In July 1843, Timothy Hall became the first white person to purchase and settle land in the Hartford area, although when he arrived he found a Canadian named Jehial Case squatting near his land.  Later that year, German immigrant settlers John Thiel and Nicolaus Simon surveyed the Hartford area and determined that the Rubicon River would be a suitable location for a hydropowered mill.  The following year, James and George Rossman joined Simon and Thiel's venture.  The men purchased forty acres abutting the rapids of the Rubicon River and constructed a dam and a sawmill that harnessed the river's power to make lumber from the old-growth forests covering the area.