printed by Democrat Printing Company, Madison, Wis., Page 346-347

To those schooled in the language of far off France, the word LaValle may bring to mind the presence of a pleasant valley. But we are not French. However, there is a popular belief that the territory lying due north of the town of Ironton, may have taken its name from the circumstance that its hills and streams were at an unknown date frequented by hardy French trappers and fur traders, and that the Indian Village at the confluence of the Little Baraboo River, with the Big Baraboo River, at the present site of the village of LaValle, led to the naming of the region LaVelle (the valley) as a means of identifying it. Be that as it may, the naming of LaValle is, in fact, a vague uncertainty.

The territorial organization of the town of LaValle, as it is today, took place in 1861, when the town of Marston, of which it formed a part, ceased to exist The first election of the town officers occurred on April 1, 1862, in the village of LaValle, and the following were elected: J. G. BLAKESLEY, Chairman; E. B. HAGEMAN and J. H. DOUGLASS, Supervisors; C. F. CHRISTNOT, Clerk; H. G. HOWARD, Treasurer; H. A. STURGESS, Assessor; and David BEERY, H. A. STURGESS and Calvin GARDNER, Justices.

The first settlement in the town was made by Samuel KARSTETTER, who entered land on Section 28, in 1847. The following year this man's parents, Sebastian and Mary Elizabeth (MARKS) KARSTETTER, both natives of Pennsylvania, but later of Ohio, came hither from Indiana, whither they had gone from Ohio, with other members of their family, located on this claim, and to them belongs the distinction of having been the first family to penetrate the wilderness of the town. Among their children were, besides Samuel: Sarah Ann KARSTETTER, who married William RABUCK, of LaValle; and Joseph P., who came to this county in 1856, a married man, and located in this town.

That same year, 1848, Manelious PEARSON and his family located on Section 34, near Ironton, and the PEARSON house was the first substantial dwelling in the town. Of all the early settlers possibly none has a more widely spread or more numerous progeny than this pioneersman and his wife, Sarah ROE. Mr. PEARSON was a native of Bradford, Yorkshire, England, born in 1810; his early years were spent there, where he married Sarah, daughter of Thomas and Sarah ROE. Mr. and Mrs. PEARSON immigrated to America in 1841, and spent one year in Indiana. Then they came to Columbia County, Wis., and early in the spring of 1848, established themselves in LaValle, where they were to spend the remainder of their lives.

Submitted by Carol