Named in honor of Cadwallader C. Washburn, governor of the State, 1872-74. Born in Maine (1818), Wash-burn migrated West at the age of twenty-one. In 1842 he settled at Mineral Point, was admitted to the bar, and opened a bank. He was a congressman for three terms (1855-61), and again after the War of Secession (wherein he served), for two further terms (1867-71). After retiring from public life he built up the flour-mill industry at Minneapolis. For many years he was president of the State Historical Society, and gave the University its observatory. He died in 1882.

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[Source: Kellogg, Louise Phelps. "Derivation of County Names" in Proceedings of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin for 1909, pages 219-231.]